What do you get when you cross scholarly research and dick jokes? Nothing to laugh at, normally. But science writer Jim Holt defies the Heisenberg principle of humor — you can’t study it without killing it — in his book Stop Me If You’ve Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes. We caught up with him walking into a bar.
Wired: One question you tackle is who invented the joke. Weren’t we cracking wise back in the caves?
Holt:
No, the classic joke form — setup with incongruity, punch line that resolves the incongruity
—seems to have come out of Greece and Rome. There’s this guy in Greek -mythology called Palamedes who invented practically everything — numbers, currency, lighthouses, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He also supposedly invented the joke. And, of course, he was stoned to death.
Wired: So where do new jokes come from?
Holt:
It used to be that all the jokes I got came from […]
Original post by Lucas Graves
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