inappropriate.” Tonight, he’s wearing
the full spectrum.
Amir likes to tell his audiences—
and occasionally his students—that
his dream is to become a “profes-
sional comedian and an amateur
neurosurgeon.” (“That way I could
cut up brains for fun!”) In fact, he has
already managed to combine these
seemingly unrelated passions. Amir is
one of the leading researchers
studying the way the brain
creates and under-
stands humor. Un-
less you happen to
be a neuroscientist
who moonlights
as a stand-up, that
specialty might
seem trivial com-
pared with other
fields of cognition.
But the question of
why we find things funny
has fascinated philosophers
for centuries.
This is a particularly exciting time
for Amir and his fellow humor re-
searchers. It has been only in the past
few years that scanning technologies,
such as functional magnetic reso-
nance imaging (fMRI), have let us see
how the brain works when it is pro-
cessing information: which parts do
what and what benefits might accrue
from exercising different areas. It turns
out that joking, long dismissed by
some as a frivolous diversion from the
serious business of reality, may makeB
y day, Ori Amir is a mild-
mannered 30-something
college professor. He
teaches undergraduate
psychology and neuro-
science classes, conducts research
into how the brain functions, and
holds regular office hours on the leafy
campus of Pomona College in South-
ern California.
But his students aren’t
fooled. They’ve seen the
YouTube videos, the
ones that document
his not-so-secret
other life. In one
of them, Amir is
gripping a micro-
phone and stand-
ing center stage at
the 1,400-seat Alex
Theater in Glendale,
California, wearing a
striped rugby shirt, faded
blue jeans, battered construc-
tion boots—and a ridiculously shaggy
white fur coat. It’s the second night of
the Glendale Laughs Comedy Festival,
and Amir is grinning broadly at the
audience through his ample beard,
looking like a crazed six-foot-two red-
headed Fozzie Bear.
“As you can tell by my accent, I’m a
neuroscientist,” says Amir, who grew
up in Israel. “They tell the profes-
sors at the university where I work
to dress ‘business casual.’ This is
pretty much the best I can do. My
wardrobe ranges from very casual toComplex images—a
work of art, a sprawling
vista, a group of animals—
tickle the neurons in
our heads most.56 september 2019
Reader’s Digest Genius Special
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