The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos Want More Joy? Try Taking Yourself Less Seriously with Comedian Chris Duffy

When we’re exhausted, overworked, or just going through a difficult time, our instinct is often to put our heads down and simply focus on getting through it. But those serious moments may actually be when we benefit from a little silliness and absurdity the most.

Laurie explores the science of humor with comedian Chris Duffy, host of How to Be a Better Human and author of the new book Humor Me: How Laughing More Can Make You Present, Creative, Connected, and Happy. Chris shares what he’s learned about how to find humor in almost any situation — and how embracing the funny can improve our wellbeing in surprising ways.

Experts Mentioned:

• Chris Duffy, comedian, author, and host of How to Be a Better Human
• E. B. White, writer and essayist 
• Mimi M.Y. Tse, Assistant Professor at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
• Ross Gay, poet, essayist, and Professor of English at Indiana University 
• Annie Rauwerda, creator of “Depths of Wikipedia”
• Aparna Nancherla, comedian and author
• Greg Bryant, Professor of Communication at UCLA
• Adam Mastroianni, experimental psychologist and author

Resources Mentioned:

• Humor Me: How Laughing More Can Make You Present, Creative, Connected, and Happy, by Chris Duffy (2026)
• How to Be a Better Human, TED podcast hosted by Chris Duffy
• “The impression management benefits of humorous self-disclosures: How humor influences perceptions of veracity,” by T. Bradford Bitterly and Maurice Schweitzer (Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2019)
• “The effect of a pratfall on increasing interpersonal attractiveness,” by Elliot Aronson, Ben Willerman, and Joanne Floyd (Human Learning and Thinking, 1966)
• “Humor Therapy: Relieving Chronic Pain and Enhancing Happiness for Older Adults,” Mimi Tse, Anna Lo, Tracy Cheng, Eva Chan, Annie Chan, and Helena Chung (Journal of Aging Research, 2010)
• The Book of Delights: Essays, by Ross Gay (2019)
• Listers: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching, directed by Owen Reiser (2025)
• “Depths of Wikipedia”
• “Hello, stranger? Pleasant conversations are preceded by concerns about starting one,” by Juliana Schroeder, Donald Lyons, and Nicholas Epley (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2022) 
• “The Perception of Spontaneous and Volitional Laughter Across 21 Societies,” by Greg Bryant et al. (Psychological Science, 2018)
• “Neural substrates of spontaneous musical performance: an FMRI study of jazz improvisation,” by Charles Limb and Allen Braun (PLoS One, 2008)
• “Good conversations have lots of doorknobs,” by Adam Mastroianni (Experimental History, 2022)

Related Episodes:

• “Laurie Gets a Fun-tervention (Part One)”
• “The Surprising Case for Oversharing”
• “How To Embrace Imperfection”