The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny

The iffy field of humorology is fitfully illuminated in this gonzo pop-science expedition. Journalist Warner and psychology professor McGraw, director of the University of Colorado's Humor Research Lab, investigate the sketchy research on what makes people laugh, focusing on McGraw's "benign violation theory," which posits that off-kilter, unsettling or threatening situations turn funny when somehow tweaked to seem unserious. (Ultrasonic rat squeaks and great apes' panting, they speculate, are laughter precursors that signal friendly rough-housing.) It's an engaging conceit if not quite a breakthrough%E2%80%94McGraw applies it to crafting a mediocre stand-up routine%E2%80%94but the book's heart is the author's globetrotting pursuit of humor-themed figures and phenomena: the New Yorker cartoon caption contest; boozy ad-men trying to think up droll taglines; inscrutable Japanese comic monologues; African mass laughter epidemics. There's not much rigorous science in these unfocused junkets, and not always much humor; visits to prophet-profaning Scandinavian cartoonists under lock-down, West Bank sketch-comedy shows, and clown parades through miserable Peruvian slums mainly demonstrate that many of the world's problems can't be easily laughed off. Writing in the Freakonomics vein of colorful social sciences reportage, McGraw and Warner proffer much vivid and amusing picaresque in their setup, but the scientific punch line carries little weight. (Apr. 1)