What makes things funny? Most think that humor has something to do with incongruity. Incongruity can mean that something is unexpected, like a cloud that farts pistachios. One critic of our recent paper argues forcefully that humor results from this type of incongruity: Another swing-and-a-miss from eggheads trying to explain
Last week, the BBC World Service Radio rang me up and asked me what makes things funny. They also included a very funny comedian, Alonzo Bodden, on the call. You can listen to the entire thing by clicking the link below. Try to ignore my heavy breathing (I was excited).
The folks at Big Questions Online asked me the question: “What is the Most Universal Type of Humor?” Here is an excerpt of my answer: My colleague Caleb Warren and I believe that the most universal forms of humor are play fighting and tickling. Our theory, the “benign violation theory,”
In a previous post, I discussed why I am trying to answer the age old question of what makes things funny (LINK). In today’s post, I investigate whether or not books that help you pursue a career in comedy help answer that important question. These folks are funny, but do
My employer, the Leeds School of Business, made a video of me talking about why humor is important. If you don’t want to read the previous post I wrote, you can watch the video here:
Q: What is the best day to launch a blog post? A: Well, as is usually the case, it depends on who you ask. I Googled it, and check out what showed up back-to-back: Hmmh. I am going to split the difference and make focal posts on Wednesdays. I will
I want to discuss why it is important to answer a question that has puzzled philosophers, scientists, and comedians since the dawn of Western thought: What makes things funny? To help answer this (tough) question, I recently started the Humor Research Lab (HuRL) at the University of Colorado, Boulder. HuRL
A second video related to my previous post on Emotional Accounting goes into depth about the “Laundering Effect”: Download the paper HERE. Levav, J., & McGraw, A.P. (2009). Emotional accounting: How feelings about money influence consumer choice. Journal of Marketing Research, 46, 66-80.
Peter McGraw reflects on the question, “Are you the hero in your life’s story?” After announcing a more spontaneous podcast release schedule, Peter dives
Welcome to the final episode of I’M NOT JOKING. Comedian JD Lopez returns from Episode 1 to debrief and reflect on Peter’s experience building
