Download or read book Humor Seriously written by Jennifer Aaker and published by Crown Currency. This book was released on 2021-02-02 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WALL STREET JOURNAL, LOS ANGELES TIMES, AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER • Anyone—even you!—can learn how to harness the power of humor in business (and life), based on the popular class at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Don’t miss the authors’ TED Talk, “Why great leaders take humor seriously,” online now. “The ultimate guide to using the magical power of funny as a tool for leadership and a force for good.”—Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of When and Drive We are living through a period of unprecedented uncertainty and upheaval in both our personal and professional lives. So it should come as a surprise to exactly no one that trust, human connection, and mental well-being are all on the decline. This may seem like no laughing matter. Yet, the research shows that humor and laughter are among the most valuable tools we have at our disposal for strengthening bonds and relationships, diffusing stress and tension, boosting resilience, and performing when the stakes are high. That’s why Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas teach the popular course Humor: Serious Business at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where they help some of the world’s most hard-driving, blazer-wearing business minds infuse more humor and levity into their work and lives. In Humor, Seriously, they draw on findings by behavioral scientists, world-class comedians, and inspiring business leaders to reveal how humor works and—more important—how you can use more of it, better. Aaker and Bagdonas unpack the theory and application of humor: what makes something funny, how to mine your life for material, and simple ways to identify and leverage your unique humor style. They show how to use humor to rebuild vital connections; appear more confident, competent, and authentic at work; and foster cultures where levity and creativity can thrive. President Dwight David Eisenhower once said, “A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.” If Dwight David Eisenhower, the second least naturally funny president (after Franklin Pierce), thought humor was necessary to win wars, build highways, and warn against the military-industrial complex, then you might consider learning it too.
Download or read book Humour written by Terry Eagleton and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-14 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compelling guide to the fundamental place of humour and comedy within Western culture—by one of its greatest exponents Written by an acknowledged master of comedy, this study reflects on the nature of humour and the functions it serves. Why do we laugh? What are we to make of the sheer variety of laughter, from braying and cackling to sniggering and chortling? Is humour subversive, or can it defuse dissent? Can we define wit? Packed with illuminating ideas and a good many excellent jokes, the book critically examines various well-known theories of humour, including the idea that it springs from incongruity and the view that it reflects a mildly sadistic form of superiority to others. Drawing on a wide range of literary and philosophical sources, Terry Eagleton moves from Aristotle and Aquinas to Hobbes, Freud, and Bakhtin, looking in particular at the psychoanalytical mechanisms underlying humour and its social and political evolution over the centuries.
Download or read book Between Heaven and Mirth written by James Martin and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-10-04 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Between Heaven and Mirth will make any reader smile. . . . Father Martin reminds us that happiness is the good God’s own goal for us.” —Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New York From The Colbert Report’s “official chaplain” James Martin, SJ, author of the New York Times bestselling The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, comes a revolutionary look at how joy, humor, and laughter can change our lives and save our spirits. A Jesuit priest with a busy media ministry, Martin understands the intersections between spirituality and daily life. In Between Heaven and Mirth, he uses scriptural passages, the lives of the saints, the spiritual teachings of other traditions, and his own personal reflections to show us why joy is the inevitable result of faith, because a healthy spirituality and a healthy sense of humor go hand-in-hand with God's great plan for humankind.
Download or read book Humor is when you laugh even more written by Luise Hakasi and published by BookRix. This book was released on 2017-01-12 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Foreword: No joke: Laughter is the best medicine! Laughing has been shown to be a great benefit for health: Hearty laughter enhances well-being, reduces the risk of heart attack and is now regarded by researchers and physicians even as a little miracle weapon that can easily compete with medicine. So use this advantage for your health: giggling, cackling and laughing until you stomach hurts you or tears are running. Best begin right now with a few jokes and funny glosses. Humor is when you laugh even more For a good mood and laughing without end - humorous and witty, colorfully mixed
Download or read book Ha written by Scott Weems and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2014-03-04 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An entertaining tour of the science of humor and laughter Humor, like pornography, is famously difficult to define. We know it when we see it, but is there any way to figure out what we really find funny? In this fascinating investigation into the science of humor and laughter, neuroscientist Scott Weems uncovers what's happening in our heads when we giggle, guffaw, or double over with laughter. Beginning with the premise that humor arises from inner conflict in the brain, Weems explores such issues as why surprise is so important for humor, why computers are terrible at recognizing what's funny, and why cringe-worthy stereotypes make us laugh the hardest. From the role of insult jokes to the benefit of laughing for our immune system responses, Ha! reveals why humor is so idiosyncratic, and why how-to books alone will never help us become funnier people. Packed with the latest research, amusing anecdotes (and even a few jokes), Ha! is a delightful tour of why humor is so important to our daily lives.
Download or read book A Love That Laughs written by Ted Cunningham and published by Focus on the Family. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the secrets of a great marriage is laughing together. Couples don’t need to choose between work and play, duty and fun, laughter and responsibility. This book will help couples learn how to use fun, humor, and laughter to lighten the load of everyday life, reduce stress, and grow closer together.
Download or read book Inside Jokes written by Matthew M. Hurley and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2013-02-08 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An evolutionary and cognitive account of the science behind why we crack up—“one of the most complex and sophisticated humor theories ever presented” (Evolutionary Psychology). Some things are funny—jokes, puns, sitcoms, Charlie Chaplin, The Far Side, Malvolio with his yellow garters crossed—but why? Why does humor exist in the first place? Why do we spend so much of our time passing on amusing anecdotes, making wisecracks, watching The Simpsons? In Inside Jokes, Matthew Hurley, Daniel Dennett, and Reginald Adams offer an evolutionary and cognitive perspective. Humor, they propose, evolved out of a computational problem that arose when our long-ago ancestors were furnished with open-ended thinking. Mother Nature—aka natural selection—cannot just order the brain to find and fix all our time-pressured misleaps and near-misses. She has to bribe the brain with pleasure. So we find them funny. This wired-in source of pleasure has been tickled relentlessly by humorists over the centuries, and we have become addicted to the endogenous mind candy that is humor.
Download or read book Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage written by Mark Gungor and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-03-03 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By using his unique blend of humor and tell-it-like-it-is honesty, he helps couples get along and have fun doing it.
Download or read book The Comic Toolbox written by John Vorhaus and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A straightforward, often humorous workbook approach to comedy writing as creative problem-solving. In it, veteran Hollywood comedy writer John Vorhaus offers his tools of the trade to writers, comics, and anyone else who wants to be funny. Among these indispensable tools are Clash of Context, Tension and Release, The Law of Comic Opposites, The Wildly Inappropriate Response, and The Myth of the Last Great Idea. Readers will learn that comedy = truth and pain (the essence of the comic situation), that fear is the biggest roadblock to comedy (kill the ferocious editor within and rich, useful comic ideas will flow), and much more.
Download or read book Humor That Works written by Andrew Tarvin and published by . This book was released on 2012-11-13 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author presents a collection of ways to reap the proven human and corporate benefits of humor at work, organized by core business skill and founded on his own work as a business speaker and coach with the consulting company, Humor That Works.
Download or read book Humor That Works written by Andrew Tarvin and published by Page Two Books, Incorporated. This book was released on 2019-04 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Humor That Works is a business book on humor. No, that's not an oxymoron. It really is a business book and it really is about getting better results by having more fun. Because people who use humor in the workplace are more productive, less stressed, and happier. No joke; sources included.
Download or read book The Game of Humor written by Charles R. Gruner and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 2011-12-31 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Humor, wit, and laughter surround each person. From everyday quips to the carefully contrived comedy of literature, newspapers, and television we experience humor in many forms, yet the impetus for our laughter is far from innocuous. Misfortune, stupidity, and moral or cultural defects, however faintly revealed in others and ourselves, seem to make us laugh. Although discomforting, such negative terms as superiority, aggression, hostility, ridicule, or degradation can be applied to instances of humor. According to scholars, Thomas Hobbes's "superiority theory"—that humor arises from mischances, infirmities, and indecencies, where there is no wit at all—applies to most humor. With the exception of good-natured play, Charles R. Gruner claims that humor is rarely as innocent as it first appears. Gruner's proposed superiority theory of humor is all-encompassing. In The Game of Humor, he expands the scope of Hobbes's theory to include and explore the contest aspect of "good-natured" play. As such, the author believes all instances of humor can be examined as games, in terms of competition and keeping score—winners and losers. Gruner draws on a broad spectrum of thought-provoking examples. Holocaust jokes, sexual humor, the racialist dialogue of such comic characters as Stepin Fetchit and Archie Bunker, simple puns, and many of the author's own encounters with everyday humor. Gruner challenges the reader to offer a single example of humor that cannot be "de-humorized" by its agonistic nature. The Game of Humor makes intriguing and enjoyable reading for people interested in humor and the aspects of human motivation. This book will also be valuable to professionals in communication and information studies, sociologists, literary critics and linguists, and psychologists concerned with the conflicts and tensions of everyday life.
Download or read book On Humour written by Simon Critchley and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2011-08-26 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a fascinating and beautifully written book on what philosophy can tell us about humour and about what it is to be human. It will fascinate and intrigue anyone with a sense of humour.
Download or read book Laughter written by Robert R. Provine and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2001-12-01 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do men and women laugh at the same things? Is laughter contagious? Has anyone ever really died laughing? Is laughing good for your health? Drawing upon ten years of research into this most common-yet complex and often puzzling-human phenomenon, Dr. Robert Provine, the world's leading scientific expert on laughter, investigates such aspects of his subject as its evolution, its role in social relationships, its contagiousness, its neural mechanisms, and its health benefits. This is an erudite, wide-ranging, witty, and long-overdue exploration of a frequently surprising subject.
Download or read book Let My People Laugh written by Christianity Today Intl., and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2009-05-03 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If laughter is the best medicine then these hysterical reflections on church life will bring joy and encouragement. Funny things happen in church...really funny things. And laughing about them can be one of the most healing, healthy, and encouraging things a pastor, church leader, or church member can do. This fun resource will provide instant laughs by bringing together some of the best “Church Laughs” content from Leadership Journal, Christianity Today’s magazine for church leaders. High-quality, witty, silly, and just-plain funny cartoons and amusing anecdotes are also included. Let My People Laugh will bless and minister to folks in a way that sermons sometime can’t!
Download or read book Inside Comedy written by David Steinberg and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2023-06-06 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Steinberg's name has been synonymous with comedy for decades. The Canadian-born comedian, producer, writer, director, and author has been called "a comic institution himself" by the New York Times. He appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson 140 times (second only to Bob Hope), and directed episodes of popular television sitcoms, including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, Friends, Mad About You, The Golden Girls, and Designing Women. From 2012–2015, Steinberg hosted the comedy documentary series Inside Comedy, which featured such comedy greats as Billy Crystal, Chris Rock, and Gary Shandling. In this entertaining history of comedy, Steinberg shares insightful memories of his journey through his career and takes the reader behind the curtain of the comedy scene of the last half-century. Steinberg shares amusing and often hilarious stories and anecdotes from some of the most legendary comedians in the industry—from Groucho Marx, Carol Burnett, Mel Brooks, and Richard Pryor to Lily Tomlin, Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Tina Fey. Inside Comedy presents in-depth portraits of some of the most talented and revered comedians in the world of comedy today.
Download or read book Humor as Survival Training for a Stressed Out World written by Paul McGhee and published by Author House. This book was released on 2010-07-14 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The evidence is now in! Humor and laughter are good medicine. The companion to this book, Humor: The Lighter Path to Resilience and Health (2010, also published by AuthorHouse) discusses the exciting new research supporting the long-held claim that laughter is the best medicine. Humor as Survival Training for a Stressed-Out Worldshows how to get these benefits of humor into your own life. It contains the first-ever humor skills training program that has evidence from multiple countries documenting its effectiveness in boosting your sense of humor and learning to use humor to cope with the stress in your life. No other program for improving your sense of humor can make this claim. The basic idea is to build key foundation humor skills on your good dayswhen youre in a good mood. While strengthening one habit/skill at a time, you dont extend these skills to daily stressors until the habits are well developed (otherwise, your sense of humor abandons you when youre under stress). The 7 Humor Habit Program first builds the habit of becoming a more playful person in general (humor is a form of mental play), and then focuses onverbal humor skills, finding humor in everyday life, laughing at yourself and other key humor skills. Studies in the USA, Switzerland, Australia and Germany have confirmed the effectiveness of this program in boosting your sense of humor. Evidence also shows that it improves your daily mood, boosts optimism and improves your ability to cope with stress. There is even evidence that the 7 Humor Habits Program is an effective tool in reducing clinical depression and anxiety. It has been shown to be effective for all ages, from college students to seniors in their eighties. So its never too late to improve your own sense of humor.
