The Lowest Form of Wit Cognitive Engineering

Which is more grating, constant punning or permanent snarkiness? We examine the hierarchy of humour in order to determine what is, indeed, no laughing matter.

In this podcast, we consider whether humour value can be objectively measured, and if so, whether it is a separate concept to that of wit. We also look at why we bother to attempt humour in the first place. Finally, we engage in a slightly awkward exercise to determine whether we are good judges of our own funniness.


A few things we mentioned in this podcast:


- The eleven kinds of joke according to The Onion’s founder https://bigthink.com/stephen-johnson/every-joke-falls-in-one-of-these-11-categories-according-to-the-founder-of-the-onion
- The Atlantic: What Makes Something Funny? https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/03/funny-how/550910/
- Do animals have a sense of humour? https://www.livescience.com/60864-do-animals-have-humor.html
- Humor ability reveals intelligence, predicts mating success, and is
higher in male https://www.psychologytoday.com/sites/default/files/attachments/95822/humor-predicts-mating-success.pdf
- Walter Nash’s ‘The Language of Humour’ https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Language_of_Humour.html?id=Ef0NAQAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y
- ‘Biggus Dickus’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQkQAU9iU7I

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