Tag: Humor

How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?

How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?
byu/oh_bruddah inJokes

 

Halcione
How many Freudian psychologists does it take to change a life bulb?
Two. One to change the bulb and another to hold the penis, I mean the father, I mean the ladder.

MaxwellzDaemon
How many hipsters does it take to change a lightbulb?
It’s some number you probably never heard of.

GdoubleWB
How many philosophy majors does it take to change a lightbulb?
Doesn’t matter, they never change anything.

Best Books I Read in 2025 that Weren’t Published in 2025

Selections mine. Comments via Amazon. In order of publication date.

The Night of the Gun
David Carr
Publication Date: August 5, 2008

Amazon Best of the Month, August 2008: In his fabulously entertaining The Kid Stays in the Picture, legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans wrote: “There are three sides to every story: yours, mine, and the truth.” David Carr’s riveting debut memoir, The Night of the Gun, takes this theory to the extreme, as the New York Times reporter embarks on a three-year fact-finding mission to revisit his harrowing past as a drug addict and discovers that the search for answers can reveal many versions of the truth. Carr acknowledges that you can’t write a my-life-as-an-addict story without the recent memoir scandals of James Frey and others weighing you down, but he regains the reader’s trust by relying on his reporting skills to conduct dozens of often uncomfortable interviews with old party buddies, cops, and ex-girlfriends and follow an endless paper trail of legal and medical records, mug shots, and rejection letters. The kaleidoscopic narrative follows Carr through failed relationships and botched jobs, in and out of rehab and all manner of unsavory places in between, with cameos from the likes of Tom Arnold, Jayson Blair, and Barbara Bush. Admittedly, it’s hard to love David Carr–sometimes you barely like the guy. How can you feel sympathy for a man who was smoking crack with his pregnant girlfriend when her water broke? But plenty of dark humor rushes through the book, and knowing that this troubled man will make it–will survive addiction, fight cancer, raise his twin girls–makes you want to stick around for the full 400-page journey. –Brad Thomas Parsons

Planet Funny
Ken Jennings
Publication Date: May 29, 2018

In his “smartly structured, soundly argued, and yes—pretty darn funny” (Booklist, starred review) Planet Funny, Ken Jennings explores this brave new comedic world and what it means—or doesn’t—to be funny in it now. Tracing the evolution of humor from the caveman days to the bawdy middle-class antics of Chaucer to Monty Python’s game-changing silliness to the fast-paced meta-humor of The Simpsons, Jennings explains how we built our humor-saturated modern age, where lots of us get our news from comedy shows and a comic figure can even be elected President of the United States purely on showmanship. “Fascinating, entertaining and—I’m being dead serious here—important” (A.J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically), Planet Funny is a full taxonomy of what spawned and defines the modern sense of humor.

The Art of Logic in an Illogical World
Eugenia Cheng
Publication Date: September 11, 2018

In a world where fake news stories change election outcomes, has rationality become futile? In The Art of Logic in an Illogical World, Eugenia Cheng throws a lifeline to readers drowning in the illogic of contemporary life. Cheng is a mathematician, so she knows how to make an airtight argument. But even for her, logic sometimes falls prey to emotion, which is why she still fears flying and eats more cookies than she should. If a mathematician can’t be logical, what are we to do? In this book, Cheng reveals the inner workings and limitations of logic, and explains why alogic — for example, emotion — is vital to how we think and communicate. Cheng shows us how to use logic and alogic together to navigate a world awash in bigotry, mansplaining, and manipulative memes. Insightful, useful, and funny, this essential book is for anyone who wants to think more clearly.

The History of Bones
John Lurie
Publication Date: August 17, 2021

In the tornado that was downtown New York in the 1980s, John Lurie stood at the vortex. After founding the band The Lounge Lizards with his brother, Evan, in 1979, Lurie quickly became a centrifugal figure in the world of outsider artists, cutting-edge filmmakers, and cultural rebels. Now Lurie vibrantly brings to life the whole wash of 1980s New York as he developed his artistic soul over the course of the decade and came into orbit with all the prominent artists of that time and place, including Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry, Boris Policeband, and, especially, Jean-Michel Basquiat, the enigmatic prodigy who spent a year sleeping on the floor of Lurie’s East Third Street apartment.

Irony as Psychological Defense Mechanism – Groucho Marx Anecdote

Certainly it’s true that a little ironic distancing can work wonders as a coping device. At Groucho Marx’s separation from his first wife, Ruth, for example, he told a joke. After many unhappy years, they had agreed to a divorce, and so she packed up the car and was leaving the house for the last time. Groucho put out his hand and said, “Well, it was nice knowing you . . . and if you’re ever in the neighborhood again, drop in.” Ruth laughed, and the tension was broken. It was the unprecedented and awkward seriousness of the moment that led to the ironic farewell, Groucho explained to his son. “I didn’t know quite what to say.”

Planet Funny: How Comedy Took Over Our Culture
Ken Jennings

Memes as Form of Business Communication

And organized levity is now an expected part of professional life, especially in sectors like tech. A friend of mine briefly worked for a massive Internet search company that will remain nameless. He told me that the buzzy new time-waster at work was trying to handle as much internal communication as possible not with e-mail or instant messaging, but with funny memes. A whole platform was designed from scratch to facilitate this dubious-but-“fun” goal. If the boss from Office Space pops up on your screen saying “That’d be great,” that’s a Level Three problem. But if Rambo pops up, uh-oh. That’s a Level Five. You might be working late tonight. “Considerable time and effort has gone into developing this tool,” my friend said, smiling ruefully.

Planet Funny: How Comedy Took Over Our Culture
Ken Jennings

Snark 1998 – Television Without Pity Archives

View the archives via the wayback machine:
televisionwithoutpity

From Wikipedia :

Television Without Pity (often abbreviated TWoP) was a website that provided detailed recaps of select television dramas, situation comedies and reality TV shows along with discussion forums. These recaps were written with sarcastic criticism and opinion alongside a retelling of an episode’s events, which the site referred to as “snark“. Their official motto is “Spare the snark, spoil the networks”, a takeoff on “spare the rod, spoil the child”, and its mascot is Tubeelzebub (a portmanteau of tube and Beelzebub, “Tubey” for short), a devilish television set with horns and a pointed tail.

From Dawson’s Creek Season 1 ep 2 recap:

Cut to the Sanctum Dawsonorum; Joey clicks off the TV in the middle of the scene we’ve just watched, and Dawson works on a fake head with makeup and tells Joey she’s “going to have to” kiss Pacey, because the movie “doesn’t work without the kiss — it’s a love story.” Joey corrects him, “It’s a horror movie, Dawson.” Dawson in turn corrects Joey, “It’s an homage with a heavy allegorical slant.” “Homage”? “Allegorical”? Mark those Sars Maalox Scorecards at “1 minute 10 seconds,” folks. Joey, to her credit, rolls her eyes and flops back on Dawson’s bed and calls Pacey “un-kiss-worthy,” and Dawson says manipulatively, “Do it for me?” and Joey says she doesn’t “want to regurgitate on-camera — why don’t you kiss him?” Dawson, coyly: “‘Cause my lips are reserved for someone else.” Joey asks if he and Jen have kissed yet, to which Dawson smugly responds, “There’s no need to rush fate.” Joey advises Dawson not to “wait an eternity” because Jen comes from New York “where things tend to move faster.” Dawson theorizes that Jen will therefore find it “enchanting to meet a strapping young man who doesn’t have sex on the brain.” Another eye-roll from Joey, along with the skeptical comment “if it helps you sleep at night.” Dawson reminds Joey that Jen “is a self-proclaimed virgin.” “For another second,” Joey snipes. Dawson defends Jen as “a bright, intelligent young woman who is clearly in charge of her own body.” Joey shoots back, “I’m not suggesting leather straps and Crisco, just a kiss.” Dawson, who hasn’t looked up from the fake head once during this convo, announces, “Jen and I will kiss, don’t you worry. Question is, will your lips ever find Pacey’s?” Joey votes for “an extensive rewrite.” Dawson: “Well, that’s too bad, ’cause you definitely have kissing lips.” Joey (and Sars): “What?” Dawson turns the head around to reveal a replica of Joey, then suggests that Joey get through the kiss with Pacey by closing her eyes and thinking about someone else. Joey slumps down on a pillow and looks sidelong at Dawson. Dawson arches a brow and says, “Explain to me the Crisco.” Well, Dawson, it might help ease the passage of your giant head out of your ass. Just a thought.

Credits. Paula Cole ululating.

“thinking about my behavior and how it impacted my peers” – Student Quotes

r/teachers

I_sit_my_plants
I’m at middle school level. I never know what they’re gonna say on a daily basis but these were some of my favorite from this year…

1. Student 1 (mixed race) to Student 2 (full Korean): “We get it, you’re pure bred, you can be in dog shows”
2. “I shouldn’t have to do my 18 year old sisters laundry. I’m 13. I’m supposed to be putting my hair in ponytails and running in fields”
3. “We were studying earthquakes and I farted and realized the epicenter was my butt”
4. Student 1 “Mr. X do you pick your nose and eat it?” Student 2 “No stupid, he doesn’t eat it, he’s vegan”
5. “I sexually identify as a mistake”
6. “Can you turn into my dad and go away?”
7. “Mr. X I swear if you meet another member of my favorite band I’m getting a vasectomy at Claire’s”

What’s some of your memorable ones from the year?

Speaker_6
“I don’t know”- a 6th graders response to “what is your name?”

“I ran over her dog and dated her best friend. I’m not sorry about it”- 12 grader, who turned out to be talking about the Sims

“I forgot how to use a pencil”- middle schoolers who probably just wanted to get out of working

OfficerDougEiffel
Sent into the hallway for behavior. I come out to get him ten min later and he’s sprawled out, sleeping like a baby with his head against the lockers.

“Dude, what are you doing?”

“Huh? Oh, just thinking about my behavior and how it impacted my peers.”

I couldn’t be mad. I laughed so fucking hard.

OddLocal7083
Middle school math… How come every time I start getting good at something you want me to learn something new!?!

ConfusionJazzlike566
Student 1: I’m an atheist

Student 2: I thought you were white

Student 1: What do you think atheist means?

hrad34
8th graders – the topic of condoms had been brought up because someone’s older brother had some

Student 1: maybe I should get some…

Student 2: nah man, stick to Fortnite

OkField5545
7th grade honors student: when I’m writing with a pencil, am I supposed to indent a new paragraph?

Me: uh… yes.

Student: how?

Me: You just go down a line and indent like you would on your computer.

Student: But that’s the problem… I indent with my tab button. How am I supposed to indent if there’s no tab button??!

Laughter Yoga

And then there’s laughter yoga, a movement that now involves 16,000 laughter clubs in 72 countries, offering people the world over a chance to chuckle their way to physical and mental health. To experience laughter yoga for ourselves, Pete and I had stopped by one of the weekly meetings of the Denver Laughter Club. In a downtown Unitarian church, we joined a dozen or so club members being led by two so-called laughter leaders (“Jovial Jeff” and “Crazy Karen”) through a surreal chain of exercises. We began with “greeting laughter,” moving around the room and shaking each other’s hands with a hearty, forced chuckle. Then we carried on extended conversations in nothing but gibberish, and imitated lawn sprinklers while others pretended to run through our spray. Other drills followed—“bumper-car laughter,” “happy pills,” “laughter bombs”—each designed to encourage so much fake laughter that everyone broke down for real. At one point, I passed an imaginary laughter bong to a gray-haired grandmother, from which she took a deep drag and burst out cackling.

“I do feel more energized than I did an hour ago,” admitted Pete when it was over. I, on the other hand, felt like I’d gone through a trial run for living in a loony bin. Still, the regulars, a welcoming and normal-seeming bunch, seemed to be getting a lot out of it. “You don’t need stand-up comedy or movies or plays,” one of them told us. “You can just laugh.”

That’s the point, said Madan Kataria, the doctor who developed laughter yoga in 1995 and is now recognized internationally as the “Guru of Giggling.” When I reached him via Skype in his home base of Mumbai, India, he told me, “Laughter was always conditional and dependent on jokes, comedy, life happenings. For the first time, in laughter yoga, laughter has been disconnected from our daily lives, because there are often not enough reasons to laugh. My discovery was that laughing without reason was enough to give people benefits.”

The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny
Peter McGraw, Joel Warner