Firesign Theater has released 22 recordings, the latest, Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death on Rhino Entertainment. Misunderstandings can be funny too. Beatts recounts some of the jokes comedy professionals tell about themselves. Dr. Goodwin is joined by Dr. Bill Fry . They have studied the social and linguistic dimensions of humor.
Culture plays an important role in humor.
For example, in the Navajo culture, the first person who makes a baby laugh has a special relationship with that child forever after. A caller who is a professional comedian asks why so many comics are depressed or otherwise mentally ill. Dr. Goodwin says that manic depressives often get into a state where they make many rapid and original associations. Nilsen and Fry talk about a need to entertain on the part of the comic. Then we speak with Dr. Katherine MacDonald , who has worked with Dr. Itzhak Fried at the University of California, Los Angeles, testing brain function in chronic epilepsy patients.