Word: laughter
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...with a rapid-fire monologue by a character named Tony Kushner—a neurotic writer completely unprepared to give a speech “at—you should pardon the expression—Harvard.” The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright’s apologies drew laughter at every line from a Lowell Lecture Hall audience of more than 250, including University President Drew G. Faust. It was a slyly appropriate opening to a speech entitled “Fiction that’s True: Historical Fiction and Anxiety.” Kushner performing Kushner confessed guilt...
...Allende warned the audience beforehand that the book had “nothing spiritual or profound in it. It’s just gossip.” The sell-out audience, filled with both dedicated fans and new readers, responded enthusiastically, frequently interrupting her Spanish-accented speech with appreciative laughter. Allende read three chapters from her book. In “Searching for a Bride,” she described her struggles and accomplishments as a matchmaker for her son Nico. In “Ballroom Dancing and Chocolate,” she described her husband Willie, while...
...knew that the king was naked, but they had no way of being sure that the others knew, and so were intimidated into silence. All it took was for one boy to say ‘The emperor has no clothes!’ and the crowd burst into laughter. Crucially, the boy was not telling a single person anything he didn’t already know. But his words still conveyed information. The information was that all the other people now knew the same thing that each one of them did.” Social change often...
...Foxworthy's Redneck shtick, and Dave Chappelle's comedy, says Leon Rappoport, Kansas State psychology professor emeritus and author of Punchlines: The Case for Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Humor. "Instead of seeing these traits as something to be ashamed of, they're something to be laughed at." And the laughter is cathartic; it gives people a sense of empowerment and competence. "It's like they're mastering knowledge of themselves," he says...
...otherwise conservative crowd of more than a thousand supporters burst into approving applause and laughter at the mention of their storied downtown watering hole, which had dancing girls back when McCain served in the area as a young pilot. McCain's own knowing smile only added to the moment. Indeed, all week, the Republican nominee-in-waiting has been alluding to the wild days of his younger years, and crowds have been eating...