Peter McGraw
A professor walks into a MOOC…
(This post appears on the Humor Code’s Huffington Post and Psychology Today blogs.) Massive open online courses, or MOOCs, are garnering lots of attention these days. Some see large-scale, web-based classes as the new frontier for colleges and universities, a great leap forward that could revolutionize higher education. Duke University professor of psychology and behavioral… Keep Reading »
Guest post by Caleb Warren: The Big Three Theories of Humor
(A version of this post originally appeared on Pete’s blog.) Some pretty bright folks have asked the question, what makes things funny? Despite efforts from the likes of Aristotle, Kant, and Freud, there’s been little agreement on the answer. There are hundreds if not thousands of different humor theories, many of which fall into one… Keep Reading »
Comedy as a Conspiracy
(A version of this blog was originally published on Pete’s blog.) Pete saw that Matt Kirshen (@mattkirshen) was performing at Denver’s Comedy Works and cornered him in the alley. Pete asked him: Is good comedy a conspiracy? Matt’s observation is reminiscent of the “minimal groups paradigm” in the psychology literature. Basically, you can take a… Keep Reading »
Who likes a good dead baby joke?
(A version of this post originally appeared on Pete’s blog.) Nick Justicz wrote a guest blog post for Pete a few months ago (see Humor and The Pianist). He did such a good job, Pete invited him to do another. Tell us what you think. Should the invitations continue? ———————————————————————– “That’s like, almost not cool”… Keep Reading »
The Laughter Business
(Posted previously on Wired) CHICAGO — The 2012 Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor Conference is probably the only convention where it seems appropriate for a sock puppet to deliver the opening remarks. And not just any sock puppet — a sock puppet stand-in for Patty Wootan, the organization’s outgoing president, who couldn’t make it… Keep Reading »
