The Humor Code

Praise for

THE HUMOR CODE

“Peter and Joel's globe-spanning search for what makes things funny is a wonderful page-turner that entertains as much as it informs.”

—Dan Ariely, author of
The (Honest) Truth about Dishonesty
and
Predictably Irrational

“This book tickled my hippocampus. Joel Warner and Peter McGraw gave me paradigm-altering insights into humor, but also creativity, business, happiness, and, of course, flatulence.”

—A.J. Jacobs, author of
Drop Dead Healthy
and
The Year of Living Biblically

“If you've ever wondered why we laugh at what we do, you have to read this book about the DNA of humor. The odd-couple authors take us on a journey from the halls of science to the backstage of Los Angeles comedy clubs, and they show us why people can laugh amidst tensions in Palestine or a clown brigade in the Amazon. It's part Indiana Jones, part Tina Fey, and part
Crime Scene Investigation
, and it will make you smarter and happier.”

—Chip Heath, author of
Decisive, Switch
, and
Made to Stick

“Engaging, wise, and of course funny,
The Humor Code
is a wonderful quest to discover who and what makes us laugh. Pete McGraw and Joel Warner are the best of company, and you'll be glad you took this trip with them.”

—Susan Cain, bestselling author of
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“I've always been fascinated by how humor works. I'm not willing to say that
The Humor Code
solves the puzzle once and for all, but it comes pretty close—and along the way it's a hell of a ride.”

—Jimmy Carr, stand-up comedian, television host, actor, and coauthor of
Only Joking: What's So Funny About Making People Laugh?

“
The Humor Code
is a fun narrative of how a serious scientific theory is born, tested, and lived.”

—Ben Huh, CEO, The Cheezburger Network

“Spanning five continents, McGraw and Warner's quest for a unified field theory of funny may be quixotic, but like Don Q and Sancho, their misadventures are irresistible and their enthusiasm is as infectious as the laughter they chronicle. Together they manage to find the science in comedy and the comedy in science, and share it all with the reader in this playful Baedeker of humor.”

—Barnet Kellman; Emmy Award–winning director of
Murphy Brown
and
Mad About You
, professor at the University of California School of Cinematic Arts, and codirector of Comedy@SCA

“
The Humor Code
is so good that I wish I wrote it. In fact, I've already started telling people I did. Luckily, Pete McGraw and Joel Warner are givers, so they won't mind. They've given us a remarkable look at what makes us laugh, with the perfect blend of science, stories, satire, and sweater vests. This book has ‘bestseller' written all over it.”

—Adam Grant, professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and bestselling author of
Give and Take

“McGraw and Warner have done something quite remarkable and commendable. They've taken an intriguing question regarding the nature of humor and artfully mined answers from both the outcomes of scientific research and their own ‘worldwide comedy tour' experiences. I've never seen anything like it.”

—Robert Cialdini, bestselling author of
Influence

“
The Humor Code
is a rollicking tour de farce that blends academic insights and amusing anecdotes to answer some of the most serious (and frivolous) questions about humor, from what makes us laugh and why we laugh at all, to how the world's cultures came to have completely different senses of humor.”

—Adam Alter,
New York Times
bestselling author of
Drunk Tank Pink
and assistant professor of marketing and psychology at New York University

“If you've ever been interested in trying comedy, this book will either scare you away from it or force you to do it. I consider both options a success.”

—Mike Drucker, standup comedian and writer for
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

“If you're doing business in the global marketplace,
The Humor Code
is a must-read. Not only did I learn what makes things humorous around the world, now I understand why nobody in Japan ever laughed at my jokes!”

—Marty St. George, senior vice president of marketing, JetBlue Airways

“Blending cutting-edge science and clever stories,
The Humor Code
will help you find a funnier world—whether you are on Twitter or not.”

—Claire Diaz-Ortiz, author of
Twitter for Good
and innovator at Twitter, Inc.

“Funny, poignant, and inspiring, Peter and Joel manage the tricky task of vivisecting comedy without losing the patient.”

—Andy Wood, cofounder and producer of the Bridgetown Comedy Festival

“Humor is like happiness—universal but subjective. What's great about
The Humor Code
is that it takes a scientific look at how humor differs across cultures [while] vitally connecting us at the same time.”

—Jenn Lim, CEO and chief happiness officer of Delivering Happiness

“A harrowing tale of men obsessed with understanding a gargantuan and enigmatic beast called Funny. This book might as well be titled ‘Moby Dick Jokes.' ”

—Baron Vaughn, comedian; as seen on Comedy Central,
Conan, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
, and his podcast
Deep S##!

“Leave it to a reporter and a scientist to try to ruin something beautiful by dissecting it, and instead create something wonderful.
The Humor Code
is a tremendous book.”

—Shane Snow, technology journalist and cofounder of Contently

“The search for what makes things funny was one we found we could not stop reading. Two thumbs up (Andrew hated it).”

—The Grawlix (comedians Adam Cayton-Holland, Andrew Orvedahl, and Ben Roy)

Authors' Note

Epigraph

Introduction

1. COLORADO: Set-up

2. LOS ANGELES: Who is funny?

3. NEW YORK: How do you make funny?

4. TANZANIA: Why do we laugh?

5. JAPAN: When is comedy lost in translation?

6. SCANDINAVIA: Does humor have a dark side?

7. PALESTINE: Can you find humor where you least expect it?

8. THE AMAZON: Is laughter the best medicine?

9. MONTREAL: Punch line

Acknowledgments

About Peter McGraw and Joel Warner

Notes

Index

Portions of this book—a line here, a paragraph there—previously appeared under one or both of our bylines in various publications, including
Wired
,
Wired.com
,
Westword
newspaper,
Salon, The Huffington Post, Psychology Today
, and our personal websites (
PeterMcGraw.org
and
JoelWarner.com
). Please don't hold it against us. We were eager to spread the word about what we were up to.

Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.

—E. B. White, 1941

Let's kill some frogs.

People a lot smarter and more important than the two of us have pondered what makes things funny. Plato and Aristotle contemplated the meaning of comedy while laying the foundations of Western philosophy. Thomas Hobbes probed the issue within the pages of his momentous tome
Leviathan
. Charles Darwin looked for the seeds of laughter in the joyful cries of tickled chimpanzees. Sigmund Freud sought the underlying motivations behind jokes in the nooks and crannies of our unconscious.

None of them got it right. Yet for some reason, we think we can succeed where they all failed.

Who are we? A dream team of Nobel Prize–winning scientists and Emmy-laden comedy writers? Not exactly.

Let's start with my co-author: Peter McGraw, the so-called “brains” of the operation. An academic with an adventurous side, he's the guy who set this outlandish quest in motion. As a professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, he's obsessed with making sense out of insanity, order out of chaos. His university office is impeccably organized, with piles of journal articles and academic surveys—on topics ranging from the economics of gun shows to mega-church marketing strategies—arranged by subject, stacked in perfect columns, and labeled with orderly Post-it notes. To try to understand the odd ways the world works, he's circumnavigated the globe on a ship. Twice. He's just as exacting
regarding his teaching techniques. Lately, before classes, he's been telling himself he's going to a big, exciting party, to ensure his lectures are as energetic and engaging as possible. For a professor who goes by “Pete” instead of “Dr. McGraw,” stuffy and long-winded doesn't cut it.