A Better Class of Heckle but the Fashion for Science Comedy Is by No Means International

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communication Maths of Death, to packed audiences last month at the Fringe. “There was a real appe- tite for comedy with an intellectual content,” Harkness says. A better class of heckle But the fashion for science comedy is by no means international. “America has some of the Helen Pilcher on the rise of science comedy. world’s finest scientists and finest comedians, but the two have yet to overlap,” says Malow. SS

en years ago, jokes about science Reasons may include the tensions between e were as elusive as the Higgs boson. science and faith in the United States, and the R a P a R Times are changing. From fresh-faced relative dearth of science festivals, making e M

Twannabes to headline acts, more comedians interested audiences harder to find. Events /Ca are finding humour in the scientific endeavour. are on the increase, however — Malow will l Add in the Ig Nobel prizes — the US awards play the inaugural USA Science & Engineer- low/TSP for inherently funny research, which celebrate ing Festival this autumn in Washington DC. R their twentieth anniversary this week — and Universities, too, are embracing comedy Ba J. science, it seems, has never been so amusing. for enhancing communication skills. At the Humour can make science accessible, but look Bright Club, a monthly variety night organ- closer and cultural peculiarities emerge. ized by University College London, staff and Britain is in the vanguard of science students write and perform comedy about comedy, with a crop of shows infiltrating this their research. The scheme, launched in May year’s festivals, from the Royal Society’s recent 2009, has spawned spin-off clubs in Manches- See Further celebration in London to the ter and Cardiff. Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Global audiences “It’s all very encouraging,” says UK anato- are not far behind, as the geeky references in Baba Brinkman raps on human behaviour. mist and broadcaster Alice Roberts, who is successful television series such as The concerned that scientists are often perceived Simpsons and The Big Bang Theory attest. has included evolutionary biologist Richard as separate from culture. Science is part of The comedic potential of particle accel- Dawkins and comedian Ricky Gervais, sold our everyday lives, so attempts to root it in a erators or neurotransmission may not be out on its 2008 debut run in London and cultural context are welcome. Science com- obvious, but in the right hands they can be a returns for a third season this December. edy, she argues, helps humanize science. recipe for mirth. And science has its own cast Each comedian weaves science into their The Ig Nobels have the same goal (see of wacky characters — from bongo-playing routine in their own way. Some point out ‘Ignoble work’). By pointing out absurdities physicist Richard Feynman to gold-nosed the bizarre side of evolutionary theory or the in research, the awards aim to make science astronomer and moose owner Tycho Brahe. human genome — did you know there is a and scientists seem fallible. “For a long time, “There are a lot of intelligent, well-read gene for gullibility? Canada’s Baba Brinkman science has been treated as something that’s comedians out there who are interested in takes a lyrical approach with his Rap Guide very important, serious and definitely not science and who want to share their passions,” to Human Nature. Others adopt a sceptical funny. It shouldn’t be like that,” says Marc Abra- says British comedian and science enthusiast stance, debunking pseudoscience and dress- hams, originator of the Ig Nobels and editor of Robin Ince. ‘Reading-list comedy’, as Ince calls ing down its practitioners. “The great thing the Annals of Improbable Research. It took just it, is part of a new strain that is unashamedly about homeopathy is that you can’t overdose ten people to plan and judge the first tranche intellectual, leaving audiences clamouring for on it — but you can drown,” quips Irish com- of awards in 1990. Now some 250 help to an encore and a bibliography. “Science comedian and physics graduate Dara O’Briain. whittle the 7,000 or so nominations down to edy is the new alternative comedy,” he says. ten lucky winners and plan the uproarious Ince has created and compèred Nine Les- The BrighT cluB award ceremony at Harvard University. sons and Carols for Godless People, a Christmas Good comics tailor jokes to their audiences. Honouring as they do “science that makes variety show that celebrates science and reason Playing at colleges and conferences where the you laugh, and then makes you think”, with a mix of science-themed stand-up, mini crowd shares a love of science, US comedian Ig Nobels are just as likely to go to mediocre lectures and musical acts. The show, which Brian Malow uses lines that are deliberately research as top-notch science. But research knowing: “Schrödinger’s cat walks into a that seems silly is often relevant to the real bar … and doesn’t.” But he admits such gags world — the 2003 prize for physics, ‘An analy- ignoble work fall flat in mainstream comedy clubs. In Brit- sis of the forces required to drag sheep over Founder’s favourites ain, science comedy seems to have reached a various surfaces’, revealed a more ergonomic broader audience — research-related quips floor for shearing. Physics (2003): an analysis of the can be found on mainstream TV panel games Science comedy may be funny, clever and forces required to drag sheep over and radio programmes as well as on stage. pro-rationalist, but so too is its audience. “We various surfaces. The proliferation of science and arts festi- like to think we get a better class of heckle at Biology (2003): The first documented vals is fostering the genre. “Comedy can be our shows,” says Harkness, whose recent case of homosexual necrophilia in the used to make science more approachable and Edinburgh gig was interrupted with cries mallard duck. broadens the festival audience,” says Sharon of “What exactly does the y-axis represent?” Biology (2002): a study of the Bishop, executive director of the Cheltenham Comedians beware: heckling, too, is becom- courtship behaviour of ostriches Science Festival, which has booked comedy ing more intellectual. ■ towards humans under farming acts since its launch in 2002. Comedian and conditions in Britain. writer Timandra Harkness agrees. With Helen Pilcher is a science writer and Technology (2001): The australian mathematician and stand-up Matt Parker, she comedian. She is one-half of The Comedy patenting of the wheel. performed their comedy show on statistics Research Project, a science-comedy show. and health, Your Days Are Numbered — The e-mail: [email protected]