They shoot comedians

Psychotic traits in comedians.

BACKGROUND The popular belief that creativity is associated with madness has increasingly become the focus of research for many psychologists and psychiatrists. However, despite being prime examples of creative thinking, comedy and humour have been largely neglected. AIMS To test the hypothesis that comedians would resemble other creative individuals in showing a higher level of psychotic cha...

Shoot-Look-Shoot: A Review and Extension

We consider the optimal use of information in shooting at a collection of targets, generally with the object of maximizing the average number (or value) of targets killed. The shooting problem is viewed as a Markov decision process, and the modal solution technique is stochastic dynamic programming. Information obtained about target status may or may not be perfect, and there may or may not be ...

Universal Grammar and Chaos/Complexity Theory: Where Do They Meet And Where Do They Cross?

  Abstract The present study begins by sketching "Chaos/Complexity Theory" (C/CT) and its applica-tion to the nature of language and language acquisition. Then, the theory of "Universal Grammar" (UG) is explicated with an eye to C/CT. Firstly, it is revealed that CCT may or may not be allied with a theory of language acquisition that takes UG as the initial state of language acquisition for ...

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis !35:169-174 (1975) the Great Comedians: Personality and Other Factors

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between comedians and their anxiety and depression and to evaluate its function in their success as comedians. How this relationship is communicated to the audience and its interplay with the fears and anxieties of the audience will also be examined. The world of the theatre has always found meaningfully symbolic the alternate faces of co...

Don't Shoot the Relative