July 7, 2011 • 43 mins
We all know "funny" when we encounter it, but what's going on inside the human mind when we feel amused? Join Robert and Julie as they discuss long-standing -- and more recent -- theories about humor's evolutionary purpose.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie.
What are some words that, to you are inherently funny
or words and or things that just just say the
word instantly? It italystits black monkey, all right, that's a
(00:27):
good one. Pickle is good. Later hosing later hosing is
really good. Poppy cock, poppy cock, that's a good one.
To sueech squeechy. Yeah you, um, well, let's see you
already took later hosing. I think later hos is a
good one. Cheese cheese is very funny. Um, you said monkey, Um,
(00:52):
you stole a lot of underwear. Underwear is always hilarious. Um.
And it's funny because a lot of these words will
pop up in children's books, which, of course I'm knee
deep in with my toddler, so you know, I'm pretty
schooled in the funny words. Bugle is yeah, curious, George,
that one comes up, but you're talking about like an
(01:12):
obnoxious instrument or some sort of ridiculous corn snack. It's pretty,
which can be tasty, but also there are some words
that have a kind of joke within them or something likecalyptian,
which which means well formed buttocks. I had not heard
that one. Yeah, yeah, it's it's a great word. So
you know, you can say the ecalyptian so and so.
(01:34):
Uh if you're trying to get someone to compliment. I
suppose what is it an adjective? Yes, okay, yeah, and
calie from Greek beautiful and pig. I think that's how
you pronounce it is means buttocks or rump. Rump is
another good one. Rump is funny. Yeah. Yeah, So when
we're talking about what makes yeah right, I mean that
that spells fun right there. But talking about the funny
(01:57):
like what why are things funny? I don't know, because yeah,
because we're talking about the words that we're talking. What
are some words that are just not funny at all? Yes,
And the big one that came to mind that you
you came up with was table table, Like there's just
no way to make the word table funny, Like even
if you throw um other words onto it, like you could,
you know, sex, table, clown table, clown table, it's still
(02:20):
sounds kind of It's like alright, well, clowns kind of funny.
But yeah, they're just for elements, which is part of
what we found out in our research about what makes
things funny. You have to have sometimes desperate elements like that,
but still it's not funny. And it was It's interesting
because I was looking back at an episode from This
American Life in which it's called Tough Room, in which
(02:40):
they visited the editorial offices of The Onion, which is,
you know, spoof magazine, which is incredibly funny, at least
to me. Um, And what they found out is that
during the editorial meeting whether mock headlines are pitched, that
there's only one laugh for every one hundred jokes that
are told. This out here they are pitching this and
(03:01):
maybe that's part of it because you know, this is
their job and they're doing it every week and so
but still, yeah, they're seriously jaded. But um, you know,
they published sixteen stories a week with sixteen mock headlines,
and to get to those sixteen headlines, they go through
six hundred possible headlines to figure out what is funny.
And I was like, you know, I wonder why why
(03:23):
that is? Like why are some combinations funnier? Than other
and others, and then I looked into it and I
was looking at some of their best off and one
of their best ofs was kitten thinks of nothing but
murder all day. See now that one didn't do much
for me. I don't know really, well they have. Part
of it was that the cute photo of the kitten,
which you you know again desperate elements murder kitten, No, no,
(03:46):
not really all right, Well, in that episode two, they
were talking about how the headline local girlfriend always wants
to do stuff. Okay, that makes the cut, but you
know it doesn't make the cut. In the same session,
is Nation's Girlfriends all for more quality time? Funny? No, no,
it's the first one got the laugh and everybody the
(04:07):
second one actually got jeers. But kittens was a hit.
Kittens obviously was a hit. Made it it's it's it's
a hit. A lot of people's top ten lists. Interesting, yeah, yeah,
um but just to throw some stats at this and
why we're looking at this, um uh, it's just it's
very interesting to think about why we laugh from evolutionary sense, right, yeah,
(04:27):
like what why why don't we do it? Why is
it such a phenomenon? Like what purpose does it serve?
We do it all the time. We love it. Some
people live for it, some people live to make other
people laugh. But what is what is actually going on? Semantically?
What's going on neutologically? Yeah, so that's what we're going
to discuss. That's what we're gonna talk about today. And
here are your stats too that we're gonna throw at you.
(04:47):
Only about eleven of daily laughter as a result of jokes. Now,
when you say jokes, do you mean because like we
we joke around in this podcast a lot, but it's
very rare that you go, hey, Julie, um not not.
You know, we don't do a lot of that. So
are we talking about strict joke jokes joking? Yeah, we're
talking about the formula jokes. So if you're sitting around
(05:08):
the water color and someone says, hey, you know, a
rabbi and a priest and whatever walks through a bar,
that kind of joke. So that only eleven percent, which
kind of makes sense, right because a lot of us
aren't sitting around the water cooler telling those kind of jokes,
the porched belt jokes. And then another seventeen is prompted
by media, you know, sort of like Hey, did you
(05:28):
see the clo l cator? Did you read the Sunion headline?
Did you watch this episode of thirty? Yeah? I did
you see this YouTube video? Or so on and so forth.
And the remaining seventy two percent arises spontaneously in social interactions.
So like you and I sitting here and talking the
talking the pooh here, okay, talking the poo? Is that
the shouting the shoe? Shouting the shoes? Yeah, true shot.
(05:50):
I'm trying to avoid the expletip. But you know, I'm
saying just in um. And it turns out that that
we're not the only creatures that laugh. Eight and rats
lack too. Although I'm a little bit dubious about this,
this rats part, I have to say, um, this is
uh this This article says that like children, apes laugh
(06:12):
during chasing, wrestling and tickling games. Oh I guess I
have seen videos where you know, it looks like they're
wrestling around and it lives. It does look like the
yeah yeah. And it says chimps and gorillas who have
learned sign language have used it for punning and congruous
word use, which is interesting and playful insults. Intriguingly, it
seems that rats may laugh too. This is this is
where I get dubious. A team of researchers at Bowling
(06:34):
Green State University reported in two thousand that rats produce
an ultrasonic chirping during play and went tickled by humans.
These chirps appear to be contagious, and young rats prefer
older rats who produce more of them. So, you know, again,
dubious there, But there's this idea of that, you know,
it's not just us that are sitting there having a chuckle,
(06:56):
and then it's necessary to our existence on some level.
And we'll get back to more about tickling and in
a little bit. Tickling is very key. It's kind of
like the most simple version of a joke. Yes, but
but we'll we'll get to that in a minute. First,
let's let's talk about what's going on at the cognitive level. Yeah,
what's happening in the head to our brains when we're
(07:17):
having a laugh. Turns out that when we hear a joke,
our brains began to process that sequentially. Yeah, and I
found it interesting that you can when it when it's
following when your brain begins to to process this. They're
really sort of two types of jokes that and uh,
and those are on one hand, you have a semantic
(07:37):
jokes which relate to the meaning of words, and then
you have phonological or jokes or puns, which relate to
the way something sounds. And like the puns the example
I kept finding like it seems like everybody uses the
same pun joke in the scientific literature, which goes as follows,
Hey Julie, Hey Robert, why did the all for wear
(08:00):
two pairs of pants because they had a hole in one? Seeing? Yeah,
But the semantic jokes, that's where you get into like
a lot deeper area, um and where you end up
having onres like double andres and triple andres, which I've
always found really fascinating. Like here, like here's an example
of a of a triple on andre if I bother
(08:22):
to print out the full joke, Nope, I didn't drip
print out the full joke, So I'm just gonna try
and remember here, but a triple on andre Uh would
be like the joke where um, ladies pulled over by
highway patrolman and uh, and you know he comes up
to get her ticket and shoes like, oh, I bet
you're going to try and sell me a ticket to
the policeman's ball, and then the like a you know,
(08:43):
like a ball, like a gala okay, and then the
cop gets you know, your tat's like, policemen don't have balls.
So this is a triple on Andre because on one
one see, and I was already laughing because you said ball,
and I was already made the association, to be quite honest,
but it's but here I'm I'm a dirty bird. Well
I'm gonna explain the joke and take all the humor
(09:04):
out of it. Um, policemen don't have balls, So you
can say that policemen do not and we're not making
any judgment. Great, but policemen don't have balls. One interpretation
presumably mails them. Yeah, well yeah, but policemen don't have
balls in the sense that they do not actually hold balls.
They don't have to have like masked events and like
(09:25):
yeah big masks. Yeah. But then it's also a shot
on the policeman's masculinity and also on his like his virility,
you know, and also on his courage. So um, there's
some also really good examples of triple and andres in
uh in Canterbury Tales. But I think they're all, oh, yeah,
that's yes. Yes, they're like, yeah, they're just too gross
(09:47):
to drag out. In this particular. I think they're on
the Millers shale or something. Yeah, but we'll have to
remember that because that's an important joke to come back
to later when we talk a little bit more about
philosophy behind jokes. Yeah, but but this is this is
interesting because like it it's kind of like a language
bomb where it's like three meanings roll up into wine,
hit your brain, and then your brain has to figure
it out. Yeah, especially when when you're talking about like
(10:09):
the double entendres um, your brain is trying to square
all these different ideas together. And so what you're seeing,
let me, let's just walk you really quickly through what's
actually happening in your head. Uh. So, the left hemisphere
begins to light up with language processing right, and this
includes the left and right posterior middle temporal gyrus and
the left posterior inferior temporal gyrus for semantic jokes as
(10:32):
you spoke about, and the left posterior inferior temporal gyrus
and left inferior frontal gyrus, which are associated with the puns.
The phonetic processing. Then the joke is processed through the
nucleus accumbents in the ventral tegmental area. Both are part
of the mesa limbic pathway, which is associated with aggression, fear, laughter, addiction, pleasure,
(10:53):
and it also is connected, among other things, to the hippocampus,
which we know deals with memories. So there's a lot.
It's like when this word bomb blows up, it really
ricochets through all the neural architecture. Yeah yeah, and then
it's hanging out to you in the magdala, which we
know is associated with the emotions. So what I think
it is most interesting about this is just really hitting
(11:13):
that reward center of the brain. And so we're you know,
we're talking about the reward circuits of the brain getting
in on the joke, which makes sense with some of
these philosophical theories about what's going on when we hear
a good like say, toilet humor joke. Right, yeah, So
let's talk about some of these philosophies because I think
it's interesting. Oh yeah, yeah, But but real quick, this
also makes makes sense. You know if you're hear like
(11:34):
a really long drawn out joke and you're you're like,
get to the punch line. I want to, you know,
because I guess it's the reward center. You know, it's
like it's your rang Yeah, give it to me. Yeah yeah,
I need a little dopamine release right now from them.
All right, So let's look at Yeah, it's the different
philosophical theories on jokes. Um. First of all, there's this
superiority theory of humor. Yes, and this is one that
(11:56):
has been a champion by Plato, Aristotle, uh, Thomas, Thomas
Hobbs and uh. And this is basically where we find
the misfortune of others really amusing. This is like slapstick
guys getting hit in the head. This is on a
more well slightly cerebral level. You have like cringe comedies
where where people are making all sorts of either they're
(12:18):
not falling on their face literally, then they're doing so
figuratively in say an episode of the Office or something. Right, Okay,
yeah yeah yeah yeah. That can make you really uncomfortable,
right right. Uh And speaking of uncomfortable, the next kind
is relief theory. And of course Sigmund Freud is a
big champion, was a big champion of this, and this
states that comedy is a way for people to release
(12:39):
suppress thoughts and emotions safely. Yeah. I actually read something
about the game Peekaboo that kids play toddler's play, and
about how this is sort of like a mastering your
own uncertainty. And it's the same sort of aspect of
you keep playing Peekaboo with someone and they disappear, and
that's this object permanence thinking that all this stuff with
child development. But basically what it's saying is that you
(13:01):
feel you're you're playing the game with someone disappearing in
this uncertainty and then coming back and there's the relief, right,
So you're sort of working out all these feelings in
a safe environment. Right. And it also allows like the
exploration of taboo subjects or just sort of crude things
like fart, jokes, good stuff. And then we have incongruity
(13:23):
theory UM, which is generally associated with Immanuel Kent, and
it suggests that jokes happen because people notice the disconnect
between their expectations and the actual payoff. Yeah, and um,
like like nonsense humor tends to fall into this where
something something happens that that doesn't make a lick of sense,
(13:43):
and it's it creates ambiguity creates ambiguity, like like Monty
Python is often put up as an example of this. Yeah,
or a simple set up like a woman and a
duck walk into a bar. Right, there's two disparate elements.
I don't know the end of that joke, and I
apologize if I know, right, see, sorry about that. No
dopamine for you. But um, but I mean that's the setup,
(14:03):
Like your brain is automatically like what a woman, a
duck a bar. That's that's the ambiguity. But going back
to your your policeman ball balls joke, Um there, I
thought was interesting that the whole superiority there, Stottle that
that type of joke, because here you have, uh, it's
(14:24):
an authority, right, a policeman, and you're sort of leveling
the playing field by making fun of this policeman's masculinity. Yeah,
and he's the one who's tricked into saying he has
no ball, so it's yeah, it's he's he's made a
fool out of himself as well. Yeah. So I mean,
I just think these philosophers are really interesting when you
start to you know, of course we're taking part of
the joke, which is never funny. Um. I mean, I
(14:46):
think there's there's a quote about like dissecting humors about
as funny as dissecting a frog, you know, uh, and
the frog dies. So but there is this one guy.
There's always going to be that one guy, that one
gal who is looking for the reason why we do
what we do. And in this instance, there's a man
(15:07):
named Peter McGraw. He's a professor of marketing and psychology
at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and he heads up
the Humor Research Lab or HURL for short, um, and
he's trying to create a grand unified theory of humor.
And we'll talk about that in a moment right after
this break. This presentation is brought to you by Intel
(15:32):
Sponsors of Tomorrow. All Right, we're back with the with
the Grand Unified Theory of humor, which which I just
I just imagine like these uh, these different scientists like
standing around like in clown wigs and uh and and
like just is furiously working in laboratories with site gags. Well,
(15:54):
what is funny about this is that this research lab
they pretty much do everything that you could ever think
of to asked out what makes something funny like they
actually even get some of their subjects high on mary
Jouanna and these are people who are in who are
using it legally for medical purposes. Yeah yeah, yeah, So UM,
that's important to talk about so that that doesn't get
(16:14):
rated after someone ss the podcast UM or people start
calling up saying, dude, they're not really any be part
of this experiment. Um, but yeah. I mean they're sitting
there playing like hot tub time machine with you know,
the control group which is not high, and the medical
marijuana UM subjects, and trying to figure out if duh,
you know, if this this drug would make something funnier.
(16:36):
And they're actually even like having some people watch it
from you know, a certain distance and then another distance
from the TV to the two the eyes to see
if that makes it funnier. So every single thing that
you could think of, their trying to test about what
makes something funny, including like the distance in which you
watch an action unfold, which is kind of nuts. So
(16:57):
like if you watch somebody do something stupid if you're
and close to them versus we watching them far away. Well,
and this is more for UM for for media, right,
so for if you're watching something on the internet or
something on the TV, and again this is you know,
you have to look at this. This is a guy
who is professor of marketing and psychology, so obviously he's
going to be using whatever findings he has for marketing purposes.
(17:19):
And since you know, internet is a huge part of
the way that we consume our comedy these days, you know,
obviously they're going to be some people who are going
to buy into this research eventually. So that means, you know,
I'm just trying to talk about the bottom line here.
It's usually money that's motivating this, but they're big work
is this unit unified theory. This unified theory is just
funny because it's almost like the theory of everything when
(17:41):
we talk about string theory, because because like in that,
we're talking about all these different theories about how the
universe works, and they don't all work in unison. They
can each sort of they can describe aspects of the
universe and on the full picture. So the argument here
is like the superiority theory, the relief theory, the incongruity theory,
these are all great and they can describe large sections
of humor, and they can describe like whole um, you know,
(18:03):
whole TV shows, but they're not a unified theory of
what's going on. Yeah, they're not. There's not everything wrapped
up into one. But this dude says that there there
is this unified theory and is called the benign violation theory. Yeah,
and like most things, it seems it relates. Uh, it
manages to explain everything through a Venn diagram, which if
(18:24):
you're if you're not familiar with the I'm sure you've
seen them in infographics on not really infographics or just
graphics on the internet. Um, but it's like two big
circles and they're overlapping just a little bit, and where
the two circles overlap, that's where the magic happens and
whatever is being described. Yeah, and actually there's a great
visual on why are this is one of one of
(18:44):
the pieces of research that led us to this and
the article is called One Professor's Attempt to Explain Every
Joke Ever told. And that's that's where you can actually
see this diagram, which is you know, again funny that
they're even applying a Venn diagram to it. Yeah, but
but it but it sums it up really nicely. Be
is in this then diagram like you don't have to
look at it. In fact, don't look at it. Just
listen to me. Um. Two big circles walk into a bar,
(19:08):
two big circles. One is labeled um violation and one
is labeled benign. Now, when we're talking benign, we're talking
like the word table um um table table is the
most benign thing we could come up with. But things
that are not threatening to us, things that are maybe
just you know, they're normal, they're not even, they're not
(19:28):
really funny. And the nothing in each circle is funny harm, right,
you're not gonna create any harm. They're just benign, all right.
Then you have the violation um circle and not everything
in the in the violation circle is inherently funny, but
but can become funny. Um. So these are things like
violations of personal dignity, of linguistic norms, like somebody has
(19:50):
an unusual accent, you know, in personal dignity would be
like slapstick physical deformities, you know, and like slapsticking in
like banana peel jokes, right, like slipping out of an
an appeal. Social norms like you know, just anybody behaving
strangely moral norms people doing things that are entirely disrespectful
or or just outrageously awful. Um and uh and and
(20:15):
so that's the violation sphere. And when these two overlap,
well you have something that is that is at once
benign and a violation. That's where the humor happens. So
you could have something that in life where it truly
is threatening, but when you overlay it with something that's benign,
you take the threat out of it, and you still
(20:35):
have the taboo, and then you get the funny, right right, okay.
And so they use the example of Sarah Silverman, you know,
to say this is a perfect example of b VT,
which I thought was funny because she really deals in
some very awkward territory in which she talks about sexual abuse, incest,
so on and so forth. Best reality with I mean,
she has a cute little dog that oftentimes she makes
(20:58):
some inferences that are awful. It's disgusting. Sometimes she's really
into toilet humor too, but she gets away with it
because she's cute and she comes off I mean, her
persona anyway is one of kind of a dunce. Well, yeah,
they they say the the professor says that she can
say these appalling things because it registers has been known
(21:19):
because she she seems so oblivious to their offensiveness, so
she's downplaying in a sense. And then he says, because
she's so darn cute. Yeah. So, um, it's really interesting
to look at it that way. And what's like like
like even things that are truly horrible like cancer. You know,
it's like in the it's definitely in the violations sphere
(21:41):
of things. But but but it can cross over into
that area where it can in theory. I mean, I
don't have any examples, but I mean you hear comedians
joke about cancer, You hear them joke about I mean,
you name it, and no matter how horrible it is,
I guarantee somebody has made a joke about it. Well
what do you allen? Who said once or something like
(22:01):
tragedy plus time equals comedy. So there has to be
that distance, yes, And and I think that's that's what
really is we're going to continue to discuss here. I
think that's what's really awesome about about comedy and about
what this this theory um seems to to point to
as far as this, this this convergence area, this be
(22:22):
nine violation area. But but real quick back to table
one thing. You are so intrigued the table. Well, it's
like like, like I said, everything in the violation area
can conceivably become comedy. I think, but can, but I don't.
I have this feeling that not everything in the benign
can become comedy. Yeah, yeah, Like what would you have
(22:42):
to start out funny? Well, you'd have to be tickled
on a table, right, I don't know. Maybe Okay, if
we're a gurney, Yes, a gurney could be funny, but
a gurney is no longer at has tragedy associated with Yeah, right,
so that's the violation where a table is just to
just empty of meaning. Yeah, and you and you're right,
you always are going to have to go to the
(23:04):
to the violation category first and then overlay the line
I think. I don't know, I say always, not being
a humorologist, but yeah, like like table not funny, sex,
table not funny sex, gurney funny sex, gurnee awesome and
a good name for a band. But let's talk about tickling, Okay, Yes,
tickling is is a great example of violation in benign
(23:27):
hitting each other because you're being tickled and you're laughing
if you're ticklish. If you're not ticklish, you're something's wrong
with you. But but you're being tickled and you're just
laughing your face off. But at the same time you're like,
don't do it. Stop it tickled me anymore. But like,
so what's going on there? Because I'm I'm enjoying it
yet I'm hating it. It's it's this weird um combination
(23:50):
of things. Okay, well this this is from the article.
They say that even tickling, longest stumbling block for humor theorists,
appears to fit into this BBT. Tickling yourself can't be
a violation because you can't take yourself by surprise. Being
tickled by a stranger and a trench coat isn't benign.
It's creepy. I would agree with that. Only tickling by
someone you know and trust can be of a nine violation. Yeah,
(24:13):
all right, so that makes sense, right because you already
have this sort of um communication between each other or
trust level. It's not creepy. And that reminds me, wasn't there.
There's a politician who I think the last year or
so got some hot water because he tickled one of
his aids, which was, that's a situation we're sure you
(24:33):
know that someone, that's someone, but you're not completely inappropriate
in the workplace in case ticklegate and they really Yeah,
it got a lot of traction actually because I mean
tis well no, but really a meaning just coming by
and tickling us. Yeah, that would be weird. Or if
(24:54):
you saw you have you were to see your boss
tickle somebody work, you'd be like, what kind of relationship
is that? And I did have a boss actually, but
that's for an entirely that's not even for the podcast.
Um yeah, well he did. Yeah, he tickled people. He
actually asked people to smell his milk to to make
sure it hadn't gone rancid. Wait I didn't last there
(25:15):
very long. Um So anyway, what this all ties into
this whole violation thing and this benign violation and trust
and not trust ties into what they say the ultimate
takeaway of McGraw's um studies are is that the evolutionary
purpose of laughter and amusement is to signal to the
world that a violation is indeed okay. Building on the
(25:36):
work of behavioral neurologists vs. Ramachandran, we talked about him before.
It's a lot of really interesting stuff. Mc graw believes
that laughter developed as an instinctual way to signal that
a threat is actually a false. Alarmed say that a
rustle in the bushes is in the wind, but not
a saber tooth tiger, right, so it's the wind, not
not a tiger. Well like that. The classic example that
(25:57):
comes to mind isn't you're you're watching a horror movie. Yeah,
and they do the typical like something jumps out and
you're like, everybody already freaks out, and then you see, oh,
it was just the wind blowing, and it's a really
cheap horror movie effect. But then everybody laughs be like,
oh that was nothing. It's the relief part, right, So
which is the Freudian film you know, philosophy behind that.
But you can imagine like some primordial hunters like out
(26:18):
you know, on on the grass and something, some they're
selling this movement and they freak out and they lift
their stone weapons to to to to beat it away,
to hack it to pieces, and it's just you know,
it's just the wind. It's it's where it's their their
scout coming back from the other side of the hill
and they're like, oh, you know, sort of laughing at yourself.
(26:40):
So it's laughing the situation, laughing at yourself. UM. But
one of the things that we thought was really interesting
about it is, particularly in this instance of UM an
evolutionary sense, is how is it you socially? I mean,
we've seen arguments before. I'm sure you've seen it to
where where something escalates between two people, and it's pretty
(27:02):
common that one person will say something humorous to sort
of try to negate the escalation of the argument. So
humor is definitely used in a social way as a
sort of social contract to say, you know what, this
is a false threat. Don't worry. I'm not going to
hurt you. You're not going to hurt me. Um. But
we also wanted to look at it in a wider sense,
(27:23):
and it reminded us of this bit in the book
called Freaking Omics that sort of examines you know, the
underlying um this is the thing having to do with
clu Klux Klan And what they found is that, uh,
well it's kind of a long story, but basically there's
just one guy who infiltrated the k k K and
the nineteen forties, Yeah, and everybody sing with Clux Klan,
(27:44):
I would imagine, But this is the white supremacist group
that grew out of a right right And actually they
got the idea for the sheets over the head from
the film Presive Nation. Okay, but anyway, this guy, he
sort of went under cover and he hung out with
klu Klux Klan for a very long time and he
figured out all of their passwords and all of their
(28:06):
different secrets with secret handshakes. And by the way, this
is a really goofy organization. Yeah. I was looking through
one of their manuals once because like an old manual
that like, yeah, my family came from the South, so
at some point in the past, like some old uncle
or great great uncle was involved in it. And yeah,
so so I ended up getting to touch this like
(28:27):
crumbling manual and it is the goofiest thing you ever saw.
I mean not to dis that. That's the thing about
goofy and humor that because because at one level you
can't discount that these guys terrists. But on the other hand,
they were calling themselves the clu Klux Klan, and they
had words like that, something like the grand Clue clay Gold.
They all have these ridiculous titles. And I've subsequently read
(28:48):
that like words that have the clock sound in it
or the cuss sound are inherently funny. That's why clown
is inherently funny. Um, And that's why. And you've got clocks. Yeah,
cloths was like a cluck and I mean that's just right.
So they were really asking for it. They were completely
asking for it in the sense to be made fun of, um,
and also to be brought down. Really, but they even
(29:11):
had like a secret handshake that had like a fish
wiggle or something. I mean, really, it doesn't get any
any sillier than that anyway. So this insider found out
all this information. Um, he was trying to figure out
what do I do with this information to make it
most effective. He did a couple of different things, but
then he figured out, what, you know, the only way
to really bring them to their knees as an organization
(29:34):
is to take the secrecy out of what they were doing.
And so he fed all the information that he had
amassed the producers of a radio show Superman actually, and
it was the Superman, the Superman radio show in the forties,
and he said, why don't we do a series that's
called Superman versus the Clan, and they were like, yeah,
let's let's go for it. And so he wove all
(29:55):
of those secrets, the handshakes, the passwords, so on and
so forth, the coding into the narrative. And so what
ultimately was their demise is that all of a sudden
they heard this being broadcast and they realized that they
were not a super secret organization anymore. They could not
um move in the ways that they had moved before,
(30:16):
and so that essentially sort of grounded them. But not
only that, but they saw was that their kids were
playing out the drama of what they were doing, and
some of them were pretending to be Superman vanquishing the
klu Klux Klan, and that you know, some of them
are tending to be the klu Klux Klan members with
sheets over their heads, and they were they basically are
(30:37):
making a mockery of the klu Klux Klan, which again
they were begging to be mocked right with, with all
of their myriad silly silliness there. But uh, this was
just really greatly um sort of hamstrong what they were
trying to do. And it's fascinating, it's it's it's indirect,
but it's humor that leveled the playing field. So you
(30:59):
drag something horrible out of this uh, out of the
sphere of of violation, bring it into that crossover between
violation and benign, and you can remove the terror from it.
You can remove the fear from it. Yes, because even
though yes, they did kill people absolutely um, and they
didn't do it very often, but they did it enough
(31:19):
to to make it a real threat to people. Right,
so they were a real threat. But you know what
was happening is that people were saying, really, these are
a bunch of cowards who put sheets over their heads
and they're doing horrible things. And you know, they were
sort of calling them for what they were, and that
really took the power out of the structure. It reminds
(31:41):
me like anytime I hear conversations about humor and get
into discussions of the nature of humor, I think back
to m Berto Eco's book The Name of the Rose,
which which deeply concerns humor. Um. They're like, there's the
whole plot about this missing UH book post Aristotle's the
Second Book of Poetics, and UH, it contains all this
(32:02):
stuff about humor and there's a character in the book
that's very concerned about such a book falling into the
into the hands of the general population, or at least
the general monastic population. This monastery, this medieval monastery. Because
it if someone like Aristotle were to say humor is great,
then then where it is it? In do you end up?
You know, because when you laugh at something, you take
(32:23):
away its power. And so what what if what happens
when you when you laugh at at the church? What
happens when you laugh at God? Uh? That you know,
the power of humor to change society is uh is
pretty phenomenal. Um I was, I was running across looking
for other examples of this, and uh, I found an
interesting essay. They don't have to link in the accompanying
(32:45):
blog post for this podcast, but they found that cartoons
mocking capitalism played a huge role in the rise of
socialism in the United States in the early twentieth century
because they're all these political cartoons and they were, you know,
they'd show the capitalist you know, creating all these like
fat cat capitalist, um, you know icons in the in
(33:06):
the in the political cartoons, and they were and they
were using this to to drag this topic into the
into the comedic area, and and it helped, you know,
helped the rise of socialism. Well, we talked to you
about just even sitcom's Jefferson's or a family Archie Bunker.
I mean, you know, he presented some horrible violations, right, um,
(33:29):
and yet there there was a benign factor because they
were making fun of Archie Bunker, you know, I mean
in a sense they were you know, he his he
had a sort of certain personal truth, but that truth
was sometimes silly. I mean, you know, obviously a lot
of times silly when they shown that light on him. Yeah,
and so it sort of broke some of the barriers
that you might not talk about in civilized conversation. Yeah.
(33:52):
And it also I think you do see examples too
of of what appears to be take up perceived violations
by some like things that it's some segments of the
population don't don't agree with. Like we were talking about
Modern Family, which is a current sitcom I think, and
I think it just wrapped up its second season, and
and this shows some some traditionally non traditional families. I
(34:13):
mean that I think each model is a lot more
common now, but but non traditional in the TV sense
because you have you have a gay couple that's adopted
a child, so in that you have both both a
gay couple and an adoptive family which are both under reference.
Child is Vietnamese too. Yeah, so it's multily. It's also
multi racial. Then you have like you know, then you
(34:34):
have more you have another multi racial couple where there's
also a big age difference, and and so you you
take these ideas which to some segments of the population
would be considered violations and you but you move into
a mainstream comedic area and we're suddenly we can find
humor in these situations and it and it removes the sting.
(34:57):
Right well, yeah, you you move lest from um looking
at something objectively and more to humanizing it right now. Um, now,
of course with all this so you have to you
have to keep it. There's also sort of a chicken
and egg thing with any of these topics because you you,
on one hand, you can't say, oh, well, uh, the
Jefferson's changed, you know, changed the way we think about
(35:18):
race or something like that. I mean, that would be ridiculous. Um.
There's also a lot of mirroring where the the show
is mirroring changing attitudes. So so it was so we're
not arguing that these shows are are have just tremendous,
unparalleled power, but but I do think they tie into
into the role comedy plays in social change. Yeah, and
just one quick sort of science note here too, is
(35:41):
we came across this research. It was a dot com
talk on humor and smiling specifically, and it was really interesting.
It was this study they had a control group of
people watching things that were funny and they would rate
them from like one to five what they thought was funny.
And then they had another group that had a pencil
in their mouth, holding a pen in their mouth while
they watched and rated what they found. People with a
(36:03):
pencil in their mouth, we're rating things less funny. The
reason is because of you're talking about this mirroring. Is
you know your mirror neurons. You're you're watching something and
there's a really deep connection to mirroring other people's behaviors.
So when you're watching something that's funny, you're going to
start to smile, you start get to engage those muscles.
(36:25):
When those muscles are inhibited, whether it's a pencil or
botox injections, by the way, you're less able to empathize.
So again you've got comedy is something which is you
know this this uh, this great unifier that really can
allow people to better understand different perspectives and sort of
you know. Also, do not trust a superhero who covers
(36:48):
up his mouth like Batman. You can see his mouth
so you can be able to he's going to be
able to understand people more. But Spider Man, I don't
know what's going on. You What about a joker? He's
smiling all the time. You can't tell what's going on, right,
It's it's like botox in a way. Yeah, um, but
there you go. That's that's that's a well. It makes
me think too of laughter yoga, which you're opposed to, right,
(37:10):
I'm absolutely opposed to laughter. I have practice yoga for
a number of years, but yes, laughter yoga. And my
wife also is uh. I think she's at least on
the fence about it or she doesn't like it, one
or the other. But laughter yoga is where you where
a yoga group will will we'll start laughing. And again
it's fake at first. I mean it's very fake because
there's generally not that much funny in a yoga class,
(37:32):
unless you know somebody farts, right, but but because we
can normally and I'm not going to talk about farts
in in this podcast, but you know it's a human podcast.
But anyway, um, yoga people will suddenly they'll start laughing.
They'll be like ha ha ha ha, and then everybody's laughing,
and then eventually the laughing laughter becomes real laughter because
(37:54):
it's awful. That's why there's no other choice but to laugh.
It's like, you know what I don't like about it.
It's like tickling yourself. Yeah, it's just not it's weird
and I don't like to be forced into tickling myself
or laughter. I have to tell you just for the record, Okay,
just just for the record, got you, And now you're
not gonna make me take a tickling or tickling yoga class,
(38:15):
a laughing yoga class. But just should started kick it off?
All right? Well, hey, um, I guess it's time for
listener mail hull. The first thing I'm actually going to
hit here is not really listener mail per se, but
I listener feedback. Well, well that they haven't listened to
the podcast yet, so I don't know. This is we're
(38:37):
really playing with causality all right, mysterio. But since I've
along with Holly Frey, one of our our tech editor here,
I've started contributing to the main house stuff works Twitter
and Facebook accounts, which are just how stuff works on Twitter,
how stuff works on Facebook, and I'll label those with
my name. But I was researching, we were researching for
(38:58):
this podcast yesterday, so I decided to call out to
the readers there. It's like, hey, guys, what are some
words that you words or things that you find inherently funny?
And that's so I'm gonna read a few of them. Uh, pigeonhole, bush, ugly, bald, nostril, nut, laugh, groin.
(39:18):
I would like to add the groin itches is even funnier. Cheeks,
Harry Duke, feces, chipmunk, milk, toast, male slot, pumpernickel, spoon, garbonzo.
I think carbonzo is especially funny, and that it's such
a it sounds really elegant for what it is, you know,
(39:40):
it's like just like a little I don't know, it
seems like a character, like a Tom and Jerry character
to me, Like, I don't know, hob nob Schnitzel. Schinzel
is pretty funny. There is a Chnitzel. The German food
is really big and hunts fill Alabama because of like
the NASA there and German population that moved there after
the war. And uh, and there there was actually was
(40:02):
like a former dairy queen like fast food restaurant that
had been turned into a fast food schnitzel restaurant. It's
called the Schnitzel Farm. And they're like, that's a great
combination of words right there. Uh, muck is another one
that was suggested. Banana poop, moose and moist. Is ointment
just awkward or is it funny? Ointment is funny? Okay, well, yeah,
it's a violation, right awkward? Kume quiet is also pretty funny. Yeah,
(40:24):
there's a lot of good ones there. Uh. We should
probably hear from people to about what they think is
the funniest words. Uh, yeah that they've heard. Yeah that
I would be Yeah, if I would, I would read
one more list of of of words after you know,
a couple of podcasts. Yeah, um, well, let's read one
one quick listener mail before we close it out. Here
(40:45):
an actual listener mail. Eric writes then and says, uh,
your in your intro to your Dad's podcast, we did
a Dad's of The Animal Kingdom episode for Claud's Day. Um,
you made me think of this joke. I hope you
like it. So this is very timely beca this joke. Right.
A dog walks into a bar in Texas with a
heavy bandage on his foot. The bartender, played by Randy Jackson, says, yo, dog,
(41:07):
what's up? The dog replies, I'm looking for the man
who shot my paw. Ah, Eric, I hope you liked it.
If not us, If not, say so, I'll send you
no more jokes. No, no, send them them. But I can't.
I mean, yes, that made me kind of, that made
me GoF, But still I love it. Yeah, there's nothing
(41:29):
like a that's a weird thing. It's like the jokes
that I generally don't get to hear, actual joke jokes
unless they're really bad jokes. Like those are the Those
are the jokes actually want to hear. They're really cringe
worthy bad jokes. Yeah, yeah, it's good stuff. I have
to say I have a soft spot my heart for
John Riggles because awful if he is he really is. Yeah,
but anyway, that's he's a really nice man in life.
(41:52):
He's not, he's not he's not my dad. Long story,
but my dad had dinner with him and he said
it was it's like, you know, getting grilled, and yeah,
I roasted. I love the bid where he talks about
the night Frank Sinatra saved his life. Oh, I've not
heard that. Well, he was. He was doing the stand
up bit and this was played back in the day,
you know, the rat pack days though, and U and
(42:13):
he sees Frank is sitting there with his cronies, you know,
on the front front row. So Don rickles as an
insult comedian, so he cares into Frank a little bit
and uh, and he says, and you know, he's like,
you know, I guess he'll have he'll be a good sport,
don't know, tear into about bit. So he makes fun
and Frank a little bit. But after the show, Frank
Sinatra ends up saving his life because some he goes
(42:34):
out into the alley and these guys start just beating
the crap out of him, and Frank Sinatra comes out
and he's like, that's enough, boys, he's had enough, or
that's good boys, he's had enough. Yeah, okay, So I'm
not gonna say mafia or anything or planned to have
him beat up an alley or anything like that and
then save life. But I'm sorry, Frank Sinatra. You know
(42:54):
he had a couple of boys go out there. Yeah.
Well yeah, that's that's why it's funny, because he clearly
he had somebody beat up down racles. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway,
if you have any thoughts on humor, um what you
find funny and and certainly just trying to figure out
how humor works? Uh, do let us know. You can
find us on Facebook and Twitter as blow the Mind.
(43:18):
We're on there all the time. Yeah. And do you
agree with this benign violation theory? Do you think that
it is the grand unified theory of humor? Let us
know at below the Mind at how stuff works dot com.
Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we
(43:38):
explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow.
Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie.
What are some words that, to you are inherently funny
or words and or things that just just say the
word instantly? It italystits black monkey, all right, that's a
(00:27):
good one. Pickle is good. Later hosing later hosing is
really good. Poppy cock, poppy cock, that's a good one.
To sueech squeechy. Yeah you, um, well, let's see you
already took later hosing. I think later hos is a
good one. Cheese cheese is very funny. Um, you said monkey, Um,
(00:52):
you stole a lot of underwear. Underwear is always hilarious. Um.
And it's funny because a lot of these words will
pop up in children's books, which, of course I'm knee
deep in with my toddler, so you know, I'm pretty
schooled in the funny words. Bugle is yeah, curious, George,
that one comes up, but you're talking about like an
(01:12):
obnoxious instrument or some sort of ridiculous corn snack. It's pretty,
which can be tasty, but also there are some words
that have a kind of joke within them or something likecalyptian,
which which means well formed buttocks. I had not heard
that one. Yeah, yeah, it's it's a great word. So
you know, you can say the ecalyptian so and so.
(01:34):
Uh if you're trying to get someone to compliment. I
suppose what is it an adjective? Yes, okay, yeah, and
calie from Greek beautiful and pig. I think that's how
you pronounce it is means buttocks or rump. Rump is
another good one. Rump is funny. Yeah. Yeah, So when
we're talking about what makes yeah right, I mean that
that spells fun right there. But talking about the funny
(01:57):
like what why are things funny? I don't know, because yeah,
because we're talking about the words that we're talking. What
are some words that are just not funny at all? Yes,
And the big one that came to mind that you
you came up with was table table, Like there's just
no way to make the word table funny, Like even
if you throw um other words onto it, like you could,
you know, sex, table, clown table, clown table, it's still
(02:20):
sounds kind of It's like alright, well, clowns kind of funny.
But yeah, they're just for elements, which is part of
what we found out in our research about what makes
things funny. You have to have sometimes desperate elements like that,
but still it's not funny. And it was It's interesting
because I was looking back at an episode from This
American Life in which it's called Tough Room, in which
(02:40):
they visited the editorial offices of The Onion, which is,
you know, spoof magazine, which is incredibly funny, at least
to me. Um, And what they found out is that
during the editorial meeting whether mock headlines are pitched, that
there's only one laugh for every one hundred jokes that
are told. This out here they are pitching this and
(03:01):
maybe that's part of it because you know, this is
their job and they're doing it every week and so
but still, yeah, they're seriously jaded. But um, you know,
they published sixteen stories a week with sixteen mock headlines,
and to get to those sixteen headlines, they go through
six hundred possible headlines to figure out what is funny.
And I was like, you know, I wonder why why
(03:23):
that is? Like why are some combinations funnier? Than other
and others, and then I looked into it and I
was looking at some of their best off and one
of their best ofs was kitten thinks of nothing but
murder all day. See now that one didn't do much
for me. I don't know really, well they have. Part
of it was that the cute photo of the kitten,
which you you know again desperate elements murder kitten, No, no,
(03:46):
not really all right, Well, in that episode two, they
were talking about how the headline local girlfriend always wants
to do stuff. Okay, that makes the cut, but you
know it doesn't make the cut. In the same session,
is Nation's Girlfriends all for more quality time? Funny? No, no,
it's the first one got the laugh and everybody the
(04:07):
second one actually got jeers. But kittens was a hit.
Kittens obviously was a hit. Made it it's it's it's
a hit. A lot of people's top ten lists. Interesting, yeah, yeah,
um but just to throw some stats at this and
why we're looking at this, um uh, it's just it's
very interesting to think about why we laugh from evolutionary sense, right, yeah,
(04:27):
like what why why don't we do it? Why is
it such a phenomenon? Like what purpose does it serve?
We do it all the time. We love it. Some
people live for it, some people live to make other
people laugh. But what is what is actually going on? Semantically?
What's going on neutologically? Yeah, so that's what we're going
to discuss. That's what we're gonna talk about today. And
here are your stats too that we're gonna throw at you.
(04:47):
Only about eleven of daily laughter as a result of jokes. Now,
when you say jokes, do you mean because like we
we joke around in this podcast a lot, but it's
very rare that you go, hey, Julie, um not not.
You know, we don't do a lot of that. So
are we talking about strict joke jokes joking? Yeah, we're
talking about the formula jokes. So if you're sitting around
(05:08):
the water color and someone says, hey, you know, a
rabbi and a priest and whatever walks through a bar,
that kind of joke. So that only eleven percent, which
kind of makes sense, right because a lot of us
aren't sitting around the water cooler telling those kind of jokes,
the porched belt jokes. And then another seventeen is prompted
by media, you know, sort of like Hey, did you
(05:28):
see the clo l cator? Did you read the Sunion headline?
Did you watch this episode of thirty? Yeah? I did
you see this YouTube video? Or so on and so forth.
And the remaining seventy two percent arises spontaneously in social interactions.
So like you and I sitting here and talking the
talking the pooh here, okay, talking the poo? Is that
the shouting the shoe? Shouting the shoes? Yeah, true shot.
(05:50):
I'm trying to avoid the expletip. But you know, I'm
saying just in um. And it turns out that that
we're not the only creatures that laugh. Eight and rats
lack too. Although I'm a little bit dubious about this,
this rats part, I have to say, um, this is
uh this This article says that like children, apes laugh
(06:12):
during chasing, wrestling and tickling games. Oh I guess I
have seen videos where you know, it looks like they're
wrestling around and it lives. It does look like the
yeah yeah. And it says chimps and gorillas who have
learned sign language have used it for punning and congruous
word use, which is interesting and playful insults. Intriguingly, it
seems that rats may laugh too. This is this is
where I get dubious. A team of researchers at Bowling
(06:34):
Green State University reported in two thousand that rats produce
an ultrasonic chirping during play and went tickled by humans.
These chirps appear to be contagious, and young rats prefer
older rats who produce more of them. So, you know, again,
dubious there, But there's this idea of that, you know,
it's not just us that are sitting there having a chuckle,
(06:56):
and then it's necessary to our existence on some level.
And we'll get back to more about tickling and in
a little bit. Tickling is very key. It's kind of
like the most simple version of a joke. Yes, but
but we'll we'll get to that in a minute. First,
let's let's talk about what's going on at the cognitive level. Yeah,
what's happening in the head to our brains when we're
(07:17):
having a laugh. Turns out that when we hear a joke,
our brains began to process that sequentially. Yeah, and I
found it interesting that you can when it when it's
following when your brain begins to to process this. They're
really sort of two types of jokes that and uh,
and those are on one hand, you have a semantic
(07:37):
jokes which relate to the meaning of words, and then
you have phonological or jokes or puns, which relate to
the way something sounds. And like the puns the example
I kept finding like it seems like everybody uses the
same pun joke in the scientific literature, which goes as follows,
Hey Julie, Hey Robert, why did the all for wear
(08:00):
two pairs of pants because they had a hole in one? Seeing? Yeah,
But the semantic jokes, that's where you get into like
a lot deeper area, um and where you end up
having onres like double andres and triple andres, which I've
always found really fascinating. Like here, like here's an example
of a of a triple on andre if I bother
(08:22):
to print out the full joke, Nope, I didn't drip
print out the full joke, So I'm just gonna try
and remember here, but a triple on andre Uh would
be like the joke where um, ladies pulled over by
highway patrolman and uh, and you know he comes up
to get her ticket and shoes like, oh, I bet
you're going to try and sell me a ticket to
the policeman's ball, and then the like a you know,
(08:43):
like a ball, like a gala okay, and then the
cop gets you know, your tat's like, policemen don't have balls.
So this is a triple on Andre because on one
one see, and I was already laughing because you said ball,
and I was already made the association, to be quite honest,
but it's but here I'm I'm a dirty bird. Well
I'm gonna explain the joke and take all the humor
(09:04):
out of it. Um, policemen don't have balls, So you
can say that policemen do not and we're not making
any judgment. Great, but policemen don't have balls. One interpretation
presumably mails them. Yeah, well yeah, but policemen don't have
balls in the sense that they do not actually hold balls.
They don't have to have like masked events and like
(09:25):
yeah big masks. Yeah. But then it's also a shot
on the policeman's masculinity and also on his like his virility,
you know, and also on his courage. So um, there's
some also really good examples of triple and andres in
uh in Canterbury Tales. But I think they're all, oh, yeah,
that's yes. Yes, they're like, yeah, they're just too gross
(09:47):
to drag out. In this particular. I think they're on
the Millers shale or something. Yeah, but we'll have to
remember that because that's an important joke to come back
to later when we talk a little bit more about
philosophy behind jokes. Yeah, but but this is this is
interesting because like it it's kind of like a language
bomb where it's like three meanings roll up into wine,
hit your brain, and then your brain has to figure
it out. Yeah, especially when when you're talking about like
(10:09):
the double entendres um, your brain is trying to square
all these different ideas together. And so what you're seeing,
let me, let's just walk you really quickly through what's
actually happening in your head. Uh. So, the left hemisphere
begins to light up with language processing right, and this
includes the left and right posterior middle temporal gyrus and
the left posterior inferior temporal gyrus for semantic jokes as
(10:32):
you spoke about, and the left posterior inferior temporal gyrus
and left inferior frontal gyrus, which are associated with the puns.
The phonetic processing. Then the joke is processed through the
nucleus accumbents in the ventral tegmental area. Both are part
of the mesa limbic pathway, which is associated with aggression, fear, laughter, addiction, pleasure,
(10:53):
and it also is connected, among other things, to the hippocampus,
which we know deals with memories. So there's a lot.
It's like when this word bomb blows up, it really
ricochets through all the neural architecture. Yeah yeah, and then
it's hanging out to you in the magdala, which we
know is associated with the emotions. So what I think
it is most interesting about this is just really hitting
(11:13):
that reward center of the brain. And so we're you know,
we're talking about the reward circuits of the brain getting
in on the joke, which makes sense with some of
these philosophical theories about what's going on when we hear
a good like say, toilet humor joke. Right, yeah, So
let's talk about some of these philosophies because I think
it's interesting. Oh yeah, yeah, But but real quick, this
also makes makes sense. You know if you're hear like
(11:34):
a really long drawn out joke and you're you're like,
get to the punch line. I want to, you know,
because I guess it's the reward center. You know, it's
like it's your rang Yeah, give it to me. Yeah yeah,
I need a little dopamine release right now from them.
All right, So let's look at Yeah, it's the different
philosophical theories on jokes. Um. First of all, there's this
superiority theory of humor. Yes, and this is one that
(11:56):
has been a champion by Plato, Aristotle, uh, Thomas, Thomas
Hobbs and uh. And this is basically where we find
the misfortune of others really amusing. This is like slapstick
guys getting hit in the head. This is on a
more well slightly cerebral level. You have like cringe comedies
where where people are making all sorts of either they're
(12:18):
not falling on their face literally, then they're doing so
figuratively in say an episode of the Office or something. Right, Okay,
yeah yeah yeah yeah. That can make you really uncomfortable,
right right. Uh And speaking of uncomfortable, the next kind
is relief theory. And of course Sigmund Freud is a
big champion, was a big champion of this, and this
states that comedy is a way for people to release
(12:39):
suppress thoughts and emotions safely. Yeah. I actually read something
about the game Peekaboo that kids play toddler's play, and
about how this is sort of like a mastering your
own uncertainty. And it's the same sort of aspect of
you keep playing Peekaboo with someone and they disappear, and
that's this object permanence thinking that all this stuff with
child development. But basically what it's saying is that you
(13:01):
feel you're you're playing the game with someone disappearing in
this uncertainty and then coming back and there's the relief, right,
So you're sort of working out all these feelings in
a safe environment. Right. And it also allows like the
exploration of taboo subjects or just sort of crude things
like fart, jokes, good stuff. And then we have incongruity
(13:23):
theory UM, which is generally associated with Immanuel Kent, and
it suggests that jokes happen because people notice the disconnect
between their expectations and the actual payoff. Yeah, and um,
like like nonsense humor tends to fall into this where
something something happens that that doesn't make a lick of sense,
(13:43):
and it's it creates ambiguity creates ambiguity, like like Monty
Python is often put up as an example of this. Yeah,
or a simple set up like a woman and a
duck walk into a bar. Right, there's two disparate elements.
I don't know the end of that joke, and I
apologize if I know, right, see, sorry about that. No
dopamine for you. But um, but I mean that's the setup,
(14:03):
Like your brain is automatically like what a woman, a
duck a bar. That's that's the ambiguity. But going back
to your your policeman ball balls joke, Um there, I
thought was interesting that the whole superiority there, Stottle that
that type of joke, because here you have, uh, it's
(14:24):
an authority, right, a policeman, and you're sort of leveling
the playing field by making fun of this policeman's masculinity. Yeah,
and he's the one who's tricked into saying he has
no ball, so it's yeah, it's he's he's made a
fool out of himself as well. Yeah. So I mean,
I just think these philosophers are really interesting when you
start to you know, of course we're taking part of
the joke, which is never funny. Um. I mean, I
(14:46):
think there's there's a quote about like dissecting humors about
as funny as dissecting a frog, you know, uh, and
the frog dies. So but there is this one guy.
There's always going to be that one guy, that one
gal who is looking for the reason why we do
what we do. And in this instance, there's a man
(15:07):
named Peter McGraw. He's a professor of marketing and psychology
at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and he heads up
the Humor Research Lab or HURL for short, um, and
he's trying to create a grand unified theory of humor.
And we'll talk about that in a moment right after
this break. This presentation is brought to you by Intel
(15:32):
Sponsors of Tomorrow. All Right, we're back with the with
the Grand Unified Theory of humor, which which I just
I just imagine like these uh, these different scientists like
standing around like in clown wigs and uh and and
like just is furiously working in laboratories with site gags. Well,
(15:54):
what is funny about this is that this research lab
they pretty much do everything that you could ever think
of to asked out what makes something funny like they
actually even get some of their subjects high on mary
Jouanna and these are people who are in who are
using it legally for medical purposes. Yeah yeah, yeah, So UM,
that's important to talk about so that that doesn't get
(16:14):
rated after someone ss the podcast UM or people start
calling up saying, dude, they're not really any be part
of this experiment. Um, but yeah. I mean they're sitting
there playing like hot tub time machine with you know,
the control group which is not high, and the medical
marijuana UM subjects, and trying to figure out if duh,
you know, if this this drug would make something funnier.
(16:36):
And they're actually even like having some people watch it
from you know, a certain distance and then another distance
from the TV to the two the eyes to see
if that makes it funnier. So every single thing that
you could think of, their trying to test about what
makes something funny, including like the distance in which you
watch an action unfold, which is kind of nuts. So
(16:57):
like if you watch somebody do something stupid if you're
and close to them versus we watching them far away. Well,
and this is more for UM for for media, right,
so for if you're watching something on the internet or
something on the TV, and again this is you know,
you have to look at this. This is a guy
who is professor of marketing and psychology, so obviously he's
going to be using whatever findings he has for marketing purposes.
(17:19):
And since you know, internet is a huge part of
the way that we consume our comedy these days, you know,
obviously they're going to be some people who are going
to buy into this research eventually. So that means, you know,
I'm just trying to talk about the bottom line here.
It's usually money that's motivating this, but they're big work
is this unit unified theory. This unified theory is just
funny because it's almost like the theory of everything when
(17:41):
we talk about string theory, because because like in that,
we're talking about all these different theories about how the
universe works, and they don't all work in unison. They
can each sort of they can describe aspects of the
universe and on the full picture. So the argument here
is like the superiority theory, the relief theory, the incongruity theory,
these are all great and they can describe large sections
of humor, and they can describe like whole um, you know,
(18:03):
whole TV shows, but they're not a unified theory of
what's going on. Yeah, they're not. There's not everything wrapped
up into one. But this dude says that there there
is this unified theory and is called the benign violation theory. Yeah,
and like most things, it seems it relates. Uh, it
manages to explain everything through a Venn diagram, which if
(18:24):
you're if you're not familiar with the I'm sure you've
seen them in infographics on not really infographics or just
graphics on the internet. Um, but it's like two big
circles and they're overlapping just a little bit, and where
the two circles overlap, that's where the magic happens and
whatever is being described. Yeah, and actually there's a great
visual on why are this is one of one of
(18:44):
the pieces of research that led us to this and
the article is called One Professor's Attempt to Explain Every
Joke Ever told. And that's that's where you can actually
see this diagram, which is you know, again funny that
they're even applying a Venn diagram to it. Yeah, but
but it but it sums it up really nicely. Be
is in this then diagram like you don't have to
look at it. In fact, don't look at it. Just
listen to me. Um. Two big circles walk into a bar,
(19:08):
two big circles. One is labeled um violation and one
is labeled benign. Now, when we're talking benign, we're talking
like the word table um um table table is the
most benign thing we could come up with. But things
that are not threatening to us, things that are maybe
just you know, they're normal, they're not even, they're not
(19:28):
really funny. And the nothing in each circle is funny harm, right,
you're not gonna create any harm. They're just benign, all right.
Then you have the violation um circle and not everything
in the in the violation circle is inherently funny, but
but can become funny. Um. So these are things like
violations of personal dignity, of linguistic norms, like somebody has
(19:50):
an unusual accent, you know, in personal dignity would be
like slapstick physical deformities, you know, and like slapsticking in
like banana peel jokes, right, like slipping out of an
an appeal. Social norms like you know, just anybody behaving
strangely moral norms people doing things that are entirely disrespectful
or or just outrageously awful. Um and uh and and
(20:15):
so that's the violation sphere. And when these two overlap,
well you have something that is that is at once
benign and a violation. That's where the humor happens. So
you could have something that in life where it truly
is threatening, but when you overlay it with something that's benign,
you take the threat out of it, and you still
(20:35):
have the taboo, and then you get the funny, right right, okay.
And so they use the example of Sarah Silverman, you know,
to say this is a perfect example of b VT,
which I thought was funny because she really deals in
some very awkward territory in which she talks about sexual abuse, incest,
so on and so forth. Best reality with I mean,
she has a cute little dog that oftentimes she makes
(20:58):
some inferences that are awful. It's disgusting. Sometimes she's really
into toilet humor too, but she gets away with it
because she's cute and she comes off I mean, her
persona anyway is one of kind of a dunce. Well, yeah,
they they say the the professor says that she can
say these appalling things because it registers has been known
(21:19):
because she she seems so oblivious to their offensiveness, so
she's downplaying in a sense. And then he says, because
she's so darn cute. Yeah. So, um, it's really interesting
to look at it that way. And what's like like
like even things that are truly horrible like cancer. You know,
it's like in the it's definitely in the violations sphere
(21:41):
of things. But but but it can cross over into
that area where it can in theory. I mean, I
don't have any examples, but I mean you hear comedians
joke about cancer, You hear them joke about I mean,
you name it, and no matter how horrible it is,
I guarantee somebody has made a joke about it. Well
what do you allen? Who said once or something like
(22:01):
tragedy plus time equals comedy. So there has to be
that distance, yes, And and I think that's that's what
really is we're going to continue to discuss here. I
think that's what's really awesome about about comedy and about
what this this theory um seems to to point to
as far as this, this this convergence area, this be
(22:22):
nine violation area. But but real quick back to table
one thing. You are so intrigued the table. Well, it's
like like, like I said, everything in the violation area
can conceivably become comedy. I think, but can, but I don't.
I have this feeling that not everything in the benign
can become comedy. Yeah, yeah, Like what would you have
(22:42):
to start out funny? Well, you'd have to be tickled
on a table, right, I don't know. Maybe Okay, if
we're a gurney, Yes, a gurney could be funny, but
a gurney is no longer at has tragedy associated with Yeah, right,
so that's the violation where a table is just to
just empty of meaning. Yeah, and you and you're right,
you always are going to have to go to the
(23:04):
to the violation category first and then overlay the line
I think. I don't know, I say always, not being
a humorologist, but yeah, like like table not funny, sex,
table not funny sex, gurney funny sex, gurnee awesome and
a good name for a band. But let's talk about tickling, Okay, Yes,
tickling is is a great example of violation in benign
(23:27):
hitting each other because you're being tickled and you're laughing
if you're ticklish. If you're not ticklish, you're something's wrong
with you. But but you're being tickled and you're just
laughing your face off. But at the same time you're like,
don't do it. Stop it tickled me anymore. But like,
so what's going on there? Because I'm I'm enjoying it
yet I'm hating it. It's it's this weird um combination
(23:50):
of things. Okay, well this this is from the article.
They say that even tickling, longest stumbling block for humor theorists,
appears to fit into this BBT. Tickling yourself can't be
a violation because you can't take yourself by surprise. Being
tickled by a stranger and a trench coat isn't benign.
It's creepy. I would agree with that. Only tickling by
someone you know and trust can be of a nine violation. Yeah,
(24:13):
all right, so that makes sense, right because you already
have this sort of um communication between each other or
trust level. It's not creepy. And that reminds me, wasn't there.
There's a politician who I think the last year or
so got some hot water because he tickled one of
his aids, which was, that's a situation we're sure you
(24:33):
know that someone, that's someone, but you're not completely inappropriate
in the workplace in case ticklegate and they really Yeah,
it got a lot of traction actually because I mean
tis well no, but really a meaning just coming by
and tickling us. Yeah, that would be weird. Or if
(24:54):
you saw you have you were to see your boss
tickle somebody work, you'd be like, what kind of relationship
is that? And I did have a boss actually, but
that's for an entirely that's not even for the podcast.
Um yeah, well he did. Yeah, he tickled people. He
actually asked people to smell his milk to to make
sure it hadn't gone rancid. Wait I didn't last there
(25:15):
very long. Um So anyway, what this all ties into
this whole violation thing and this benign violation and trust
and not trust ties into what they say the ultimate
takeaway of McGraw's um studies are is that the evolutionary
purpose of laughter and amusement is to signal to the
world that a violation is indeed okay. Building on the
(25:36):
work of behavioral neurologists vs. Ramachandran, we talked about him before.
It's a lot of really interesting stuff. Mc graw believes
that laughter developed as an instinctual way to signal that
a threat is actually a false. Alarmed say that a
rustle in the bushes is in the wind, but not
a saber tooth tiger, right, so it's the wind, not
not a tiger. Well like that. The classic example that
(25:57):
comes to mind isn't you're you're watching a horror movie. Yeah,
and they do the typical like something jumps out and
you're like, everybody already freaks out, and then you see, oh,
it was just the wind blowing, and it's a really
cheap horror movie effect. But then everybody laughs be like,
oh that was nothing. It's the relief part, right, So
which is the Freudian film you know, philosophy behind that.
But you can imagine like some primordial hunters like out
(26:18):
you know, on on the grass and something, some they're
selling this movement and they freak out and they lift
their stone weapons to to to to beat it away,
to hack it to pieces, and it's just you know,
it's just the wind. It's it's where it's their their
scout coming back from the other side of the hill
and they're like, oh, you know, sort of laughing at yourself.
(26:40):
So it's laughing the situation, laughing at yourself. UM. But
one of the things that we thought was really interesting
about it is, particularly in this instance of UM an
evolutionary sense, is how is it you socially? I mean,
we've seen arguments before. I'm sure you've seen it to
where where something escalates between two people, and it's pretty
(27:02):
common that one person will say something humorous to sort
of try to negate the escalation of the argument. So
humor is definitely used in a social way as a
sort of social contract to say, you know what, this
is a false threat. Don't worry. I'm not going to
hurt you. You're not going to hurt me. Um. But
we also wanted to look at it in a wider sense,
(27:23):
and it reminded us of this bit in the book
called Freaking Omics that sort of examines you know, the
underlying um this is the thing having to do with
clu Klux Klan And what they found is that, uh,
well it's kind of a long story, but basically there's
just one guy who infiltrated the k k K and
the nineteen forties, Yeah, and everybody sing with Clux Klan,
(27:44):
I would imagine, But this is the white supremacist group
that grew out of a right right And actually they
got the idea for the sheets over the head from
the film Presive Nation. Okay, but anyway, this guy, he
sort of went under cover and he hung out with
klu Klux Klan for a very long time and he
figured out all of their passwords and all of their
(28:06):
different secrets with secret handshakes. And by the way, this
is a really goofy organization. Yeah. I was looking through
one of their manuals once because like an old manual
that like, yeah, my family came from the South, so
at some point in the past, like some old uncle
or great great uncle was involved in it. And yeah,
so so I ended up getting to touch this like
(28:27):
crumbling manual and it is the goofiest thing you ever saw.
I mean not to dis that. That's the thing about
goofy and humor that because because at one level you
can't discount that these guys terrists. But on the other hand,
they were calling themselves the clu Klux Klan, and they
had words like that, something like the grand Clue clay Gold.
They all have these ridiculous titles. And I've subsequently read
(28:48):
that like words that have the clock sound in it
or the cuss sound are inherently funny. That's why clown
is inherently funny. Um, And that's why. And you've got clocks. Yeah,
cloths was like a cluck and I mean that's just right.
So they were really asking for it. They were completely
asking for it in the sense to be made fun of, um,
and also to be brought down. Really, but they even
(29:11):
had like a secret handshake that had like a fish
wiggle or something. I mean, really, it doesn't get any
any sillier than that anyway. So this insider found out
all this information. Um, he was trying to figure out
what do I do with this information to make it
most effective. He did a couple of different things, but
then he figured out, what, you know, the only way
to really bring them to their knees as an organization
(29:34):
is to take the secrecy out of what they were doing.
And so he fed all the information that he had
amassed the producers of a radio show Superman actually, and
it was the Superman, the Superman radio show in the forties,
and he said, why don't we do a series that's
called Superman versus the Clan, and they were like, yeah,
let's let's go for it. And so he wove all
(29:55):
of those secrets, the handshakes, the passwords, so on and
so forth, the coding into the narrative. And so what
ultimately was their demise is that all of a sudden
they heard this being broadcast and they realized that they
were not a super secret organization anymore. They could not
um move in the ways that they had moved before,
(30:16):
and so that essentially sort of grounded them. But not
only that, but they saw was that their kids were
playing out the drama of what they were doing, and
some of them were pretending to be Superman vanquishing the
klu Klux Klan, and that you know, some of them
are tending to be the klu Klux Klan members with
sheets over their heads, and they were they basically are
(30:37):
making a mockery of the klu Klux Klan, which again
they were begging to be mocked right with, with all
of their myriad silly silliness there. But uh, this was
just really greatly um sort of hamstrong what they were
trying to do. And it's fascinating, it's it's it's indirect,
but it's humor that leveled the playing field. So you
(30:59):
drag something horrible out of this uh, out of the
sphere of of violation, bring it into that crossover between
violation and benign, and you can remove the terror from it.
You can remove the fear from it. Yes, because even
though yes, they did kill people absolutely um, and they
didn't do it very often, but they did it enough
(31:19):
to to make it a real threat to people. Right,
so they were a real threat. But you know what
was happening is that people were saying, really, these are
a bunch of cowards who put sheets over their heads
and they're doing horrible things. And you know, they were
sort of calling them for what they were, and that
really took the power out of the structure. It reminds
(31:41):
me like anytime I hear conversations about humor and get
into discussions of the nature of humor, I think back
to m Berto Eco's book The Name of the Rose,
which which deeply concerns humor. Um. They're like, there's the
whole plot about this missing UH book post Aristotle's the
Second Book of Poetics, and UH, it contains all this
(32:02):
stuff about humor and there's a character in the book
that's very concerned about such a book falling into the
into the hands of the general population, or at least
the general monastic population. This monastery, this medieval monastery. Because
it if someone like Aristotle were to say humor is great,
then then where it is it? In do you end up?
You know, because when you laugh at something, you take
(32:23):
away its power. And so what what if what happens
when you when you laugh at at the church? What
happens when you laugh at God? Uh? That you know,
the power of humor to change society is uh is
pretty phenomenal. Um I was, I was running across looking
for other examples of this, and uh, I found an
interesting essay. They don't have to link in the accompanying
(32:45):
blog post for this podcast, but they found that cartoons
mocking capitalism played a huge role in the rise of
socialism in the United States in the early twentieth century
because they're all these political cartoons and they were, you know,
they'd show the capitalist you know, creating all these like
fat cat capitalist, um, you know icons in the in
(33:06):
the in the political cartoons, and they were and they
were using this to to drag this topic into the
into the comedic area, and and it helped, you know,
helped the rise of socialism. Well, we talked to you
about just even sitcom's Jefferson's or a family Archie Bunker.
I mean, you know, he presented some horrible violations, right, um,
(33:29):
and yet there there was a benign factor because they
were making fun of Archie Bunker, you know, I mean
in a sense they were you know, he his he
had a sort of certain personal truth, but that truth
was sometimes silly. I mean, you know, obviously a lot
of times silly when they shown that light on him. Yeah,
and so it sort of broke some of the barriers
that you might not talk about in civilized conversation. Yeah.
(33:52):
And it also I think you do see examples too
of of what appears to be take up perceived violations
by some like things that it's some segments of the
population don't don't agree with. Like we were talking about
Modern Family, which is a current sitcom I think, and
I think it just wrapped up its second season, and
and this shows some some traditionally non traditional families. I
(34:13):
mean that I think each model is a lot more
common now, but but non traditional in the TV sense
because you have you have a gay couple that's adopted
a child, so in that you have both both a
gay couple and an adoptive family which are both under reference.
Child is Vietnamese too. Yeah, so it's multily. It's also
multi racial. Then you have like you know, then you
(34:34):
have more you have another multi racial couple where there's
also a big age difference, and and so you you
take these ideas which to some segments of the population
would be considered violations and you but you move into
a mainstream comedic area and we're suddenly we can find
humor in these situations and it and it removes the sting.
(34:57):
Right well, yeah, you you move lest from um looking
at something objectively and more to humanizing it right now. Um, now,
of course with all this so you have to you
have to keep it. There's also sort of a chicken
and egg thing with any of these topics because you you,
on one hand, you can't say, oh, well, uh, the
Jefferson's changed, you know, changed the way we think about
(35:18):
race or something like that. I mean, that would be ridiculous. Um.
There's also a lot of mirroring where the the show
is mirroring changing attitudes. So so it was so we're
not arguing that these shows are are have just tremendous,
unparalleled power, but but I do think they tie into
into the role comedy plays in social change. Yeah, and
just one quick sort of science note here too, is
(35:41):
we came across this research. It was a dot com
talk on humor and smiling specifically, and it was really interesting.
It was this study they had a control group of
people watching things that were funny and they would rate
them from like one to five what they thought was funny.
And then they had another group that had a pencil
in their mouth, holding a pen in their mouth while
they watched and rated what they found. People with a
(36:03):
pencil in their mouth, we're rating things less funny. The
reason is because of you're talking about this mirroring. Is
you know your mirror neurons. You're you're watching something and
there's a really deep connection to mirroring other people's behaviors.
So when you're watching something that's funny, you're going to
start to smile, you start get to engage those muscles.
(36:25):
When those muscles are inhibited, whether it's a pencil or
botox injections, by the way, you're less able to empathize.
So again you've got comedy is something which is you
know this this uh, this great unifier that really can
allow people to better understand different perspectives and sort of
you know. Also, do not trust a superhero who covers
(36:48):
up his mouth like Batman. You can see his mouth
so you can be able to he's going to be
able to understand people more. But Spider Man, I don't
know what's going on. You What about a joker? He's
smiling all the time. You can't tell what's going on, right,
It's it's like botox in a way. Yeah, um, but
there you go. That's that's that's a well. It makes
me think too of laughter yoga, which you're opposed to, right,
(37:10):
I'm absolutely opposed to laughter. I have practice yoga for
a number of years, but yes, laughter yoga. And my
wife also is uh. I think she's at least on
the fence about it or she doesn't like it, one
or the other. But laughter yoga is where you where
a yoga group will will we'll start laughing. And again
it's fake at first. I mean it's very fake because
there's generally not that much funny in a yoga class,
(37:32):
unless you know somebody farts, right, but but because we
can normally and I'm not going to talk about farts
in in this podcast, but you know it's a human podcast.
But anyway, um, yoga people will suddenly they'll start laughing.
They'll be like ha ha ha ha, and then everybody's laughing,
and then eventually the laughing laughter becomes real laughter because
(37:54):
it's awful. That's why there's no other choice but to laugh.
It's like, you know what I don't like about it.
It's like tickling yourself. Yeah, it's just not it's weird
and I don't like to be forced into tickling myself
or laughter. I have to tell you just for the record, Okay,
just just for the record, got you, And now you're
not gonna make me take a tickling or tickling yoga class,
(38:15):
a laughing yoga class. But just should started kick it off?
All right? Well, hey, um, I guess it's time for
listener mail hull. The first thing I'm actually going to
hit here is not really listener mail per se, but
I listener feedback. Well, well that they haven't listened to
the podcast yet, so I don't know. This is we're
(38:37):
really playing with causality all right, mysterio. But since I've
along with Holly Frey, one of our our tech editor here,
I've started contributing to the main house stuff works Twitter
and Facebook accounts, which are just how stuff works on Twitter,
how stuff works on Facebook, and I'll label those with
my name. But I was researching, we were researching for
(38:58):
this podcast yesterday, so I decided to call out to
the readers there. It's like, hey, guys, what are some
words that you words or things that you find inherently funny?
And that's so I'm gonna read a few of them. Uh, pigeonhole, bush, ugly, bald, nostril, nut, laugh, groin.
(39:18):
I would like to add the groin itches is even funnier. Cheeks,
Harry Duke, feces, chipmunk, milk, toast, male slot, pumpernickel, spoon, garbonzo.
I think carbonzo is especially funny, and that it's such
a it sounds really elegant for what it is, you know,
(39:40):
it's like just like a little I don't know, it
seems like a character, like a Tom and Jerry character
to me, Like, I don't know, hob nob Schnitzel. Schinzel
is pretty funny. There is a Chnitzel. The German food
is really big and hunts fill Alabama because of like
the NASA there and German population that moved there after
the war. And uh, and there there was actually was
(40:02):
like a former dairy queen like fast food restaurant that
had been turned into a fast food schnitzel restaurant. It's
called the Schnitzel Farm. And they're like, that's a great
combination of words right there. Uh, muck is another one
that was suggested. Banana poop, moose and moist. Is ointment
just awkward or is it funny? Ointment is funny? Okay, well, yeah,
it's a violation, right awkward? Kume quiet is also pretty funny. Yeah,
(40:24):
there's a lot of good ones there. Uh. We should
probably hear from people to about what they think is
the funniest words. Uh, yeah that they've heard. Yeah that
I would be Yeah, if I would, I would read
one more list of of of words after you know,
a couple of podcasts. Yeah, um, well, let's read one
one quick listener mail before we close it out. Here
(40:45):
an actual listener mail. Eric writes then and says, uh,
your in your intro to your Dad's podcast, we did
a Dad's of The Animal Kingdom episode for Claud's Day. Um,
you made me think of this joke. I hope you
like it. So this is very timely beca this joke. Right.
A dog walks into a bar in Texas with a
heavy bandage on his foot. The bartender, played by Randy Jackson, says, yo, dog,
(41:07):
what's up? The dog replies, I'm looking for the man
who shot my paw. Ah, Eric, I hope you liked it.
If not us, If not, say so, I'll send you
no more jokes. No, no, send them them. But I can't.
I mean, yes, that made me kind of, that made
me GoF, But still I love it. Yeah, there's nothing
(41:29):
like a that's a weird thing. It's like the jokes
that I generally don't get to hear, actual joke jokes
unless they're really bad jokes. Like those are the Those
are the jokes actually want to hear. They're really cringe
worthy bad jokes. Yeah, yeah, it's good stuff. I have
to say I have a soft spot my heart for
John Riggles because awful if he is he really is. Yeah,
but anyway, that's he's a really nice man in life.
(41:52):
He's not, he's not he's not my dad. Long story,
but my dad had dinner with him and he said
it was it's like, you know, getting grilled, and yeah,
I roasted. I love the bid where he talks about
the night Frank Sinatra saved his life. Oh, I've not
heard that. Well, he was. He was doing the stand
up bit and this was played back in the day,
you know, the rat pack days though, and U and
(42:13):
he sees Frank is sitting there with his cronies, you know,
on the front front row. So Don rickles as an
insult comedian, so he cares into Frank a little bit
and uh, and he says, and you know, he's like,
you know, I guess he'll have he'll be a good sport,
don't know, tear into about bit. So he makes fun
and Frank a little bit. But after the show, Frank
Sinatra ends up saving his life because some he goes
(42:34):
out into the alley and these guys start just beating
the crap out of him, and Frank Sinatra comes out
and he's like, that's enough, boys, he's had enough, or
that's good boys, he's had enough. Yeah, okay, So I'm
not gonna say mafia or anything or planned to have
him beat up an alley or anything like that and
then save life. But I'm sorry, Frank Sinatra. You know
(42:54):
he had a couple of boys go out there. Yeah.
Well yeah, that's that's why it's funny, because he clearly
he had somebody beat up down racles. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway,
if you have any thoughts on humor, um what you
find funny and and certainly just trying to figure out
how humor works? Uh, do let us know. You can
find us on Facebook and Twitter as blow the Mind.
(43:18):
We're on there all the time. Yeah. And do you
agree with this benign violation theory? Do you think that
it is the grand unified theory of humor? Let us
know at below the Mind at how stuff works dot com.
Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we
(43:38):
explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow.
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