Who's joking like that? The psychology of humor

Our culture is dominated by the cult of humor. Every disturbing news story generates a wave of memes, we rally around jokes and often repeat that the mental health of a Ukrainian is maintained exclusively by funny videos.

In this book, psychotherapist and host of the show “Zagon” Oleksandr Avdeev and journalist Anna Sidelnikova explain this phenomenon. What joke is considered the funniest in the world and do people laugh alone? Can laughter increase immunity and how, with the help of a sense of humor, do we divide people into “ours / strangers”? How to joke on sensitive topics and is it possible to learn to joke in principle?

While working on the book, the authors spoke with comedians, literary critics and neurophysiologists. So, in this text, in particular, the voices of Anton Tymoshenko and Nastya Zukhvala, Vasyl Baydak, Rostyslav Semkiv, Andriy Chyvurin, and a number of others who directly work with the theme of humor will be heard.