It’s no secret that proofing is a tedious, monotonous, sometimes even (dare I say it?) boring job. There are days where we spend upwards of two hours proofing a single web site (oh, the link checking!) and big projects, so I’d think it comes as no surprise that sometimes, we get a little goofy.

That’s all fine and good – if you’re a proofer. Over the years we have learned that, unfortunately for them, not everyone shares our collective interests and/or sense of humor. Our past few presentations at our annual company meeting have been met with nothing but cricket chirps, even though we can barely get through them without gasping for air while wiping tears from our eyes.

It wouldn’t be a workday without some sort of obscenely horrible, head-shakingly bad play on words. I think my favorite to this day was courtesy of one Miss Cara Howard. While adding wasabi to some soy sauce to go with her sushi for lunch, she splattered some sauce on her hand. The appropriate commentary for this boo-boo was obvious, so she said it: “Oops! I soyed myself!” Most of the time when I relay this anecdote, I get a weak chuckle at best, while I turn purple in the face. Even now, I’m laughing quietly to myself.

We read grammar books for fun. I recently finished Grammar Snobs are Great Big Meanies by June Casagrande (which I’m about to use to decide whether or not I should add an ’s to Truss below – the answer is yes) and giggled at her witticisms about the English language and word usage. Last year, one of us had a page-a-day calendar based on Lynne Truss’s book Eats, Shoots and Leaves, which she read aloud almost every day to our joyous enthusiasm.

As if that’s not enough, prominently displayed at the front of our room is what we lovingly refer to as The Wall of Shame. On it are some of the greatest misspellings, weird phrasings, and best ad revisions we’ve ever gotten. It’s almost like a ceremony when we add something new, which happens about once a week.

All of this contributes to a tight team bond, though. We get each other, so that makes it okay to make a stupid word joke, because we know at least six other people will laugh at it. That collective sense of humor, along with the empathy that comes with knowing how to step it up on supremely busy days so we all share an equal load, makes this proofing team close-knit and pretty much unstoppable. We work hard, but we can definitely play hard, too. Really, you could say we’re a whole lot of pun.