‘Hey Bill Nye, Is a Sense of Humor Exclusive to Human Beings?’ #TuesdaysWithBill

  • 6 years ago
Is the animal kingdom oblivious to our jokes or just a really tough crowd? Bill Nye explores the link between intelligence and humor.

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Transcript - Peter: Hello Bill. My name is Peter. I live in Miami and my question has to do with the sense of humor. It seems logical that sense of humor is a sign of higher intelligence mainly because it usually involves more than one person. And so my question is is there any evidence that any other animal other than man has a sense of humor? Thanks.

Bill Nye: Peter. Peter in Miami. Greetings. Is a sense of humor inherent? I think so. It seems to me I’ve watched chimpanzees have fun with each other. Just watching them. I think gibbons have fun. I think they do things for fun and I will definitely say this. There’s some famous pictures of penguins climbing up the ice hill and sliding down on their penguin tummies to go head first into the what you and I would think really cold water but they dig it apparently. And I cannot think of any evolutionary reason for that except that it just looks like they’re having fun. And so to me fun and a sense of humor are intimately connected. Now I will say something about evolution and sense of humor. What you want if you’re trying to attract a mate I think a sense of humor is very important. I think if you’re funny, if you’re engaging, if you have a good smile especially you’re more attractive to the opposite sex. Read Full Transcript Here: http://goo.gl/q5wJNb.

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