Why is That Funny?

Public Affairs Symposium explores the serious topic of humor

February 6, 2007

Television journalist Soledad O'Brien takes questions from the audience at last year's Public Affairs Symposium.

Did you hear the one about the multi-event symposium at Dickinson that's going to explore the topic of humor? Seriously.

Turns out that humor is often about more than just being funny. Drill down beneath the surface, and what you find can be revealing. This is the premise of the 44th Annual Public Affairs Symposium (PAS), "No Laughing Matter: Humor in a Complex World."

While humor is a critical dimension of our individual and social lives, it is not often the subject of academic conversation. This year's PAS is intended to start that conversation for the Dickinson and Carlisle community.

"Traditionally, PAS is a time when the campus and wider community pause and come together to discuss a topic in depth," says Gretchen Symons, director of student activities and staff adviser to the student committee that organizes the symposium.

The student-run PAS committee solicited topic ideas from faculty, staff and students last spring for this year's symposium, and the broad topic of humor eventually was chosen.

"Initially, we looked into inviting someone who does humor for a living," says Karen Powroznik '07, committee chair. "After some reflection, however, we decided to consider having a speaker who uses humor in a non-humorous setting,"

This year's featured speaker, former senator and Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, is renowned for his use of humor—sometimes stinging—in the political world and on national programs such as Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

He has written two books on political humor, Great Presidential Wit (I Wish I Was in the Book) and Great Political Wit: Laughing (Almost) All the Way to the White House. Dole will deliver the 2007 Poitras-Gleim lecture Sunday, Feb. 18, at 7 p.m. in the Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium (ATS).

"Besides being a political legend, Dole also brings an intergenerational perspective to humor that the community discussion can benefit from," Powroznik notes.

The symposium will explore the uses of humor in other contexts, too. On Thursday, Feb. 15, Dickinson alumni involved with commercial advertising will discuss why "Advertising is a Funny Business!" at the Common Hour.

On Monday, Feb. 19, (7 p.m., ATS) a panel that includes psychologist Joel Schwartz and Robert Provine, psychology professor at the University of Maryland, will discuss the effects of humor on the body and mind.

The box-office hit Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan will be shown on campus several times during PAS. On Tuesday, Feb. 20, (7 p.m. at ATS) a panel of Dickinson students, faculty and administrators will discuss the controversial film. Katlin Harker '07, who helped organize the Borat events as a member of the PAS committee, points out that, despite the fact that many people have already seen the film, "Watching this film with the community may provide a different experience than watching it privately."

A student-run symposium

The symposium is intended to do more than just examine the ostensible theme—humor; it also provides students, who do most of the work in organizing and running it, with a useful learning experience.

"With PAS, students learn by doing, and on a larger scale than any other event," says Symons. "They do everything—from the largest to the smallest detail: logistics, scheduling, speaker negotiations and even protocol."

Students willing to take on the considerable task of designing and organizing PAS submit applications to the previous year's PAS committee, which selects new members for the next committee. Ideally, the new committee should have some veterans from the previous year to provide continuity and an overlap of leadership.

"By fall '06, the general topic had already been decided, but we had a lot of work to do—brainstorming the specifics of the sub-themes and finding speakers who would be appropriate," says Powroznik. "The logistics part was new to many of us. We had to coordinate with various offices and people to get things done, work within a budget and get financial co-sponsors to support the symposium."

Luckily for the PAS committee, many prospective co-sponsors were more than happy to help. "A lot of alumni supported us because they had actually been closely involved with PAS themselves in years past," Powroznik noted. "They told us that they understood the skills we would acquire in organizing the symposium and wanted to support us."

Harker is already putting those newly gained skills to work as she prepares for professional internships. "Doing PAS has helped prepare me for doing public relations after graduation. It's been a great hands-on experience."