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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the all new Toyota Corolla. Ladies

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Speaker 1: and gentlemen looking to stuff you should know. Hey, and

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Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me is

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Speaker 1: always this, Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and with us as

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Speaker 1: not always is all of you guys here at l

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Speaker 1: a podcast, but it's a little unusual. I've only done

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Speaker 1: this a couple of times before. Yeah, little south by Southwest, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: comic con and now podcast. That's right, um, and we've

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Speaker 1: got a pretty good crew here, good group, I can

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Speaker 1: tell just by the looks of you guys. Um, and uh,

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Speaker 1: we've got a very special treat for all of you

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Speaker 1: listeners at home. We're all very excited about it. I

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Speaker 1: think I'm the most excited about it, but a right,

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Speaker 1: you're definitely the most excited about it. Uh. And today

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Speaker 1: we're talking about, um, Chuck, as you were saying, we're

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Speaker 1: talking about we're gonna answer a question, is there a

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Speaker 1: scientific formula for funny? And I guess we can kind

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Speaker 1: of spoil it now by saying yes and not really right,

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Speaker 1: And that was it. That's all. That's the podcast. UM.

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Speaker 1: I do have an intro if you're interested in hearing it. Um,

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Speaker 1: remember our ghosts episode? Yeah, that was pretty bad, so

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Speaker 1: we I liked it. We got a lot of We

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Speaker 1: got a lot of crud from skeptics surprised they didn't

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Speaker 1: like our ghost episode. Um. But there was a guy,

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Speaker 1: a researcher named Richard Wiseman from Hertfordshire University in the UK.

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Speaker 1: Go Figgy Puddings, Um, and they Richard, why do you

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Speaker 1: remember who I'm talking about? I remember the guy. We

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Speaker 1: interpreted his his research and the ghosts, which is basically

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Speaker 1: used to debunk ghosts. We took what he found as

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Speaker 1: evidence there there may be such things as ghosts, and

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Speaker 1: the skeptics didn't like that at all. But he's done

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Speaker 1: some other stuff too, So he makes an appearance in

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Speaker 1: this podcast as of right now because before he was

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Speaker 1: doing ghost stuff, he was doing humor research. I am

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Speaker 1: back in two thousands two. He set up a website

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Speaker 1: called laugh Lab and he wanted to find the world's

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Speaker 1: funniest joke. Really yeah, not to be confused with the

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Speaker 1: funniest joke in the world, the Monty Python thing. This

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Speaker 1: is different. Um. And there were forty thousand submissions I

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Speaker 1: think one point four million hits and this is prior

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Speaker 1: to social media, so these are pretty respectable numbers if

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Speaker 1: you think about it. And they found the world's funniest joke.

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Speaker 1: I generally don't know this, so I'm on pins and needles.

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Speaker 1: Do you want to hear? Okay? So this guy is

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Speaker 1: out hunting with a friend of his in the woods

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Speaker 1: and the friend suddenly just drops over falls to the ground,

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Speaker 1: and the hunter picks up his cell phone and he

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Speaker 1: calls nine on one and he's is, hey, I think

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Speaker 1: my friend just died. We're out here in the woods hunting.

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Speaker 1: What should I do? And the nine and one operator says, well,

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Speaker 1: first let's make sure he's dead, and so the hunter

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Speaker 1: shoots his friend and he goes, okay, Now what that's

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Speaker 1: the world's funniest joke. It's not okay, but the so

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Speaker 1: ahead of mixed reaction and what we're talking about now

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Speaker 1: is the world's funniest joke. And it got a couple

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Speaker 1: of laughs here, right. Yeah. I think what that proves

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Speaker 1: and the point of this long rambling intro is that, um,

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Speaker 1: we pretty much can't predict what's funny, what people are

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Speaker 1: gonna find funny, and uh, let's talk about exactly why

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Speaker 1: that is chuckers. Yes, well it's subjective, but we'll get

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Speaker 1: to that later. Right, Well, we can just throw our

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Speaker 1: opinions out then and be right. Well they've been. Even

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Speaker 1: though there is no formula as of yet, it doesn't

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Speaker 1: mean people haven't tried to find out. Dating all the

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Speaker 1: way back to the first masters of comedy, Aristotle and Plato,

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Speaker 1: two very funny guys, they talked a lot about it, actually,

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Speaker 1: surprisingly and um, they basically try to look at what

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Speaker 1: compels people to laugh. And Aristotle, I think he thought

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Speaker 1: that we're the we were the only creatures to laugh.

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Speaker 1: Is that right? Yeah, that was just a human phenomenon,

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Speaker 1: which is wrong. It's right because it turns out, and

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Speaker 1: this is the cutest part of the show too. Um,

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Speaker 1: chimpanzees and ring tangs and apes not only laugh when

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Speaker 1: you tickle them, but if you go to a baby chimp,

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Speaker 1: you don't even have to make contact. You can just

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Speaker 1: do the little here I come with the fingers and

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Speaker 1: the baby chimp will laugh. Apparently, And uh, I did

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Speaker 1: look up chimpanzee laughter and it's not um like humans

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Speaker 1: make the hehes and the ho hoes. There's more of

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Speaker 1: a gasping sound apparently, rats do the same thing when

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Speaker 1: you tickle that. No, we talked about this and the

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Speaker 1: What's So Funny episode? We remember rat tickling with there's

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Speaker 1: videos of it out there. They get like a little

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Speaker 1: high pitched thing. It's the cutest thing you've ever seen,

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Speaker 1: like somebody tickling a rat and the rats is like,

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Speaker 1: it's it's very cute. But so yes, at the very least,

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Speaker 1: laughter or taking tickling is funny. Is it goes across species? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And we did cover some of this in the show

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Speaker 1: on did we call it What's So Funny? I think

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Speaker 1: so okay um, But laughter is UH is definitely a

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Speaker 1: human thing, aside from the primates and the rats, I think,

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Speaker 1: and it consists of variations of one single basic form.

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Speaker 1: It's vowel like sounds repeated every two and ten milliseconds,

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Speaker 1: and human skin either he he like you just did,

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Speaker 1: or a variation of a ho ho, but you don't

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Speaker 1: mix them. Apparently there's never been someone that laughs he

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Speaker 1: ho he ho, because that would be up if that's

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Speaker 1: how you laugh and your your facial muscles get going.

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Speaker 1: There's fifteen facial muscles that contract and strain UH. The

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Speaker 1: zygomatic major muscle, which is your upper lip is is triggered. Um,

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Speaker 1: if it's really good, you might get the tear ducks going.

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Speaker 1: Gonna know, we've all been there, and you're gonna be

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Speaker 1: gasping and your respiratory system is struggling basically to breathe

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Speaker 1: at that point, chimp like a baby chip. Uh. So

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Speaker 1: that's basically what laughter is babies human babies. Human babies

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Speaker 1: start at about three or four months if they have

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Speaker 1: a sense of humor, I guess, and uh, some reachers

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Speaker 1: researchers have found that, um, we are thirty times more

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Speaker 1: likely to laugh in the company of others, uh than

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Speaker 1: when you're alone. So it's definitely a social thing. And

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Speaker 1: that is if because I read that first, that and

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Speaker 1: I was like, clearly they've never watched Portlandia or Eastbounding

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Speaker 1: down alone on the couch at midnight. But I mean

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Speaker 1: that's a good point because when you're watching it by yourself, like,

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Speaker 1: you may laugh, but you're not necessarily laughing your off.

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Speaker 1: I guess there's another way to put it. Yet, well

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Speaker 1: I do, oh you do, of course. But that stat

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Speaker 1: though was Um, that was the caveat is that's not

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Speaker 1: including TV or any kind of external stimulation, Like if

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Speaker 1: you're just alone and you like think a funny thought

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Speaker 1: or see a funny thing, you're way less likely to

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Speaker 1: laugh if you're by yourself. Okay, all right, but whether

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Speaker 1: you are in China or Santa Monica, wherever you are,

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Speaker 1: laughter is gonna sound very similar like you were saying,

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Speaker 1: and um, there is going to be such thing as humor.

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Speaker 1: It's not necessarily going to be the same thing in

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Speaker 1: China as it is in Santa Monica that gets laughs,

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Speaker 1: like it would just be dead silent right now if

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Speaker 1: we were in Beijing. Sounded like for a second. But

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Speaker 1: so the point is as humor as universal, but it's

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Speaker 1: constrained by all these different contexts like um uh, well,

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Speaker 1: like where you are and not just space but also time.

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Speaker 1: Like what guys like Ben Franklin thought was funny, it

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Speaker 1: just kind of falls flat today, Like turkey jokes, apple

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Speaker 1: apple brandy jokes. That's a turkey joke. He had a couple.

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Speaker 1: They weren't that good. They're not, they're not. They don't

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Speaker 1: bear eating here. But that all that put together, gender differences,

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Speaker 1: economic differences, all of these things kind of separate like

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Speaker 1: what's funny from what's not funny depending on who you are. Um,

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Speaker 1: but from Aristotle to Plato was one, wasn't he hum

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Speaker 1: all the way up to Schopenhauer. Another hilarious dude, Kyrka Guard,

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Speaker 1: who by the way, has a great Twitter feed. Um,

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Speaker 1: Kyrka Kardashian, it's um, are you guys familiar with it?

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Speaker 1: It's awesome. It's uh Kirka Guards philosophical musings and he

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Speaker 1: was pretty dark. UM mashed together with Kim Kardashian's contemporary tweets.

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Speaker 1: Let's just go check it out. It's like you'll you

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Speaker 1: will definitely follow it. Not her old tweets, now her contemporary. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: like for I'll give you one. Okay, that's how one

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Speaker 1: today It's it's worth saying. Um. She said, Hey, I

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Speaker 1: can't wait until you guys, um smell my new fragrance

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Speaker 1: coming out this spring. It reeks of the misery of

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Speaker 1: modern life. That was just an average one too. We

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Speaker 1: got we got more than a he heat out of

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Speaker 1: this guy. It's good right Uh for me, I'm I've

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Speaker 1: actually blogged about it the other day. Um, short jokes

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Speaker 1: to me are the best brevity is the soul of

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Speaker 1: wit or as they said on the Simpsons brevity is

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Speaker 1: with of course they had to one up it. And

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Speaker 1: my hero and many writers heroes, is the Great Jack Handy,

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Speaker 1: who is a real person. By the way, I don't

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Speaker 1: mean a lot of people think that Deep Thoughts by

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Speaker 1: Jack Andy was just some you know, made up name,

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Speaker 1: Like there's no one named Jack Handy. It's written by,

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Speaker 1: you know, just one of the SNL writers. He was

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Speaker 1: an lent writer and his name is Jack Handy, and

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Speaker 1: he has been sort of obsessed with creating the perfect

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Speaker 1: short joke over his career. He's the closest he thinks

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Speaker 1: he's ever come. And it's pretty good, I think, is uh.

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Speaker 1: The crows seemed to be calling his name. Thought to

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Speaker 1: call not bad. That's Jack Handy thinks that's the best

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Speaker 1: short joke he's ever written. Jack knows what he's talking,

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Speaker 1: so good and uh. It was in a McSweeney's article

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Speaker 1: that I first read about this from the New York Times. Um,

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Speaker 1: they were talking about the New York Times that that

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Speaker 1: writer thought the best one was. And this is pretty

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Speaker 1: good too. I came here in peace, seeking gold and slaves.

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Speaker 1: So for me, the Great Jack Handy is trying to

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Speaker 1: get a laugh out of the fewest amount of words. Um.

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Speaker 1: I came here in peking Golden slaves, five syllable set up,

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Speaker 1: five syllable punchline, beautiful, clean, the master for me? What's

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Speaker 1: funny is this? Actually? In my research I ran across um,

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Speaker 1: a real formula for funny. Um. That was the yes

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Speaker 1: part of the answer. Um alcohol plus joke greater than okay.

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Speaker 1: So it's X equals F times L plus end times oh,

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Speaker 1: divided by P And in those values in there, well,

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Speaker 1: p p actually penalizes you because that's the number of

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Speaker 1: puns that's in the jokes. So you get all these

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Speaker 1: all these points and then it divided by the number

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Speaker 1: of puns you used. So um. But one of the

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Speaker 1: one of the formulas that that builds up the funniness

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Speaker 1: of a joke is how long it takes for the

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Speaker 1: punch line to build and then finally pay off. So

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Speaker 1: it's like pretty much the opposite of it. So even

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Speaker 1: Jack Handy and whoever came up with this formula can't

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Speaker 1: agree on how to make something funnier. To figure out

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Speaker 1: what's the funniest. Yeah, Well, if it was easy, everyone

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Speaker 1: would be doing it, clearly, And we've seen a lot

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Speaker 1: of I know you go to see a lot of

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Speaker 1: stand up comics a lot, and yeah, you're really into it.

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Speaker 1: And through our job, we've gotten to see a lot

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Speaker 1: and it's really fascinating, especially when you meet some of them,

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Speaker 1: to see them working this stuff out, especially if you

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Speaker 1: see them more than once doing kind of the same

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Speaker 1: material and the subtle changes. I just I think it's

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Speaker 1: really fascinating. And I've been writing a stand aback for

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Speaker 1: like ten years. How's it going. It's going pretty good.

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Speaker 1: Care to do so? No, not at all. It's got

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Speaker 1: a mike, you have an audience. No, no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: I don't like. I wouldn't have be I would have

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Speaker 1: not even brought it up. There was a writer I know.

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Speaker 1: Uh that was a writer named Debrah Solomon for New

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Speaker 1: York Times magazine though that asked Chris Rock and I'm

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Speaker 1: not gonna do my Chris Rock, don't worry, um what's funny?

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Speaker 1: And his reply was, and it kind of says it

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Speaker 1: all is, you want to know what's funny? Is thinking

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Speaker 1: about it? What's not funny? Oh yeah, chuck blew that joke.

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Speaker 1: It's not a joke. Yeah, you want to know it's

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Speaker 1: not funny. It's thinking about it, thank you for that,

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Speaker 1: or talking about it, which is what we're doing. So

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Speaker 1: stop laughing because this is not funny. Apparently that's right,

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Speaker 1: all right, So, um, we are not the only people

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Speaker 1: who have ever said, you know, is can you figure

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Speaker 1: out what's funny? Scientifically? There's actually a whole study. It's

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Speaker 1: called humor studies, and strangely enough, it's not taken very

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Speaker 1: seriously among psychologists. Um, although there's you know, an equal

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Speaker 1: dedicated amount of work applied to it using the scientific method.

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Speaker 1: You have the International Society for Humor Studies. They've been

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Speaker 1: around since the eighties. They're trying to like keep the

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Speaker 1: flame going. And apparently, um, ever since we started putting

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Speaker 1: people into the Wonder Machine and asking them questions or um,

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Speaker 1: telling them jokes, we've gotten like a lot more scientific

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Speaker 1: basis of what's funny. We'll get into that in a

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Speaker 1: little bit. Yeah, that's the f m R I or

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Speaker 1: the m R I machine. You don't want to know that.

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Speaker 1: That's our little name for though. Um. But prior to this,

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Speaker 1: prior to the Wonder Machine being rolled out, like people

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Speaker 1: have just kind of it's basically been up to philosophers

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Speaker 1: to figure out what's funny, and they've come up with

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Speaker 1: some pretty good theories. And there's a big three. There's

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Speaker 1: I think as many I saw as many as a

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Speaker 1: hundred theories of humor, but then it's been whittled down

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Speaker 1: to a big three, like pretty much arbitrarily. Or else

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Speaker 1: people are like, maybe these three are the right ones.

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Speaker 1: Who knows, but I think he's kind of hit on it.

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Speaker 1: Um Number one is the superiority theory um Plato, Aristotle, Hobbs.

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Speaker 1: They all sort of focus on this dark side of

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Speaker 1: comedy and we've all been there. Um, Laughing at someone

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Speaker 1: else's expense sometimes can be quite a good time. It's

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Speaker 1: pretty much like, Um, this theory would be supported by

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Speaker 1: Dwight shrewked like watching him. Yeah, you know, were listening

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Speaker 1: to him for sure. And I might have told this

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Speaker 1: on another show. But one of the funniest things I

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Speaker 1: ever saw Bless You, Bless You, was in college in Athens, Georgia.

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Speaker 1: I saw a guy face plant really really bad on

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Speaker 1: campus one day. You're already laughing, did you laugh? Well?

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Speaker 1: I laughed at this. The dude fell busted face forward,

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Speaker 1: books went spilling out on the sidewalk, and I swear

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Speaker 1: to God. Immediately the guy went like this and opened

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Speaker 1: up a book on the sidewalk like he was reading.

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Speaker 1: And I was driving and I saw this happen, and

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Speaker 1: I wanted to pull the car over and say, dude,

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Speaker 1: you are the funniest person I've ever seen in my life,

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Speaker 1: because it was just his instinct to play it off

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Speaker 1: like that. And that was man. That was like seventeen

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Speaker 1: years ago, and it's stuck with me this day. I

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Speaker 1: don't know who that guy was, but I want to

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Speaker 1: meet him still, if you're out there, way to go, man, Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: but it was I don't know if I would have

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Speaker 1: laughed at his expense had he not done that, because

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Speaker 1: when although the America's funny some video effect, i'll call it, yeah,

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Speaker 1: kicked in the nuts juggernaut, that is very much the

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Speaker 1: superiority theory in action. It is, or it is pretty

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Speaker 1: much the converse theory that says the same thing but

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Speaker 1: has a kind of a different take of It's called

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Speaker 1: inferiority theory. It's like the person whoever came up with

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Speaker 1: this is like the person who who raises the last

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Speaker 1: um bet by a dollar on the prices, right, you know, Oh,

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Speaker 1: superiority theory. How about inferiority theory? Um they what they

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Speaker 1: came up with was that we see and that guy falling.

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Speaker 1: You don't feel better about yourself. You see part of

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Speaker 1: yourself and him like you could have just as easily

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Speaker 1: fallen or whatever. Yeah, but I wouldn't have been cool

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Speaker 1: enough to play it off like I was reading a book.

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Speaker 1: I would have picked up my books and ran home.

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Speaker 1: Don't laugh at me. So that's where, Yeah, that's where

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Speaker 1: the admiration kicks in a right. Number two we are

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Speaker 1: we're in the relief theory, which is Freud's theory, which

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Speaker 1: means it's wrong. Man, you got it. You've had a

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Speaker 1: bone to pick with Freud since I've known you. I

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Speaker 1: like Malcolm Bladwell, I like um see is like as

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Speaker 1: I just started twitching involuntarily. I like I like Freud

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Speaker 1: as a person. I like what he was trying to do.

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Speaker 1: I just think he was just kind of full of it.

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Speaker 1: All right, So what did Freud say? He wrote about

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Speaker 1: joking Believe it or not, This is actually um the

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Speaker 1: his his theory that I agree with the most. Probably

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Speaker 1: his theory of um humor is really theory, and that

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Speaker 1: I totally agree. We have like it's it's a build

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Speaker 1: up of wait for it, sexual energy that we release

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Speaker 1: surprised in some way, bless you that this live podcasting

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Speaker 1: is funny and it's like a whole other sneezy know

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Speaker 1: um that we were. We're getting out sexual energy, intellectual energy,

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Speaker 1: whatever is pent up through laughter, which makes sense to

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Speaker 1: a certain degree, like there are there are things that

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Speaker 1: you laugh at that you can point to and say,

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Speaker 1: may may right here. Yeah, or I think self deprecation

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Speaker 1: might fall into that a little bit too, like taking

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Speaker 1: the things that make you feel bad, making a joke

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Speaker 1: about of it. I've lived my whole life this way basically,

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Speaker 1: Or anyone that listens to Howard Stern he's been joking

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Speaker 1: about his small penis for twenty five years. Who knows

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Speaker 1: if that's true. I think it probably is. But he's

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Speaker 1: definitely made a point of joking about it for you know,

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Speaker 1: forever five years. Joke man, That means it's it's definitely true.

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Speaker 1: So that's the relief theory. And and I think there's

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Speaker 1: you know, put a lot of stock in that for sure.

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Speaker 1: Well yeah, I mean it's like adding levity to a situation. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: if and it works, like you can defuse in tense

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Speaker 1: situation by making people laugh, and they may even laugh

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Speaker 1: in volunteary really so relief theory. Yeah, and every every

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Speaker 1: like like every teen movie in history has some dude

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Speaker 1: in it that tries to get out of a fight

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Speaker 1: by making jokes, which was also me although I didn't

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Speaker 1: that wasn't even close to getting in fights, So that's

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Speaker 1: not really true. That's because you could talk your way

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Speaker 1: out of him. Like early on, who would want to

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Speaker 1: beat up Chuck? You know? When't you have to be

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Speaker 1: the meanest guy in the world. You would not, you

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Speaker 1: like too much. I think Emily might want to slug

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Speaker 1: at me every now and then. Yeah, yeah, okay, so

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Speaker 1: that this is the other the last one in the

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Speaker 1: big three. Yeah, in congruity theory. Yeah, and this one's

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Speaker 1: really um A really big part of comedy forever through today,

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Speaker 1: Forever through today is that um. Emmanuel concept in his

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Speaker 1: uh Tome the critique of judgment. Laughter is an affectation

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Speaker 1: arising from the sudden transformation of a strained expectation into nothing.

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Speaker 1: So the modern version of that is in incongruity resolution. Basically,

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Speaker 1: you're not getting what you expect, so like a punch

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Speaker 1: line takes you by surprise, right, like that classic how

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Speaker 1: do you keep an elephant from charging takeaway his credit card? Hey? Yeah, again,

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Speaker 1: that wasn't my joke. I'm just giving examples here. Well,

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Speaker 1: and that's that's sort of the basis of what some

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Speaker 1: say is the greatest joke the Aristocrats. Did you guys

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Speaker 1: see that documentary For those of you who don't know,

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Speaker 1: there's probably like two of you. The the ideas that

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Speaker 1: a family goes into a talent agent and says they

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Speaker 1: have a family act. And then the point of the

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Speaker 1: joke is too nastiest, most blue comedy you can and

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Speaker 1: it really gets out of hand if you watch this documentary,

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Speaker 1: which is the point and at the end, the punch

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Speaker 1: line is what do you call yourselves? The aristocrats? And

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Speaker 1: it's not so much about the punch line, but that's

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Speaker 1: definitely the incongruity, right yeah, I think that that's probably

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Speaker 1: the basis of humors. It's in and grouvous you it's

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Speaker 1: a an expectation you weren't expecting well, and those are

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Speaker 1: the best jokes to me is you think you see

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Speaker 1: it coming and you get surprised at the end. Uh,

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Speaker 1: there's another name for something like that. It's called And

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Speaker 1: I didn't even know this was a word till today,

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Speaker 1: a para prosed Dokian. Has anyone ever heard that? One person? Now? Awesome,

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Speaker 1: I just made it up. Uh. That is a figure

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Speaker 1: of speech where the second part causes the audience to

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Speaker 1: rethink the first part. And it has been going on

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Speaker 1: since Aristotle. For instance, he said on his feet he

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Speaker 1: wore blisters. That's one example. Groucho Marks, I've had a

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Speaker 1: perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it. That's that kind

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Speaker 1: of joke. Uh, the great Homer Simpson like that, that

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Speaker 1: was unexpected. Uh. If I could just say a few words,

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Speaker 1: I'd be a better public speaker. And Mitch Hedberg, who

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Speaker 1: I know, you love, the late great Mitch Heedburgh. I

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Speaker 1: haven't slept for ten days because that would be too long.

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Speaker 1: Not the good miss Hamburg too. I did some heroin

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Speaker 1: before I came in. Right, Wow, that is not funny. Actually,

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Speaker 1: you know what we're gonna be getting into that was

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Speaker 1: a perfect setup. We're getting into heroine. No joking about

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Speaker 1: things that divide the what you should be joking about. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it is like someone dying of a heroin over there

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Speaker 1: too soon. That was like ten years ago, Thank you buddy. Um.

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Speaker 1: So you take the big three and you take a

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Speaker 1: little bit of this, and you take a little bit

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Speaker 1: of that, and you put them together and you can

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Speaker 1: basically explain like just about any bit of humor after

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Speaker 1: the fact. That's the key here, um if by I guess,

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Speaker 1: just mixing him up. So you have, for example, the

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Speaker 1: benign violation theory, which is what you're talking about, Like,

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Speaker 1: that's the idea that there you have a little bit

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Speaker 1: of incongruity, a little bit of superiority. You mix them

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Speaker 1: together and right you you can come up with a

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Speaker 1: joke that will make people laugh. But there's also a

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Speaker 1: line apparently it's across it right with miss hedbird jokes.

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Speaker 1: That's the line, um. And once you cross that line,

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Speaker 1: then you you quickly go from humor to raising the

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Speaker 1: ire of a of a audience. Right, Yeah, they say,

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Speaker 1: not want to do Yeah, you like you should keep

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Speaker 1: a safe psychological distance, is what they say, where the

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Speaker 1: humor isn't so real and the whole too soon thing

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Speaker 1: is totally true. There's a certain amount of time and

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Speaker 1: it's different for everyone in that line is different for

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Speaker 1: everyone that's why it's dangerous to be a comic who

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Speaker 1: kind of skirts around those kind of jokes. Ask Gilbert Godfrey,

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Speaker 1: what did he do? He tweeted a joke about I

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Speaker 1: don't even remember what it was about the the Fukushima

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Speaker 1: earthquake in tsunami. I think like too soon. It was

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Speaker 1: like while it was going on, he made a joke

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Speaker 1: about it and he he used to be the affleck

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Speaker 1: duck and he's not anymore, which is weird. It raises

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Speaker 1: a point like I feel like the duck. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: which I have imagine paid pretty well. You know, he

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Speaker 1: doesn't really talk like that. I know it's it's not

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Speaker 1: very well known, but Howard Stern has him on a

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Speaker 1: telephone message that he played on the show where he

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Speaker 1: was like, hey Gary, this is Gilbert and I just

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Speaker 1: wanted to check on the time, and I was like,

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Speaker 1: no way. Because he never breaks character. He's famous for

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Speaker 1: always always, always being that guy. I've never heard him

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Speaker 1: speak other otherwise. Yeah, it's pretty weird. Yeah, I can

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Speaker 1: imagine um. And on the uh too soon thing, I

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Speaker 1: was watching Portlandia with Emily the other night and they

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Speaker 1: have a sketch. I don't know if you've seen at

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Speaker 1: about nine eleven where Armison they were talking about like

421
00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:38,520
Speaker 1: what you were doing during nine eleven when you got

422
00:23:38,520 --> 00:23:41,200
Speaker 1: in the news and he was like, where was that? Yeah?

423
00:23:41,200 --> 00:23:43,080
Speaker 1: I heard about this? What was what was I doing?

424
00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:45,640
Speaker 1: And he's like, oh, I was in New York. That's

425
00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:48,720
Speaker 1: where I was. And he's like, and what happened? Um,

426
00:23:49,160 --> 00:23:51,119
Speaker 1: thirty three planes or something? No, no, no, I know

427
00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:52,640
Speaker 1: what it was. I know what it was. And I

428
00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:54,359
Speaker 1: was dying. And Emily was like, I don't know, is

429
00:23:54,400 --> 00:23:56,320
Speaker 1: that is that even? And I said, I think the

430
00:23:56,320 --> 00:23:59,399
Speaker 1: difference is he's making fun of people the absurdity of

431
00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:01,840
Speaker 1: someone who not know where they were nine eleven, not

432
00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:04,600
Speaker 1: nine eleven itself, right, So that that slight difference, I

433
00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:07,000
Speaker 1: think is what made it funny exactly. There was also

434
00:24:07,040 --> 00:24:10,080
Speaker 1: a pretty good UM story about group on Super Bowls

435
00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:13,119
Speaker 1: in two thousand eleven. Did you hear about those? So? Like,

436
00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:16,159
Speaker 1: for example, ahead Timothy Hutton talking about the plight of

437
00:24:16,200 --> 00:24:19,720
Speaker 1: Tibetans and how they are all like basically just screwed

438
00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:23,240
Speaker 1: on a daily basis, but they also make a really

439
00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:25,760
Speaker 1: good fish curry and you can get a group on

440
00:24:25,960 --> 00:24:29,840
Speaker 1: for it in Chicago for like twenty Bucks and then well,

441
00:24:30,080 --> 00:24:31,359
Speaker 1: you guys are the only ones who thought it was

442
00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:35,080
Speaker 1: funny apparently, because um, group On was like everyone's like,

443
00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:37,080
Speaker 1: what are you doing? Group On was like their big debut.

444
00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:40,480
Speaker 1: So Timothy Hunton was just like, oh, man, right, why

445
00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:42,479
Speaker 1: did I sign it? Seemed funny At the time, I

446
00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:45,920
Speaker 1: was just starting to come back, right, yeah, not anymore

447
00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:51,400
Speaker 1: Falcon or was he Snowman boy? Which one? Was he? Anyone? Now?

448
00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:53,760
Speaker 1: He was like, I got it right off the bat.

449
00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:56,680
Speaker 1: To me, he's Turk one and two? Is that who

450
00:24:56,800 --> 00:25:00,560
Speaker 1: that was? Yeah? I need to see that movie? All right?

451
00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:02,720
Speaker 1: So where are we? Maybe let's get into the science

452
00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:04,439
Speaker 1: of the whole thing? Oh wait, uh well, if we're

453
00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:07,600
Speaker 1: gonna do that, we should, Chuck, I think maybe stop

454
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:19,720
Speaker 1: here for a message break. Okay, So now we're back,

455
00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:24,480
Speaker 1: we actually do that. We beat for Jerry like that.

456
00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:26,880
Speaker 1: That gets her attention because she's doing like ten other

457
00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:32,320
Speaker 1: things while she added us, oh yeah, okay, uh Chuck,

458
00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:35,959
Speaker 1: let's get back to it. Should I we should with

459
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:38,359
Speaker 1: the science of it? Right. So, um, like we said

460
00:25:38,359 --> 00:25:41,880
Speaker 1: earlier with the f m R, I, when you put

461
00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:44,159
Speaker 1: somebody into it shows you where all the blood flows going,

462
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:45,960
Speaker 1: because it shows you where the oxygen is in the

463
00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:49,480
Speaker 1: brain enhance you can surmise what is going on, what

464
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:52,840
Speaker 1: region is lighting up when you activate doing certain things.

465
00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:54,000
Speaker 1: And one of the things that they like to do

466
00:25:54,040 --> 00:25:57,240
Speaker 1: is tell people jokes, right yeah, or or have them

467
00:25:57,240 --> 00:26:00,880
Speaker 1: watch like Seinfeld or something right, which I hope you're

468
00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:03,400
Speaker 1: a van of if you're in that study. Even still,

469
00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:06,040
Speaker 1: how do you not laugh at Seinfeld? Like? What kind

470
00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:09,320
Speaker 1: of soulless person doesn't like sign? Now? Somebody recently I

471
00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:13,160
Speaker 1: talked to said that their father didn't like it at all,

472
00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:16,159
Speaker 1: hated it and just said he didn't think it was funny.

473
00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:19,040
Speaker 1: And I said his soul was dead inside, so yeah,

474
00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:20,880
Speaker 1: and he said, yes it is. He seemed too much

475
00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:24,639
Speaker 1: or something something's wrong. So Seinfeld and the Simpsons in

476
00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:27,159
Speaker 1: one study, right, yeah, two two pretty good picks, I

477
00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:30,280
Speaker 1: would say. Um, So what they found was that our

478
00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:33,320
Speaker 1: brains actually go through a two part process when we

479
00:26:33,359 --> 00:26:37,840
Speaker 1: hear a joke. There's joke detection and then there's joke appreciation.

480
00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:42,040
Speaker 1: But apparently this is what's going on in the brain. Well, yeah,

481
00:26:42,080 --> 00:26:44,639
Speaker 1: it depends on the joke for sure. Um, but the

482
00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:47,840
Speaker 1: joke detection part is probably the most important because you

483
00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:50,439
Speaker 1: have to know that you're hearing a joke and your

484
00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:53,800
Speaker 1: brain is priming you for the appreciation part, But first

485
00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:56,040
Speaker 1: it has to figure it out. And all this is

486
00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:58,840
Speaker 1: going on in the left hemisphere, and the reason it

487
00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:02,880
Speaker 1: all happens in the least the left hemisphere is that, um,

488
00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:06,680
Speaker 1: that's where we sort through novel information and compared to

489
00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:10,760
Speaker 1: experiences we've already had. So when you're hearing something like

490
00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:15,239
Speaker 1: how do you stop an elephant from charging? Um, you think, okay, well,

491
00:27:15,280 --> 00:27:17,640
Speaker 1: I've got an image of an elephant charging. I'm ready

492
00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:20,160
Speaker 1: to go. Come on, what's what's coming after this? Plus

493
00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:22,560
Speaker 1: you're probably trying to, like me, I try to figure

494
00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:25,040
Speaker 1: out a joke sometimes when it's set up punchline like that, right,

495
00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:26,760
Speaker 1: And I'll bet that says a lot about you as

496
00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:29,320
Speaker 1: a person. I can't wait until they have m R

497
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:33,080
Speaker 1: eyes that show what you're thinking, what you mean, like

498
00:27:33,080 --> 00:27:36,240
Speaker 1: like when you behind you like pretty much yeah, yeah,

499
00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:41,879
Speaker 1: like like a thought bubble, right man, I knew it.

500
00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:46,320
Speaker 1: I knew that's what you were thinking. Um we also

501
00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:48,560
Speaker 1: we we it's a little more blue at our live ones.

502
00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:50,200
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've caught that or not, but

503
00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:56,240
Speaker 1: both and chuck the said, um, no, like, like, what

504
00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:58,480
Speaker 1: what would you think of if if someone says, like,

505
00:27:58,520 --> 00:28:01,159
Speaker 1: how do you stop an elephant from charge? Quickly try

506
00:28:01,200 --> 00:28:04,720
Speaker 1: and figure it out? I think that's just my right side,

507
00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:06,600
Speaker 1: and then I probably wouldn't be able to and then

508
00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:08,040
Speaker 1: I would hear the punch line and go, that's not

509
00:28:08,119 --> 00:28:10,640
Speaker 1: very funny, right, Well, it's not a very funny punch line.

510
00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:13,720
Speaker 1: It isn't. But um, once you once you're hearing that,

511
00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:16,600
Speaker 1: the brain's primed. I'm sure there's some sort of que

512
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:19,080
Speaker 1: that didn't get into this in this article at all.

513
00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:20,520
Speaker 1: But there's got to be some sort of que that

514
00:28:20,560 --> 00:28:23,040
Speaker 1: there's a joke coming, you know, like if you walk

515
00:28:23,119 --> 00:28:25,040
Speaker 1: up to somebody and say, like, you know, how do

516
00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:27,119
Speaker 1: you stop in all the room charging? Probably just the

517
00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:31,760
Speaker 1: very virtue, right, that's funny too. And then the guy

518
00:28:31,840 --> 00:28:34,520
Speaker 1: like just lace down is like blindly trying to read

519
00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:39,280
Speaker 1: a book on the ground. Um, so your left, the

520
00:28:39,640 --> 00:28:42,080
Speaker 1: left hemisphere of your brain is working overtime to try

521
00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:43,720
Speaker 1: to figure out this joke. And depending on what type

522
00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:45,880
Speaker 1: of joke it is, um, different regions are going to

523
00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:49,120
Speaker 1: be involved. Yeah, the UM, I think I guess if

524
00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:52,320
Speaker 1: you like, the joke is in the amygdala. Well that's

525
00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:55,880
Speaker 1: the reward. So if you like the joke, right or

526
00:28:55,920 --> 00:28:58,520
Speaker 1: not right? Yeah? Okay, yeah, And I mean like depending

527
00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:01,720
Speaker 1: on the type of joke, like for over here where

528
00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:05,160
Speaker 1: the gears are going, like your broken area is involved

529
00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:08,480
Speaker 1: with language, so a pun is going to make that

530
00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:11,800
Speaker 1: area work and broke his area just goes. Yeah, there's

531
00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:15,080
Speaker 1: no amig della pay off on that. Not some people

532
00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:17,280
Speaker 1: love pun Zoe. I don't get people like that. Are

533
00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:19,680
Speaker 1: former colleague Chris Ballette. He was famous for his punch

534
00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:25,160
Speaker 1: which it was bad like you. I used to be

535
00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:28,360
Speaker 1: like stop, just stop, and he somehow commed with a

536
00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:33,440
Speaker 1: pun from stop. You know, so you got broken area. Um,

537
00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:35,560
Speaker 1: a guy walks into a bar type of joke, we'll

538
00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:38,000
Speaker 1: get the frontal lobe going. That's used with higher reasoning.

539
00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:41,120
Speaker 1: Apparently those jokes are very high minded typically or whatever

540
00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:45,640
Speaker 1: what else the frontal lobe. If you have damage in

541
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:48,920
Speaker 1: your frontal lobe, they have found that it can prevent

542
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:51,960
Speaker 1: you from understanding jokes and punch lines, which is really sad.

543
00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:57,080
Speaker 1: And they apparently tend to prefer slapstick comedy more because

544
00:29:57,080 --> 00:29:59,680
Speaker 1: you don't have the process as much, which I think

545
00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:01,920
Speaker 1: my have something to do with America's Funny some videos.

546
00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:05,000
Speaker 1: We're all slightly but I'm not saying everyone that was

547
00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:09,640
Speaker 1: that show has frontal lobe damage. But maybe maybe it's

548
00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:11,520
Speaker 1: something you can kind of turn on and off depending

549
00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:14,600
Speaker 1: on whether America's Funny or some videos is on. Yeah.

550
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:17,320
Speaker 1: Maybe so, Um, did you know that to the guys

551
00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:20,280
Speaker 1: from Mry Science three Theater, three thousand, right for that show?

552
00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:23,520
Speaker 1: No way. Yeah, and you can tell too, because like

553
00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:25,680
Speaker 1: the qualities stepped up quite a bit. Oh, they're right

554
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:28,720
Speaker 1: for it now, I believe so. Yeah, within the last

555
00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:31,080
Speaker 1: few years they were writing. I think Josh just admitted

556
00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:35,800
Speaker 1: to recently watching that show. It's true. I like that show.

557
00:30:35,880 --> 00:30:38,640
Speaker 1: I said it at the Variety Show. I like ridiculousness too.

558
00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:41,600
Speaker 1: I just like that kind of stuff turn your brain off. Yeah,

559
00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:44,720
Speaker 1: but my fernal lobe works just fine. Everybody. Well, you're

560
00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:47,280
Speaker 1: you're an intellectual guy, so that doesn't surprise me. Sometimes

561
00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:49,680
Speaker 1: I think if you're like super intellectual, you might enjoy

562
00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:52,960
Speaker 1: just like super based comedy occasionally. Yeah, it's true, it's

563
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:55,400
Speaker 1: a theory. But I read about this study, um that

564
00:30:55,560 --> 00:30:58,120
Speaker 1: came up with the idea that brain damage people can't

565
00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:02,440
Speaker 1: especially funnal lobe. You said, can't really appreciate jokes because

566
00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:05,400
Speaker 1: they can't find the punch line. And one of the

567
00:31:05,400 --> 00:31:07,440
Speaker 1: ways they tested him was they showed him a joke

568
00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:10,800
Speaker 1: on paper and it was basically like a kid's interviewing

569
00:31:10,840 --> 00:31:14,840
Speaker 1: for a summer job and the employer says, um, well,

570
00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:17,280
Speaker 1: we'll give you fifty to start, and then after a

571
00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:20,640
Speaker 1: month we'll up at the s And then the brain

572
00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:23,959
Speaker 1: damage patients were to pick out what the punch line was.

573
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:27,160
Speaker 1: There was great, I'll take it, when do I start?

574
00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:31,360
Speaker 1: That's not really it, that's just kind of boring response. Um.

575
00:31:31,520 --> 00:31:34,520
Speaker 1: Then there was the punch line, which is okay, well

576
00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:40,240
Speaker 1: I'll come back in a month again, not my joke. Uh.

577
00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:43,320
Speaker 1: And then the one that the brain damage patients picked

578
00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:47,440
Speaker 1: typically was um, hey boss, your nose is too big

579
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:51,800
Speaker 1: for your face and can't you just see like the

580
00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:55,920
Speaker 1: person administering this test is just holding back tears that

581
00:31:55,960 --> 00:32:00,160
Speaker 1: they were picking that one. But that's what they came

582
00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:03,760
Speaker 1: up with. It was you can't really get the punch line. Yeah,

583
00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:06,040
Speaker 1: it takes a little a little bit of thought. It's

584
00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:09,680
Speaker 1: really sad. Uh. So when we do get a joke

585
00:32:09,760 --> 00:32:12,560
Speaker 1: and get that payoff, our old friend dopamine is what's

586
00:32:12,600 --> 00:32:15,920
Speaker 1: coming into play. That reward is a shot of dopamine

587
00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:19,760
Speaker 1: via the a magdala that we talked about. And it

588
00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:22,920
Speaker 1: also explains why it's hard to laugh when you're blue,

589
00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:27,120
Speaker 1: when you're sad. Um. I know, everyone that's had a

590
00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:30,480
Speaker 1: friend or or relative or family member that's really down

591
00:32:30,520 --> 00:32:32,440
Speaker 1: on the dumps, you try and cheer them up, and

592
00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:36,320
Speaker 1: sometimes it is just impossible. You know. Yeah, why were

593
00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:40,480
Speaker 1: you just getting so mad? And why why was I

594
00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:42,920
Speaker 1: just laughing? Yeah? Because you you said that surely all

595
00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:44,480
Speaker 1: of you have had a friend or a family member

596
00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:46,000
Speaker 1: has been down in the debt. I sound like a

597
00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:50,560
Speaker 1: Hallmark Guarden. Yeah, a little bit. It just made me laugh, okay, um.

598
00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:53,320
Speaker 1: But yeah, sometimes it's literally impossible to cheer someone up,

599
00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:58,480
Speaker 1: um because the meso limbic reward system turns basically shuts

600
00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:02,320
Speaker 1: off the dopamine valve and you're not able to laugh. Um.

601
00:33:02,360 --> 00:33:04,680
Speaker 1: So it's like it's like their brain is working through

602
00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:08,040
Speaker 1: the joke, but they just can't possibly find it funny

603
00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:12,160
Speaker 1: because their their mesolympic system is not functioning. And then

604
00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:14,880
Speaker 1: you might have this sad exchange, which is didn't you

605
00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:19,120
Speaker 1: get it? And they go no, I got it, or

606
00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:22,680
Speaker 1: when they're like those funny, but I think it also

607
00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:25,320
Speaker 1: explains to when they when you're able to finally reopen

608
00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:28,040
Speaker 1: that And this is just my own theory too. Sometimes

609
00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:29,480
Speaker 1: you know when you have that laugh that you really

610
00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:32,959
Speaker 1: need after being depressed, then sometimes you just can't stop laughing.

611
00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:36,960
Speaker 1: That hysterics hysterical thing takes over. And I think it's

612
00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:39,840
Speaker 1: because you just get that rush of dopamine again, because

613
00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:43,160
Speaker 1: your body craves it like cigarettes. And when it does, right,

614
00:33:43,760 --> 00:33:46,520
Speaker 1: when it does pay off, you've got these special helper

615
00:33:46,560 --> 00:33:49,360
Speaker 1: cells called spindle cells that just shoot it across your brain.

616
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:53,800
Speaker 1: So if you see somebody laughing like uncontrollably, their brain

617
00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:57,120
Speaker 1: is just basically like zapping itself over and over and

618
00:33:57,160 --> 00:33:59,440
Speaker 1: over again until the spindle cells just kind of pet

619
00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:02,880
Speaker 1: around it. Yeah. Uh, I guess we're at the point

620
00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:07,800
Speaker 1: now where we talk about the uncomfortable topic of men

621
00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:13,080
Speaker 1: and women and why some people like Christopher Hitchens don't

622
00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:22,479
Speaker 1: think women are funny. Take it, Chuck Hitchens. Uh, God

623
00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:25,520
Speaker 1: rest his soul was on record in a very famous

624
00:34:25,560 --> 00:34:29,000
Speaker 1: Vanity Fair article. Um what's it called? Why women aren't Funny?

625
00:34:29,200 --> 00:34:31,319
Speaker 1: I think so, which is a great way to get

626
00:34:31,320 --> 00:34:34,200
Speaker 1: a lot of clicks, I guess, and he theorized that

627
00:34:34,239 --> 00:34:36,960
Speaker 1: women just weren't as funny, and I disagree. I think

628
00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:39,319
Speaker 1: my wife, for one, is hysterical. Well, here's how he

629
00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:42,600
Speaker 1: explained it. He said that, um, women don't have the

630
00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:45,560
Speaker 1: same need to be funny that men do. That For men,

631
00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:50,799
Speaker 1: it's a tool for reproduction to attract a mate by

632
00:34:50,840 --> 00:34:53,640
Speaker 1: being funny. And he was saying women just don't need that.

633
00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:56,400
Speaker 1: I get that. That was that was pretty much the

634
00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:58,360
Speaker 1: basis of his argument. So it wasn't like he just

635
00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:01,600
Speaker 1: wrote down like women aren't funny, don't even play right.

636
00:35:01,800 --> 00:35:05,560
Speaker 1: It was a little more thought. Um And at Washington

637
00:35:05,719 --> 00:35:08,200
Speaker 1: University School of Medicine actually did some studies again with

638
00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:11,280
Speaker 1: the Wonder machine, and they did find some interesting differences

639
00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:16,360
Speaker 1: between the sexes. UM. Females tend to pick apart verbiage

640
00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:20,560
Speaker 1: more UM and derived a more potent meso limbic reward

641
00:35:20,640 --> 00:35:23,799
Speaker 1: response when there was a punchline. So I think the

642
00:35:23,800 --> 00:35:28,960
Speaker 1: general point is that guys may laugh more, women laugh harder,

643
00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:33,160
Speaker 1: which I've seen in action. Yeah, because guys are kind

644
00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:35,680
Speaker 1: of dopey and they'll we'll laugh at anything, you know.

645
00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:38,560
Speaker 1: But I think women pick it apart more maybe maybe

646
00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:41,160
Speaker 1: more a little more intellectual about it, but tend to

647
00:35:41,320 --> 00:35:42,799
Speaker 1: get a lot more out of a joke than a

648
00:35:42,800 --> 00:35:45,839
Speaker 1: man would. In the end, spindle cells go crazy, they

649
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:52,759
Speaker 1: go crazy. Oh yeah, the magic formula, my friend. Uh

650
00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:56,680
Speaker 1: it is um x equals at times help plus and

651
00:35:56,920 --> 00:35:58,920
Speaker 1: times though divided by P. I thought you're gonna say,

652
00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:08,480
Speaker 1: chardon ay, No that works. Um so, Uh there's statistics

653
00:36:08,520 --> 00:36:11,720
Speaker 1: actually yeah kind of. I don't know if it proves

654
00:36:11,840 --> 00:36:16,000
Speaker 1: that men are funnier. It shows that women get fewer

655
00:36:16,080 --> 00:36:18,799
Speaker 1: laughs than men statistically. So if you have a woman

656
00:36:18,880 --> 00:36:22,640
Speaker 1: speaking to an audience, um, she's going to get well,

657
00:36:22,680 --> 00:36:24,960
Speaker 1: the man's gonna get a hundred and twenty six percent

658
00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:28,920
Speaker 1: more laughs out of that same audience than a female speaker.

659
00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:31,319
Speaker 1: Well yeah, and a female speaker, especially to an all

660
00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:36,399
Speaker 1: male audience, will get even less laughs. Uh it's science. Yeah,

661
00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:39,120
Speaker 1: this is not a saying. That not our jokes and

662
00:36:39,160 --> 00:36:41,520
Speaker 1: this is not our position. Yes, they're turning on this.

663
00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:46,840
Speaker 1: I feel it. Can you open that door? Quick exit?

664
00:36:47,760 --> 00:36:51,719
Speaker 1: Uh so again. Christo Hitchins himself wasn't like we were saying,

665
00:36:51,719 --> 00:36:54,799
Speaker 1: it's not like women are funny, But um, I think

666
00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:57,319
Speaker 1: there's tons of great female comedians. Well he made that

667
00:36:57,400 --> 00:37:00,520
Speaker 1: point too. He didn't say tons, but I mean he did.

668
00:37:00,600 --> 00:37:02,560
Speaker 1: He didn't make a point. He's saying like that, you

669
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:05,080
Speaker 1: can't possibly say that there are no funny women. There's

670
00:37:05,120 --> 00:37:07,360
Speaker 1: been some really great ones. But I think he was

671
00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:12,520
Speaker 1: saying just in general. Here's why, um So, I think

672
00:37:13,239 --> 00:37:16,600
Speaker 1: the reason we bring that up is, um, there's gender

673
00:37:16,640 --> 00:37:21,520
Speaker 1: differences in humor. Yeah. Um, Like we said, it's very

674
00:37:21,600 --> 00:37:25,920
Speaker 1: much based on context. So it's like age, cultural differences, gender,

675
00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:27,960
Speaker 1: it all comes into play and everyone's going to find

676
00:37:27,960 --> 00:37:34,960
Speaker 1: everything funny. National differences, like apparently we Americans. Everyone here American. Okay,

677
00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:38,160
Speaker 1: well we're gonna let you in a little secret. Americans

678
00:37:38,200 --> 00:37:42,440
Speaker 1: tend to think that, um that irony, humor that's not

679
00:37:42,520 --> 00:37:46,799
Speaker 1: really like mean is funnier, more positive stuff, whereas the

680
00:37:46,880 --> 00:37:55,240
Speaker 1: Brits think self deprecation and mean humor is way funnier too. Sarcasm. Yeah, um,

681
00:37:55,280 --> 00:37:57,319
Speaker 1: so you put a britain in an American in the

682
00:37:57,320 --> 00:37:59,320
Speaker 1: same room telling the same joke, one one is probably

683
00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:02,120
Speaker 1: not gonna laugh. Yeah, unless you're a master at mixing

684
00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:05,600
Speaker 1: those two things together. I like British humor, Yeah, I

685
00:38:05,680 --> 00:38:10,439
Speaker 1: like it too. It depends although oppressions. Well you have to. Now,

686
00:38:10,440 --> 00:38:13,520
Speaker 1: I don't get Eddie Iszard. I know everybody loves Eddie

687
00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:21,440
Speaker 1: is See. I don't it's what that's it. I'm not

688
00:38:21,440 --> 00:38:24,239
Speaker 1: I'm sure that I know what that means. Apparently it's

689
00:38:24,239 --> 00:38:30,480
Speaker 1: an Eddie Iszard reference. Is that one of his bits? Okay,

690
00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:36,400
Speaker 1: that's kind of that's funny. Yah, what's your name? Lance?

691
00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:39,960
Speaker 1: You should just do Eddie Iszard material. Maybe it's the

692
00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:47,879
Speaker 1: presentation that's bothering me or the dress. He's like, well, okay, yeah,

693
00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:50,439
Speaker 1: well I'm gonna give another shot now. Yeah, that beast

694
00:38:50,480 --> 00:38:53,680
Speaker 1: things great, Lance. Lance Iszard just got his brother Eddie

695
00:38:53,719 --> 00:38:59,040
Speaker 1: is some extra views. Uh So, recent research on Plato

696
00:38:59,080 --> 00:39:04,279
Speaker 1: and Aristotle's theories um abound um. The ancient Greeks claim

697
00:39:04,360 --> 00:39:07,800
Speaker 1: that people laughed at malice of others misfortune, yeah, that

698
00:39:08,239 --> 00:39:10,759
Speaker 1: superiority thing. Yeah, so it goes way back. People have

699
00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:13,200
Speaker 1: always laughed at people that face plant, apparently, or get

700
00:39:13,239 --> 00:39:16,520
Speaker 1: kicked in the balls. It's good old school humor. You're

701
00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:23,680
Speaker 1: telling you blue um or. They've also found that um

702
00:39:23,920 --> 00:39:26,320
Speaker 1: like bosses, and this is a kind of a no brainer,

703
00:39:26,360 --> 00:39:28,919
Speaker 1: and they call it the brown nose effect. Bosses tend

704
00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:33,279
Speaker 1: to joke more. And if you are an inferior not inferior,

705
00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:35,960
Speaker 1: what would you call it? I guess just an employee,

706
00:39:36,520 --> 00:39:38,680
Speaker 1: the the high man on the totem pole. What would

707
00:39:38,719 --> 00:39:42,719
Speaker 1: you say? Subordinate? There you go. Um, if you're the subordinate,

708
00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:45,640
Speaker 1: then you're gonna laugh more at your boss's jokes, just

709
00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:48,399
Speaker 1: because you're trying to get in there. Your brown nosing. Well,

710
00:39:48,600 --> 00:39:51,960
Speaker 1: I I saw in that same study they were saying, like,

711
00:39:52,080 --> 00:39:55,080
Speaker 1: that's possibly an explanation, but they also think that it's

712
00:39:55,160 --> 00:40:00,239
Speaker 1: more involuntary rather than a strategy like the uncomfortable not

713
00:40:00,280 --> 00:40:04,320
Speaker 1: necessarily uncomfortable. It's almost like you just you're more primed

714
00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:06,759
Speaker 1: to laugh at everything when you are at a low

715
00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:11,640
Speaker 1: station and a given social situation, because when you laugh,

716
00:40:12,040 --> 00:40:14,640
Speaker 1: people tend to like you more. You have a sense

717
00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:16,960
Speaker 1: of humor, you attract more friends, and so the more

718
00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:19,319
Speaker 1: friends you have, more allies you have, more allies you have,

719
00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:22,799
Speaker 1: the higher your station rises. So they were saying they

720
00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:25,080
Speaker 1: didn't think it was like an actual strategy that you

721
00:40:25,120 --> 00:40:31,000
Speaker 1: just can't help but titter nervously yourself. Maybe I'm not,

722
00:40:31,120 --> 00:40:35,680
Speaker 1: I'm just saying other people are. Uh. And finally, The

723
00:40:35,719 --> 00:40:38,319
Speaker 1: last thing I have is that, um, they did some

724
00:40:38,320 --> 00:40:41,280
Speaker 1: studies on what people do find funny and just daily life,

725
00:40:41,680 --> 00:40:43,719
Speaker 1: and it's usually not jokes, and it's usually not a

726
00:40:43,760 --> 00:40:48,720
Speaker 1: comedy routine you're watching. It's everyday life. Apparently only traces

727
00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:52,520
Speaker 1: back to an actual joke. And seventy of daily laughter

728
00:40:52,880 --> 00:40:56,200
Speaker 1: is just laughing at life and the people around you

729
00:40:56,239 --> 00:40:58,600
Speaker 1: on a daily basis, right, And supposedly it's not even funny.

730
00:40:58,719 --> 00:41:02,239
Speaker 1: Apparently the average person last seventeen point five times a day.

731
00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:04,920
Speaker 1: I don't know if we said that. We didn't, but

732
00:41:04,960 --> 00:41:08,560
Speaker 1: I wonder about that half laugh. You know, it's just

733
00:41:08,600 --> 00:41:12,360
Speaker 1: a hoe or he wasn't so great, but we'll count it. Um.

734
00:41:12,400 --> 00:41:16,640
Speaker 1: But this guy named Robert Provine, who's a laughter humor researcher. UM,

735
00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:19,880
Speaker 1: he said that most of the stuff that precedes laughter

736
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:24,120
Speaker 1: and daily life, UM, which is called most pre laugh

737
00:41:24,239 --> 00:41:29,759
Speaker 1: dialogue is quote like that of an interminable television situation

738
00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:34,600
Speaker 1: comedy scripted by an extremely ungifted writer. So it's basically

739
00:41:34,640 --> 00:41:38,839
Speaker 1: just like laughing at just dumb stuff that's not even

740
00:41:38,880 --> 00:41:42,960
Speaker 1: really funny. It's just kind of said by somebody who

741
00:41:43,040 --> 00:41:45,560
Speaker 1: you want to like you. Apparently that's the basis of humor.

742
00:41:46,080 --> 00:41:51,399
Speaker 1: There's the s Y s K theory. Boom, I'm done,

743
00:41:51,440 --> 00:41:54,359
Speaker 1: man uh all right, so you want to give our

744
00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:57,799
Speaker 1: familiar sign off here. Yeah. So if you guys are

745
00:41:57,840 --> 00:41:59,840
Speaker 1: interested in this kind of thing, you can find this

746
00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:03,800
Speaker 1: article UM on how stuff works dot com by typing?

747
00:42:04,120 --> 00:42:07,280
Speaker 1: Is there a scientific formula for funny in the handy

748
00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:10,480
Speaker 1: search bar? And since I said handy search bar, it's

749
00:42:10,560 --> 00:42:13,880
Speaker 1: time for do you have any listener mail? No, I

750
00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:17,640
Speaker 1: should have brought one. Well that's it then, everybody, Thank

751
00:42:17,640 --> 00:42:19,640
Speaker 1: you very much for coming out and checking out our

752
00:42:19,680 --> 00:42:22,760
Speaker 1: live podcast. We hope you learned some funny stuff, laughed

753
00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:32,560
Speaker 1: a little, loved a little. There you go. Thanks for

754
00:42:32,680 --> 00:42:35,000
Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics. Is that

755
00:42:35,080 --> 00:42:44,360
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot Com? Brought to you by the

756
00:42:44,400 --> 00:42:46,600
Speaker 1: all new Toyota Corolla