Patty Wooten presents ... 
Interview with Paul McGhee
From Journal of Nursing Jocularity, Spring 1996, 6(1), pp 46-47.Patty Wooten: Paul, you've been involved with humor research for many years. Can you tell us what it was like during those early days?
Paul McGhee: I've been involved in humor since 1968 when I did my doctoral dissertation on the development of humor in children. During the '60's there was very little serious attention given to humor. In 1972, Jeffrey Goldstein and I edited a book called Psychology of Humor and it was difficult to get original chapters that did not reflect a psychoanalytic approach to humor. In 1983 I edited a book called The Handbook of Humor Research, which was designed to draw attention to a broad range of key issues and improve the quality of humor research in general. Even today, many researchers fail to use the same rigor in studying humor that you expect in other areas of research. But there are very strong researchers, like Wilhelm Ruch at the University of Dusseldorf in Germany. He has published his research in many professional journals, both in German and English.
PW: How has your work changed over the years?
PM: When I began studying humor almost thirty years ago, I was very academic and committed to getting people to take humor seriously. I remember the paper I presented at the 1st International Conference on Humor in Wales, in 1976. It was titled: "Philogenetic and oncogenetic considerations for a theory of the origins of humor." So you can imagine how much fun I was (NOT) having with humor back then. Now, as you can see from my picture, I've stopped taking myself so seriously, and am having a lot more fun teaching people how to develop their sense of humor. My focus has shifted from basic research to working full-time as a professional speaker, and teaching practical methods of developing humor skills so you can learn to use humor as a coping skill in everyday life. My latest book, How to Develop Your Sense of Humor, reflects over twenty years of research on humor development. It's listed in the Jocularity Catalog.
PW: And you'll be speaking on that very topic at the next Journal of Nursing Jocularity conference in St. Louis next June.
PM: Yes, I'm very pleased and excited to be an invited speaker.
PW: From your perspective, has there been any major turning point in the Humor Movement? A point when there was a significant shift.
PM: Yes, I'd say the biggest shift came with the publication of Norman Cousins' book Anatomy of an Illness. I remember, when I first heard Norman tell his story at the 2nd International Humor Conference in Los Angeles in 1979, I was very critical of it. As a researcher, what he was saying was clearly an anecdote, with no scientific basis. But he opened the doors to studying humor, and directly stimulated all the interest in humor we see today. He changed our basic attitude toward the idea of studying humor. Up until that time, the media was generally pretty negative about doing research on humor. This was a topic that was probably best left unstudied. They felt that too much research on humor might cause us to become deadly serious all the time, and as a result, we would lose a valuable skill for coping with difficult times. Cousin's story helped to open people's eyes to the powerful positive contribution humor could make to our health and well being. This created a strong motivation to understand and develop our humor potential. My book is designed to help people do exactly that.
PW: From a developmental psychology perspective then, how does our sense of humor evolve?
PM: I believe that there is an underlying cognitive basis for all humor. And basic changes in cognitive development cause children all over the world to show certain transitions in the development of their sense of humor. Children first experience humor about the same time that symbolic play starts, toward the end of the first year. Some argue that it starts earlier, for example when the infant shows laughter during the "peek a boo" games. But, any time you surprise infants in a safe and familiar context, you can get laughter, and there are other explanations for this laughter that does not require humor. True humor occurs at this earliest stage with the cognitive awareness of reality and the choice to be playful and have fun. For example, we've all played that game with children: "Show me your nose . . .show me your eyes . . " The child always gets it right, but there always comes a day when she gets a playful glint in her eye and points to her ear when you say, "nose." She knows the right answer, but it's a lot more fun to turn reality upside down and pretend it's something else. I think that this is the essence of our earliest experience of humor, and we don't have to be taught it's funny.
The next major transition occurs at about age six or seven, when kids start to understand riddles. I once did a study where I would give kids a riddle and two choices of the "funniest" answer. One was the joking answer and the other was a serious answer. For example: "Why did the old man tiptoe past the medicine cabinet?" A) Because he dropped a glass and didn't want to cut his foot. B) Because he didn't want to wake the sleeping pills. The kids had to simply choose the funniest answer. Five and six year olds were clearly guessing, but starting at age seven, they began to consistently choose the joking answer. The onset of understanding of riddles at this age is what Swiss child psychologist Jean Piaget calls concrete operational thinking. This new cognitive ability enables the child to keep two ideas (or two meanings of a word) in mind at the same time. The child begins to see that both answers make sense, but one makes sense in a different way -- and it's that different way that makes it funny.
PW: Paul, you have so much to share with us, I'm wishing this was an interview for a book rather than just an article. It will be wonderful to have you share more with us at the next Humor Skills for the Health Professional conference in St. Louis in June of 1996. As a summary, please describe your views on the differences between humor, laughter and play.
PM: Play -- actually, a playful frame of mind -- is the basic prerequisite for humor. It's an attitude that you bring to your daily life that allows you to experience humor. Humor is a complex intellectual and emotional experience. It's an intellectual insight that triggers the experience of humor, but our emotional state at the time influences whether that insight occurs. The emotion we experience following the cognitive experience of humor is joy and exhilaration. Laughter is the way this exhilaration and underlying physiological arousal manifests itself. But you can experience humor, and not laugh at all. Laughter is influenced by a broad range of cultural, gender and personality factors.
I suppose there were early indications that I would devote my life work to the studying humor and promoting its development. My second grade report card stated (twice!): PAUL PLAYS TOO MUCH!
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This article was originally published in "Jest for the Health of It", a regular feature in the Journal of Nursing Jocularity.
Feature columnist Patty Wooten, BSN, is also a past President of the American Association for Therapeutic Humor, author of two books related to humor, and a national speaker presenting on the benefits of humor.
