humor tag

Gwern Branwen

See Also
Gwern
Links
Miscellaneous
Link Bibliography

[Warning: JavaScript Disabled!]

[For support of key website features (link annotation popups/popovers & transclusions, collapsible sections, backlinks, tablesorting, image zooming, sidenotes etc), you must enable JavaScript.]

Gwern

“Paperclip Alignment Chart”, Gwern 2023

Paperclip Alignment Chart

“It Looks Like You’re Trying To Take Over The World”, Gwern 2022

It Looks Like You’re Trying To Take Over The World

“GPT-3 Creative Fiction”, Gwern 2020

GPT-3 Creative Fiction

“Dinosaur Comics Comics”, Gwern 2011

Dinosaur Comics comics

Links

“[On Gricean Maxims]”, Munroe 2024

[On Gricean Maxims]

“Portland District 2024 Cat Calendar”, Henon 2024

Portland District 2024 Cat Calendar

“Paperclip Alignment Chart (Alternate)”, saturn2 2023

Paperclip Alignment Chart (Alternate)

“ChatGPT Is Fun, but It Is Not Funny! Humor Is Still Challenging Large Language Models”, Jentzsch & Kersting 2023

ChatGPT is fun, but it is not funny! Humor is still challenging Large Language Models

“Witscript 3: A Hybrid AI System for Improvising Jokes in a Conversation”, Toplyn 2023

Witscript 3: A Hybrid AI System for Improvising Jokes in a Conversation

“Nymph Piss and Gravy Orgies: Local and Global Contrast Effects in Relational Humor”, Siew et al 2022

Nymph Piss and Gravy Orgies: Local and Global Contrast Effects in Relational Humor

“Seymour Skinner’s Bizarre Luncheon”, Media 2021

Seymour Skinner’s Bizarre Luncheon

“The Weirdly Enduring Appeal of Weird Al Yankovic: National Economies Collapse; Species Go Extinct; Political Movements Rise and Fizzle. But—Somehow, for Some Reason—Weird Al Keeps Rocking”, Anderson 2020

The Weirdly Enduring Appeal of Weird Al Yankovic: National economies collapse; species go extinct; political movements rise and fizzle. But—somehow, for some reason—Weird Al keeps rocking

“AI Dungeon 2: My Musical Troupe of Orcs Uses Music to Advance Orc Rights”, Walton 2019

AI Dungeon 2: My Musical Troupe of Orcs Uses Music to Advance Orc Rights

“The Rotten Library Archives”, Rotten.com 2019

The Rotten Library archives

“How a Literary Prank Convinced Germany That ‘Hansel and Gretel’ Was Real: A 1963 Book Purported to Prove That the Siblings Were Murderous Bakers”, Todorov 2019

How a Literary Prank Convinced Germany That ‘Hansel and Gretel’ Was Real: A 1963 book purported to prove that the siblings were murderous bakers

“Early Titanic Jokes: A Disaster for the Theory of Disaster Jokes?”, Chovanec 2019

Early Titanic Jokes: A disaster for the theory of disaster jokes?

“Wriggly, Squiffy, Lummox, and Boobs: What Makes Some Words Funny?”, Westbury & Hollis 2019

Wriggly, Squiffy, Lummox, and Boobs: What Makes Some Words Funny?

“Analysis and Qualitative Effects of Large Breasts on Aerodynamic Performance and Wake of a Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid Character”, Rabino 2018

Analysis and Qualitative Effects of Large Breasts on Aerodynamic Performance and Wake of a Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid Character

“Humor Norms for 4,997 English Words”, Engelthaler & Hills 2018

Humor norms for 4,997 English words

“DeepTingle”, Khalifa et al 2017

DeepTingle

“Decoding Seinfeld’s Jewishness”, Tanny 2016

Decoding Seinfeld’s Jewishness

“[Aristotle], On Trolling”, Barney 2016

[Aristotle], On Trolling

“Pricks: Pilot”, Ross 2015

Pricks: Pilot⁠:

View PDF:

/doc/fiction/humor/2015-ross-pricks.pdf

“On the Rheology of Cats”, Fardin 2014

On the rheology of cats

“St Martin’s Four Wishes”, Dubin 2013

St Martin’s Four Wishes

“Jay-Z’s 99 Problems, Verse 2: A Close Reading With Fourth Amendment Guidance for Cops and Perps”, Mason 2012

Jay-Z’s 99 Problems, Verse 2: A Close Reading with Fourth Amendment Guidance for Cops and Perps

“The Floppy Toast”, Buttersafe 2012

The Floppy Toast

“Smart, Qualified People Behind The Scenes Keeping America Safe: ‘We Don’t Exist’”, Onion 2010

Smart, Qualified People Behind The Scenes Keeping America Safe: ‘We Don’t Exist’

“Possible Girls”, Sinhababu 2008

Possible Girls

“The Effects of Caffeine, Dextroamphetamine, and Modafinil on Humor Appreciation During Sleep Deprivation”, Killgore et al 2006

The Effects of Caffeine, Dextroamphetamine, and Modafinil on Humor Appreciation During Sleep Deprivation

“No Justice, No Foul: Everything You Didn’t Know That You Were Afraid To Know About The Supreme Court”, Stallard 2004

No Justice, No Foul: Everything You Didn’t Know That You Were Afraid To Know About The Supreme Court

“Let There Be Light!”, Feuer 2001

Let There Be Light!

“You Dumb Babies! How Raising the 'Rugrats' Children Became As Difficult As the Real Thing”, Swartz 1998

You Dumb Babies! How raising the 'Rugrats' children became as difficult as the real thing

“Laws of Xmas [Have You Ever Wondered What Xmas Would Be like If It Were a Jewish Holiday?…]”, Miller & Miller 1998

Laws of Xmas [Have you ever wondered what Xmas would be like if it were a Jewish Holiday?…]

“Tumbling Toast, Murphy’s Law and the Fundamental Constants”, Matthews 1995

Tumbling toast, Murphy’s Law and the fundamental constants

“Urban Elites in Search of a Culture: The Brussels Snow Festival of 1511”, Pleij 1990

Urban Elites in Search of a Culture: The Brussels Snow Festival of 1511

“Rule Enforcement Without Visible Means: Christmas Gift Giving in Middletown”, Caplow 1984

Rule Enforcement Without Visible Means: Christmas Gift Giving in Middletown

“Epigrams on Programming”, Perlis 1982

Epigrams on Programming

“Humour: The Interdisciplinary Denominator in Science”, Kohn 1982

Humour: The Interdisciplinary Denominator in Science

“Decoding Middletown’s Easter Bunny: A Study in American Iconography”, Caplow & Williamson 1980

Decoding Middletown’s Easter bunny: A study in American iconography

“Been A Long, Long Time”, Lafferty 1970

Been A Long, Long Time

“The Great Automatic Grammatizator”, Dahl 1953

The Great Automatic Grammatizator

“The Art of Classical Swearing”, Echols 1951

The Art of Classical Swearing

“Cannibalism in the Cars”, Twain 1868

Cannibalism in the Cars

“PaLM § Figure 19: [Explaining a Joke / Inference Chaining] Each ‘Input” Was Independently Prepended With the Same 2-Shot Exemplar Shown at the Top, and “Model Output’ Shows the Greedy Decoding Output of PaLM 540B. The Two Exemplar Jokes Are Known Jokes (explanations Written by Authors), While All Evaluated Jokes Were Written by the Authors. Of Course, These Jokes Do Share Abstract Premises With Existing Jokes (wordplay, Reliability, Humorous Analogies, Reversal-Of-Expectations). The Inference Chaining Examples Were Also Written by the Authors.”

PaLM § Figure 19: [Explaining a Joke / Inference Chaining] Each ‘Input” was independently prepended with the same 2-shot exemplar shown at the top, and “Model Output’ shows the greedy decoding output of PaLM 540B. The two exemplar jokes are known jokes (explanations written by authors), while all evaluated jokes were written by the authors. Of course, these jokes do share abstract premises with existing jokes (wordplay, reliability, humorous analogies, reversal-of-expectations). The inference chaining examples were also written by the authors.

“The Artist Yoshitoshi, Whose Usual Specialty Was Serious Depictions of Historic Warriors, Has Envisioned the Eternal War between Cats and Mice As a Grand Epic of Battling Samurai Clans in 6 Small, Humorous Vignettes. The Mice Often Defeat the Cats by Such Means As Frightening Them With a Large Toy Dog, Trapping Them in Paper Snack Bags, or Stealing Food While the Cat on Watch Dozes Off.”

The artist Yoshitoshi, whose usual specialty was serious depictions of historic warriors, has envisioned the eternal war between cats and mice as a grand epic of battling samurai clans in 6 small, humorous vignettes. The mice often defeat the cats by such means as frightening them with a large toy dog, trapping them in paper snack bags, or stealing food while the cat on watch dozes off.

“Using GPT-3 to Explain Jokes”

Using GPT-3 to Explain Jokes

“Strange Planet (Instagram)”, Pyle 2024

Strange Planet (Instagram)

“A Long-Lost Space Age Satire about What It Means to Be a Jew from One of Science Fiction's Greatest Humorists”

A long-lost space age satire about what it means to be a Jew from one of science fiction's greatest humorists

Annotations sorted by machine learning into inferred 'tags'. This provides an alternative way to browse: instead of by date order, one can browse in topic order. The 'sorted' list has been automatically clustered into multiple sections & auto-labeled for easier browsing.

Beginning with the newest annotation, it uses the embedding of each annotation to attempt to create a list of nearest-neighbor annotations, creating a progression of topics. For more details, see the link.