Published: March 30, 2015

Audio Script

Why April Fools’ Day humor - and even not-so-funny humor – works
March 31, 2015ΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύ Peter McGrawΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύ
It’s that silly hoax-filled day again when friends and family try to make fools out of each other. That’s right - April Fools’ Day - a day when even lousy pranks seem to be funny.
And there’s a reason for that, says Peter McGraw, an associate professor in marketing and psychology at CU-Β颹ӰԺ’s Leeds School of Business. It’s something he calls β€œbenign violations.”
CUT 1 β€œAnd why is it that people enjoy this so much? Well it’s exciting - it’s delightful to have something that’s seemingly bad turn out to be okay, or what we call, β€˜benign violations.’ (:12) And so it creates some entertainment. Sometimes, when it’s done well, it creates a sense of shared experience and it makes a life that can be kind of stressful or sometimes boring rather interesting.” (:25)
He says this "All Fools' Day,” as it’s also called, works because it gives people a license to goof off and have fun without consequences.
CUT 2 β€œOne of the things about April Fools’ Day is the notion that it does kind of shake things up. That people might behave in a way that any other day of the year they wouldn’t find inappropriate - the world might not find their behavior inappropriate. (:15) And in this case it’s kind of showcased as something that people are really licensed to go out and have fun, to be a little goofy, to break some rules.” (:23)
And McGraw says that social media has really enhance the popularity of April Fools’ Day.
CUT 3 β€œMy suspicion is that the world of social media, the world of media, has really propelled this even more into the forefront. (:08) April Fools’ Day is a day that you get news articles and you have people tweeting about it and you have funny prank videos and people’s Facebook feed is filled with a little more levity than you’d normally find.” (:20)
McGraw, a psychologist by training, is considered an expert in the interdisciplinary fields of emotion and behavioral economics.He has become a thought leader in establishing the study of humor as a serious research endeavor.
In his quest to do so he founded the Humor Research Lab, or HuRL, an experiential laboratory at Leeds focused on the study of all things humorous.
-CU-