A Place for Medical Related Jokes, Poetry, Etc, in Journals

The purpose of a journal is often quoted to be "To inform, educate and to entertain its readership". I wonder if many journals fulfill the last purpose. How many of you publish medical related jokes, anecdotes, poetry, etc? "Other Departments" of Lancet, "Fillers" of BMJ, and some JAMA pages may be of this kind. But they are regular features even in these journals, and they are never seen in the majority of other journals.

Space constraint cannot be the excuse. In many journals, each article starts on a fresh page and the left-over space at the end of the preceding article can be used for this purpose. They are the most well read pieces. In BMJ, I might have skipped some original articles, but not a single filler. When readers cherish them very much, why should we deny it? Is it because of our unfound fear that such pieces may spoil the "serious look" of the journal?

V Raveenthiran
Associate Editor, Indian Journal of Surgery
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The Journal of General Internal Medicine regularly publishes creative writing—poetry and prose—in a section called “Reflections.” Every other year (more or less), we also sponsor a creative writing contest. We have two Deputy Editors dedicated entirely to reviewing creative writing submissions, of which we received 87 manuscripts in 2007.

Bill Tierney
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Tobacco Control has run cartoons bannered "The Lighter Side" since our launch in 1992. They are hugely appreciated by most of our readers who often use them in lectures. We have an intrepid cartoon editor who fiinds material on-line from all over the world. We generally pay, but occasionally find cartoonists who are happy to have their work run free or for a token fee. If anyone wants to know how our cartoon editor goes about finding material, his name is Stan Shatenstein  <shatensteins@sympatico.ca>

Simon Chapman
Commissioning Editor for Low & Middle Income Countries:Tobacco Control
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Gaceta Sanitaria publishes a section bannered "Collective Imaginary" with examples of our collective imaginary (a poem, a proverb, a song...) related to health and public health with a small (creative) comment. The section (one page per issue) is appreciated by readers. Half of the pieces are spontaneous submissions, whereas the rest are "induced" by the section's editor.

You may browse them at http://www.elsevier.es/revistas/ctl_servlet?_f=7026&seccionid=13002118

Esteve Fernández
Editor-in-Chief, Gaceta Sanitaria (Journal of the Spanish Society of Public Health)
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We are very much interested to publish microbiology-related jokes etc in our journal. Would someone come forward?

Ashraful Alam
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I don’t think to putting medical jokes in a scientific journal is a good idea, as it loses its sanctity. Medical jokes look good in magazines related to health not to a indexed journal. You hardly find such things in journals with high impact factors.

SM Kadri
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Thank you, Dr Kadri, for your opinion (I personally feel closer). But I think medical-related jokes (editors obviously find logical placement) can refresh our emotions, which we should not ignore like robots! Certainly, impact factor should be kept in mind.

Ashraful Alam
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The importance of  humour in all aspects of life, including medicine, does exist. In scientific journals, jokes have to be based on scientific facts and principles. I think Dr Kadri might have thought that the jokes will be as ordinary as those published in other magazines and books. In India, one Science Reporter is published every month. Nice cartoons—based on various scientific facts, principle and current events—are published, and it creates  both humour and scientific knowledge. A good idea indeed.

Sadhu Charan Panda
Editor, Journal of Community Medicine
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Come on, you lot! Lighten up! Humour is an important part of medicine, and if you can't think of a joke for Dr Alam, it is time you asked someone to tell you one! Here's a really terrible one from me to make those jokeless people realise they don't have to try hard to offer a better one...

What did the mould say when he was refused entry to the party?

Let me in! I'm really a fun guy [fungi]!!

I guess you're going to be suffocated with dumb jokes now, let me start them off for you!!! Sydney is a real party place!