Why are jackals funny?

Ever since I saw Nonviolent Communication trainer Kelly Bryson animate the jackal and giraffe puppets in my first training in 1999, I have been captivated by the imagery and the FUN the puppets have brought to my learning.

I must say, I particularly enjoy wearing the jackal puppet when I play around in trainings, for example when I do role play examples or pretend to "jackal myself" (judge and blame myself, or imply there is something wrong with me).

In fact, in 2007 I led a training in Grand Rapids, MI and my friend (and the workshop's host) Norm Williams, and he commented about how much fun I seemed to have, and how alive I became, when I animated the jackal puppet.

As long as I am operating with an awareness that I am in jackal consciousness, and that I have a choice to be in life-connected consciousness, playing the jackal can be hilarious and energizing! And most of all, funny.

If you have attended NVC trainings, have you ever noticed how funny it seems to others when someone actually lets their jackal messages out of the bag? I have long been struck by this, and found this piece by Gina Lawrie and Bridget Belgrave -- creators of the NVC Dance Floors -- about why jackals are funny:

"Why are jackals funny? There is often a lot of laughter when people express the inner jackal step. We have found that people experience relief through being honest, in jackal, and expressing what is actually already in their minds.

‘Nice’ people normally try to avoid acknowledging that they are thinking in jackal, and put in some effort not to say it out loud. So it releases blocked energy, to voice it, and the relief and recognition brings the laughter.

Also, inner jackals are fairly universal, so many participants will recognise their own suppressed thoughts as they listen to the dancer’s jackal. There is something about naked truth and this jackal honesty that brings laughter. The laughter is often tinged with a squirmy, painful recognition of one’s own unhelpful habits of communication.

Some people laugh out of embarrassment. They think it’s bad even to think in jackal and feel ashamed to admit to doing so. Once there is space to listen compassionately to the jackal voices, suppressed energy surfaces. Some of the laughter may come from that energy coming alive.

You will often see colour come into the dancer’s face and other physical signs that life-energy stirring and rising, when a dancer is on the jackal step. This is one reason why the puppets work so well in a training, as the jackal puppet facilitates this rise and release of energy."

* The preceding quote by Gina and Bridget comes from their Facilitator's Guide for the NVC Dance Floors (which I distribute in North America), which I have learned the most about how to facilitate NVC experiences for others.