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10 jokes from philosopher Slavoj Žižek

What better way to understand the world around us than through jokes?

Wikimedia commons: Amrei-Marie. CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Slavoj Žižek is a remarkably funny philosopher, who has a joke for every theory and can explain things in a fun way.
  • His tendency to joke has helped endear him to the public, though it does sometimes irk curmudgeons.
  • Not every joke he makes is suitable for republishing here.
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Austria like you’ve never seen it before

And after these 10 surprising maps, the Alpine republic will never look the same again.

Image: Austrian Maps
  • Austria has an almost-exclave, connected to the motherland via a single dot on a mountaintop.
  • Habsburgs were so fancy, they were buried in three different locations across Vienna.
  • These and other absurd and obscure facts about Austria are the subject of a highly entertaining Twitter account.
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Handling hecklers: Lessons from a comedian

Here's a simple method for finding out whether those shouts are good-natured or not.

  • Not every audience member who speaks out during a comedy show is a heckler. But there's a way to test the waters without upsetting your audience, says comedian Paul F. Tompkins.
  • By engaging in a civil way with the person who spoke out, you either give them an opportunity to add more fun to the show, or they'll reveal their true colors.
  • If the person ends up being a heckler after you've attempted including them in the conversation, the audience will be on your side when you shut that person down.
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3 simple ways to help someone suffering from illness

How to actually help a person who's ill? Don't be afraid to be funny, says Jeannie Gaffigan.

  • When someone is critically ill, says comedy writer Jeannie Gaffigan, they need three very simple things from their friends and family: compassion, humor, and touch.
  • We are conditioned to enter hospital rooms meekly and speak in soft whispers, but when Gaffigan was in critical condition after emergency brain surgery, unable to speak, the most healing thing was her friend visiting her and making irreverent jokes, and her sister tuning into her unspoken feelings.
  • "I'm not saying dress up like a clown," she says. "You've got to be appropriate, but people think it's inappropriate to be funny around critically ill people. But people want to be talked to, be listened to, even if they can't talk."
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How to criticize, from a critic

Film critic A.O. Scott on how to be more constructive in your criticisms.

  • Criticism is about more than likes and dislikes.
  • NY Times film critic A.O. Scott warns against the "emptiness" of certain adjectives when it comes to giving constructive and meaningful criticism.
  • Pulling from nearly two decades of experience, Scott's book shows why criticism matters and how we are all critics.
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