Funny or Die

already took later hosing. I think later hos is a good one. Cheese cheese is very funny. Um, you said monkey, Um, 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

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. 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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,

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.

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 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 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. 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 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 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, 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 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 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

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 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,

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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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

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 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 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, 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, 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 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 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 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

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, 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 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. 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 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. 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 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, 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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

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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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

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 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

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 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.

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 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, 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,

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 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 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 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 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 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 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,

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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. 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 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 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. 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 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 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 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. 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 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, 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, 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

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, 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

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 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. 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, 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 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,

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 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, 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 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. 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 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 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

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. 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 explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow.