Il Pollo di Marconi (English translation: “Marconi’s Chicken”) is a new book that collects and savors pranks pulled by scientists (and/or their ilk). Journalist Vito Tartamella did the collecting and savoring. The book, which includes Tartamella’s own celebrated discovery of the stealthily published scientific papers by Stronzo Bestiale (English translation: “Total Asshole”), is in Italian. […]
As Disney’s newly awarded US patent 10,981,073 (April 20th, 2021) points out : “Toys and characters often have prerecorded phrases or audio effects that can be played to increase the immersion for users who interact with the character. For example, some toys have pull strings, push buttons, and the like that triggers one or more […]
Q. If you’re going to make a sarcastic remark to someone, which of their ears should be targeted to elicit the swiftest response? As a result of a recent experimental study, a research team from the Department of Psychology, Washburn University, US, the Department of Psychology, University of Kansas, US, and the Department of Psychology, […]
A new study from professors Simon Stewart and David Thompson of the Centre for the Heart and Mind and the Mary MacKillop Institute of Health Research (MMIHR) at the Australian Catholic University (ACU) has found that : “Elite comedians are at increased risk of premature death compared to their less funny counterparts.” The team examined […]
Robert Crease writes, in Physics World: …Physics, however, has a tradition of thoughtful joke-telling that uses humorous tales inquisitively – to deepen appreciation of a person, of the world, or of both. Jokes revealing personal characteristics have covered everything from Albert Einstein’s childlike personality and Niels Bohr’s mystique to Wolfgang Pauli’s famously brutal putdowns. Abraham […]
Our annual reminder that not all skeletons are suitable for use as Halloween costumes: “Penises as variable-volume hydrostatic skeletons,” Diane A. Kelly, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1101, 2007: 453-463. This year, a related reminder about joking on Halloween: “Joking in the face of death: A terror management approach to humor production,” Christopher R. […]
Since their mainstream emergence online circa 2006/2007, LOLcats (Laugh Out Loud Cats) have afforded an abundance of amusing annotated amateur artistry. Although it took some years to attract the attention of serious academic investigators, the unusual form of linguistic construction used by the LOLcat community – now known as ‘LOLspeak’ – has at last been […]
Guntis Pakalns, who is senior researcher, Dr.philol. at the Archives of Latvian Folklore, Institute for Literature, Folklore and Art at University of Latvia, has collated a unique and very extensive collection of Christmas-related humorous images and video clips found on the Internet. Dr. Pakalns outlines his project thus: “The central part of the article is […]
Mathematicians of a certain bent enjoy puns. For them — and only them — here are some items about log scales: A photo of a log scale Log scales in Australia Log scales somewhere else And this: “The Case for Cubic Log Scale“, which blends in an unusual but sensible way notions from two kinds of […]
Unfairly or not, some have characterised the rôle of accountants in popular culture as dull and boring. And the bottom line is that there is a plentiful stock of jokes about them. But a provisional audit of the scholarly literature reveals that researchers been extremely economical in accruing an inventory of accountancy-humour papers. In fact, […]