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Humour

sign for the University of Alberta on the university's campus

Why are some sounds funny?

To English speakers, the word, “peanut” isn’t especially funny. But “peanut” in Serbian, “kikiriki” is widely considered by Serbs to be the funniest word in their language. This raises the question of why people laugh at some words (“poop”) but not at others (“treadmill”). Does it come down to their meanings? Or are people responding to their sounds? Psycholinguist Chris Westbury set out to discover the answer.

A film still of a man sitting at a dressing room mirror with lights

In ‘The Humorist,’ Soviet comedy is no joke

The World

Colorado: the humor research capital of the world

Environment

Humor in Dark Places: A Listener Jumps on His Father’s Grave

The Simpsons at 500 Through the Lens of a Childhood in India

Greek Humor in Times of Crisis

Business, Economics and Jobs

Amid all the economic doom and gloom coming from Greece these days, you’d think the Greeks don’t have much to laugh about. But actually, humor is alive and well in Greece, and it’s helping many cope with some dark times.