1st Edition
Humor and Health in the Media Raising the Question, Should Illness be Funny?
Preface
Chapter One: How and Why We Experience Humor
Chapter Two: A History of Humor and Health
Chapter Three: Laughing Through the Pain Benefits of Humor
Chapter Four: The Dangers and Dark Sides of Humor
Chapter Five: Humor and Stand-Up: Healing Through Storytelling
Chapter Six: Serious Illness, Silly Conversation
Chapter Seven: That’s Not Funny: When Comedy Misses the Mark
Chapter Eight: I Got a Joke for You: Building Community through Social Media Platforms
Conclusion
Biography
Malynnda A. Johnson (PhD, University of WI–Milwaukee, 2012) is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication. She primarily teaches health communication and media studies and various courses, including interviewing and counseling, persuasion, interpersonal communication, media criticism, and cross-cultural communication. She has authored three books on media representations of health topics, including her most recent examining humor's role in our health. Additionally, she is actively working within the medical field, training patient advocates and providers on ways to improve their communication when working with minority groups (specifically, neurodiverse and transgender populations). Both professionally and personally, her goal is to help all people feel their voices are heard and to help make difficult conversations less difficult.
