Gonzolabs

Can humor be studied scientifically? Yes, it turns out. I hosted a panel discussion on this at the 2010 ESOF conference in Turin, Italy last week. Here is the entire 1-hour video.

Some highlights: Stanford neuroscientist Allan Reiss discovered a neural basis for humor gender differences while studying cataplectic patients–people who are literally paralyzed by emotional stimuli such as a funny joke. UCLA anthropologist Tom Flamson has a new theory of the evolutionary roots of humor based on his study of a remote village in Brazil. And University of Texas linguist Salvatore Attardo describes the oldest known jokes, such as a fart joke etched in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. The oldest jokes are all potty humor, he says. Go figure.

Warning/apology: I was extremely sleepy due to the conference media party the night before. It was a struggle to be coherent, let alone funny…