I host solo.
With Joel Warner (Cross posted on The Humor Code’s Psychology Today blog) “Trying to define humor is one of the definitions of humor.” So said Saul Steinberg, someone who wielded humor so expertly that he became one of America’s most beloved cartoonists. If Steinberg didn’t need to define humor in order to use it beautifully, […]
Next week, I start teaching my biennial PhD course in judgment and decision making. I asked a few friends who are scholars in the field to suggest what papers I should add and remove from the syllabus. They encouraged me to post the syllabus on my blog and solicit feedback from a broader audience. So, […]
A lot can happen in one year. About this time last year I gave a TEDxBoulder talk, which helped attract attention to my emerging research on humor. A local writer, Joel Warner, penned two articles about my work – one in Westword and one in Wired. He documented my failed standup comedy attempt in a […]
With Joel Warner (Post on Wired) MONTREAL — At this year’s Just for Laughs festival, podcast poster boy Marc Maron painted a picture of a world in which the old rules of the stand-up circuit are being turned on their head thanks to the web. Maron, a longtime comic who never reached the top of […]
Post Mortem Part 2 (See Part 1). With Joel Warner (Full post on Wired.com) . An important goal of all this comedy analysis is to dispel many of the stereotypes and misassumptions long held about humor. Take the notion that women inherently aren’t as funny as men, an idea that’s graced the pages of Vanity […]
Post Mortem Part I With Joel Warner (Full post on Wired.com) Do you shun social situations to avoid ridicule? Do you struggle to engage in natural, easygoing conversations? When you hear others laughing, do you tense up and flail about in awkward, stilted mannerisms, practically popping and locking like a break dancer? If so, you […]
While attending the International Society for Humor Studies conference last week, I had a chance to meet Gil Greengross of the University of New Mexico. He is an an evolutionary psychologist and anthropologist, and I asked him the question: How can evolution help us understand humor? His answer is a an interesting one. Importantly, he […]
I am at Boston University, attending the International Society for Humor Studies (ISHS) annual conference. ISHS is an interdisciplinary group — psychologists, linguists, historians and many others — who are interested in the study of humor. Having never been to the conference before, I am eager to sample the wide range of talks being offered. […]
