Field Trip 1: Breaking Elevator Rules

You should have completed Part I of Online Lesson 1 before completing this assignment.

Look at the suggestions below on how to "break the rules" in an elevator. Try a couple next time you are in an elevator to see first hand how implicit elevator rules are made explicit as you break them.

• Make race car noises when anyone gets on or off.
  
• Grimace painfully while smacking your forehead and muttering: "Shut up, dammit, all of you just SHUT UP!"
  
• Whistle the first seven notes of "It's a Small World" incessantly.
  
• Sell Girl Scout cookies.
  
• On a long ride, sway side-to-side at the natural frequency of the elevator.
  
• Shave.
  
• Crack open your briefcase or purse, and while peering inside ask: "Got enough air in there?"
  
• Offer name tags to everyone getting on the elevator. Wear yours upside down.
  
• Stand silent and motionless in the corner, facing the wall, without getting off.
  
• When arriving at your floor, grunt and strain to yank the doors open, then act embarrassed when they open by themselves.
  
• On the highest floor, hold the door open and demand that it stay open until you hear the penny you dropped down the shaft go "plink" at the bottom.
  
• Do Tai Chi exercises.
  
• Stare, grinning at another passenger for a while, and then announce:
  "I've got new socks on!"
  
• When at least 8 people have boarded, moan from the back: "Oh, not now, damn motion sickness!"
  
• Give religious tracts to each passenger.
  
• Meow, occasionally.
  
• Bet the other passengers you can fit a quarter in your nose.
  
• Frown and mutter "Gotta go, gotta go!" then sigh and say "Oops!"
  
• Show other passengers a wound and ask if it looks infected.
  
• Sing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" while continually pushing buttons.
  
• Holler "Chutes away!" whenever the elevator descends.
  
• Walk on with a cooler that says "Human Head" on the side.
  
• Stare at another passenger for a while, then announce "You're one of THEM!" and move to the far corner of the elevator.
  
• Leave a box between the doors.
  
• Ask each passenger getting on if you can push the button for them.
  
• Wear a puppet on your hand and talk to other passengers with it.
  
• Start a sing-along.
  
• When the elevator is silent, look around and ask, "Is that your beeper?"
  
• Play the harmonica.
  
• Shadow box.
  
• Say "Ding!" at each floor.
  
• Lean against the button panel.
  
• Say "I wonder what all these do" and push the red buttons.
  
• Listen to the elevator walls with a stethoscope.
  
• Draw a little square on the floor with chalk and announce to the other passengers that this is your "personal space."
  
• Bring a chair along.
  
• Pull your gum out of your mouth in long strings.
  
• Announce in a demonic voice: "I must find a more suitable host body."
  
• Carry a blanket and clutch it protectively.
  
• Make explosion noises when anyone presses a button.
  
• Wear X-Ray Specs and leer suggestively at other passengers.
  
• Stare at your thumb and say, "I think it's getting larger."
  
• If anyone brushes against you, recoil and holler "Bad touch!""
  
  

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  Once you have finished you should:
  

  Go on to Online Lesson I, Part II
  or
  Go back to Topic 1: General Communication Theory