Science of Laughter

The Infinite Monkey Cage

BBC

Comedy, Science

4.7 • 9.4K Ratings

🗓️ 13 January 2020

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Science of Laughter

Brian Cox and Robin Ince return for a new series of science/comedy chat. They are joined on stage, appropriately enough, by comedian Frank Skinner, as they look at the science of what makes us laugh, why we laugh at all, and whether humour and laughter are uniquely human traits. Joining the panel are experts in what makes us chuckle, Prof Sophie Scott and Professor Richard Wiseman. They look at why laughter is not only an ancient human trait that goes a long way to making us the social animal we are today, but that rats and apes also enjoy a good chuckle. They discover whether science can come up with the perfect joke and why a joke with the punchline "quack" is funnier than one with the punchline "moo".

Producer: Alexandra Feachem

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:05.0	Man goes into a restaurant and he looks at the menu.
0:07.3	He says, I'll tell you what I'll have.
0:08.8	I'll have the octopus, please.
0:10.3	And the way it goes, just to warn you, sir,
0:11.6	it does take four and a half hours to cook.
0:13.2	He goes four and a half hours to cook.
0:14.7	Why does it take that long?
0:15.9	He goes, well, we cook them alive
0:17.0	and they keep turning the gas off.
0:18.8	So...
0:20.3	LAUGHTER
0:22.3	That's in bad taste, that, isn't it?
0:24.8	And it's in accurate, actually.
0:26.2	Well, that's the... It's...
0:28.0	No.
0:29.0	It's not a real octopus.
0:31.0	How do you know that an octopus could turn off a cooker?
0:34.4	Because...
0:35.4	I mean, it could be one of those sensitive cook-ups.
0:37.1	So, one of the problems with telling jokes to scientists
0:39.2	is they become peer-reviewed extremely quickly.
	...

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