Richard Wiseman on Humour

 11.30am, Sunday 17 May 2009 Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1

God didn’t give all of us a good sense of humour but he lavished it on Richard Wiseman.

And got very little thanks. Wiseman is a passionate atheist whose research into the curious science of everyday life, including the psychology of deception, laughter, luck and the paranormal, has fascinated millions.

The School of Life has invited him to preach the good news about joking. We do not jest. Humour, it turns out, is unexpectedly hard to explain. Is it a temperament or a talent, innate or evolutionarily adaptive, essential or gloriously pointless? Aristotle's treatise on laughter, which might have settled the whole matter, was lost to history. So, for a long time, we remained baffled about why we like to make light of serious matters such as death, illness, and marriage. And why humour seems to be so culturally specific: apparently the French prefer their jokes surreal while the Americans opt for gags based on a sense of superiority.

From behind the pulpit, Richard Wiseman will reveal the results of his research into the world’s funniest joke, explain why humour is so essential to our survival, and speculate about why (with the exception of a new fashion in Christian stand-up) religion seems to have so little time for humour.

Professor Richard Wiseman has spent twenty years exploring the backwaters of the human mind and going to places where mainstream scientists fear to tread. His books The Luck Factor and Quirkology have given him an international reputation and he is well known for his media appearances, live performances, and mass participation experiments.