Psychology Today interviews John Hodgman

By Mark Frauenfelder at 10:16 am Monday, Jun 22

Matthew Hutson interviewed John Hodgman about humor for Psychology Today.

Your delivery is famously dry. Do you ever crack yourself up?

I find it to be comedically unethical to laugh at your own jokes on stage. But I probably feel so strongly because it happens pretty frequently lately, and I am ashamed. My deadpan needs re-deadening (see my new book, on the various historical styles of deadpan).

But the reverse is true when writing. I generally only like a joke of my own if I make myself laugh when I write it. If my brain can fool myself into a surprised chuckle, even when I am the one who wrote the joke, my guess is that it can also fool you.

That said, it may be that those are just the weird, unconscious, half-literal "inside jokes" that only my brain and I get. For example: "Stun Gravy" gets me every time. But do you know what it means? NO ONE DOES.

Psychology Today interviews John Hodgman