Cognitive Dissonance Can Be Humorous
A judge sues his cleaners over a lost pair of suit pants–for $67 million dollars! The cleaners found and returned the pants a week later, but the judge claims they weren’t his.
Subsequently, the cleaners offered a $3,000 settlement, three times the cost of the judge’s entire suit. The judge refuses. The cleaners offer another settlement offer of $12,000; the judge rejects it and now the matter of a $67 million dollar pair of trousers will go to trial. (NBC5.com article of May 2, 2007)
This has to be, among other things, a classic demonstration of cognitive dissonance. The judge refuses to budge from his self-righteous, victim position despite evidence that the situation is resolvable: a) his pants were returned, and b) the cleaners offered a settlement of twelve times the cost of his suit.
The judge steadfastly (stubbornly?) maintains he was wronged, to the tune of millions of dollars. Oh, and included in the judges calculation of damages is a leased car to enable him to drive to a different cleaners.
As if the story itself isn’t humorous enough, author Brenda Layman (Song of Joy, http://www.healmyspirit.com/) penned these hilarious lyrics. Sing along to the tune of Darlin’ Clementine.
Oh, My Trousers
In a country, in a city,
Cleaning spots and pressing suits,
Was a cleaner, from Korea,
Just a guy with Asian roots.
Came a judge with fancy jackets,
Costly suits he wanted clean,
But the cleaner, from Korea
Didn’t know what this would mean.
Oh, my trousers!
Oh, my trousers!
You have ruined my favorite suit!
They are lost and gone forever,
What a chance to grab some loot!
We are sorry, said the cleaner,
We have lost your pair of pants,
But, we will try hard to find them,
If you’ll just give us the chance.
But the judge just couldn’t stand it.
How he’d loved that pair of pants!
Now, his spirit was downtrodden,
And his soul no longer danced.
Oh, my trousers!
Oh, my trousers!
You have ruined my favorite suit!
They are lost and gone forever,
What a chance to grab some loot!
Said the cleaner, to the client,
We have found the pants for you!
Said the client, to the cleaner,
I will still be suing you!
For I loved those special trousers,
They were near and dear to me.
So you owe me several million,
Here in the Land of the Free.
Oh, my trousers!
Oh, my trousers!
You have ruined my favorite suit!
They are lost and gone forever,
What a chance to grab some loot!
Copyright Brenda Layman, 2007
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