C.V.

Peter McGraw

I host solo.

Peculiar (and definitely funny) questions: Part 2

One of my more irreverent posts. If you haven’t already seen it, check out Part 1. A few years ago I asked my students some peculiar questions as part of a voluntary anonymous survey. Besides getting their yes/no agreement, I also asked if the questions were funny (yes/no) and offensive (yes/no): Last week, I posted […]

The Humor Code grills Neal Brennan, Co-creator of “Chappelle’s Show”

As part of my global expedition that explores  what makes things funny, Joel Warner and I are grilling humorists about the science behind scoring laughs. “Co-creator of Chappelle’s Show.” With a credit like that, it would’ve been easy for Neal Brennan to quietly retire among the comedy gods once the celebrated sketch-comedy show (not to […]

Will a luxury car make you happy?

A lot of research has considered an important question: What makes you happy? From the research one could glean a few commonly-accepted principles that you should consider before spending money some something you think will make you happy. – You adapt to (good or bad) experiences a lot faster than we think we will (i.e., […]

My first video blog: Planned obsolescence

I will be posting video blogs on occasion.  My video examines how marketers want their products to fail: x As always, I welcome feedback. ———————————————————————— More information about planned obsolescence: Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America Planned Obsolescence: 8 Products Designed to Fail Is Apple Guilty of Planned Obsolescence?      

Take the guilty pleasure test

“Guilty pleasure” …Something pleasurable that induces a usually minor feeling of guilt. – Merriam-Webster …Something that you shouldn’t like, but like anyway. – Urban Dictionary . These definitions focus on emotional and cognitive elements (e.g., feelings of guilt, pleasurable, shouldn’t like, like), but they overlook the behaviors associated with guilty pleasures. In short, when you […]

Ever been to a micronation?

I recently returned from a trip to Europe, which featured talks at London Business School and the Rotterdam School of Management. In between those enjoyable destinations, I visited Denmark and Sweden as part of the Humor Code‘s invesitation into the dark side of humor. Part of our “dark side” expedition examined the Mohammed Cartoon Controversy. […]