The Humor Code

A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny

By: Peter McGraw, Joel Warner

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

Dr. Peter McGraw, founder of the Humor Research Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder, teamed up with journalist Joel Warner on a far-reaching search for the secret behind humor. Their journey spanned the globe, from New York to Japan, from Palestine to the Amazon. Meanwhile, the duo conducted their own humor experiments along the way-to wince-worthy, hilarious, and illuminating results. In their quixotic search, they questioned countless experts, from comedians like Louis C. K. to rat-tickling researchers, and answered pressing (and not-so-pressing) questions such as, "What's the secret to winning the New Yorker cartoon caption contest?"; "Who has the bigger funny bone - men or women, Democrats or Republicans?"; and "Is laughter really the best medicine?" As a final test, McGraw uses everything they learned to attempt stand-up-at the largest comedy festival in the world. Funny, surprising, and often touching, The Humor Code is a revealing exploration of humor, society, and an unusual friendship.

©2014 Peter McGraw and Joel Warner (P)2014 Tantor

Critic reviews

"It's not often you can say a book about comedy can teach us some serious lessons. This one does-and entertains us in the process." ( Booklist Starred Review)

Entertaining and informative

A fun journey through humor and the similarities and differences across cultures. I both learned and was entertained.

Great all around

Informative, but most importantly entertaining, therefore easy to listen to. hope to find more books like this one.

Excellent adventure story with great insights into

Really enjoyed this look at what makes the funny. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in what makes humor.

a rather non humorous reflection on humor

This book has some interesting concepts and research. However I struggled to get through this book. It was entertaining in places but it was really not that funny.. In truth, it was a serious discussion about comedy. It was hard to buy the concept that they had cracked the secret of comedy by writing a book that wasn't that funny. Instead, i think they found a bunch of interesting points about comedy. The narrator didn't help. A serious book deserved a serious narrator. Instead I got a reading that left me wondering where the next woopie cushion was going to come from.

Incredible journey into humor

Reading this as a standup, it is an incredible journey into humor. It won’t make you Rock, CK, or Chappelle - but it does give you insight into triggers for laughter.

Accidentally the funniest book on Audible

I’m a clown teacher and was curious about the benign violation theory — the theory this book is based upon about the mechanism of comedy. Just wow — hearing a scientist and a nerdy journalist navigate comedy in such a naive way was funny enough, but having a narrator who sounds like a strip club DJ made this into a comedy masterpiece (he has an amazing voice, just odd for this project). I’ve played parts to my comedy friends to make sure I wasn’t crazy and they’ve been equally tickled by this bizarre thought experiment. How wonderful that a book seeking answers about comedy is accidentally so funny 😂

Real research and a scientific theory of humor!

Where does The Humor Code rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Pretty far up there. A unique niche of science that yields a fascinating tool for understanding what makes us laugh..... the Benign Violation Theory.

What did you like best about this story?

How the author and researcher actually delved into the world of funny, not just in our culture, but many disparate cultures, even other species, like chimps and mice. This also included making a fool of himself on several occasions (like bombing at a comedy club)

Which character – as performed by Peter Berkrot – was your favorite?

The authors journalist friend, who more or less wrote the book in the first person as her accompanied Dr Peter McGraw

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Want to? I did.

Any additional comments?

Totally underrated book, could have been a best seller with a better title and cover.

Interesting tidbits, too much filer.

Interesting stories about humour around the world, but too much filler - and a bit of sensationalization about the author's adventures.

Should have been called "The Humor Journey"

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No, I expected to learn a lot, but I didn't. The scientific facts get suppressed (not much elaboration on them) by the clear focus on the story which is their journey around the world. So it should have been called the "The Humor Journey" instead of "The Humor Code"

How could the performance have been better?

There are a lot of jokes in the book, but the narrator reads them in a way so that they often aren't funny

Any additional comments?

Objectively the story is certainly well written.

It was a good audio book

It was a very good audio book. I really enjoyed the information given. I felt it was very informative although some parts just seemed like rambling