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Humor has always been an important part of life at MIT

Humor - the ability to take ones's work, but not oneself - too seriously has always been an important part of life at MIT, and has helped shape some of the Institute's most fun traditions. Even the MIT home page seeks out submissions that elicit surprise, laughter, or delight.

Work hard, play hard
At MIT, students work hard and play hard - together. And many of the most important lessons learned here - about collaboration, negotiation, leadership, empathy, joyful curiosity and how to have a good time while still passing physics - are learned in part outside the classroom.

Laugh and learn
"The information from this neuron is delayed by about ten milliseconds. It has a layover in Chicago or something." - Professor Matt Wilson

Blogger Mollie has been keeping track of the funny and/or ridiculous things her MIT professors have said, which she takes as proof that even MIT professors are not above a little glee at the magic of science. (For more, see her full archive.)

For a more analytical approach to comedy, visit 21L.421 Comedy on OpenCourseWare. This class surveys a range of comic texts from different media, the cultures that produced them, and various theories of comedy. Authors and directors studied include Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Moliere, Austen, and Chaplin.

Purely for fun
VooDoo - MIT's humor magazine began publication in 1919, lasted from then until 1969, resumed publication between 1975 and 1977, and was launched again in 1990, continuing to the present. Early issues of VooDoo consist largely of jokes, drawings, and satirical essays about such matters as exams, professors, dating, and drinking, reflecting undergraduate interests and concerns.

The cover of VooDoo's first issue shows an undergraduate student dozing in a chair. The textbook that put him to sleep lies neglected on the floor. The cover image and the cartoon below it depict a familiar theme, even if styles of both dress and humor have changed considerably.

Mystery Hunt - combines puzzle-solving, teamwork, and a hefty dose of humor into a weekend-long competition each IAP. (Check out a recap of last January's Mystery Hunt.)

Unuseless competition - mines the delight of "what if?" to encourage students to design "unuseless" inventions, that address problems both real and fictitious. According to its student founder, it is a, "low-browed, light-hearted effort to place art and the creative process in the province of the everyday." (Read more about the Unuseless competition.)

Latke-Hamantashen debate - Each day, MIT faculty members take on deep questions. And for one day each year, they take on a deep-fried question: latkes vs. hamentashen. This annual tongue-in-cheek debate draws on Physics, Materials Science, AeroAstro and more to determine which food would come out on top in a zero-gravity environment