[The nature of jokes and the role of broadcasters]

This episode is from the WNYC archives. It may contain language which is no longer politically or socially appropriate.

Seldes discusses a paper titled "The contingency of humor appreciation on the stimulus-confirmation of joke-ending expectations" by Dr. Douglas T. Kenny. Seldes notes that the title of Kenny's paper is funnier than any of the sample jokes in the study, and seems to disagree with the findings. In Seldes' opinion, people are more amused when the unexpected occurs.

Seldes goes on to discuss Life Magazine, the role of popular magazines and political magazines, their critics and the how intellectuals fit in.

He makes and unclear statement about the hands that the broadcasting arts have fallen into, then goes on to mention Khrushchev's comments on the capitalist country's broadcasting networks. He notes that the Republican party will use television broadcasting more during campaign time than the Democratic party.

Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection

WNYC archives id: 70593
Municipal archives id: LT7538