Can't Take a Joke? Before I even get started let me just say that this is not a joke. Honest. It's all true. Last month, Washington University researchers published a new study in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. The WU team recruited 40 subjects over the age of 65 and 40 undergraduate students. Researchers tested their ability to understand jokes and cartoons. The results: Older subjects had somewhat poorer understanding of joke and cartoon humor compared to younger subjects. First of all, the obvious fact that different generations have different tastes in humor was not taken into account. And second…who in the world would write a fat check to fund such a pointless study!? I hope our tax dollars weren't involved, but I'm sure not going to pay $20 to get the entire study online to find out. If this study required complete funding of, let's say, $2.00, I'd be all for it, but I'd draw the line at $2.00. Not a penny more. And yet someone thought we needed such a study and actually granted funding. What were they thinking!? Or maybe…maybe it's all a joke and I just don't get it. But I don't think so. And I'll bet there are some researchers at Washington University who don't get how humorous their study really is. If you enjoy stupid studies, you'll find a hilarious review of some recent wrong-headed research in Michele Cagan's HSI On the Spot blog entry titled "More Stupid Studies" (7/25/07). You can use this side-splitting link to find HSI On the Spot: http://www.hsibaltimore.com/redir/blog.html | 
