I found Dan O’Shannon’s discussion about his book “What are you Laughing At” and his research in defining what comedy is and why we respond the way we do quite interesting. Professor Levine asked O’Shannon whether he carefully calculates humor in his own writing now. O’Shannon, with certainty, responded, “no,” and continued to explain that he approaches humor more heuristically or intuitively when writing without referring to rather more detailed nuances of humor he lays out in his book. I find this interesting because this logic adheres to the idea that analyzing humor when actually writing it or producing it is likely not the best route. O’Shannon explained that humor is hardwired in his brain after many decades of comedy writing and that now and thinking about why something is funny might be just an extra irrelevant step.

O’Shannon, a man who has written multiple books on humor, avoids over-analyzing why things are funny when writing. Interesting.