What a delight to share this Q&A with Chris Duffy, author of Humor Me, our upcoming book club pick for the School of Joy Commons. Members, we’ll see you next Thursday, February 26 at 1 PM ET!
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I was lucky enough to get an early look at Humor Me, and knew right away that I wanted to bring Chris to the Commons to discuss it. In this fun read, Chris shows us how we can find humor in even the unlikeliest places, and gives strategies for taking life less seriously and bringing more laughter to everyday.

Ahead of our Commons chat, we asked him a few lighthearted questions. Read this Q&A to find out more about what makes Chris Duffy laugh, including his favorite dad jokes, weirdest childhood snack, and funniest dinner party game.

Q&A with Humor Me Author Chris Duffy

What is funnier than it should be?

People falling down (as long as they don’t get hurt too badly). It really doesn’t make sense to me why this is so dependably hilarious but there’s nothing funnier than someone trying to sit down in a chair and missing it entirely or slipping on some ice or just fully wiping out. It makes me laugh, it makes toddlers laugh, gravity is hilarious and it has no reason to be.

What is your favorite weird snack?

When I was a little kid, on my birthdays I used to ask for the skin from chocolate pudding, and only the skin, which I would eat with a lot of whipped cream from the can. I tried it again recently and I gotta say… it holds up.

What is something everyone should try at least once?

Talking to a stranger. I think this is something everyone should try not just once but at least once a week. There’s so much research on how even brief interactions with strangers can improve your day, but I think it’s also one of the biggest ways you can find more laughter and delight in your life. If you open up the possibility of interacting with people you don’t already know, you’re so much more likely to be surprised. A lot of what makes us laugh starts with the surprise of realizing we’d never seen/thought about something in that way before.

What’s your favorite dad joke?

I love a whole category of dad jokes which I would call “table bits.” These are jokes that you can do while eating a meal with your family out at a restaurant.

• After having eaten everything off your plate, when the server comes by and asks you how things are going, responding: “We didn’t have much of an appetite.”
• Same setup, but this time there’s just a little piece of lettuce or some ketchup left on the plate. When the server comes to pick up the plates, saying “Can we get that wrapped up to go?”
• The check arrives and you hand it to the youngest person at the table, preferably a toddler. “This one’s on you, right buddy?”
• The check arrives and you pretend to have lost your wallet. Hold for as long as possible (even longer if your family does not believe you have actually lost your wallet)
• Look at the menu and see something extremely ordinary and normal (e.g. eggs and toast). Read it out loud and then loudly declare “What will they think of next?!” 

If you were alive in ancient times, what would you have done for work?

There is no doubt in my mind that if I was alive in ancient times, I would have been some sort of extremely low status cleaning boy who does a terrible job of scrubbing the dung heap, makes his little japes, and then dies from a now extinct disease called something like “Cobbler’s Appendix”.

When were you sure a bad outcome would be your ruin, but in fact it turned out to your benefit?

I mean this is just daily life for me. Pretty much every therapy session is just me saying disastrous outcomes and my therapist saying “ok, but what if that didn’t happen?” But I would say the most recent example of this is when I’ve been doing publicity for my book and had to ask successful people if they might help me or share my work. Instead of yelling at me or sending me a severed horse’s head with the message “you’ll never work in this town again,” people have been very nice and supportive! Who could have guessed?

What job do you think you’d be secretly really good at and why?

One fun game that my wife and I like to play at dinner parties (and always leads to a lot of laughs) is called “Your Shadow Profession.” The way it works is you think about what your skills and talents would lend themselves to if you had no morals and there were no legal consequences to your actions. In other words, who would be the job of the Wario to your Mario? The Gremlin to your Mogwai? The Jekyll to your Mr. Hyde?

The person that I actually am would never do this and feels terrible even thinking about it, but my shadow self would be amazing at running a scam that defrauds the elderly. I suspect Ingrid’s might be either cult leader or CEO of a candy company that makes beautiful whimsical treats but uses sawdust and other inedible and expired ingredients. Please tell me what your shadow profession would be in the comments.

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Click here to get a copy of Humor Me. We’ll see you in the Commons with author Chris Duffy next Thursday, February 26 at 1 PM ET.

Interested in joining our Joy Book Club? In the Commons, we read a nonfiction book together every other month then meet to discuss — often with the authors! Become a member.