Why Humor Matters for Happiness
The Science of Happiness
PRX and Greater Good Science Center
4.4 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 17 August 2023
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Humor can help us with stress, anxiety and feeling more connected to others. But is humor connected to mindfulness? And how can we find more of it?
Link to episode transcript: https://tinyurl.com/2p9dkds7
Episode summary:
For Emmy- nominated comedian Josh Johnson, humor has always come naturally. But over time, Josh has found it difficult to reignite his passion for comedy outside of his career. For our show, Josh wrote down three funny things he experienced every day for a week. He noticed that funny moments often arise from a series of interconnected events, and that they aren’t always something we can prepare for. Instead, it’s the unexpected moments that often lead to a comedic sense of joy. Later, we hear from psychologist Sonja Heintz about the connection between various types of humor and mindfulness, and how engaging in mindful practices can spur more positive and benevolent types of humor.
Practice:
Take 10 minutes a day for at least a week to write down 3 of the funniest moments you experienced throughout the day.
Write down why you think these funny moments happened.
Remember to write down as much detail about the moment as possible. These funny moments do not have to be of major importance.
Learn more about this practice at Greater Good In Action:
https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/three_funny_things
Today’s guests:
Josh Johnson is an Emmy-nominated comedian and writer for The Daily Show. This interview was recorded before the Writer’s Guild and Screen Actors’ Guild strikes began.
Learn more about Josh Johnson: https://www.joshjohnsoncomedy.com/
Follow Josh on Twitter: https://tinyurl.com/33f4nkv2
Follow Josh on Instagram: https://tinyurl.com/3txe78kf
Sonja Heintz is a psychologist at the University of Plymouth who specializes in positive psychology.
Learn more about Sonja and her work: https://tinyurl.com/mt4vs6cx
Resources from The Greater Good Science Center:
Why Laughing Is Good for You (The Science of Happiness Podcast): https://tinyurl.com/4z3snujy
How Laughter Brings Us Together: https://tinyurl.com/2cnapztk
Four Funny Ways Laughter Is Good for You: https://tinyurl.com/5x6d9jp3
How a Little Humor Can Improve Your Work Life: https://tinyurl.com/bdzz6thx
More Resources on Humor:
BBC - How comedy makes us better people: https://tinyurl.com/ytywxb94
Harvard - Humor, Laughter, and Those Aha Moments: https://tinyurl.com/ujjmzc75
Ted - The Superpower of Humour: https://tinyurl.com/53chw3nz
When Everything Is Heavy, a Touch of Humor Can Help: https://tinyurl.com/s6ydmyu4
What are three funny things that happened in your life recently? Email us at [email protected] or use the hashtag #happinesspod.
Help us share The Science of Happiness!
Rate us on Spotify and share this link with someone who might like the show: https://tinyurl.com/4uyr2w35
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Shuka Kalantari, the executive producer of the Science of Happiness. |
| 0:05.7 | This week we're talking about the science of humor, with the amazing comedian, Josh |
| 0:09.7 | Johnson. |
| 0:10.7 | And I want to note that this interview was recorded before the screen actors and writers |
| 0:14.8 | killed strikes. |
| 0:15.8 | Thanks, and enjoy the episode. |
| 0:23.2 | Growing up, people would tell me that I was funny, and I started trying to do stand-up |
| 0:29.2 | by moods, Chicago, and just sort of dove in. |
| 0:32.8 | When I started comedy, everything was funny. |
| 0:35.4 | Do you remember when you believed in grown-ups? |
| 0:42.1 | Remember when you were little and you were like, the big people, they know. |
| 0:46.9 | And then you got older and you're like, nobody knows. |
| 0:53.8 | I do like in doing comedy to doing magic, because when you start out doing magic, especially |
| 1:01.3 | one of the reasons kids are so attracted to magic, is that there's a secret, it's a secret |
| 1:05.7 | that only you can have unless you decide to share it. |
| 1:08.5 | And so, as you're learning it, it loses the secret to you, it loses some of the magic. |
| 1:15.1 | You understand the moves, you understand the sleight of hand. |
| 1:18.7 | You can even guess at how something's being done. |
| 1:23.5 | I want to reconnect with how excited and how much fun it was when I first started trying |
| 1:29.6 | to do stand-up, like to get back to, if possible, how I felt when I started comedy. |
| 1:40.4 | Welcome to The Science of Happiness, I'm Dacker Keltner. |
| 1:43.8 | Laughter and humor are some of the most beautiful aspects of human evolution. |
... |
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