Speaker 1: Brought to you by the all new Toyota Corolla. Ladies
Speaker 1: and gentlemen looking to stuff you should know. Hey, and
Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me is
Speaker 1: always this, Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and with us as
Speaker 1: not always is all of you guys here at l
Speaker 1: a podcast, but it's a little unusual. I've only done
Speaker 1: this a couple of times before. Yeah, little south by Southwest, Yeah,
Speaker 1: comic con and now podcast. That's right, um, and we've
Speaker 1: got a pretty good crew here, good group, I can
Speaker 1: tell just by the looks of you guys. Um, and uh,
Speaker 1: we've got a very special treat for all of you
Speaker 1: listeners at home. We're all very excited about it. I
Speaker 1: think I'm the most excited about it, but a right,
Speaker 1: you're definitely the most excited about it. Uh. And today
Speaker 1: we're talking about, um, Chuck, as you were saying, we're
Speaker 1: talking about we're gonna answer a question, is there a
Speaker 1: scientific formula for funny? And I guess we can kind
Speaker 1: of spoil it now by saying yes and not really right,
Speaker 1: And that was it. That's all. That's the podcast. UM.
Speaker 1: I do have an intro if you're interested in hearing it. Um,
Speaker 1: remember our ghosts episode? Yeah, that was pretty bad, so
Speaker 1: we I liked it. We got a lot of We
Speaker 1: got a lot of crud from skeptics surprised they didn't
Speaker 1: like our ghost episode. Um. But there was a guy,
Speaker 1: a researcher named Richard Wiseman from Hertfordshire University in the UK.
Speaker 1: Go Figgy Puddings, Um, and they Richard, why do you
Speaker 1: remember who I'm talking about? I remember the guy. We
Speaker 1: interpreted his his research and the ghosts, which is basically
Speaker 1: used to debunk ghosts. We took what he found as
Speaker 1: evidence there there may be such things as ghosts, and
Speaker 1: the skeptics didn't like that at all. But he's done
Speaker 1: some other stuff too, So he makes an appearance in
Speaker 1: this podcast as of right now because before he was
Speaker 1: doing ghost stuff, he was doing humor research. I am
Speaker 1: back in two thousands two. He set up a website
Speaker 1: called laugh Lab and he wanted to find the world's
Speaker 1: funniest joke. Really yeah, not to be confused with the
Speaker 1: funniest joke in the world, the Monty Python thing. This
Speaker 1: is different. Um. And there were forty thousand submissions I
Speaker 1: think one point four million hits and this is prior
Speaker 1: to social media, so these are pretty respectable numbers if
Speaker 1: you think about it. And they found the world's funniest joke.
Speaker 1: I generally don't know this, so I'm on pins and needles.
Speaker 1: Do you want to hear? Okay? So this guy is
Speaker 1: out hunting with a friend of his in the woods
Speaker 1: and the friend suddenly just drops over falls to the ground,
Speaker 1: and the hunter picks up his cell phone and he
Speaker 1: calls nine on one and he's is, hey, I think
Speaker 1: my friend just died. We're out here in the woods hunting.
Speaker 1: What should I do? And the nine and one operator says, well,
Speaker 1: first let's make sure he's dead, and so the hunter
Speaker 1: shoots his friend and he goes, okay, Now what that's
Speaker 1: the world's funniest joke. It's not okay, but the so
Speaker 1: ahead of mixed reaction and what we're talking about now
Speaker 1: is the world's funniest joke. And it got a couple
Speaker 1: of laughs here, right. Yeah. I think what that proves
Speaker 1: and the point of this long rambling intro is that, um,
Speaker 1: we pretty much can't predict what's funny, what people are
Speaker 1: gonna find funny, and uh, let's talk about exactly why
Speaker 1: that is chuckers. Yes, well it's subjective, but we'll get
Speaker 1: to that later. Right, Well, we can just throw our
Speaker 1: opinions out then and be right. Well they've been. Even
Speaker 1: though there is no formula as of yet, it doesn't
Speaker 1: mean people haven't tried to find out. Dating all the
Speaker 1: way back to the first masters of comedy, Aristotle and Plato,
Speaker 1: two very funny guys, they talked a lot about it, actually,
Speaker 1: surprisingly and um, they basically try to look at what
Speaker 1: compels people to laugh. And Aristotle, I think he thought
Speaker 1: that we're the we were the only creatures to laugh.
Speaker 1: Is that right? Yeah, that was just a human phenomenon,
Speaker 1: which is wrong. It's right because it turns out, and
Speaker 1: this is the cutest part of the show too. Um,
Speaker 1: chimpanzees and ring tangs and apes not only laugh when
Speaker 1: you tickle them, but if you go to a baby chimp,
Speaker 1: you don't even have to make contact. You can just
Speaker 1: do the little here I come with the fingers and
Speaker 1: the baby chimp will laugh. Apparently, And uh, I did
Speaker 1: look up chimpanzee laughter and it's not um like humans
Speaker 1: make the hehes and the ho hoes. There's more of
Speaker 1: a gasping sound apparently, rats do the same thing when
Speaker 1: you tickle that. No, we talked about this and the
Speaker 1: What's So Funny episode? We remember rat tickling with there's
Speaker 1: videos of it out there. They get like a little
Speaker 1: high pitched thing. It's the cutest thing you've ever seen,
Speaker 1: like somebody tickling a rat and the rats is like,
Speaker 1: it's it's very cute. But so yes, at the very least,
Speaker 1: laughter or taking tickling is funny. Is it goes across species? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And we did cover some of this in the show
Speaker 1: on did we call it What's So Funny? I think
Speaker 1: so okay um, But laughter is UH is definitely a
Speaker 1: human thing, aside from the primates and the rats, I think,
Speaker 1: and it consists of variations of one single basic form.
Speaker 1: It's vowel like sounds repeated every two and ten milliseconds,
Speaker 1: and human skin either he he like you just did,
Speaker 1: or a variation of a ho ho, but you don't
Speaker 1: mix them. Apparently there's never been someone that laughs he
Speaker 1: ho he ho, because that would be up if that's
Speaker 1: how you laugh and your your facial muscles get going.
Speaker 1: There's fifteen facial muscles that contract and strain UH. The
Speaker 1: zygomatic major muscle, which is your upper lip is is triggered. Um,
Speaker 1: if it's really good, you might get the tear ducks going.
Speaker 1: Gonna know, we've all been there, and you're gonna be
Speaker 1: gasping and your respiratory system is struggling basically to breathe
Speaker 1: at that point, chimp like a baby chip. Uh. So
Speaker 1: that's basically what laughter is babies human babies. Human babies
Speaker 1: start at about three or four months if they have
Speaker 1: a sense of humor, I guess, and uh, some reachers
Speaker 1: researchers have found that, um, we are thirty times more
Speaker 1: likely to laugh in the company of others, uh than
Speaker 1: when you're alone. So it's definitely a social thing. And
Speaker 1: that is if because I read that first, that and
Speaker 1: I was like, clearly they've never watched Portlandia or Eastbounding
Speaker 1: down alone on the couch at midnight. But I mean
Speaker 1: that's a good point because when you're watching it by yourself, like,
Speaker 1: you may laugh, but you're not necessarily laughing your off.
Speaker 1: I guess there's another way to put it. Yet, well
Speaker 1: I do, oh you do, of course. But that stat
Speaker 1: though was Um, that was the caveat is that's not
Speaker 1: including TV or any kind of external stimulation, Like if
Speaker 1: you're just alone and you like think a funny thought
Speaker 1: or see a funny thing, you're way less likely to
Speaker 1: laugh if you're by yourself. Okay, all right, but whether
Speaker 1: you are in China or Santa Monica, wherever you are,
Speaker 1: laughter is gonna sound very similar like you were saying,
Speaker 1: and um, there is going to be such thing as humor.
Speaker 1: It's not necessarily going to be the same thing in
Speaker 1: China as it is in Santa Monica that gets laughs,
Speaker 1: like it would just be dead silent right now if
Speaker 1: we were in Beijing. Sounded like for a second. But
Speaker 1: so the point is as humor as universal, but it's
Speaker 1: constrained by all these different contexts like um uh, well,
Speaker 1: like where you are and not just space but also time.
Speaker 1: Like what guys like Ben Franklin thought was funny, it
Speaker 1: just kind of falls flat today, Like turkey jokes, apple
Speaker 1: apple brandy jokes. That's a turkey joke. He had a couple.
Speaker 1: They weren't that good. They're not, they're not. They don't
Speaker 1: bear eating here. But that all that put together, gender differences,
Speaker 1: economic differences, all of these things kind of separate like
Speaker 1: what's funny from what's not funny depending on who you are. Um,
Speaker 1: but from Aristotle to Plato was one, wasn't he hum
Speaker 1: all the way up to Schopenhauer. Another hilarious dude, Kyrka Guard,
Speaker 1: who by the way, has a great Twitter feed. Um,
Speaker 1: Kyrka Kardashian, it's um, are you guys familiar with it?
Speaker 1: It's awesome. It's uh Kirka Guards philosophical musings and he
Speaker 1: was pretty dark. UM mashed together with Kim Kardashian's contemporary tweets.
Speaker 1: Let's just go check it out. It's like you'll you
Speaker 1: will definitely follow it. Not her old tweets, now her contemporary. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like for I'll give you one. Okay, that's how one
Speaker 1: today It's it's worth saying. Um. She said, Hey, I
Speaker 1: can't wait until you guys, um smell my new fragrance
Speaker 1: coming out this spring. It reeks of the misery of
Speaker 1: modern life. That was just an average one too. We
Speaker 1: got we got more than a he heat out of
Speaker 1: this guy. It's good right Uh for me, I'm I've
Speaker 1: actually blogged about it the other day. Um, short jokes
Speaker 1: to me are the best brevity is the soul of
Speaker 1: wit or as they said on the Simpsons brevity is
Speaker 1: with of course they had to one up it. And
Speaker 1: my hero and many writers heroes, is the Great Jack Handy,
Speaker 1: who is a real person. By the way, I don't
Speaker 1: mean a lot of people think that Deep Thoughts by
Speaker 1: Jack Andy was just some you know, made up name,
Speaker 1: Like there's no one named Jack Handy. It's written by,
Speaker 1: you know, just one of the SNL writers. He was
Speaker 1: an lent writer and his name is Jack Handy, and
Speaker 1: he has been sort of obsessed with creating the perfect
Speaker 1: short joke over his career. He's the closest he thinks
Speaker 1: he's ever come. And it's pretty good, I think, is uh.
Speaker 1: The crows seemed to be calling his name. Thought to
Speaker 1: call not bad. That's Jack Handy thinks that's the best
Speaker 1: short joke he's ever written. Jack knows what he's talking,
Speaker 1: so good and uh. It was in a McSweeney's article
Speaker 1: that I first read about this from the New York Times. Um,
Speaker 1: they were talking about the New York Times that that
Speaker 1: writer thought the best one was. And this is pretty
Speaker 1: good too. I came here in peace, seeking gold and slaves.
Speaker 1: So for me, the Great Jack Handy is trying to
Speaker 1: get a laugh out of the fewest amount of words. Um.
Speaker 1: I came here in peking Golden slaves, five syllable set up,
Speaker 1: five syllable punchline, beautiful, clean, the master for me? What's
Speaker 1: funny is this? Actually? In my research I ran across um,
Speaker 1: a real formula for funny. Um. That was the yes
Speaker 1: part of the answer. Um alcohol plus joke greater than okay.
Speaker 1: So it's X equals F times L plus end times oh,
Speaker 1: divided by P And in those values in there, well,
Speaker 1: p p actually penalizes you because that's the number of
Speaker 1: puns that's in the jokes. So you get all these
Speaker 1: all these points and then it divided by the number
Speaker 1: of puns you used. So um. But one of the
Speaker 1: one of the formulas that that builds up the funniness
Speaker 1: of a joke is how long it takes for the
Speaker 1: punch line to build and then finally pay off. So
Speaker 1: it's like pretty much the opposite of it. So even
Speaker 1: Jack Handy and whoever came up with this formula can't
Speaker 1: agree on how to make something funnier. To figure out
Speaker 1: what's the funniest. Yeah, Well, if it was easy, everyone
Speaker 1: would be doing it, clearly, And we've seen a lot
Speaker 1: of I know you go to see a lot of
Speaker 1: stand up comics a lot, and yeah, you're really into it.
Speaker 1: And through our job, we've gotten to see a lot
Speaker 1: and it's really fascinating, especially when you meet some of them,
Speaker 1: to see them working this stuff out, especially if you
Speaker 1: see them more than once doing kind of the same
Speaker 1: material and the subtle changes. I just I think it's
Speaker 1: really fascinating. And I've been writing a stand aback for
Speaker 1: like ten years. How's it going. It's going pretty good.
Speaker 1: Care to do so? No, not at all. It's got
Speaker 1: a mike, you have an audience. No, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I don't like. I wouldn't have be I would have
Speaker 1: not even brought it up. There was a writer I know.
Speaker 1: Uh that was a writer named Debrah Solomon for New
Speaker 1: York Times magazine though that asked Chris Rock and I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna do my Chris Rock, don't worry, um what's funny?
Speaker 1: And his reply was, and it kind of says it
Speaker 1: all is, you want to know what's funny? Is thinking
Speaker 1: about it? What's not funny? Oh yeah, chuck blew that joke.
Speaker 1: It's not a joke. Yeah, you want to know it's
Speaker 1: not funny. It's thinking about it, thank you for that,
Speaker 1: or talking about it, which is what we're doing. So
Speaker 1: stop laughing because this is not funny. Apparently that's right,
Speaker 1: all right, So, um, we are not the only people
Speaker 1: who have ever said, you know, is can you figure
Speaker 1: out what's funny? Scientifically? There's actually a whole study. It's
Speaker 1: called humor studies, and strangely enough, it's not taken very
Speaker 1: seriously among psychologists. Um, although there's you know, an equal
Speaker 1: dedicated amount of work applied to it using the scientific method.
Speaker 1: You have the International Society for Humor Studies. They've been
Speaker 1: around since the eighties. They're trying to like keep the
Speaker 1: flame going. And apparently, um, ever since we started putting
Speaker 1: people into the Wonder Machine and asking them questions or um,
Speaker 1: telling them jokes, we've gotten like a lot more scientific
Speaker 1: basis of what's funny. We'll get into that in a
Speaker 1: little bit. Yeah, that's the f m R I or
Speaker 1: the m R I machine. You don't want to know that.
Speaker 1: That's our little name for though. Um. But prior to this,
Speaker 1: prior to the Wonder Machine being rolled out, like people
Speaker 1: have just kind of it's basically been up to philosophers
Speaker 1: to figure out what's funny, and they've come up with
Speaker 1: some pretty good theories. And there's a big three. There's
Speaker 1: I think as many I saw as many as a
Speaker 1: hundred theories of humor, but then it's been whittled down
Speaker 1: to a big three, like pretty much arbitrarily. Or else
Speaker 1: people are like, maybe these three are the right ones.
Speaker 1: Who knows, but I think he's kind of hit on it.
Speaker 1: Um Number one is the superiority theory um Plato, Aristotle, Hobbs.
Speaker 1: They all sort of focus on this dark side of
Speaker 1: comedy and we've all been there. Um, Laughing at someone
Speaker 1: else's expense sometimes can be quite a good time. It's
Speaker 1: pretty much like, Um, this theory would be supported by
Speaker 1: Dwight shrewked like watching him. Yeah, you know, were listening
Speaker 1: to him for sure. And I might have told this
Speaker 1: on another show. But one of the funniest things I
Speaker 1: ever saw Bless You, Bless You, was in college in Athens, Georgia.
Speaker 1: I saw a guy face plant really really bad on
Speaker 1: campus one day. You're already laughing, did you laugh? Well?
Speaker 1: I laughed at this. The dude fell busted face forward,
Speaker 1: books went spilling out on the sidewalk, and I swear
Speaker 1: to God. Immediately the guy went like this and opened
Speaker 1: up a book on the sidewalk like he was reading.
Speaker 1: And I was driving and I saw this happen, and
Speaker 1: I wanted to pull the car over and say, dude,
Speaker 1: you are the funniest person I've ever seen in my life,
Speaker 1: because it was just his instinct to play it off
Speaker 1: like that. And that was man. That was like seventeen
Speaker 1: years ago, and it's stuck with me this day. I
Speaker 1: don't know who that guy was, but I want to
Speaker 1: meet him still, if you're out there, way to go, man, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but it was I don't know if I would have
Speaker 1: laughed at his expense had he not done that, because
Speaker 1: when although the America's funny some video effect, i'll call it, yeah,
Speaker 1: kicked in the nuts juggernaut, that is very much the
Speaker 1: superiority theory in action. It is, or it is pretty
Speaker 1: much the converse theory that says the same thing but
Speaker 1: has a kind of a different take of It's called
Speaker 1: inferiority theory. It's like the person whoever came up with
Speaker 1: this is like the person who who raises the last
Speaker 1: um bet by a dollar on the prices, right, you know, Oh,
Speaker 1: superiority theory. How about inferiority theory? Um they what they
Speaker 1: came up with was that we see and that guy falling.
Speaker 1: You don't feel better about yourself. You see part of
Speaker 1: yourself and him like you could have just as easily
Speaker 1: fallen or whatever. Yeah, but I wouldn't have been cool
Speaker 1: enough to play it off like I was reading a book.
Speaker 1: I would have picked up my books and ran home.
Speaker 1: Don't laugh at me. So that's where, Yeah, that's where
Speaker 1: the admiration kicks in a right. Number two we are
Speaker 1: we're in the relief theory, which is Freud's theory, which
Speaker 1: means it's wrong. Man, you got it. You've had a
Speaker 1: bone to pick with Freud since I've known you. I
Speaker 1: like Malcolm Bladwell, I like um see is like as
Speaker 1: I just started twitching involuntarily. I like I like Freud
Speaker 1: as a person. I like what he was trying to do.
Speaker 1: I just think he was just kind of full of it.
Speaker 1: All right, So what did Freud say? He wrote about
Speaker 1: joking Believe it or not, This is actually um the
Speaker 1: his his theory that I agree with the most. Probably
Speaker 1: his theory of um humor is really theory, and that
Speaker 1: I totally agree. We have like it's it's a build
Speaker 1: up of wait for it, sexual energy that we release
Speaker 1: surprised in some way, bless you that this live podcasting
Speaker 1: is funny and it's like a whole other sneezy know
Speaker 1: um that we were. We're getting out sexual energy, intellectual energy,
Speaker 1: whatever is pent up through laughter, which makes sense to
Speaker 1: a certain degree, like there are there are things that
Speaker 1: you laugh at that you can point to and say,
Speaker 1: may may right here. Yeah, or I think self deprecation
Speaker 1: might fall into that a little bit too, like taking
Speaker 1: the things that make you feel bad, making a joke
Speaker 1: about of it. I've lived my whole life this way basically,
Speaker 1: Or anyone that listens to Howard Stern he's been joking
Speaker 1: about his small penis for twenty five years. Who knows
Speaker 1: if that's true. I think it probably is. But he's
Speaker 1: definitely made a point of joking about it for you know,
Speaker 1: forever five years. Joke man, That means it's it's definitely true.
Speaker 1: So that's the relief theory. And and I think there's
Speaker 1: you know, put a lot of stock in that for sure.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, I mean it's like adding levity to a situation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if and it works, like you can defuse in tense
Speaker 1: situation by making people laugh, and they may even laugh
Speaker 1: in volunteary really so relief theory. Yeah, and every every
Speaker 1: like like every teen movie in history has some dude
Speaker 1: in it that tries to get out of a fight
Speaker 1: by making jokes, which was also me although I didn't
Speaker 1: that wasn't even close to getting in fights, So that's
Speaker 1: not really true. That's because you could talk your way
Speaker 1: out of him. Like early on, who would want to
Speaker 1: beat up Chuck? You know? When't you have to be
Speaker 1: the meanest guy in the world. You would not, you
Speaker 1: like too much. I think Emily might want to slug
Speaker 1: at me every now and then. Yeah, yeah, okay, so
Speaker 1: that this is the other the last one in the
Speaker 1: big three. Yeah, in congruity theory. Yeah, and this one's
Speaker 1: really um A really big part of comedy forever through today,
Speaker 1: Forever through today is that um. Emmanuel concept in his
Speaker 1: uh Tome the critique of judgment. Laughter is an affectation
Speaker 1: arising from the sudden transformation of a strained expectation into nothing.
Speaker 1: So the modern version of that is in incongruity resolution. Basically,
Speaker 1: you're not getting what you expect, so like a punch
Speaker 1: line takes you by surprise, right, like that classic how
Speaker 1: do you keep an elephant from charging takeaway his credit card? Hey? Yeah, again,
Speaker 1: that wasn't my joke. I'm just giving examples here. Well,
Speaker 1: and that's that's sort of the basis of what some
Speaker 1: say is the greatest joke the Aristocrats. Did you guys
Speaker 1: see that documentary For those of you who don't know,
Speaker 1: there's probably like two of you. The the ideas that
Speaker 1: a family goes into a talent agent and says they
Speaker 1: have a family act. And then the point of the
Speaker 1: joke is too nastiest, most blue comedy you can and
Speaker 1: it really gets out of hand if you watch this documentary,
Speaker 1: which is the point and at the end, the punch
Speaker 1: line is what do you call yourselves? The aristocrats? And
Speaker 1: it's not so much about the punch line, but that's
Speaker 1: definitely the incongruity, right yeah, I think that that's probably
Speaker 1: the basis of humors. It's in and grouvous you it's
Speaker 1: a an expectation you weren't expecting well, and those are
Speaker 1: the best jokes to me is you think you see
Speaker 1: it coming and you get surprised at the end. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's another name for something like that. It's called And
Speaker 1: I didn't even know this was a word till today,
Speaker 1: a para prosed Dokian. Has anyone ever heard that? One person? Now? Awesome,
Speaker 1: I just made it up. Uh. That is a figure
Speaker 1: of speech where the second part causes the audience to
Speaker 1: rethink the first part. And it has been going on
Speaker 1: since Aristotle. For instance, he said on his feet he
Speaker 1: wore blisters. That's one example. Groucho Marks, I've had a
Speaker 1: perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it. That's that kind
Speaker 1: of joke. Uh, the great Homer Simpson like that, that
Speaker 1: was unexpected. Uh. If I could just say a few words,
Speaker 1: I'd be a better public speaker. And Mitch Hedberg, who
Speaker 1: I know, you love, the late great Mitch Heedburgh. I
Speaker 1: haven't slept for ten days because that would be too long.
Speaker 1: Not the good miss Hamburg too. I did some heroin
Speaker 1: before I came in. Right, Wow, that is not funny. Actually,
Speaker 1: you know what we're gonna be getting into that was
Speaker 1: a perfect setup. We're getting into heroine. No joking about
Speaker 1: things that divide the what you should be joking about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is like someone dying of a heroin over there
Speaker 1: too soon. That was like ten years ago, Thank you buddy. Um.
Speaker 1: So you take the big three and you take a
Speaker 1: little bit of this, and you take a little bit
Speaker 1: of that, and you put them together and you can
Speaker 1: basically explain like just about any bit of humor after
Speaker 1: the fact. That's the key here, um if by I guess,
Speaker 1: just mixing him up. So you have, for example, the
Speaker 1: benign violation theory, which is what you're talking about, Like,
Speaker 1: that's the idea that there you have a little bit
Speaker 1: of incongruity, a little bit of superiority. You mix them
Speaker 1: together and right you you can come up with a
Speaker 1: joke that will make people laugh. But there's also a
Speaker 1: line apparently it's across it right with miss hedbird jokes.
Speaker 1: That's the line, um. And once you cross that line,
Speaker 1: then you you quickly go from humor to raising the
Speaker 1: ire of a of a audience. Right, Yeah, they say,
Speaker 1: not want to do Yeah, you like you should keep
Speaker 1: a safe psychological distance, is what they say, where the
Speaker 1: humor isn't so real and the whole too soon thing
Speaker 1: is totally true. There's a certain amount of time and
Speaker 1: it's different for everyone in that line is different for
Speaker 1: everyone that's why it's dangerous to be a comic who
Speaker 1: kind of skirts around those kind of jokes. Ask Gilbert Godfrey,
Speaker 1: what did he do? He tweeted a joke about I
Speaker 1: don't even remember what it was about the the Fukushima
Speaker 1: earthquake in tsunami. I think like too soon. It was
Speaker 1: like while it was going on, he made a joke
Speaker 1: about it and he he used to be the affleck
Speaker 1: duck and he's not anymore, which is weird. It raises
Speaker 1: a point like I feel like the duck. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: which I have imagine paid pretty well. You know, he
Speaker 1: doesn't really talk like that. I know it's it's not
Speaker 1: very well known, but Howard Stern has him on a
Speaker 1: telephone message that he played on the show where he
Speaker 1: was like, hey Gary, this is Gilbert and I just
Speaker 1: wanted to check on the time, and I was like,
Speaker 1: no way. Because he never breaks character. He's famous for
Speaker 1: always always, always being that guy. I've never heard him
Speaker 1: speak other otherwise. Yeah, it's pretty weird. Yeah, I can
Speaker 1: imagine um. And on the uh too soon thing, I
Speaker 1: was watching Portlandia with Emily the other night and they
Speaker 1: have a sketch. I don't know if you've seen at
Speaker 1: about nine eleven where Armison they were talking about like
Speaker 1: what you were doing during nine eleven when you got
Speaker 1: in the news and he was like, where was that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I heard about this? What was what was I doing?
Speaker 1: And he's like, oh, I was in New York. That's
Speaker 1: where I was. And he's like, and what happened? Um,
Speaker 1: thirty three planes or something? No, no, no, I know
Speaker 1: what it was. I know what it was. And I
Speaker 1: was dying. And Emily was like, I don't know, is
Speaker 1: that is that even? And I said, I think the
Speaker 1: difference is he's making fun of people the absurdity of
Speaker 1: someone who not know where they were nine eleven, not
Speaker 1: nine eleven itself, right, So that that slight difference, I
Speaker 1: think is what made it funny exactly. There was also
Speaker 1: a pretty good UM story about group on Super Bowls
Speaker 1: in two thousand eleven. Did you hear about those? So? Like,
Speaker 1: for example, ahead Timothy Hutton talking about the plight of
Speaker 1: Tibetans and how they are all like basically just screwed
Speaker 1: on a daily basis, but they also make a really
Speaker 1: good fish curry and you can get a group on
Speaker 1: for it in Chicago for like twenty Bucks and then well,
Speaker 1: you guys are the only ones who thought it was
Speaker 1: funny apparently, because um, group On was like everyone's like,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? Group On was like their big debut.
Speaker 1: So Timothy Hunton was just like, oh, man, right, why
Speaker 1: did I sign it? Seemed funny At the time, I
Speaker 1: was just starting to come back, right, yeah, not anymore
Speaker 1: Falcon or was he Snowman boy? Which one? Was he? Anyone? Now?
Speaker 1: He was like, I got it right off the bat.
Speaker 1: To me, he's Turk one and two? Is that who
Speaker 1: that was? Yeah? I need to see that movie? All right?
Speaker 1: So where are we? Maybe let's get into the science
Speaker 1: of the whole thing? Oh wait, uh well, if we're
Speaker 1: gonna do that, we should, Chuck, I think maybe stop
Speaker 1: here for a message break. Okay, So now we're back,
Speaker 1: we actually do that. We beat for Jerry like that.
Speaker 1: That gets her attention because she's doing like ten other
Speaker 1: things while she added us, oh yeah, okay, uh Chuck,
Speaker 1: let's get back to it. Should I we should with
Speaker 1: the science of it? Right. So, um, like we said
Speaker 1: earlier with the f m R, I, when you put
Speaker 1: somebody into it shows you where all the blood flows going,
Speaker 1: because it shows you where the oxygen is in the
Speaker 1: brain enhance you can surmise what is going on, what
Speaker 1: region is lighting up when you activate doing certain things.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that they like to do
Speaker 1: is tell people jokes, right yeah, or or have them
Speaker 1: watch like Seinfeld or something right, which I hope you're
Speaker 1: a van of if you're in that study. Even still,
Speaker 1: how do you not laugh at Seinfeld? Like? What kind
Speaker 1: of soulless person doesn't like sign? Now? Somebody recently I
Speaker 1: talked to said that their father didn't like it at all,
Speaker 1: hated it and just said he didn't think it was funny.
Speaker 1: And I said his soul was dead inside, so yeah,
Speaker 1: and he said, yes it is. He seemed too much
Speaker 1: or something something's wrong. So Seinfeld and the Simpsons in
Speaker 1: one study, right, yeah, two two pretty good picks, I
Speaker 1: would say. Um, So what they found was that our
Speaker 1: brains actually go through a two part process when we
Speaker 1: hear a joke. There's joke detection and then there's joke appreciation.
Speaker 1: But apparently this is what's going on in the brain. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: it depends on the joke for sure. Um, but the
Speaker 1: joke detection part is probably the most important because you
Speaker 1: have to know that you're hearing a joke and your
Speaker 1: brain is priming you for the appreciation part, But first
Speaker 1: it has to figure it out. And all this is
Speaker 1: going on in the left hemisphere, and the reason it
Speaker 1: all happens in the least the left hemisphere is that, um,
Speaker 1: that's where we sort through novel information and compared to
Speaker 1: experiences we've already had. So when you're hearing something like
Speaker 1: how do you stop an elephant from charging? Um, you think, okay, well,
Speaker 1: I've got an image of an elephant charging. I'm ready
Speaker 1: to go. Come on, what's what's coming after this? Plus
Speaker 1: you're probably trying to, like me, I try to figure
Speaker 1: out a joke sometimes when it's set up punchline like that, right,
Speaker 1: And I'll bet that says a lot about you as
Speaker 1: a person. I can't wait until they have m R
Speaker 1: eyes that show what you're thinking, what you mean, like
Speaker 1: like when you behind you like pretty much yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: like like a thought bubble, right man, I knew it.
Speaker 1: I knew that's what you were thinking. Um we also
Speaker 1: we we it's a little more blue at our live ones.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've caught that or not, but
Speaker 1: both and chuck the said, um, no, like, like, what
Speaker 1: what would you think of if if someone says, like,
Speaker 1: how do you stop an elephant from charge? Quickly try
Speaker 1: and figure it out? I think that's just my right side,
Speaker 1: and then I probably wouldn't be able to and then
Speaker 1: I would hear the punch line and go, that's not
Speaker 1: very funny, right, Well, it's not a very funny punch line.
Speaker 1: It isn't. But um, once you once you're hearing that,
Speaker 1: the brain's primed. I'm sure there's some sort of que
Speaker 1: that didn't get into this in this article at all.
Speaker 1: But there's got to be some sort of que that
Speaker 1: there's a joke coming, you know, like if you walk
Speaker 1: up to somebody and say, like, you know, how do
Speaker 1: you stop in all the room charging? Probably just the
Speaker 1: very virtue, right, that's funny too. And then the guy
Speaker 1: like just lace down is like blindly trying to read
Speaker 1: a book on the ground. Um, so your left, the
Speaker 1: left hemisphere of your brain is working overtime to try
Speaker 1: to figure out this joke. And depending on what type
Speaker 1: of joke it is, um, different regions are going to
Speaker 1: be involved. Yeah, the UM, I think I guess if
Speaker 1: you like, the joke is in the amygdala. Well that's
Speaker 1: the reward. So if you like the joke, right or
Speaker 1: not right? Yeah? Okay, yeah, And I mean like depending
Speaker 1: on the type of joke, like for over here where
Speaker 1: the gears are going, like your broken area is involved
Speaker 1: with language, so a pun is going to make that
Speaker 1: area work and broke his area just goes. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: no amig della pay off on that. Not some people
Speaker 1: love pun Zoe. I don't get people like that. Are
Speaker 1: former colleague Chris Ballette. He was famous for his punch
Speaker 1: which it was bad like you. I used to be
Speaker 1: like stop, just stop, and he somehow commed with a
Speaker 1: pun from stop. You know, so you got broken area. Um,
Speaker 1: a guy walks into a bar type of joke, we'll
Speaker 1: get the frontal lobe going. That's used with higher reasoning.
Speaker 1: Apparently those jokes are very high minded typically or whatever
Speaker 1: what else the frontal lobe. If you have damage in
Speaker 1: your frontal lobe, they have found that it can prevent
Speaker 1: you from understanding jokes and punch lines, which is really sad.
Speaker 1: And they apparently tend to prefer slapstick comedy more because
Speaker 1: you don't have the process as much, which I think
Speaker 1: my have something to do with America's Funny some videos.
Speaker 1: We're all slightly but I'm not saying everyone that was
Speaker 1: that show has frontal lobe damage. But maybe maybe it's
Speaker 1: something you can kind of turn on and off depending
Speaker 1: on whether America's Funny or some videos is on. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Maybe so, Um, did you know that to the guys
Speaker 1: from Mry Science three Theater, three thousand, right for that show?
Speaker 1: No way. Yeah, and you can tell too, because like
Speaker 1: the qualities stepped up quite a bit. Oh, they're right
Speaker 1: for it now, I believe so. Yeah, within the last
Speaker 1: few years they were writing. I think Josh just admitted
Speaker 1: to recently watching that show. It's true. I like that show.
Speaker 1: I said it at the Variety Show. I like ridiculousness too.
Speaker 1: I just like that kind of stuff turn your brain off. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but my fernal lobe works just fine. Everybody. Well, you're
Speaker 1: you're an intellectual guy, so that doesn't surprise me. Sometimes
Speaker 1: I think if you're like super intellectual, you might enjoy
Speaker 1: just like super based comedy occasionally. Yeah, it's true, it's
Speaker 1: a theory. But I read about this study, um that
Speaker 1: came up with the idea that brain damage people can't
Speaker 1: especially funnal lobe. You said, can't really appreciate jokes because
Speaker 1: they can't find the punch line. And one of the
Speaker 1: ways they tested him was they showed him a joke
Speaker 1: on paper and it was basically like a kid's interviewing
Speaker 1: for a summer job and the employer says, um, well,
Speaker 1: we'll give you fifty to start, and then after a
Speaker 1: month we'll up at the s And then the brain
Speaker 1: damage patients were to pick out what the punch line was.
Speaker 1: There was great, I'll take it, when do I start?
Speaker 1: That's not really it, that's just kind of boring response. Um.
Speaker 1: Then there was the punch line, which is okay, well
Speaker 1: I'll come back in a month again, not my joke. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then the one that the brain damage patients picked
Speaker 1: typically was um, hey boss, your nose is too big
Speaker 1: for your face and can't you just see like the
Speaker 1: person administering this test is just holding back tears that
Speaker 1: they were picking that one. But that's what they came
Speaker 1: up with. It was you can't really get the punch line. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it takes a little a little bit of thought. It's
Speaker 1: really sad. Uh. So when we do get a joke
Speaker 1: and get that payoff, our old friend dopamine is what's
Speaker 1: coming into play. That reward is a shot of dopamine
Speaker 1: via the a magdala that we talked about. And it
Speaker 1: also explains why it's hard to laugh when you're blue,
Speaker 1: when you're sad. Um. I know, everyone that's had a
Speaker 1: friend or or relative or family member that's really down
Speaker 1: on the dumps, you try and cheer them up, and
Speaker 1: sometimes it is just impossible. You know. Yeah, why were
Speaker 1: you just getting so mad? And why why was I
Speaker 1: just laughing? Yeah? Because you you said that surely all
Speaker 1: of you have had a friend or a family member
Speaker 1: has been down in the debt. I sound like a
Speaker 1: Hallmark Guarden. Yeah, a little bit. It just made me laugh, okay, um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, sometimes it's literally impossible to cheer someone up,
Speaker 1: um because the meso limbic reward system turns basically shuts
Speaker 1: off the dopamine valve and you're not able to laugh. Um.
Speaker 1: So it's like it's like their brain is working through
Speaker 1: the joke, but they just can't possibly find it funny
Speaker 1: because their their mesolympic system is not functioning. And then
Speaker 1: you might have this sad exchange, which is didn't you
Speaker 1: get it? And they go no, I got it, or
Speaker 1: when they're like those funny, but I think it also
Speaker 1: explains to when they when you're able to finally reopen
Speaker 1: that And this is just my own theory too. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you know when you have that laugh that you really
Speaker 1: need after being depressed, then sometimes you just can't stop laughing.
Speaker 1: That hysterics hysterical thing takes over. And I think it's
Speaker 1: because you just get that rush of dopamine again, because
Speaker 1: your body craves it like cigarettes. And when it does, right,
Speaker 1: when it does pay off, you've got these special helper
Speaker 1: cells called spindle cells that just shoot it across your brain.
Speaker 1: So if you see somebody laughing like uncontrollably, their brain
Speaker 1: is just basically like zapping itself over and over and
Speaker 1: over again until the spindle cells just kind of pet
Speaker 1: around it. Yeah. Uh, I guess we're at the point
Speaker 1: now where we talk about the uncomfortable topic of men
Speaker 1: and women and why some people like Christopher Hitchens don't
Speaker 1: think women are funny. Take it, Chuck Hitchens. Uh, God
Speaker 1: rest his soul was on record in a very famous
Speaker 1: Vanity Fair article. Um what's it called? Why women aren't Funny?
Speaker 1: I think so, which is a great way to get
Speaker 1: a lot of clicks, I guess, and he theorized that
Speaker 1: women just weren't as funny, and I disagree. I think
Speaker 1: my wife, for one, is hysterical. Well, here's how he
Speaker 1: explained it. He said that, um, women don't have the
Speaker 1: same need to be funny that men do. That For men,
Speaker 1: it's a tool for reproduction to attract a mate by
Speaker 1: being funny. And he was saying women just don't need that.
Speaker 1: I get that. That was that was pretty much the
Speaker 1: basis of his argument. So it wasn't like he just
Speaker 1: wrote down like women aren't funny, don't even play right.
Speaker 1: It was a little more thought. Um And at Washington
Speaker 1: University School of Medicine actually did some studies again with
Speaker 1: the Wonder machine, and they did find some interesting differences
Speaker 1: between the sexes. UM. Females tend to pick apart verbiage
Speaker 1: more UM and derived a more potent meso limbic reward
Speaker 1: response when there was a punchline. So I think the
Speaker 1: general point is that guys may laugh more, women laugh harder,
Speaker 1: which I've seen in action. Yeah, because guys are kind
Speaker 1: of dopey and they'll we'll laugh at anything, you know.
Speaker 1: But I think women pick it apart more maybe maybe
Speaker 1: more a little more intellectual about it, but tend to
Speaker 1: get a lot more out of a joke than a
Speaker 1: man would. In the end, spindle cells go crazy, they
Speaker 1: go crazy. Oh yeah, the magic formula, my friend. Uh
Speaker 1: it is um x equals at times help plus and
Speaker 1: times though divided by P. I thought you're gonna say,
Speaker 1: chardon ay, No that works. Um so, Uh there's statistics
Speaker 1: actually yeah kind of. I don't know if it proves
Speaker 1: that men are funnier. It shows that women get fewer
Speaker 1: laughs than men statistically. So if you have a woman
Speaker 1: speaking to an audience, um, she's going to get well,
Speaker 1: the man's gonna get a hundred and twenty six percent
Speaker 1: more laughs out of that same audience than a female speaker.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, and a female speaker, especially to an all
Speaker 1: male audience, will get even less laughs. Uh it's science. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is not a saying. That not our jokes and
Speaker 1: this is not our position. Yes, they're turning on this.
Speaker 1: I feel it. Can you open that door? Quick exit?
Speaker 1: Uh so again. Christo Hitchins himself wasn't like we were saying,
Speaker 1: it's not like women are funny, But um, I think
Speaker 1: there's tons of great female comedians. Well he made that
Speaker 1: point too. He didn't say tons, but I mean he did.
Speaker 1: He didn't make a point. He's saying like that, you
Speaker 1: can't possibly say that there are no funny women. There's
Speaker 1: been some really great ones. But I think he was
Speaker 1: saying just in general. Here's why, um So, I think
Speaker 1: the reason we bring that up is, um, there's gender
Speaker 1: differences in humor. Yeah. Um, Like we said, it's very
Speaker 1: much based on context. So it's like age, cultural differences, gender,
Speaker 1: it all comes into play and everyone's going to find
Speaker 1: everything funny. National differences, like apparently we Americans. Everyone here American. Okay,
Speaker 1: well we're gonna let you in a little secret. Americans
Speaker 1: tend to think that, um that irony, humor that's not
Speaker 1: really like mean is funnier, more positive stuff, whereas the
Speaker 1: Brits think self deprecation and mean humor is way funnier too. Sarcasm. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: so you put a britain in an American in the
Speaker 1: same room telling the same joke, one one is probably
Speaker 1: not gonna laugh. Yeah, unless you're a master at mixing
Speaker 1: those two things together. I like British humor, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: like it too. It depends although oppressions. Well you have to. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't get Eddie Iszard. I know everybody loves Eddie
Speaker 1: is See. I don't it's what that's it. I'm not
Speaker 1: I'm sure that I know what that means. Apparently it's
Speaker 1: an Eddie Iszard reference. Is that one of his bits? Okay,
Speaker 1: that's kind of that's funny. Yah, what's your name? Lance?
Speaker 1: You should just do Eddie Iszard material. Maybe it's the
Speaker 1: presentation that's bothering me or the dress. He's like, well, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: well I'm gonna give another shot now. Yeah, that beast
Speaker 1: things great, Lance. Lance Iszard just got his brother Eddie
Speaker 1: is some extra views. Uh So, recent research on Plato
Speaker 1: and Aristotle's theories um abound um. The ancient Greeks claim
Speaker 1: that people laughed at malice of others misfortune, yeah, that
Speaker 1: superiority thing. Yeah, so it goes way back. People have
Speaker 1: always laughed at people that face plant, apparently, or get
Speaker 1: kicked in the balls. It's good old school humor. You're
Speaker 1: telling you blue um or. They've also found that um
Speaker 1: like bosses, and this is a kind of a no brainer,
Speaker 1: and they call it the brown nose effect. Bosses tend
Speaker 1: to joke more. And if you are an inferior not inferior,
Speaker 1: what would you call it? I guess just an employee,
Speaker 1: the the high man on the totem pole. What would
Speaker 1: you say? Subordinate? There you go. Um, if you're the subordinate,
Speaker 1: then you're gonna laugh more at your boss's jokes, just
Speaker 1: because you're trying to get in there. Your brown nosing. Well,
Speaker 1: I I saw in that same study they were saying, like,
Speaker 1: that's possibly an explanation, but they also think that it's
Speaker 1: more involuntary rather than a strategy like the uncomfortable not
Speaker 1: necessarily uncomfortable. It's almost like you just you're more primed
Speaker 1: to laugh at everything when you are at a low
Speaker 1: station and a given social situation, because when you laugh,
Speaker 1: people tend to like you more. You have a sense
Speaker 1: of humor, you attract more friends, and so the more
Speaker 1: friends you have, more allies you have, more allies you have,
Speaker 1: the higher your station rises. So they were saying they
Speaker 1: didn't think it was like an actual strategy that you
Speaker 1: just can't help but titter nervously yourself. Maybe I'm not,
Speaker 1: I'm just saying other people are. Uh. And finally, The
Speaker 1: last thing I have is that, um, they did some
Speaker 1: studies on what people do find funny and just daily life,
Speaker 1: and it's usually not jokes, and it's usually not a
Speaker 1: comedy routine you're watching. It's everyday life. Apparently only traces
Speaker 1: back to an actual joke. And seventy of daily laughter
Speaker 1: is just laughing at life and the people around you
Speaker 1: on a daily basis, right, And supposedly it's not even funny.
Speaker 1: Apparently the average person last seventeen point five times a day.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we said that. We didn't, but
Speaker 1: I wonder about that half laugh. You know, it's just
Speaker 1: a hoe or he wasn't so great, but we'll count it. Um.
Speaker 1: But this guy named Robert Provine, who's a laughter humor researcher. UM,
Speaker 1: he said that most of the stuff that precedes laughter
Speaker 1: and daily life, UM, which is called most pre laugh
Speaker 1: dialogue is quote like that of an interminable television situation
Speaker 1: comedy scripted by an extremely ungifted writer. So it's basically
Speaker 1: just like laughing at just dumb stuff that's not even
Speaker 1: really funny. It's just kind of said by somebody who
Speaker 1: you want to like you. Apparently that's the basis of humor.
Speaker 1: There's the s Y s K theory. Boom, I'm done,
Speaker 1: man uh all right, so you want to give our
Speaker 1: familiar sign off here. Yeah. So if you guys are
Speaker 1: interested in this kind of thing, you can find this
Speaker 1: article UM on how stuff works dot com by typing?
Speaker 1: Is there a scientific formula for funny in the handy
Speaker 1: search bar? And since I said handy search bar, it's
Speaker 1: time for do you have any listener mail? No, I
Speaker 1: should have brought one. Well that's it then, everybody, Thank
Speaker 1: you very much for coming out and checking out our
Speaker 1: live podcast. We hope you learned some funny stuff, laughed
Speaker 1: a little, loved a little. There you go. Thanks for
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