The month of April brings fools, showers, and Easter bunnies. But did you know that it's also National Humor Month? We're tickled to bring you a selection of Episodes from the Archive to delight and amuse you all month long.
Just last fall, Josh and Ray teamed up with Thi Nguyen from the University of Utah, author of Games: Agency as Art, to ask what exactly is a game. And earlier in the year, Josh and John spoke to Jeff Israel from Williams College, author of Living with Hate in American Politics and Religion: How Popular Culture Can Defuse Intractable Differences, to ask how comedy and play can help us deal with difficult social issues. It's fair to say that puns (and humor in general) loom large in our work, whether delivered off the cuff or to make deeper points about language and (mis)understanding, and in 2016 Josh and Ken spoke with John Pollack, author of The Pun Also Rises: How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More Than Some Antics. Humor, comedy, and satire can also be fraught with peril, which the Philosophers explored in 2015 with Jane Kirtley, Director of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota. Of course a good joke can also be like a good philosophical argument, which John and Ken discussed in a vintage program with Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, authors of Plato and A Platypus Walk Into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes. Enjoy!
Fun, Games, and Humor
Episode Title | Guest | Related Content | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
What's In a Game? | Thi Nguyen, Professor of Philosophy, University of Utah | Why Games Matter | ||
Comedy and the Culture Wars | Jeffrey Israel, Professor of Religion, Williams College | Comedy on the Edges | ||
More Than Pun and Games | Author and former speechwriter John Pollack | The Philosophy of Puns | ||
The Power and Peril of Satire | Jane Kirtley, Professor of Media Ethics and Law, University of Minnesota | The Power and Perils of Satire | ||
Philosophy Through Humor | Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein | Humor The Science of Humor Philosophy and Pop Culture |