Dean Burnett is a doctor of neuroscience and a humorous guy. He recently wrote a guest column for The Guardian in which he talked about combining science and comedy. It is an odd column, but I found some of it laugh-out-loud funny. Does it make you laugh? Or think about adding more humor to your professional pursuits? Or both?
From "Humour: it's genetic! Bringing science into comedy":
Alice Bell recently did a very insightful article about the pros and cons of using humour in science, and referenced its growing popularity in online articles and blogs. Whether a cause or effect, the success of Robin Ince and colleagues reveals that combining science and comedy is becoming increasingly popular practice.
But how does one go about introducing science into comedy, rather than the other way round? ... As a recently qualified doctor of neuroscience who's also been a stand-up comedian for over five years, I've become something of a go-to guy for science conferences wanting a scientific comedy routine to round things off.
...
Preparing a routine about a field of study that isn't your own is fraught with unique challenges. Case in point: I was recently asked to perform at a conference of geneticists, meaning I had to do a 15 minute set about genetics. Although my studies crossed into genetics quite frequently, I've always found it very confusing. So confusing, in fact, that the original request for me to do the conference confused me.
I had appeared at another conference several months before, and afterwards I was approached by a female professor who asked: "Do you have any genetics material?" This isn't a typical post-gig question, so I wasn't expecting it. I genuinely thought she asked, "Do you have any genetic material?" This alarmed me somewhat; I'm not at the level where I've been asked
for my autograph yet, so for an unknown person to ask for a sample of my DNA for whatever reason was unprecedented. And terrifying. However, as a scientist, I felt compelled to be accurate. I told her yes, I do have genetic material (14.5 stone of it at last count, more if you include the leather in my belt).
"Would you come and give us some at a conference in a few months?" was the even more unnerving follow-up question. ...Luckily, at this point I realised what she was asking, so agreed to perform at the conference, and prepare some "genetics and general science jokes". Trying to write jokes about science is, to me at least, a difficult task. Jokes and science are logically opposite in their purpose, so my efforts to combine them, even at a basic and familiar level, gave questionable results. For example:
Click to read the rest.
Comments