Shaquille O'Neal Will Give the Keynote for a Humor Research Conference at SMU Friday

This weekend, SMU plays host to something called the North East Texas Humor Research Conference, pithily titled "Humor in the Professions, Psychology, Philology: Intercultural perspectives." The conference is co-hosted by SMU and Texas A&M-Commerce, and features sessions like "Crowdsourcing Cartooning," "Neuroscience of Humor" and "Evaluative Formulas Behind Psychology Jokes." Sounds...

By Luke Darby

February 21, 2013

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This weekend, SMU plays host to something called the North East Texas Humor Research Conference, pithily titled "Humor in the Professions, Psychology, Philology: Intercultural perspectives." The conference is co-hosted by SMU and Texas A&M-Commerce, and features sessions like "Crowdsourcing Cartooning," "Neuroscience of Humor" and "Evaluative Formulas Behind Psychology Jokes."

Sounds like the perfect weekend if you ask me. But if that and "8 paper sessions with 25 peer-reviewed presentations by international experts in humor research from Europe and the United States, as well as a session with 10 poster presentations" doesn't sound like a worthy romp to you, maybe the keynote speaker will: basketball great Shaquille O'Neal.

O'Neal, fresh off finishing his Doctor of Education and researching the relationship between humor and leadership, will join professor David M. Kopp for a Q&A on Friday, the first night of the conference.

Sadly the event is closed to the public, but hopefully someone there will ask which holds up better under rigorous academic analysis: Kazam or Space Jam?

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