Some things are funny--jokes, puns, sitcoms, Charlie Chaplin, The Far Side, Malvolio with his yellow garters crossed--but why? Why does humor exist in the first place? Why do we spend so much of our time passing on amusing anecdotes, making wisecracks, watching The Simpsons? In Inside Jokes, Matthew Hurley, Daniel Dennett, and Reginald Adams offer an evolutionary and cognitive perspective. Humor, they propose, evolved out of a computational problem that arose when our long-ago ancestors were furnished with open-ended thinking.
This collection of 12 mini-books celebrates America’s best-known and best-loved tall-tale heroes—from Johnny Appleseed to John Henry. Easy to make and easy to read, these mini-books combine history and humor in a comic-book style that appeals to readers of all levels and interests.
Using Humor to Maximize Learning: The Links between Positive Emotions and Education
The purpose of this book is to affirm, sustain, and encourage educators in the practice of humor not only as a personal tool to optimize a healthy lifestyle, but to maximize the benefits of humor in education.
