Ha!
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On humor loss in right-hemisphere-damaged patients, see Hiram Brownell, Dee Michel, John Powelson, and Howard Gardner, “Surprise But Not Coherence: Sensitivity to Verbal Humor in Right-Hemisphere Patients,” Brain and Language 18 (1983): 20–27.
On general personality differences between the hemispheres, see Fredric Schiffer, Eran Zaidel, Joseph Bogen, and Scott Chasan-Taber, “Different Psychological Status in the Two Hemispheres of Two Split-Brain Patients,” Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychology, and Behavioral Neurology 11, no. 3 (1998): 151–156; also the talk presented by Vilayanur Ramachandran to the 2006 Beyond Belief Conference at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, available freely on YouTube.
On right-hemisphere importance for insight and poetry, see Edward Bowden, Mark Jung-Beeman, Jessica Fleck, and John Kounios, “New Approaches to Demystifying Insight,” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 9, no. 7 (2005): 322–328; also Edward Bowden and Mark Jung-Beeman, “Aha! Insight Experience Correlates with Solution Activation in the Right Hemisphere,” Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 10, no. 3 (2003): 730–737; also Edward Bowden and Mark Jung–Beeman, “Getting the Right Idea: Semantic Activation in the Right Hemisphere May Help Solve Insight Problems,” Psychological Science 9, no. 6 (1988): 435–440; also M. Faust and N. Mashal, “The Role of the Right Cerebral Hemisphere in Processing Novel Metaphoric Expressions Taken from Poetry: A Divided Visual Field Study,” Neuro–psychologia 45 (2007): 860–870.
Funny Relationships
On humor and mate selection, see Jane Smith, Ann Waldorf, and David Trembath, “Single, White Male Looking for Thin, Very Attractive . . . ,” Sex Roles 23, no. 11 (1990): 675–685; also Hal Daniel, Kevin O’Brien, Robert McCabe, and Valerie Quinter, “Values in Mate Selection: A 1984 Campus Study,” College Student Journal 15 (1986): 44–50; also Bojan Todosijević, Snežana Ljubinković, and Aleksandra Arančić, “Mate Selection Criteria: A Trait Desirability Assessment Study of Sex Differences in Serbia,” Evolutionary Psychology 1 (2003): 116–126; also Lester Hewitt, “Student Perceptions of Traits Desired in Themselves as Dating and Marriage Partners,” Marriage and Family Living 20, no. 4 (1958): 344–349; also Richard Lippa, “The Preferred Traits of Mates in a Cross–National Study of Heterosexual and Homosexual Men and Women: An Examination of Biological and Cultural Influences,” Archives of Sexual Behavior 36 (2007): 193–208.
On gender differences in humor production and appreciation, see Eric Bressler, Rod Martin, and Sigal Balshine, “Production and Appreciation of Humor as Sexually Selected Traits,” Evolution and Human Behavior 27 (2006): 121–130.
On the role of humor in successful relationships, see William Hampes, “The Relationship Between Humor and Trust,” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 12, no. 3 (1999): 253–259; also William Hampes, “Relation Between Intimacy and Humor,” Psychological Reports 71 (1992): 127–130; also Robert Lauer, Jeanette Lauer, and Sarah Kerr, “The Long-Term Marriage: Perceptions of Stability and Satisfaction,” International Journal of Aging and Human Development 31, no. 3 (1990): 189–195; also John Rust and Jeffrey Goldstein, “Humor in Marital Adjustment,” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 2, no. 3 (1989): 217–223; also Avner Ziv, “Humor’s Role in Married Life,” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 1, no. 3 (1988): 223–229.
CHAPTER 8: OH, THE PLACES YOU’LL GO
On the “Malice in Dallas,” see Kevin Freiberg and Jackie Freiberg, Nuts! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success (Austin, TX: Bard Press, 1996). Actual footage of the match can also be found online.
Oh, the Places You’ll Go
On humor in the business world, see John Morreall, “Applications of Humor: Health, the Workplace, and Education,” in The Primer of Humor Research, ed. Victor Raskin (New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2009).
On humor and organization of public speeches, see John Jones, “The Masking Effects of Humor on Audience Perception and Message Organization,” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 18, no. 4 (2005): 405–417.
On humor at West Point, see Robert Priest and Jordan Swain, “Humor and Its Implications for Leadership Effectiveness,” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 15, no. 2 (2002): 169–189.
On humor in the classroom, see Robert Kaplan and Gregory Pascoe, “Humorous Lectures and Humorous Examples: Some Effects upon Comprehension and Retention,” Journal of Educational Psychology 69, no. 1 (1977): 61–65; also Avner Ziv, “Teaching and Learning with Humor: Experiment and Replication,” Journal of Experimental Education 57, no. 1 (1988): 5–15.
On humor in politics, Congress, and the Supreme Court, see Alan Partington, “Double-Speak at the White House: A Corpus-Assisted Study of Bisociation in Conversational Laughter-Talk,” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 24, no. 4 (2011): 371–398;
also Dean Yarwood, “When Congress Makes a Joke: Congressional Humor as Serious and Purposeful Communication,” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 14, no. 4 (2001): 359–394; also Pamela Hobbs, “Lawyers’ Use of Humor as Persuasion,” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 20, no. 2 (2007): 123–156.
On humor and political humility, see Amy Bippus, “Factors Predicting the Perceived Effectiveness of Politicians’ Use of Humor During a Debate,” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 20, no. 2 (2007): 105–121.
On humor in the workplace, see Barbara Plester and Mark Orams, “Send in the Clowns: The Role of the Joker in Three New Zealand IT Companies,” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 21, no. 3 (2008): 253–281; also Owen Lynch, “Cooking with Humor: In-Group Humor as Social Organization,” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 23, no. 2 (2010): 127–159; also Reva Brown and Dermott Keegan, “Humor in the Hotel Kitchen,” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 12, no. 1 (1999): 47–70; also Leide Porcu, “Fishy Business: Humor in a Sardinian Fish Market,” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 18, no. 1 (2005): 69–102; also Janet Bing and Dana Heller, “How Many Lesbians Does It Take to Screw in a Light Bulb?” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 16, no. 2 (2003): 157–182; also Catherine Davies, “Joking as Boundary Negotiation Among Good Old Boys: White Trash as a Social Category at the Bottom of the Southern Working Class in Alabama,” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 23, no. 2 (2010): 179–200.
Greater Implications
On humor and intelligence, see Ann Masten, “Humor and Competence in School-Aged Children,” Child Development 57 (1986): 461–473.
On humor and insight, see Alice Isen, Kimberly Daubman, and Gary Nowicki, “Positive Affect Facilitates Creative Problem Solving,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 52, no. 6 (1987): 1122–1131; also Heather Belanger, Lee Kirkpatrick, and Peter Derks, “The Effects of Humor on Verbal and Imaginal Problem Solving,” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 11, no. 1 (1998): 21–31.
On humor and creativity, see Avner Ziv, “Facilitating Effects of Humor on Creativity,” Journal of Educational Psychology 68, no. 3 (1976): 318–322.
The finding that watching Robin Williams improves problem-solving ability is from an unpublished paper by Mark Jung-Beeman. For details about the experiment itself, see his December 6, 2010, interview with the New York Times, titled “Tracing the Spark of Creative Problem Solving.”
Becoming Funny
On heritable traits in general, see Matt McGue and Thomas Bouchard, “Genetic and Environmental Influences on Human Behavioral Differences,” Annual Review of Neuroscience 21 (1998): 1–24. On the heritability of humor specifically, see Beth Manke, “Genetic and Environmental Contributions to Children’s Interpersonal Humor,” in Sense of Humor: Explorations of a Personality Characteristic, ed. Willibald Ruch (New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1998).
On the comic personality, see Seymour Fisher and Rhoda Fisher, Pretend the World Is Funny and Forever: A Psychological Analysis of Comedians, Clowns, and Actors (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1981).
On the assoc
iation between humor comprehension and production, see Aaron Kozbelt and Kana Nishioka, “Humor Comprehension, Humor Production, and Insight: An Exploratory Study,” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 23, no. 3 (2010): 375–401.
On humor training, see Ofra Nevo, Haim Aharonson, and Avigdor Klingman, “The Development and Evaluation of a Systematic Program for Improving Sense of Humor,” in The Sense of Humor: Explorations of a Personality Characteristic, ed. Willibald Ruch (New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1998).
CONCLUSION
If you really want to read about humor and intoxication, see James Weaver, Jonathan Masland, Shahin Kharazmi, and Dolf Zillmann, “Effect of Alcoholic Intoxication on the Appreciation of Different Types of Humor,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 49, no. 3 (1985): 781–787. On the Russian duo Foma and Yerema, see Alexander Kozintsev, “Foma and Yerema; Max and Moritz; Beavis and Butt-Head: Images of Twin Clowns in Three Cultures,” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 15, no. 4 (2002): 419–439.
On the concept of flow, see Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: Harper and Row, 1990).
INDEX
3WD Humor Test, 21
9/11, 5, 12, 51–54, 56, 60
A
Abrahams, Roger, 74
Absurd humor. See Humor types
Affect
emotion (general), 17–18, 25, 37–38, 49–50, 54, 68–70, 95, 99, 124, 135, 164, 168–169
emotional complexity, 13–14, 57, 59, 61–64, 72–73, 145–146
horror movies and, 61–63, 64, 144
joy, 16, 17, 40, 47, 55, 62–63, 84, 139
mood, 30, 34, 85–86, 87, 135, 139, 140, 144–145, 146–149, 163–164, 179, 185
pleasure, 18–19, 29–31, 36–38, 47, 81, 84, 96, 136, 139, 178, 184, 197
A.K. (epileptic patient), 82–83
Albee, Edward, 81
Allen, Woody, 188
Andrade, Eduardo, 61–63
Aristotle, xiii, 35, 100
Arnheim, Rudolf, 38
Atkinson, Rowan, 19
Attardo, Salvatore, 43–44, 155–156
B
Ball, Lucille, 188
Beecher, Henry Ward, 81
Benchley, Richard, 3
Berger, Asa, 16
Berle, Milton, 188
Big Lebowski, The (movie), 162
Boden, Margaret, 110–111, 119, 120, 124, 130
Brain regions
amygdala, 17, 19, 33, 49–50
anterior cingulate, 30, 32–34, 39, 47, 48, 49–50, 68–69
Broca’s area, 96
computer comparisons and, 82, 106, 109, 113–118, 124–128
corpus callosum, 32–33, 165, 166
dopamine reward circuit, 17–20, 31, 33, 39, 96, 128, 139
electroencephalogram (EEG), 45–47, 115–116, 165–166
frontal cortex (general), 19, 33, 82, 95–96, 167–168
fronto-insula, 69
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), 17, 18, 28, 29, 39, 49, 95
mirror neurons, 68
N400, 46–47, 115–116
nucleus accumbens, 17, 33
organization of, 16–19, 32–33, 39, 49–50, 95–96, 121, 155–156, 165–166, 169–170, 197
P300, 46–47, 115
right hemisphere processing, 165–170
spindle cells, 68–70
split-brain syndrome, 165–166, 169–170
striatum (ventral), 19
supplementary motor cortex, 82–83
tegmental area (ventral), 17, 33
Bressler, Eric, 172
Briedbart, Shaun, 94
Brooks, Mel, 9
Bruce, Lenny, 121, 125, 187
Brun, Yuriy, 112
Burgdorf, Jeffrey, 20
C
Cann, Arnie, 147–149
Carlin, George, 125, 127, 196
Chinese room thought experiment, 128
Cleese, John, 179
Cloze probability, 114–116
Colbert, Steven, 39, 40
Colby, Frank Moore, 175
Colleges and universities
Aberdeen University, 110
California Institute of Technology, 39
Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, 86
Grand Valley State University, 59
Harvard University, 158, 166
Florida International University, 143
Hebrew School of Jerusalem, 71
Indiana University, 36
McGill University, 18
Northwestern University, 20, 27, 30
San Diego State University, 180
Stanford University, 17, 37, 45, 95
State University of New York at Syracuse, 188
Tel Aviv University, 181
Texas A&M University, 43, 118
United States Military Academy, 180
University College of London, 48
University of California at Berkeley, 62
University of California at Los Angeles, 41, 82
University of California at Riverside, 141
University of California at San Diego, 116
University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, 22
University of Louisville, xvii
University of Maryland, 93, 138, 186
University of North Carolina, 147
University of North Texas, 113
University of Sussex, 110, 123
University of Toronto, 50
University of Washington, 112
University of Wuerzburg, Germany, 29
West Carolina University, 98
Westfield State College Massachusetts, 172
Comedic timing, 154–158
Communication. See Social interaction and humor
Computers
Automatic Mathematician, 126–127
brain comparisons with (see Brain Regions)
consciousness and, 127–128, 130
creativity and, 108–109, 119, 121–124
Deep Blue, 108–109, 117
DEviaNT, 112–113
evolutionary algorithms, 126
Gaiku, 122–123, 124, 127
Hahacronym, 111
Joking Computer, the, 110, 111, 119
Joke Analysis Production Machine (JAPE), 111
Watson, 106–108, 109, 111, 114, 117, 126, 130
Constructing (first stage of humor processing), 31–36, 40, 48, 116
Cook, Dane, 187
Cooperative principle, 158–159
Cosby, Bill, 134, 140, 142, 144, 196
Coulson, Seana, 116
Cousins, Norman, 133, 134–136, 137, 140, 144, 148–149
Creativity
combinatorial, 110–111, 119
exploratory, 119–120
subjective assessment of, 119, 123–124, 125, 126
transformational, 120–124, 127
Csikszentmihali, Mihaly, 196
D
Dangerfield, Rodney, 146
Dark humor. See Humor types
Davies, Catherine Evans, 183
Davies, Christie, 57, 59, 64, 74
Derks, Peter, 45–47, 85
Developmental changes and humor, 100–103
Dijkstra, Edsger, 105
Dr. Strangelove (movie), 9
Dundes, Alan, 74
Dyak Tribes of Borneo, 76–77
E
Education and humor
classroom improvements, 179–181
training (i.e., learning to be funny), 187–192
Emotion. See Affect
Evolution
computer algorithms (see Computers: evolutionary algorithms)
gender differences and, 171–173
general, 19–20, 32, 48, 50, 149, 184, 197
specialists and generalists, 84–85, 100
Exercise metaphor of humor, 91, 136–137, 145–146, 147, 148–149, 150, 173, 180–181, 183, 186–187
Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, 87–88, 90
F
Faces of Death (movie),
147–149
Feynman, Richard, 27, 29
Firth, Collin, 48–49
Fisher, Rhoda and Seymour, 188–189
Flow, 196
Ford, Thomas, 98–99
Forrester, Brent, 25
Friedman, Howard, 141–142
Friends (television show), 146
Freud, Sigmund, 15, 16, 23, 61, 92, 180
G
Gallows humor. See Humor types
Gardner, Howard, 166–168
Gender
humor differences and, 24, 92–99
partner seeking and humor, 171–173
General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH), 43, 155
Genetic influences on humor, 188
Gleason, Jackie, 188
Gopnik, Alison, 29
Gottfried, Gilbert, 5–6, 8, 11–12, 13, 20, 52, 54
Grice, Paul, 158–159, 160
Grice’s Maxims. See Cooperative Principle
H
Haggard, Bill, 179–180
Hefner, Hugh, 5, 6, 52
Heinlein, Robert, 100, 101
Herwald, Kurt, 176–178
Herzog, Thomas, 59
Hobbes, Thomas, 55
Hoffding, Harald, 63
Hope, Bob, 188
Hotel de Matignon, 38–39, 40
House of God (book), 66
Humor and Duration Principle, 25
Humor Styles Questionnaire, 146–147
Humorous Behavior Q-Sort Deck, 21
Humor, stages of. See Constructing, Reckoning, or Resolving
Humor styles (positive and negative), 146–147
Humor, types of
absurd / nonsense, 21, 23–24, 45, 91, 102–103, 163
dark, 6, 8, 11–12, 13, 16, 55–61, 64–67, 77, 125, 147, 153
general, 16, 146–147
incongruity, 21, 35–36, 44–45, 47, 57, 59, 85–86, 102–103, 115, 118, 189
insult, 23, 57, 70–77, 152–154, 183
irony / sarcasm, 9, 16, 101, 106, 146, 159–160, 168–169
Jewish, 183
lesbian, 183
political (see Politics and humor)
redneck, 183
sexist, 97–99