What Actually Happened
By Charles Partridge ’08
The Michigan Theater presents the Humor conference.
Photo by: Philip Datillo
Kevin Bleyer was confused. “Thanks for the ferns,” said the Emmy Award-winning writer for “The Daily Show,” looking at the verdant foliage decorating the Michigan Theater stage. “We are either signing an international treaty, or auditioning for the next series of Lost.”
Bleyer was the first speaker in the “Doing It” section of the March 10th conference on humor co-sponsored by the Knight-Wallace Fellows at Michigan and The New Yorker Cartoon Bank. It was an event that brought together a stellar group of writers, cartoonists and academics to discuss “The Serious Stuff About Humor—What Is It? Why Is It?”
Introducing the afternoon, Knight-Wallace Director Charles Eisendrath walked on stage in a jester’s cap to make a serious point: Humor is serious stuff. In an age when young people get much of their news from “The Daily Show”—a self-professed “fake news” comedy program —it’s time, Eisendrath said, we looked seriously at humor. This was the first conference ever, anywhere, to bring together those who study it and those who do it.
Eisendrath set up the experimental program Humor at Michigan (HAM, what else?) back in 2003 and he believes the study of humor could make it to the status of a full university course. In fact, at the conference, he launched a plea for any member of the large audience with a couple million dollars to spare to contact him right away to make it happen.
But back to Bleyer, lost among the ferns. Where do his ideas come from?
“Panic!” he said. And amid a series of clips from “The Daily Show,” he proved that panic is the father of some pretty impressive comedy moments.
Tim Carvell, another writer for “The Daily Show,” was the next speaker to take the stage. “Comedy is always funny when you explain it,” he deadpanned. Later, he shared one of the show’s comedy writing secrets: when all else fails, add the word “balls.”
While both writers for “The Daily Show” were reluctant to go too far into analysis as to why something is funny, keynote speaker Bob Mankoff was happy to go there. The cartoon editor of The New Yorker suggested that all cartoonists need parents who rejected them at birth. It gets them used to the inevitable “thank you, but no” slips they receive for most of their submissions.
To Mankoff, the basic principle of humor is surprise, something that jars and does not fit. Speaking at 80 miles an hour, he peppered his address with cartoons flashing up on a large screen behind him. As the audience hooted at one classic Mankoff cartoon after another, he explained his background as an experimental psychologist which gave him an insight into the thing we call humor.
Matt Diffee, performer and New Yorker cartoonist, had a special reason to be on stage with Mankoff. He brought along a load of his cartoons that Mankoff had rejected for the magazine. They were either too dark or too weird or too... whatever. (Regardless, the Michigan Theater audience loved them.)
Jerry Craft, creator of the African American comic strip “Mama’s Boyz”, discussed the delicacies of race and humor, telling how one of his cartoons got his strip dropped from several papers. The cartoon in question featured several very young African American women being turned away from a PG-rated movie.
“You have to have a parent with you,” the ticket seller tells them.
“But we are parents!” wail the girls.
Professors Rod Martin, Richard Lewis and Paul Lewis explain what’s funny and why.
Photo by: Philip Datillo
“Humor comes from a dark place” Craft said, defending the cartoon by noting it was taken out of context as part of a series. Anyone who followed the series, he said, would have been able to understand the point he was making.
Signe Wilkinson, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist from the Philadelphia Daily News, agreed: “Complaints come in two stages. First it’s the professionals and then you get the normal people responding to them.” Strangely, she noted, the normal people are the ones who will defend a cartoon after the professional interest groups have had their well-organized say.
Wilkinson, who described herself as “the token chick” on stage, was sad that editors are frightened to print the strongest cartoons. Only three U.S. newspapers printed the infamous Danish Mohammed cartoons, for instance. Wilkinson knows the risks, as she once received threats in the changing room at her rowing club in response to one of her own cartoons.
Jerry Craft and Matt Diffee listen to Signe Wilkinson’s remarks.
Photo by: Philip Datillo
Diffee topped that, revealing that he was a hate figure for the Girl Scouts of America after his “Girl Scout crack” cartoon caused an outcry.
Following the first panel discussion came an interesting double act: Eisendrath and Patrick Oliphant, doyen of political cartoonists everywhere. With one stick of charcoal, a few deft lines and shading, Oliphant produced instant cartoons of President Sarkozy of France and his new lovely wife; Hillary and Bill Clinton; and the new kid on the block, Barack Obama. As he drew, Oliphant chatted with Eisendrath about his subjects, cartooning in general and where he finds his inspiration. It was mesmerizing stuff, and the audience loved it.
We had heard from the practitioners but what about the academics? Would they spoil it all by analyzing us into sobriety in the “Studying It” part of the conference? Not a chance.
British psychologist Michael Apted broke down humor into four parts: cognitive synergy (Mankoff ’s notion that humor is something that jars); diminishment (look out for the banana skin!); playfulness (enjoying the moment); and arousal (a kind of temporary elevation). Put all those things together and you have humor. Leave just one out, and you don’t.
While audience and panel chewed on that, Paul Lewis from Boston College (the man who invited the term “frankenfoods,” by the way) gave his take on humor and politics. It wasn’t good. Why do we expect our leaders to have a sense of humor and why do we expect funny people to be good? Lewis didn’t really know, but he did know the consequences. (Hint: think Bush.) Consider also the political consequences of the failed joke. Political careers have folded on the wrong gag at the wrong time. Just ask John Kerry about his Iraq moment.
Maybe Professor Richard Lewis could help there. The University of Michigan psychologist is studying the moment-by-moment mental processes that underlie the ability to appreciate a joke. He even has a bit of kit that tracks eye movements while reading a cartoon, so he can actually see what makes an individual laugh and when. Interestingly, he noted that some people react to cartoons in an entirely non-visual way, which no doubt gave the cartoonists on stage food for thought.
But does laughter actually do us any good? Professor Rod Martin of the University of Western Ontario wrote a book on that—and the answer is “no.” Despite decades of Reader’s Digest giving us “Laughter, the Best Medicine” in every issue, Martin, the President of International Society for Humor Studies, told us that there is no conclusive proof that laughter lengthens your life. In fact, there is some evidence that humorous people actually die earlier, probably because they don’t take anything seriously, including a trip to the doctor. However, to sighs of relief from the panelists, Martin did confirm that humor gives real benefits for psychological health.
Humor can also be good for your business, said John Morreall from the College of William and Mary, the last of the academics to speak. The professor of religion—whose talk was entitled “Humor at $5,000 an hour”—has a sideline advising major companies in using humor. Look at John Cleese’s company “Video Arts” or the CEO of Southwest Airlines and see how successful they have been. Being funny can be very profitable.
Questions from the floor brought even more elucidation, such as how many times God laughs in the Bible (twice); who the “Daily Show” team would have liked to get the Republican domination (“We’d have had a lot of fun with Ron Paul”); and how to tell if an incipient standup comedian is funny (“If you have to ask…,” said Mankoff).
Back at Wallace House later, it was a classic evening as speakers, Fellows and faculty mixed over food and wine, cartoons and conversation, gags and stories. Serious stuff, too—because it is a serious business, this humor thing. Maybe the first Department of Humor should be right here at Michigan. There’s plenty to be studied and discussed, as was discovered that March Monday at the Michigan Theater. And that’s no joke.
