Tag: humor

Punching Down Is A Matter Of Perspective

by Chris Yeh

One of the comments on my post on conservative comedy made an argument that I’ve seen a lot: “Someone (can’t remember who) said that comedy is about kicking up, not kicking down.  Republicans kick down. It’s not funny.” I generally see it referred to as punching up, rather than punching down (I think my reader … Continue reading Punching Down Is A Matter Of Perspective

Humor and Gender

by Chris Yeh

A recent Atlantic piece on humor and psychology, which focused on the “dark psychology” of comedians, seems to me to have buried the lead: http://bit.ly/1futmup What’s really interesting to me are the relationships between humor, intelligence, and gender. 1. Humor is correlated with intelligence: “For a 2011 study published in the journal Intelligence, Greengross gave … Continue reading Humor and Gender

Humor is about Superiority…and Inferiority

by Chris Yeh

I read a recent IO9 blog post about the superiority theory of laughter with some interest: http://bit.ly/1gQfZJl “The most dominant theory about why people laugh at each other also happens to be the meanest theory. It’s called the superiority theory of humor, and it goes all the way back to the classical Greeks. (Everyone knows … Continue reading Humor is about Superiority…and Inferiority

Why Worry?

by Chris Yeh

The great Eric Barker recently reviewed the research on fear, and found that there are three secrets to fearlessness, as practiced by courageous types like firefighters and special forces operatives: http://bit.ly/1awzzJt 1. Training and Preparation “The Navy SEAL team that killed Bin Laden trained for weeks inside a full scale replica of the compound they … Continue reading Why Worry?

Jason’s Made-up Songs

by Chris Yeh

One of the things Jason enjoys is making up fake song titles. Here the list he came up with today: Granpa [sic] was an apeBoringLovely SpleenI twink – Mel GibsonSour BartyLunch MeetGookySon of a, Diddle, Exhausting, Stinkin’ EggsSunk BatBonyMagical Thieves – Return of the LeanMini Ha Ha (The Joke is on you)Matter Bald TopMr. RevereMebaWhat?Anything … Continue reading Jason’s Made-up Songs

Quote of the Day: Gilbert Arenas on Tiger Woods

by Chris Yeh

“Man, I don’t know why everybody’s sitting around here like it’s something new. Tiger Woods is Tiger Woods! It’s not like he looks like Seal. It’s not like he’s not going to have a whole bunch of women. He’s Tiger Woods! I’m surprised 400 girls didn’t come out. It’s Tiger Woods y’all. It’s Tiger Woods … Continue reading Quote of the Day: Gilbert Arenas on Tiger Woods

Line of the Decade: On Naked Athletes

by Chris Yeh

From Rick Reilly’s column for ESPN, on naked athletes:One afternoon, Jenny Kellner, then of the New York Daily News, was covering the Jets. She entered the locker room only to find one of the team’s stars buck naked. He walked up to her, pointed to his babymaker and said, “Hey, Jenny, do you know what … Continue reading Line of the Decade: On Naked Athletes

More Tales of Jason and Marissa

by Chris Yeh

Recently, the kids have become obsessed with whether or not getting struck by lightning will kill a person. I had to look up statistics that showed that over 2/3rds of people who get struck by lightning survive. I also tried to convince them that the chances of getting struck by lightning were very remote. “In … Continue reading More Tales of Jason and Marissa