All posts tagged: humor

The Possibility of Humor | Cathleen Schine

The Possibility of Humor | Cathleen Schine

Published by José Betancourt

Steve Stern’s new novel, A Fool’s Kabbalah, is a comedy about tragedy and a tragedy about comedy. It is a mystical fable of real events and a realistic account of mysticism. There are Jewish jokes and Jewish jokesters and Nazis who torture and kill the jokesters. Kafka, Kabbalah, Zionism, and the shtetl of Zyldzce (pronounced, perhaps, as “zilch”); Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, love for a rabbi’s beautiful daughter, and an occult midnight marriage to an unearthly albino girl in a white gauze dress; shit jokes, fart jokes, raw misery, deep philosophy, brutal history and brutal fantasy, broken hearts and heartfelt joy—these exuberantly disparate topics are somehow, improbably, made to cohere. This is Stern’s seventh novel. His previous book, The Village Idiot (2022), explored the historical reality of the early-twentieth-century School of Paris artists from the dreamlike perspective of the expressionist painter Chaïm Soutine, who trudges beneath the Seine in a diving suit. Stern has also published four collections of stories, four novellas, and two children’s books, all of them steeped in Jewish folklore. He is, …

If You’re A Baby Boomer Parent, These 9 Habits Can Quietly Push Your Adult Children Away

If You’re A Baby Boomer Parent, These 9 Habits Can Quietly Push Your Adult Children Away

Published by Jenni Sidey

 The parent-child bond is a powerful one, but it isn’t invincible. When your child is dependent on you for food and shelter, they don’t have a lot of choice about sticking around. We don’t grow out of wanting our parents’ love and approval, so when your child no longer needs your daily support, chances are high they will embrace a new adult relationship with you. You can change all that. If you want the texts, phone calls, and visits from your adult child to grow less and less frequent and maybe even stop altogether, just follow these bad habits, and even the most connected child will eventually stay away from their Baby Boomer parents. If you’re a Baby Boomer parent, these habits can quietly push your adult children away: Boomer habit 1: Complaining that your adult children never call You can use this strategy whether they call daily, weekly, monthly, or once a year. It’s not about the frequency per se. No amount of contact will be enough for you. This works for phone calls, …

The psychological reason why dark humor isn’t for everyone

The psychological reason why dark humor isn’t for everyone

Published by José Betancourt

A study in Hungary found that watching light humor tended to reduce anxiety and negative emotions, while dark humor tended to increase anxiety in people not fond of dark comedy. After watching humorous videos, people most often reported lower levels of both positive and negative affect. The research was published in Personality and Individual Differences. Humor is the ability to perceive, create, or appreciate situations that are amusing or absurd. It often works by violating expectations in a harmless way, such as through surprise, irony, exaggeration, or wordplay. One influential explanation, the “benign violation” theory, suggests that something is funny when it breaks a norm but in a way that feels safe rather than threatening. Humor also relies on cognitive processes such as pattern recognition, perspective shifting, and resolving incongruity. When people experience humor, it activates reward systems in the brain and may trigger laughter. Laughter can reduce physiological stress by lowering muscle tension and decreasing stress hormones. Humor also strengthens social bonds, because sharing laughter signals trust, similarity, and emotional safety. On a psychological …

How to Help Your Child Develop a Sense of Humor

How to Help Your Child Develop a Sense of Humor

Published by Jenni Sidey

A healthy sense of humor is one of the most desirable personality characteristics to develop. It is one of the most common positive self-descriptions and one of the most preferred characteristics when meeting new friends and even potential dates or mates. Psychological and medical research has confirmed the many benefits of humor making and humor appreciation for us all (Franzini, 2025). An adult person’s well-developed sense of humor is highly correlated with a feeling of self-confidence, social friendliness, relaxation, ease in meeting new people, workplace benefits, hiring and promotions success, general communication skills, and the frequently cited strong binding influence in long term relationships. Physical benefits of laughter have been found to affect muscle relaxation for up to 45 minutes, diminish threat-induced anxiety and reduce blood pressure, lower toxic hormones in the bloodstream, improve oxygen saturation levels in the blood, and even more (Bennett & Lengacher, 2006). First, we must destroy the frequent misunderstanding that our sense of humor is innate or that someone is just born with it. Not so! The ability to learn, …

I Tried Parenting Like It Was The 1980s — And Wow, Gen-X Was Built Different

I Tried Parenting Like It Was The 1980s — And Wow, Gen-X Was Built Different

Published by Jenni Sidey

“OK, so first we’re going to make Sprite, and then we’re going to compare it to regular Sprite and see which one is better. Then we’re going to bake cookies and maybe something else, too.”  My 12-year-old and his friend Emma have independently planned a camp-free week together, which seemed like a good idea at the time. Where we live, camp options range from one trillion dollars per week to one gazillion dollars per week. I was digging into the prospect of saving the equivalent of eight million mortgage payments in one week. I excel at math. I tried parenting like it was the 1980s — and wow, Gen-X was built different. The first day of don’t-come-home-until-the-streetlights-turn-on 1980s summer week involved cooking. Indoors. At our house. Where three days a week my husband and I work from home.  Emma is one of my son’s best friends. Sometimes, I wonder if she actually lives with us. One time, I came downstairs on a random school day and discovered her eating lunch at our kitchen table, alone. …

How Humor Can Improve Your Life

How Humor Can Improve Your Life

Published by Jenni Sidey

The late actress Catherine O’Hara had advised, “There is nothing sexier than laughing together.” Her recommendation is risk-free and financially free, yet worth hundreds of dollars. Our country is increasingly learning the value of adding more humor to our lives. Psychologists are touting the benefits of the practice and appreciation of humor to a person’s self-esteem, internal confidence, and the ease of making new friends. Physicians have proven that laughter can reduce a person’s blood pressure, decrease the toxic hormones in your bloodstreams, and can even lower muscle tensions for up to 45 minutes. Morticians and public health statisticians have noted the increasing longevity of those who are humor aficionados. Garden & Gun magazine, in their February-March 2026 issue, published their first-ever humor issue, featuring popular comedian Nate Bargatze on the cover. It is about time, instead of focusing so much on ultimate Southern sandwiches, tropical dream homes, and the bourbon boom, not to mention gardens and guns themselves. It is all a clear sign that everyone is increasing their increasing attention to adding more …

Donald Trump weaponizes humor through “dark play” to test boundaries

Donald Trump weaponizes humor through “dark play” to test boundaries

Published by José Betancourt

A new analysis of American political discourse suggests that humor has evolved into a strategic weapon used to attack opponents and solidify support bases. The research indicates that both Donald Trump and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rely heavily on aggressive forms of comedy to persuade voters and deflect criticism. These findings were published in The European Journal of Humour Research. Beer Prakken, a PhD candidate at the University of Groningen and visiting researcher at Utrecht University, led this investigation. He noticed a significant shift in how humor operates within the public sphere over the last decade. Scholars have historically viewed political comedy as a positive force for democracy or a tool for social justice. Current trends indicate that right-wing populist leaders have effectively co-opted humor for different ends. Prakken sought to move beyond analyzing how comedians mock politicians on late-night television. He aimed to understand how politicians themselves utilize jokes to shape public perception and policy. Existing research often characterizes the far-right through negative emotions such as anger or fear. Prakken wanted to investigate the role of …

Elon Musk Said Grok’s Roasts Would Be ‘Epic’ at Parties—So I Tried It on My Coworkers

Elon Musk Said Grok’s Roasts Would Be ‘Epic’ at Parties—So I Tried It on My Coworkers

Published by skeptic

We can debate the worthiness of Elon Musk’s accomplishments—building up Tesla, hollowing out the government, shooting for Mars—but we can all agree that his insistence on being seen as funny is his most grating quality. From the constant 4:20 references to his quote tweet “dunks” to awarding “Certified Bangers” badges to silly X posts, Musk’s desperation for validation knows no bounds. It can get pretty annoying when the richest guy on earth makes a joke and then awkwardly eyes the room waiting for everyone to laugh. But over the weekend, I was intrigued when a clip emerged of Musk telling Joe Rogan that using Grok’s Unhinged Mode to deliver an “epic vulgar roast” is a surefire way to “make people really laugh at a party.” “Point the camera at them, and now do a vulgar roast of this person … then keep saying, ‘no, no, make it even more vulgar. Use forbidden words,’” Musk excitedly tells Rogan in the clip taken from their three-hour-plus conversation published on Rogan’s podcast in October. “Eventually it’s like, holy …