Stand-up comedian Shaun Eli is a leading expert in the field of the psychology of comedy. He holds a master’s degree in applied positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, where the program in positive psychology was founded by Dr. Martin E.P. Seligman who is pretty much the inventor of the science of positive psychology, and a former president of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Seligman has written several best-selling books in the field of positive psychology.

Shaun Eli’s master’s thesis is on humor and psychology, and here it is:  

 

Humor is a Positive Intervention

Shaun Eli Breidbart

Master of Applied Positive Psychology Program, University of Pennsylvania

MAPP 800: Capstone Project

Advisor: Daniel Tomasulo, PhD

In conjunction with the stand-up comedy show “Positively Funny”

Written and Performed by Shaun Eli Breidbart

June 24, 2025

Rav Beroka of Bei Hozae was often in the market of Bei Lapat. There he would meet Elijah. Once he said to Elijah: “Is there anyone in this market who has earned eternal life?”
Elijah said to him: “No.”
They were standing there when two men came along. Elijah said to him: “These men have earned eternal life.”
Rav Beroka went to them and said: “What do you do?”
They replied: “We are jesters, and make the sad to laugh.”

-Talmud (collection of Jewish writings and interpretation of the Torah, which is the first five books of the Bible)

 

Abstract

Positive psychology is the science of improving one’s mental well-being. A positive intervention is an activity or behavior that leads to an improvement in mental well-being. Humor, the subject of this paper, has been shown to improve one’s mental and physical health, through a variety of mechanisms. Depression, stress, heart disease and blood pressure can all be reduced by laughing. While much of what friends laugh at together isn’t actual humor but more an acknowledgement of a shared experience, humor and laughter, regardless of the source, are healthy. Children, adults and senior citizens can all benefit from humor. And a sense of humor, the ability to create comedy (as opposed to the other aspect of a sense of humor, which is appreciating humor), can be developed and improved. Creating humor, and sharing it with friends, is also beneficial to one’s mental health. While many people are resistant to psychology or therapy, a comedy show that introduces elements of positive psychology to the audience, while also making them laugh, can help them respect and appreciate psychology, and may lead them to begin using techniques of positive psychology to improve their mental well-being.

Keywords: humor, comedy, laugh, laughter, sense of humor, comedian, stand-up

 

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, to Martin E.P. Seligman, for inventing, discovering or rekindling the science of positive psychology and then founding the positive psychology master’s degree program at Penn. To his then five year old daughter Nikki, for prompting him into the retrospection of why he was so grouchy that changed his life’s focus to positive psychology. To all the other professors in the program, in reverse alphabetical order because we should do that once in a while: Judy Saltzberg Levick, Claire Robertson-Kraft, James Pawelski, Allyson Mackey and Leona Brandwene, plus Laura Taylor, Virginia Millar and all the other numerous assistant instructors who clearly do this out of the love of the science, because, gosh, the university doesn’t pay them nearly enough. Heck, they don’t even get individually acknowledged

And to the program’s administrative coordinator Jayden Gibison, who put up with enough of my complaints that I’m surprised I didn’t get thrown out of the program.

To my thesis advisor, psychology professor and former stand-up comedian Dan Tomasulo. To Ophira Eisenberg, Brian Fischler and Ali Gelles, for writing recommendations great enough that I somehow got admitted to Penn’s Master of Applied Psychology program. And to my late parents, who instilled in their children the importance of education. Alas, my brothers both have doctoral degrees, so even upon completing this program I will still have some catching up to do.

To Jay Leno, who gave me my start as a professional comedy writer, and who, in an interview in Fortune Magazine (Gunther, 2004), cited one of my jokes as the type of smart joke he liked to use in his opening monologue.

To all my classmates, a great source of support and love throughout the year.

To anyone who has ever told any member of my family that we couldn’t do something, from high school guidance counselors telling us we won’t get into Ivy League schools, to two coaches who cut me from national sports teams only to bring me back after I kept showing up and showed them I was good enough- we’ve been proving you wrong for generations.

And to you, the reader, thank you for caring enough about both positive psychology and humor to have clicked on something and making it at least all the way to bottom of the acknowledgements section. It gets less boring from here, I promise.

 

Introductory Note

I remember that, when I was in elementary school, my older brother Scott commented on an interview with Woody Allen that he read in a magazine. He was astonished that an interview with someone as funny as Woody Allen wasn’t funny. Although at the time I had no idea that I’d grow up to be a professional comedy writer and comedian, that thought stuck with me. I am interviewed frequently, and I do my best to ensure that there’s at least something funny in the interview. After all, my brother might read it!

My sense of humor has carried through into a lot of my writing, from legal briefs when I sued a home improvement contractor, to magazine articles and letters to the editor, even to academic papers. One college paper, for a game theory class, was titled “How Not to Rob a Liquor Store.” Another paper, for a criminology class, blamed increasing crime rates to the fact that we stopped enforcing anti-witchcraft laws. I believe I got A’s on both papers, but even if not, you can’t possibly prove me wrong. The reason I bring up my sense of humor is that, while this is an academic paper, it is an academic paper on the subject of humor, written by a comedian. So, yes, there will be humor sprinkled throughout the paper. These occasional comments are meant to be informal and humorous, not to be analyzed with the rigor one might subject the rest of an academic paper to. And at least some of them are italicized, because someone in charge is making me do it.

 

Introduction- What is Positive Psychology?

The briefest description of positive psychology is that it is the study and practice of human flourishing (Gable & Haidt, 2005), the science of what makes life worthwhile (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). To go into more detail, positive psychology is the science of improved well-being and functioning of people, groups and organizations (Gable & Haidt, 2005), including the study of strengths and fulfillment (Seligman et al., 2005). While focusing on the positive in psychology is not new (James, 1902) and may date back at least to the Biblical principles of loving thy neighbor, promoting hope against adversity, celebrating with festive meals, promoting love and kindness, and expressing gratitude to God for providing for our needs (God, circa 1500 BCE), the focus on positivity in psychology became vastly de-emphasized after the need for the treatment of psychological trauma after World War II became a priority (Snyder & Lopez, 2002). The renewed emphasis on positive psychology began when Martin E. P. Seligman was elected in 1996 to become the president of the American Psychological Association (APA). Around that time he was gardening, and expected his five year old daughter Nikki to help. But she was five, so she was more interested in playing, throwing weeds in the air and dancing. He yelled at her. Her response was that, as she had made the decision in her life to stop whining, he could stop being such a grouch. She made him realize that his grouchiness, focusing on what was wrong rather than what was right, was a weakness, not a strength. He decided that, in addition to focusing on weaknesses in individuals, augmenting people’s strengths might be a helpful addition to improving psychological well-being. That while the goal of psychology had long been to cure ailments, the absence of major problems wasn’t the same as strong mental well-being. He decided to focus his study, and the APA, on an approach to psychology focusing on optimism, on improving mental well-being in addition to the already prevalent focus on fixing problems (Seligman, 2018b). There are guiding principles of positive psychology, and people can increase their mental well-being by taking actions known as positive interventions (more later).

Positive psychology is not clinical therapy, although some of its techniques can be used very successfully in therapy. Positive psychology consists of methods and practices to improve your mental well-being. Many of the approaches in positive psychology are also rooted in clinical practices, though positive psychology has a different emphasis. For example, traditional therapy looks at the relationship of thoughts and beliefs to emotions and behavior. Positive psychology’s focus is on improving our own happiness. Basically, you, through your actions and beliefs, have a lot of control over your own happiness (M. E. P. Seligman, 2013).

The best way to describe positive psychology may be an analogy to physical health. You go to the doctor when something’s wrong. You have a broken leg, or appendicitis, or a disease. The doctor sets your broken bones, removes your appendix or cures your disease, and you’re soon back to normal.

Normal, but no better than when you started.

Doctors rarely improve you. They may tell you to eat better or exercise more, but they don’t emphasize that.

If you want to get healthier, you’d probably see a physical trainer or a nutritionist.

Positive psychology is the personal trainer or nutritionist for your mental well-being.

There are techniques that can help you thrive, improve your attitude and increase your happiness.

For example, expressing gratitude. When someone expresses gratitude it’s not only the recipient who feels better. At least one study has reflected that the giver of gratitude actually benefits more than the recipient- they’re happier, feel more socially connected, and display more pro-social behavior such as donating to charity (Grant & Dutton, 2012).

In Santa Monica there’s a nice running path along the beach where I used to run. One day part of it was closed as they were resurfacing it. On my way back I stopped to thank the crew. I said “To you this may just be a job pouring concrete, but to me it’s making a safer, more enjoyable running path. Thank you.”

I’d like to think that at least one of them didn’t think I was crazy.

Seligman has defined the building blocks of positive psychology as PERMA: Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment (Seligman, 2018a). Since then, others have suggested adding Health to PERMA (PERMAH), as better physical health has been shown to improve mental well-being (Ngamaba et al., 2017). The theory behind PERMA is that one can augment one’s mental well-being by adding or improving these five (or six) factors in one’s life (Seligman, 2018a).

Another guiding principle of positive psychology is the focus on strengths. A classification system, known as VIA (formerly known as Values in Action) delineates character strengths into six groups, further broken down into 24 categories (details in Appendix A). The idea is that everyone has all of these character strengths, but we vary in how much of each, and that by focusing on strengths we can improve our mental well-being (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). The VIA Inventory of Strengths (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) measures and categorizes an individual’s strengths, and might be analogized to be in contrast to the DSM, which lists and categorizes psychological ailments (Littman-Ovadia et al., 2021). One can take the VIA survey for free here: https://www.viacharacter.org/account/register

Optimism is also a big part of positive psychology. Optimistic people are happier (Fredrickson, 2009) and do better in life (Crane & Crane, 2007). They also live longer (Maruta et al., 2000). Optimism is also contagious. Unfortunately, so is pessimism. It’s an obvious choice, don’t you think? I do see advantages in pessimism in various circumstances- I used to be a risk manager, so my job was literally to think of everything that could go wrong- and of course in general it helps to be prepared for bad things that could happen, but in general, overall, the above studies seem to demonstrate that, for most people and in most circumstances, optimism wins. In fact, a ground-breaking study theorizes that parents’ teaching their children that the world is a dangerous place doesn’t protect the children so much as lead to worse outcomes (Clifton & Meindl, 2022). A different part of the study showed that having negative views of the world led to worse mental and physical well-being, and less job success, in adults of various occupations (Clifton & Meindl, 2022).

Expressing gratitude and having a positive, cheerful, optimistic attitude are real benefits to you and to the people around you (Grant & Dutton, 2012). Expressing gratitude is one of the positive interventions of positive psychology and improves psychological well-being (Wood et al., 2010).

 

What is a Positive Intervention?

A positive intervention is the social science term for a strategy or act designed or meant to increase one’s happiness or mental well-being. Personally, I don’t love that term, because for most people, when they hear the word “intervention” they probably think of their friends and family, gathered in their living room, to tell them that they need to stop drinking (or gambling, etc.). I would prefer the term Positive Personal Action.

An example of a positive intervention would be the afore-mentioned expressions of gratitude. Another positive intervention is keeping a gratitude diary, where each day you write down three things you’re grateful for. Then I strongly suggest that you hide the diary so someone else doesn’t find it and be upset that they’re not on your list every single day. Because that would not be a positive experience for either of you.

In a variation of the daily diary of three things you’re grateful for, people who were asked to write down three funny things that happened that day had stronger positive emotions and less depression (Gander et al., 2013).

Optimism is a foundation of positive psychology (M. E. P. Seligman, 2011). Optimism doesn’t mean blindly accepting that everything will work out for the best. Rather, it is reflected in one’s expectations for the future in the form of anticipating good versus bad (Carver et al., 2010) and also generally believing that a particular setback is temporary, limited to the specific situation at hand, and are not all because of you (M. E. P. Seligman, 2011).

Cultivating optimistic thinking is also a useful positive intervention. If you’re stuck in traffic, instead of focusing on the fact that you’ll be late, be glad you’re not the person who was in the auto accident causing the delay, and that maybe it’s just more time to spend with whatever loved one is in the car with you. Also remember that to the people behind you, you’re the traffic!

I was at a conference where a plastic surgeon spoke. The next day a bunch of us were in a room when he stuck his head into the doorway, looked around, then walked away. There was a joke waiting to be told, and as the comedian in the room it was up to me to make it. I quickly realized that there were two ways to go, positive or negative. Negative would be the self-deprecating joke- “He saw me (or us) and thought ‘Even I can’t fix that.’” Positive: “He looked at all of us, said to himself ‘There’s no money to be made here’ so he left.” I went with the positive. Because why would I put myself or all of us down when I could say something nice about everyone in the room?

 

What is Humor and the Origins of Stand-up Comedy

Who doesn’t enjoy laughing, even so much so that you fall on the floor and can’t stop? There is a reason that ROFL (rolling on the floor, laughing) is an internet expression. Because it happens. It seems like every woman’s on-line dating profile says “I love to laugh.” Who doesn’t? What’s more fun than laughing? (Don’t answer that. We all know what your answer would be.) Humor is a good choice, because humor is a positive intervention that improves one’s mental and physical well-being.

“Comedy is tragedy plus time” has been attributed to Mark Twain, Steve Allen, Lenny Bruce, Charlie Chaplin and Carol Burnett’s mother. Really. To be more precise, comedy is often someone else’s tragedy plus time. The traditional simplest definition of humor is amusement from when one is exposed to something incongruous (Warren & McGraw, 2016). The listener, reader or viewer is led to expect something but then gets something completely different, similar to the type of misdirection used by magicians. For example: “I came out to my parents when I was nineteen. I sat them down and said mom, dad, I’m not going to medical school.” Clearly that’s not what the audience is expecting. Depending on the audience I may use a variation of this joke: “My parents didn’t put a lot of pressure on me growing up. They said I could go to any medical school I wanted.” One of my earliest stand-up jokes is “They say that the car that you drive reflects your sexuality… I drive my mom’s car.” The joke gets a laugh because the audience is expecting me to name a type of car, not whose car it is, with the real punch coming from the juxtaposition of sexuality and one’s mother being especially incongruous. For what it’s worth there are other punchlines that work here, such as “I drive a Rabbit” or Infinity, or Escort, or these days maybe “an electric one” would get a laugh, but the joke works better when it’s not even a type of car, although “My neighbor got arrested for driving a Minor” might work in the U.K. where a Minor was a type of car. To add a bit more precision to the definition, humor is recognizing incongruity and then resolving it by reconciling, or removing, in your own mind, the faulty assumption or assumptions that made the statement seem incongruous. In the above examples, assuming that “Coming out” referred to revealing one’s sexual preference, or that the car that I drive meant a type of car rather than whose car it is.

America may claim to have invented stand-up comedy, as comedy performances began in burlesque shows, minstrel shows and vaudeville (McGraw & Warner, 2014). Later, the Borscht Belt led to the founding of comedy clubs in New York City and Los Angeles (Shirley, 2001). In Vaudeville, entertainers like Will Rogers would make jokes and political satire (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2025). As an American art form, it may date back to Mark Twain (Lee, 2008). But comedians were around long before America was a nation. Court jesters may not strictly have been stand-up comedians but they were solo performers tasked with making someone laugh. But from even before that, see the Talmudic wisdom right after the title page. Jews may have invented stand-up comedy. We certainly dominate comedy in the U.S. The Marx Brothers, The Three Stooges, George Burns, Sid Caesar, Mel Brooks & Carl Reiner, Henny Youngman, Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Joan Rivers, Rodney Dangerfield and Jerry Seinfeld, all Jewish. By my personal count, one third of the comedians on Comedy Central’s “100 Greatest Standups of All Time” (Lawson, 2022) are of Jewish origin. Even the most famous comedian in France, Gad Elmaleh, is Jewish. Yes, the French have a sense of humor.

I would opine that the Jewish history of storytelling, especially the holiday tradition of telling the same stories over and over, eventually cried out for punchlines, if for no other reason than to alleviate boredom. But perhaps it was because most of the holiday stories in Judaism are about yet another escape from oppression- it’s hard to be sad when you’re laughing. Or perhaps we’re just a people prone to exaggeration. At Passover there is a list of ten plagues that quickly becomes 250. Seriously?

 

Humor is Beneficial to One’s Physical Health

Life can be stressful, and major stressful events (stressors) are associated with an increase in risk for both mental and physical ailments (Cohen et al., 2019). Depression, heart disease, infections, autoimmune disorders and even mortality are exacerbated by stress. Major stressors include the loss of a loved one (death, divorce), job loss (including retirement), assault or other crime, legal issues, and medical diagnoses. It is often both easier and more cost-effective to reduce stress than to treat the resulting ailments (Cohen et al., 2019).

One would expect that the quality of one’s physical health to affect one’s mental health and happiness, and indeed that is the case. A meta-analysis of more than two dozen studies by Ngamaba et al. (2017) demonstrated that one’s physical health has a mediumly strong positive correlation with one’s mental subjective well-being, with the effect being even stronger in developing countries versus in developed nations. The researchers theorized that in developing nations, the cost of health care can be prohibitive relative to income, so people with health conditions suffer from greater poverty and perhaps also malnutrition. The positive correlations between physical health and mental well-being include both healthy people and people with chronic medical conditions (Ngamaba et al., 2017).

Laughter may not actually be the best medicine, but it can have health benefits. Randomized control trials have demonstrated that watching humorous videos significantly reduced levels of cortisol, a stress hormone (Kramer & Leitao, 2023). In a study by Lund et al. (2019), recently widowed subjects, both female and male, reported the importance of humor in their lives, and that after their loss they experienced the positive effects of humor more than they would have expected, with the benefits starting early in the process (the subjects were studied starting at 5 weeks from loss). The study also reported that subjects who placed a greater degree of importance on positive emotions made the most positive bereavement adjustments. Also, the lowest amounts of grief and depression were found in those scoring higher degrees of humor, laughter and happiness, data which also support the benefits of humor in bereavement (Lund et al., 2009).

While cultural norms may dictate what constitutes humor or what is acceptable, laughter and humor are universal, with babies only a few months old demonstrating laughter based on observing something incongruous (Mireault et al., 2015). Peek-a-boo, anyone?

In adults, laughing increases cerebral blood flow (this is a positive as it improves focus), improves cognitive function, increases white blood cells and immunoglobulin levels (which increase immunity), lowers blood pressure, and was not shown to have any negative effects (Yamakoshi et al., 2025). Participants in this study also reported subjectively higher mood levels (Yamakoshi et al., 2025). Exposure to humor also improves short-term memory in healthy older adults (Bains et al., 2014). Humor-based programs such as watching humor videos, laughter therapy where people are encouraged to just laugh, or to laugh and clap while singing, have been shown to reduce depression and anxiety in older adults (Ganz & Jacobs, 2014).

There appear to be gender differences in laughter. Women laugh more than men, especially with each other, as their laughter is often social support and a coping mechanism. Men, on the other hand, may be more likely to try to get other people to laugh, as the ability to make others laugh can be seen as high social status (Lyle, 2023). More on this later. Women, and their infants, can benefit from laughter in ways one might not even expect. Women shown the Charlie Chaplin movie “Modern Times” had higher levels of breast milk melatonin, and their infants had lower allergic responses to both latex and dust mites after being fed the laughter-exposed breast milk (Kimata, 2007). Note that all the infants in this study had previously reported allergic reactions to both latex and dust mites. Not surprisingly, watching weather reports (the control group) had no positive effects on breast milk. I suppose this means that there were no sociopaths in the control group who were enthralled by learning about people’s homes and lives destroyed by hurricanes, tornadoes, floods or other natural disasters.

 

How Humor is Beneficial to One’s Mental Well-Being

One study has shown that people having more humorous episodes in their life have an increase in positive emotions, and a decrease in negative ones, with humor stemming from social interactions being more common than scripted or planned humor (Mannell & McMahon, 1982). Another study reported that a group assigned humor skills (an eight step program in how to use humor as a coping mechanism combined with jokes and funny stories) reported greater well-being, including increases in self-efficacy and optimism, and a reduction in depression, anxiety and stress, benefits that continued for at least three months (the last follow-up by the researchers) (Cann et al., 1999). The two control groups (no intervention, or assigned to a weekly social group meeting) reported no statistically significant changes (Cann et al., 1999). College students who laugh more often in the time around stressful events have a lowered stress response to the stressful event (Zander-Schellenberg et al., 2020). Interestingly, there was no correlation between the level of intensity of laughter and stress reduction- just laughing was sufficient (Zander-Schellenberg et al., 2020). In other words, you don’t have to laugh strongly, just more frequently. Note that in this study more than two thirds of the participants were female, and they were all psychology majors.

One would expect that most of what people laugh at are jokes or funny situations. While obviously jokes and funny situations yield laughter, that’s not a lot of what people laugh at in regular situations. It’s usually more just sharing a mood, or appreciating the same thing as part of social discourse (Arnold, 1996; Provine, 1993). For example, if a friend of yours is eating ice cream, and another friend says “He really likes ice cream” and you say “Yeah, right” both of you may laugh. That’s not comedy but more like an agreement over something obvious. It’s social bonding. We laugh at someone’s misfortune on slipping on a banana peel, when it’s just surprise but not actually comical. N.B. The inside of a banana peel is actually very slippery. The coefficient of friction has been measured at 0.07 (Mabuchi et al., 2012) (the smaller number, the slipperier). Compare that with the coefficient of friction of WD-40, which has been measured at 0.11 or greater (Farnell.com, n.d.).

I know firsthand how slippery banana peels are- a few years ago I slipped on one that I hadn’t seen. I was walking; the next thing I knew I was on my backside on the ground, in a bit of pain. I had no idea what happened until I looked around and realized there was a banana peel at my feet. The incongruity of a comedian slipping on a banana peel by accident (not scripted) made me laugh. Which is when I realized that it’s actually possible to be both laughing and crying at the same time. It hurt, but it was also funny.

But still, people laugh at jokes. What’s more fun than getting together with friends and laughing? Humor can be a shared experience that makes people feel safe with others and helps to create or strengthen social bonds (Fredrickson, 2009). We are much more likely to laugh when we are with others than to laugh out loud when we’re alone (Provine & Fischer, 1989), which may explain why television situation comedies are recorded in front of a live audience (Hogeback, 2016). The audio track includes laughter so that people are more likely to feel comfortable laughing out loud when they’re watching alone (Bore, 2011). Another reason to record in front of a live audience and include laughter in the show is for timing purposes. With a live audience, the actors pause after jokes, resuming only after the laughter dies down. This gives the at-home audience time to laugh without the actors stepping on the punchlines (Pradhan et al., 2021). N.B. People enjoy humor when alone, they just laugh out loud more when they’re with other people (Pradhan et al., 2021).

Nursing home residents showed lower levels of anxiety and depression after participating in a humorous sing-a-long, showing that even a short exposure, an hour a week, has benefits (Houston et al., 1998). Among the elderly, depression is the most common affective (mood) disorder, with suicide more common among the elderly than among the general population (Koenig & Blazer, 1992). Depression is commonly treated with medication such as SSRIs, however negative side-effects from these medications are quite common, with 84% of 401 patients reporting at least one side-effect, and 55% reporting at least one they categorized as bothersome (Hu et al., 2004). In another study of 406 patients, a quarter of them discontinued taking a prescribed SSRI due to side-effects (Goethe et al., 2007). Clearly there is a need for either better medication for depression or for a non-pharmaceutical intervention to help with depression. Fortunately, one is as close as one’s sense of humor. A study conducted on 92 senior citizen visitors to a seniors center demonstrated that exposure to humor therapy led to lower levels of depression, and their improved well-being (Ganz & Jacobs, 2014). A study in Australia, conducted by a professional comedian as part of his master’s thesis in suicidology, showed that a program called HALE (Humour and Laughter Education) reduced depression in a small population (n=7) suffering from mild to moderate depression (McConville, 2018). The HALE program consisted of five one-hour sessions that promoted the awareness and recognition of different humor styles and how they can relate to either positive or negative psychological well-being. The program included homework assignments, finding humor and laughing. All participants exhibited a decrease in depression, anxiety and stress, with depression being the largest factor to show a decrease, from more than 17 to less than 8 on the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale at the end of five weeks. This study did have several limitations, including the author’s profession (stand-up comedian) being a conflict, plus the small sample size, that the participants well-being was self-reported rather than measured, and that they were also all under the care of psychologists during the study (McConville, 2018).

Humor improves mental well-being via several pathways as demonstrated in a study by Martin (2001). First, humor leads to increased positive emotions (humor is one of several defined positive emotions; others include love, contentment, hope, joy and happiness. Second, humor helps people cope with stress, due to increasing their humorous outlook on life. Essentially, being able to laugh at bad situations makes it easier to adapt and to cope with them. In this sense it’s not the laughter itself but the attitude change that is beneficial. It is also suggested that having a sense of humor makes one more socially attractive, leading to more satisfying relationships (Bell et al., 1986).

Humor can be a benefit in work situations as well. A survey of 290 employees found that those who rated their boss as having a good sense of humor were more satisfied with their jobs and gave their bosses higher performance ratings, with the caveat that older, but not younger, women, downgraded the bosses who used sexual humor (Decker, 1987). In “Humor: A Double-Edged Tool for Today’s Managers?” Paul B. Malone relates the story of a group of Army Ranger course participants, three days without sleep, who were given the order to go on another patrol. To them the Ranger Instructor giving the order was the enemy, because it meant even more time without sleep. He then delivered a joke, while Malone describes as not particularly funny but appropriate to the situation. Malone then watched as 130 men laughed together and became a team with a shared mission, and the instructor went from being a torturer to a fellow teammate (Malone, 1980). Humor can help a person at work ingratiate himself with someone else (Cooper, 2005). Essentially, if you make someone laugh, you’ve increased their happiness, and they like you more (Wanzer et al., 1996). Since most people want to be liked, that’s a benefit to both parties, whether with a group of friends or in a work situation. Humor has also been shown to help both college students and working adults cope with work stress, and leads to higher job satisfaction (Booth-Butterfield et al., 2007). Isn’t anything that leads to greater happiness at work a positive intervention?

Humor can also help in other difficult situations. I once dated a pediatric oncologist and commented about how difficult her job must be. “Why?” she asked. I thought it was obvious. “Kids dying.” She looked me right in the eyes and said, “I cure them, you asshole.” Presumably she was correct, as the pediatric cancer survival rate is 83% (Ward et al., 2014). Mireault et al. (2015) showed that oncologists have found that making patients laugh is beneficial to the relationship between doctor and patient (and family), humanizing the health care team, alleviating pain, relaxing patients and lightening the mood for difficult conversations, establishing a common bond, reducing a patient’s thought that they’re being rushed through an appointment, and helping both doctor and patient cope. They also found that it helps health care workers support each other. Obviously there are limits and guidelines as to what’s appropriate, because insensitive or insulting jokes can have negative outcomes (Mireault et al., 2015). However, gallows humor between health care providers, with no patient present, can also help to relieve stress among health care workers (Mireault et al., 2015). In my own work as a stand-up comedian, I’ve found that some of the best audiences are those with the most stressful jobs- police officers, firefighters, soldiers. In 1968, the North Korean military captured the U.S. Navy ship USS Pueblo and held its sailors in a prisoner of war camp for 11 months. A psychiatric evaluation of the 82 survivors found that, among other defense mechanisms, those who used humor handled their stress better than those who did not (Ford, 1973). Other studies on POW camp survivors have shown similar results (Henman, 2001).

It’s not just adults who benefit from comedy. A study by Liao et al., (2023) introducing humor (riddles) as a classroom intervention found that seventh graders’ positive emotions improved with exposure to humor. In addition, their ability to learn increased. The study also showed that introducing humor increased the students’ abilities to use humor, presumably creating a positive feedback loop to help students and their friends outside of the classroom as well. Furthermore, one teacher reported that with the introduction of humor, students were more positive about the class itself (Liao et al., 2023).

 

The Advantages of Humor as a Positive Intervention,
or,
What’s so Great About the Show “Positively Funny?”

Psychotherapy has been demonstrated to improve mental health (Goldfried, 2013). Of course therapy, like fire extinguishers, sunscreen and birth control, works only if you actually use it. However, people’s resistance to receiving mental health assistance inhibits their desire to seek help when they need it (Goldfried, 2013). A major obstacle to people receiving mental health treatment is their own doubt, fear or distrust of mental health services (Tang, 2023). Often, the people who most need assistance believe that they will be labeled sick or odd, which prevents them from realizing the benefits of the assistance they most need, and can lead to a continued deterioration in their mental health (Goldfried, 2013). A study of British men found that many thought that seeking psychological help was unmasculine, so their self-images would suffer were they to receive treatment (Sullivan et al., 2015).

Another obstacle to people choosing to get the help they need is their distrust of psychology itself- that it doesn’t really work (Goldfried, 2013). Probably most of us know someone who went to therapy only to remain the same sick bastard they were before therapy, only maybe worse because now they think they’re better. It should be obvious that examples do not qualify as scientifically analyzed data, because we also all know people who have died of cancer or a heart attack, but that probably wouldn’t stop most of us for seeking treatment for those life-threatening conditions, even taking possible terribly negative side-effects into account.

Yet psychology is different, because physical ailments are more likely to manifest themselves in ways obvious to the sufferer- if you have a sprained ankle or the flu you can hardly deny it to yourself. With therapy, exacerbating this problem is that it is uncommon for practitioners to be trained to recognize when therapy isn’t working or is even making things worse (Lilienfeld, 2007). Furthermore, press reports on common anti-depressant medication leading to an increase in suicidality may lead to additional mistrust of all mental health professions, even as the benefits of these medications outweigh the risks (Möller et al., 2008).

People are resistant to change (Jost, 2015), but they may seek to emulate the behavior of someone they admire or appreciate (Hoffman & Tan, 2015). By way of example, we studied meditation in graduate school. I wasn’t against meditation- my father used transcendental meditation to help control his high blood pressure and reduce his being high strung. However, as I don’t have those negative qualities, I didn’t see the benefits of meditation in my own life. Then, working on a paper, after I discovered that three of the absolutely best comedians- Jerry Seinfeld, Al Lubel and Myq Kaplan- all meditate, I figured it was time for me to do it.

If you’d asked me a year ago who the most famous person was who has gone to therapy, I would have said Woody Allen. And while I appreciate and admire his artistic skill and accomplishments, he’s not someone I’d want to be (even pre-scandal). Since then I’ve found out that Bruce Springsteen, Michael Phelps, Pope Francis (Sutton & Sernasie, 2024), plus Michelle Obama and Drew Carey (Gemmill & Ryan, 2024) have all gone to therapy and have been open about its benefits to their own lives. If someone you admire is public and positive about the benefits of therapy in their own life, will that increase the chances that you’ll seek help? In short, yes. Marketing studies and neuroscience research have shown that celebrity influence is real and can jump-start herd behavior, that their fans identify and trust them and their recommendations (Hoffman & Tan, 2015). Katie Couric’s Today Show colonoscopy caused a 21% increase in colonoscopies the following month, with an increase in the colonoscopy rate continuing for nine months (Cram et al., 2003). As receiving a colonoscopy isn’t something people do just for fun, it’s clear that her influence led people to do something they were otherwise not inclined to do.

There are additional mechanisms that lead people to emulate the behavior of those they admire. Meaning Transfer is the marketing term to describe how people follow celebrity recommendations or product consumption in order to acquire the traits of the celebrity (McCracken, 1989). Essentially, people who want to identify as the celebrity will follow the celebrity’s recommendation. Or even a fictional celebrity: If I smoke Marlboros, I’ll be rugged and masculine like that cowboy in the ad. And it worked, as prior to that advertising campaign Marlboro was considered a sissy cigarette (Irani, 2009). The effect is especially powerful if the celebrity is considered an expert in the field, for example an auto racer endorsing motor oil, or otherwise is trustworthy or has credibility, for example Brook Shields endorsing an SSRI after suffering from post-partum depression (Hoffman & Tan, 2015). The effect is strong if the product is seen to have improved the celebrity’s life- another example would be Suzanne Somers endorsing an exercise product. Oh, wow, she wasn’t born with those legs, she used a product to make them pretty? Maybe there’s hope for me too!

However, this process is not without limits, as a mismatch between the product and celebrity can cause the identification to fail (McCracken, 1989). John Wayne endorsing a pain reliever was not a success (McCracken, 1989). Maybe having a tough guy, someone who should be rugged enough to endure pain without complaining, wasn’t the best celebrity to endorse a pain pill?

Here is where the comedy show “Positively Funny” comes in (see Appendix B for information on the show and Appendix C for links to some video clips from the show). People go to a comedy show to be entertained. They may figure that they’ll come out happier than they were when they went in, but they don’t think of a comedy show as a positive psychological intervention (even though it is). However, if we can include some positive psychology in the show, the audience may benefit both directly and indirectly. Directly because they will be exposed to concepts that don’t seem like therapy. For example, a discussion of the benefits of keeping a gratitude diary (or a Funny Things That Happened Today diary), expressing gratitude to others, or reframing one’s viewpoint on something, may induce positive change in audience members. They may try these positive interventions- after all, writing something down, or saying thank you, isn’t the same as seeing a therapist. It requires no appointments, no dealing with an insurance company, no travel, and not even any financial expense. Yet such behavior is beneficial to one’s mental well-being. Perhaps after experiencing positive results with a positive psychological intervention, audience members may reduce their aversion to other aspects of psychology, such as therapy? Maybe they’ll start by reading a book on positive psychology, such as Seligman’s “The Hope Circuit” which describes the author’s path from therapy to the development of positive psychology. I know that my own mild aversion to the idea of therapy, at least for myself, declined when I read Lori Gottlieb’s book “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone” which was written by a therapist about being both a therapist and in therapy.

Another mechanism by which a comedy show may improve one’s mental well-being is by reframing what help actually is. Specifically, it may lead to people seeking necessary help by reframing Help as Taking Actions themselves, which has been shown to spur people to accept the interaction (Sikveland & Stokoe, 2023). After all, keeping a diary of funny things that happened isn’t exactly the same as lying on a psychologist’s couch. An additional mechanism comes from countervailing another resistance to therapy, loss of control. Loss of control is another reason that people may resist psychotherapy, because it undermines their need to control their own life (Beutler et al., 2002).

Furthermore, herd behavior may come into play here. If other audience members react positively to positive psychology and the positive interventions discussed in a comedy show, others may follow. There is safety in numbers, and studies have shown that people like to do what is already popular (Banerjee, 1992). In fact, numerous examples abound; when a bookstore chain put up a display touting best-selling books, sales of those books increased, so much so that other bookstores have copied the idea (Bonabeau, 2024). Similar techniques work for Amazon; people also rush to see movies that are popular (Bonabeau, 2024). The old saying that nobody ever got fired for buying from IBM comes to mind. When I was a banker, a common question Japanese banks would ask is “Which other Japanese banks are in this deal?” Making a decision that turns out to be bad is one thing, but being the only one of your peers making that decision is way worse for your career. And people are more likely to cheat on their taxes when they think that a lot of other people do (Wenzel, 2005). If, on the way out of the show ”Positively Funny” they hear others discussing the ideas, or if their friends at the show also have a positive reaction to the ideas, the audience members may come to the realization that not all psychology is a bunch of wacky theories popularized by the most famous psychotherapist of all times, the one who is clearly obsessed with his mother (Freud, 1905), abused cocaine (Markel, 2011) and had an affair with his sister-in-law (Maciejewski & Gaines, 2006).

Parents have learned that one way to introduce a child to vegetables, and to get them to eat some, is to start by sneaking the vegetables into other food. Jerry Seinfeld’s wife Jessica Seinfeld even based a cookbook on this idea (Seinfeld, 2008). Putting positive psychology into a stand-up comedy show is the equivalent of sneaking vegetables into the mashed potatoes, getting audience members used to concepts they may have previously rejected.

 

What About Creating Humor? Yes, That’s Good for you as Well

The ability to produce humor has been shown to be correlated with both resilience and creativity (Metwally Elsayed et al., 2020). Studies have shown a positive correlation between sense of humor and creativity in general (Humke & Schaefer, 1996). In a study of graduate nursing students, those who demonstrated greater abilities to create humor were more resilient and coped better with difficult situations (Metwally Elsayed et al., 2020). Stronger resilience is beneficial to one’s mental well-being, helping to build strengths and overcome weaknesses (Lee Duckworth et al., 2005). More resilient people experience more positive emotions and are better able to recover from stressful experiences (Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004). Experiencing positive emotions during difficult times helps individuals invent, discover and use new and creative thoughts and behavior in order to better cope with their stressful situations (Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004). That resilience and sense of humor are linked is not limited to Westerners, as a study of ethnically Chinese Hong Kong residents also found a correlation between resilience and sense of humor, in addition to stronger abilities to deal with crisis situations (Pan & Chan, 2006). Similar results were found in Singapore (Nair et al., 2001). There is also a positive correlation between sense of humor and creativity (Galloway, 1994). And to be clear, in this context, by sense of humor I refer to the ability to create humor, not just appreciating humor that has been created by others.

But can we improve our ability to create humor?

Of course we can. Humor is a skill like any other. Some comedians may be rugged individualists who claim that you can’t learn to be funny, but that’s nonsense. You can learn techniques, you can learn from practice and repetition, and you can learn by analyzing comedy written by others. If nothing else, from taking a comedy course you can even learn how not to hit yourself in the face with the microphone, which happens more often than one might think. This happens because sometimes the mic is stuck into the holder, and the instinct is to pull harder and harder until it comes out. Alas, what happens is that it breaks free suddenly, and you hit yourself in the face. (the trick is to turn it to the side before pulling hard on it, so when it flies out it goes sideways rather than back towards and into your face).

 

How to Apply Humor as a Positive Intervention in Your own Life

One might surmise that there are few things stopping anyone from integrating more humor into their life, though this specific lack of restriction has not been the subject of much scientific study. Humor does exist in so many forms- drawn cartoons, television shows, comedic essays, late-night TV monologues, TV sketch comedy, sit-coms, both recorded and live comedy entertainment like stand-up comedy shows, and funny stage plays- that it should be easy enough to find without much effort. Most of it is even free, and with the internet it can come right to you. Instead of disappointing yourself by going to social media and reading about the fun that everyone else is claiming to have, and making yourself sad, go to Youtube and watch some funny videos. Humor, unlike many other positive emotions, is under your control (Crawford & Caltabiano, 2011). No need to make efforts to reduce adversity or conflict, or even to deal with others. Just look for entertainment.

That’s one way to introduce humor into your life. But that’s external humor, created by someone else and either fabricated or based on their experiences, not yours. You can also create humor in your own life. In order to do this, you start thinking like a comedian. Look for, or create, incongruities. Someone throwing garbage out of a car window is just a litterbug. But if you imagine the person is driving a hybrid, you can think “I didn’t expect an environmentalist to litter. Maybe he’s an environmentalist… except on the East Side.” Or “Tomorrow he’ll come back and throw a robotic vacuum cleaner out of his car, and it’ll suck up all the litter everyone’s tossed all week.” If you look for a joke, you can probably find one, and you’ll get better with practice. A lot of jokes, especially in late-night television monologues, are just taking two things and reversing one, applying a concept that describes one and instead applying it to the other.

For example, start with this set-up: If the president met with the pope, find something for them both to complain about, or for one to one-up the other. “The president met with the pope today- the pope said that while the popemobile may be small, it is hard to parallel-park. The president said ‘You should try parallel-parking Air Force One.’” Or “The president wanted to confess his sins, and the pope said ‘No need to reiterate the whole list; I read the paper.’” Or “The president laughed at the pope’s hat, so the pope said ‘If I had hair like yours, I’d wear two hats.’” Just think of some characteristic that applies to one of the subjects in the set-up, and apply it to the other one, with a twist. You can also apply a concept that applies to some things in that category, but not necessarily the thing you’re looking it. There are psychic hotlines. Think about what happens when you call a company: “I called the psychic hotline. The recording said ‘Due to unusually high call volume…’ I guess they’re not as psychic as they thought.” Another example: “They called Bill Cosby ‘America’s dad.’ They called Rudy Giuliani ‘America’s mayor.’ What horrible crimes are YOU hiding, America’s Tire?”

Or you can take something completely out of context. “Every address in Maryland ends with “, MD”. Every house in Maryland thinks it’s a doctor.” Or “The Atlanta area code does not exist. Every time I call a 404 number I get an error.” (If you don’t get this joke, on the internet a 404 error is when you try to go to a web page that doesn’t exist.) Exaggeration also works well. “If the camera adds ten pounds, and Jennifer Aniston looks like she weighs ten pounds, does she even really exist?” When I read that someone at Harvard Medical School was selling stolen body parts, I wondered what happened to the body parts. “Did you go to Harvard? Well, my liver did!” There is probably no shortage of obvious jokes about adopting a highway, applying the experience of adopting a child to a road.
Another comedy writing technique: Apply something to itself: “I went to the Museum of Bankruptcy, but it was closed.” It turns out, there is a Museum of Bankruptcy, but it doesn’t matter if there isn’t. You’re allowed to make stuff up. The goal is a punchline, not factual accuracy. Sometimes the thing really even applies to itself: “Egg prices are going up because of a shortage of chickens to lay eggs.” Doesn’t this come to mind? “If only there were some way to turn eggs into chickens…”

You can also expand something to apply to more people or categories. You just texted someone to say you forgive them? Picture texting everyone you know, saying you forgive them. Then expand this idea- do it at 10 PM, then turn your phone off for the night. Tomorrow morning will be very interesting. Or you can look for an obvious explanation of something, an explanation that’s just wrong. For example, “A new study says that people who wear hearing aids have a 25% lower chance of death.” A punchline could be “Especially if what they hear is ‘Look out!’”

Another technique? Looking at something from the other point of view. “More than half of Americans believe their pet is their soulmate.” Look at it from the cat’s point of view. The cat doesn’t care about you. The punchline could be “More than half of cats think of their owner’s body as their emergency food supply.” Or just consider how hard something might have been. “A gang was arrested for stealing 2 million dimes.” I looked it up; the weight of two million dimes is five tons. So, the punchline could be “They plan to lift weights in prison, and when they get out, steal four million dimes.”

Yet another technique is to combine two things that aren’t at all related to each other, in a way that yields something ridiculous. After hearing about the Coney Island hot dog eating contest being referred to as a sport, I wondered about combining that sport with football. “To get a first down you either need to advance ten yards or eat 20 hot dogs. The fourth quarter would be really interesting.” Or, after seeing thin people in commercials for food that makes you fat: “New rule: The average body fat percentage of people in a food commercial should match the body fat percentage of the average customer.” I read that the national flower of Ukraine is the sunflower. I didn’t know what the American national flower is, or even if we have one. So I started thinking about what’s important to Americans. So “America’s national flower is the Big Mac.”

These are some examples of comedy writing techniques. There is no shortage of comedy writing books written by professional comedians and comedy writers, with more techniques, examples and exercises. There is also a program called “The 7 Humor Habits Program” that has been shown to help people develop their humor-creating abilities and increase their life satisfaction (Ruch et al., 2018). If you live in a big city there are probably stand-up comedy and comedy writing classes. And if not, there are on-line classes too.

A big benefit of training your mind to view everyday life occurrences as set-ups to jokes, and to be looking for punchlines, is that when you’re looking for a joke you’re focusing on the funny, not on the stress of the problem. It’s better to be trying to make yourself laugh than to suffer from the negative. You’ll feel a greater sense of control, which has been shown to lead to better psychological outcomes, as a study has shown not just a static correlation between sense of control and psychological well-being, but also that people whose sense of control increased had improved psychological well-being compared with their prior, lower, sense of control (Hong et al., 2021). In studies of senior citizens, interventions that increase one’s sense of control generally lead to increased health outcomes, though the potential for negative outcomes was also discussed (Rodin, 1989).

One study reported that people who were asked to create humor during stressful situations demonstrated lower levels of stress, showing the benefits of looking at situations from a comedic point of view (Martin & Lefcourt, 1983). After all, what’s a better reaction to a problem than laughing at it?

A big benefit of creating humor for yourself? You can share it with others. Then you’re not just amusing yourself. You’re making your friends and co-workers happy too. And that will also make you even happier, as it has been shown that funny people are more popular and more socially attractive (Wanzer et al., 1996). Essentially, people are drawn to those who make them happier, which inducing laughter certainly does, with the disclaimer that this doesn’t apply if the humor is mean and directed at the listener (Wanzer et al., 1996). Funnier people also report less loneliness (Wanzer et al., 1996).

It is believed that all of us are born with the ability to develop a sense of humor (Fry, 1994), but not all of us work at building it (Miczo, 2004). In other words, humor is just like almost anything else; you get better at it with practice.

 

Are There any Disadvantages of Humor?

I have found few disadvantages of humor, if appropriate to the situation and audience. If the humor is offensive, or inappropriate (making jokes at the funeral about the death of a child, for example, or making fun of someone who neither desires nor deserves to be made fun of), then obviously it doesn’t belong there. But there can be an occasional negative effect of laughter. For example, in 1962, several schools in what is now Tanzania had to shut down for a few days because of spreading uncontrollable laughter. After all attempts to isolate toxins or other biological causes of the laughter were unsuccessful, a diagnosis of mass psychogenic illness (formerly known as mass hysteria) was made (Kokota, 2011). In fact, the word hysterical, though often used to describe uncontrollable laughter (or something that is very funny) has its roots in the Greek word hystera, or uterus. The term stems from an ancient belief that women are often unable to control their emotions due to their anatomy.

Uncontrollable laughter is also a symptom of kuru, a fatal disease similar to mad cow, that results from the consumption of human brains (Diamond & Kolak, 2018). Since only cannibals contract kuru, it remains a rather uncommon occurrence in Eastern Pennsylvania. Also, since laughter is only a symptom of the disease, laughter itself is neither the cause of the malady nor its resulting fatality.

Experiencing humor has been shown to be beneficial to both one’s mental well-being and one’s physical well-being, in so many different ways and via several different mechanisms. It can also enhance both memory and learning. And it’s fun! Humor also leads to shared camaraderie and improved teamwork in organizations. Humor as a shared experience helps people feel safe with others. Humor has been shown to benefit children and adults, including senior citizens, who suffer from higher rates of depression. Humor has helped prisoners of war to cope with their confinement, and medical patients to bond with their health care providers. Creating humor strengthens resilience and improves creativity in other areas. I hope that the bits of humor in this academic paper have at least made you smile. Humor is an important part of human existence. Why not take advantage of all its benefits, and seek out humor wherever and whenever you can find it?

Since laughter is therapeutic, can comedians look forward to insurance company reimbursement of a comedy club’s cover charge? Only time will tell, although we might not reap the benefits if insurance companies start making us compete against each other as they empanel only the lowest cost providers of humor. If so, I will remain out-of-network.

 

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Appendix A

VIA Classification of Character Strengths and Virtues

Wisdom (Creativity, Curiosity, Judgment, Love of Learning, Perspective)

Courage (Bravery, Perseverance, Honesty, Zest)

Humanity (Love, Kindness, Social Intelligence)

Justice (Teamwork, Fairness, Leadership)

Temperance (Forgiveness, Humility, Prudence, Self-Regulation)

 

Appendix B

“Positively Funny” Overview and Outline

 

The Show’s Relevance to Positive Psychology

As described in the body of the paper, humor itself is a positive intervention as it improves both the mood (mental well-being) and physical health of the audience, in addition to having positive effects on the writer/performer. The show “Positively Funny” is unique in that it also introduces elements of positive psychology into the show itself. It explains concepts of positive psychology, gets the audience more comfortable with psychology itself and may help audience members overcome any reluctance they have to traditional psychology such as therapy.

 

Overview

“Positively Funny” is a one-person stand-up comedy show, written and performed by Shaun Eli Breidbart. It is primarily stand-up comedy and also includes elements of positive psychology. Some of those elements are weaved into jokes. Others are simply stated as principles of positive psychology. Still other elements of positive psychology, such as positive interventions, are explained, then illustrated or punctuated by a joke that relates to the concept. The show concludes with a comedic bit that’s an example of reframing one’s viewpoint.

 

Opening with a positively-focused joke

“Hi, I’m Shaun Eli, and I’m thrilled to be here. But I’m a New Yorker… I’m happy to be anywhere I can park for free!” (Or, if there isn’t free parking in the area, “…happy to be anywhere I can park for forty dollars.)”

 

The First Lesson in Positive Psychology

“The first lesson in positive psychology- You Matter! You do matter! Maybe not to your family, maybe not to your friends, maybe not even to yourself. But you matter to me! Because without an audience, I Don’t Matter.”

 

The Text or Topics of Some Jokes

Jokes from my act about driving to the gig. The story about walking around campus with my friend the professor:
“When I was in graduate school earlier this year I was walking on campus with my college friend, who’s a professor there. One of his students stopped to talk to him, then eventually realized I was just standing there looking sheepish. He didn’t want to completely ignore me, so he asked ‘Are you a professor too?’ I said ‘No, actually I’m a grad student.’ He looked at me for a few seconds and said ‘Your parents must be very disappointed.”

Leading into jokes about my parents, my childhood, my brother and his children.

An explanation from positive psychology: Keeping a gratitude journal, and how to find three positive things that day, even if the day really sucked.

Story of the wall in an arty town in Vermont, where you’re invited to answer the question “Before I die…” I wrote “Make a million people laugh.” Later I realized, that as a writer for late-night TV, I’ve already done that. So I upped my goal- to do it in person.

An explanation that comedy is a positive intervention.

An explanation about talking about yourself in the third person, the Batman effect, and my 93 year old friend calling herself “Robot” when she starts to feel tired, because robots don’t get tired.

An explanation about optimism, and of course an optimism joke. (Want to know the joke? Come to the show)

How meditation can protect against stress, and comedians who meditate, including Jerry Seinfeld and Al Lubel, the winner of Star Search.

Positive psychology- taking responsibility for your life, your health and your wealth. These are decisions you have to make, and actions you have to take, because no one else can.

How to deal with the greatest calamity of your life, or at least the greatest calamity of the week. (It’s a joke, but it is an excellent example of putting a positive spin on a negative)

Parable of the bricklayer, and how to put a positive spin on your job and how every job is important, especially stand-up comedian.

Reframing your viewpoint. My dryer broke. My first thought was negative- I have to get a new dryer. Then I realized, I didn’t like the dryer that broke. So I reframed it as I get to have a new dryer!

How a joke can sometimes be either positive or negative, and an example of how I chose positive in a split second in an improvised joke at a conference.

Putting a positive spin on my high school reunion led to a record turnout.

Pessimism vs. optimism: It doesn’t matter whether you see the glass as half-full or half-empty, because an important characteristic of drinking glasses is that they’re refillable.

How people need autonomy and that giving it to them improves things.

Why and how jealousy is stupid. We’re always better than someone at something, and worse at something else.

How to deal with insults and not being liked.

Magic Time- a positive intervention.

How to cope when you just don’t feel like doing something, like when you want to work out but you’re just not in the mood.

Reframing the viewpoint- the trash bins at Penn don’t say Recycle/Trash. They say Recycle/Landfill, to remind people where our trash goes.

Closing joke: A joke about a traffic stop, a superb example of reframing.

 

Appendix C

Video Clips From the Debut of “Positively Funny” on the Penn Campus, April 2025

Plastic Surgeon Joke

A Story About How a Joke Could be Either Positive or Negatively Focused: https://youtu.be/v1gBOW6XqKc

The Camera Adds Ten Pounds Joke

How to Focus on Something as Positive Rather Than Negative: https://youtu.be/Wqv9ouvc-uU

The Batman Effect Joke

How to Benefit From Thinking of Yourself as Someone Else: https://youtu.be/TDi_NHAfRus

Walking With a Professor Joke

How Someone Else’s Assumptions Can Change a Situation:

https://youtu.be/RqjOpiBj1lg