logo
episode-header-image
Nov 2016
28m 49s

Lol

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

Aleks Krotoski explores life in the digital world. What makes us laugh and why? And when so much of the web is there to tickle our funny bone, does anyone ever laugh out loud?

Up next
Feb 2024
Update from the Digital Human Team
The Digital Human is pausing to focus on what everyone's talking about - AI. Join Aleks and her co-host Kevin Fong for The Artifical Human from BBC Radio 4, listen on BBC Sounds. 
1m 7s
Nov 2023
Reminiscence
‘I asked myself this very question after a family member was affected by dementia. In her later years, the only person my grandmother still remembered was her husband – but he had passed away several years earlier. She asked about him every morning and finding out that he had die ... Show More
29m 4s
Nov 2023
Permanence
Aleks Krotoski explores a story which sought to be forgotten, but wasn't. Agrippa (A Book of the Dead), was published in 1992. It was a book designed to decay from its very first use. It was an unusual conceit, and played into our fears about malfunctioning technology ahead of th ... Show More
27m 57s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2022
Is there a language of laughter?
Laugh and the world laughs with you, or so you might think. But watch any good comedian on TV by yourself and chances are you’ll laugh a lot less than if you were sat in a lively comedy crowd watching the same comedian in the flesh. But why is that? Do people from different cultu ... Show More
27m 57s
Jan 2020
Science of Laughter
The Science of LaughterBrian Cox and Robin Ince return for a new series of science/comedy chat. They are joined on stage, appropriately enough, by comedian Frank Skinner, as they look at the science of what makes us laugh, why we laugh at all, and whether humour and laughter are ... Show More
43m 53s
Aug 2018
BrainStuff Classics: How Do Laugh Tracks Work?
Sitcoms use laugh tracks all the time. But where do they come from? Do they really make us laugh along? Learn about the origins and psychology of laugh tracks in this classic episode of BrainStuff. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnyst ... Show More
6m 7s
Sep 2013
Sophie Scott
Jim Al-Khalili talks to neuroscientist and occasional stand up comedian, Professor Sophie Scott about how she is using brain imaging techniques to reveal secrets of the complexity of brain activity when we speak and when we hear others speak. And Sophie Scott explains why laughte ... Show More
27m 54s
Mar 2022
Humour me: why we laugh and what counts as funny
Why do we laugh, and what makes something funny? A psychologist, a neuroscientist and satirist Mark Humphries weigh in on humour and the brain. 
29m 6s
Mar 2018
Why Do We Laugh?
Why do we laugh? Why do you feel ticklish when someone tickles you? Why can't you tickle yourself? We learn about how humor develops with Gina Mireault of the Infant Laughter Project at Northern Vermont University. 
25m 44s
Apr 2021
ZOOTED
Gilbert Gottfriend and Anthony join Chipperson and Xia to talk threesomes. Rich Vos calls in from the car as he flees the country. Lot's of laughs are to be had, as Lyle the Puppetmaster manipulates everyone into corners of humor. Chip toots on cheeba as he tells a true story abo ... Show More
1h 15m
Apr 2021
Humor Us
Hahaha! The average four-year-old child laughs 300 times a day. By contrast, it takes more than two months for the average 40-year-old adult to laugh that many times. This week, we talk with behavioral scientist Jennifer Aaker of Stanford University about why so many of us fall o ... Show More
52m 3s
Oct 2022
Why Do We Laugh?
Laughter: We do it spontaneously, we do it forcefully, we do it with each other and by ourselves. But why did we evolve to giggle in the first place? Emily and Regina explore the evolutionary underpinnings of laughter — from chimpanzees to modern-day humans — and the ways it unit ... Show More
13m 17s