Anyone who has been “involuntarily terminated”—which, by the way, is probably the silliest PC term that HR ever invented for “fired”—knows that there is nothing lighthearted or funny about it. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: In the pantheon of life experiences, getting fired is probably one of the very worst ones you can ever endure.

Making jokes about being jobless is an especially touchy subject today with so many Americans out of work. Unemployment is no laughing matter. But humor is also one of those things that can help us get through tough situations and hard times.

As the eminent philosopher and social commentator Bill Cosby once observed, “Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it.”

In fact, managers who sprinkle a little humor into their day-to-day work find that it makes for a better all-around workplace because it helps relieve stress and tension, allowing workers to do a better job.

All of this makes me question the flap over the new ads by job search Web site Monster that inject a little humor into the job hunt process.

“A new series of light-hearted Monster ads show people who are extremely ill-suited to their line of work, and might benefit from finding a career change—one that Monster can help with,” according to the Ads of the Weird blog at MSNBC.com. It goes on to say, “The ads are witty, if somewhat predictable. Still, they’d be easier to laugh at in the type of economy where people actually felt like they had the luxury to take a risk on a new career they might enjoy more.”

This raises a good question: Is there ever a situation in life where humor is NOT appropriate? Abraham Lincoln, a man who dealt with probably the toughest times in our nation’s history, said, “With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.” And even a serious guy like Mahatma Gandhi observed that, “If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.”

The Chicago Tribune had a story this week about how both Monster and rival online job board CareerBuilder have carefully researched the big ad splash that both companies are planning for next month’s Super Bowl.

“The realities of the economic environment have caused both companies to heavily research how funny they can be during a recession,” the newspaper reported. ” ‘There’s nothing funny about being out of a job,’ said John Greening, formerly an executive vice president at DDB Needham who led several Budweiser campaigns. ‘The reason you do funny is funny is memorable. They can still be very entertaining, but they don’t have to make the joke at the expense of the unemployed.’ ”

Humor can take a terrible situation and make it bearable. I’m with comedian Bob Newhart, who said, “Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.”

In my view, humor is always a good thing, especially as part of the process of getting over an emotional and confidence-shaking experience—like losing a job. I’ve been “involuntarily terminated” a few times in my career, and there was never anything funny about it. But humor and laughter were things that always helped me survive and get on to the next job.

Monster understands this, as does CareerBuilder. That’s what their Super Bowl ads are all about. While it’s not funny to be out of a job, a little humor can be just the right thing to help people get some perspective about the future. As Oscar Wilde noted, “It is a curious fact that people are never so trivial as when they take themselves seriously.”

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