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Page 12/The Battalion/Thursday, hovember 14,1985
Scholars take
humor seriously
at conference
Associated Press
TEMI’E, Ariz. — Coming from
Hungary to Hawaii and from India
to Italy, up to 1,000 scholars will
gather in this area in 1986 and 1987
to deliberate — and joke about —hu
mor.
They won’t just be junkets for co
medians, said conference organizer
Don Nilsen, an Arizona State Uni
versity professor of English linguis
tics.
There’s in-depth academic study
of humor here, although, that idea
may sound pretty funny to the lay
person.
The national humor conference
will meet in Tempe for the fifth and
last time around April Fool’s Day
next year, and the sixth interna
tional meeting will take place in the
area for the first time a year later.
Nilsen will be the host for both
conferences with his wife, Alleen
Nilsen, assistant graduate college
dean. The two are founders of
WHIM — World Humor and Irony
Membership.
Previous international confer
ences were in Ireland and India.
Subjects already on the 1987
agenda range from a talk entitled
“The Polish Joke,” to “The Indis
pensability of Humor in China,” as
well as more abstract views of Jewish
humor, South African jokes and a
lack of humor among college admin
istrators.
Unfortunately, not all those in
vited can attend, Nilsen said. For
some governments, a humor confei -
ence is no laughing mattet.
Scholars from many communist
countries have been prohibited from
attending, Nilson said. One profes
sor from Yugoslavia enclosed a copy
of a lei ter from his government
which told him, “We have absolutely
no confirmation you will return.”
That’s too bad, says Nilsen. Some
of the best humor research has come
from Eastern Europe.
Humor, when the meaning is
stretched beyond just a good joke.
can be as influential as politics or sci
ence, Nilsen said.
“It’s a good way to learn other
people’s ways of dealing with the
language and other things,” he said.
Satire in books, newspaper col
umns and cartoons communicates
die changing mores of society.
“Satire is a method of social crit
icism and influencing the political
process, a way of balancing out so
ciety,” he explained.
Humor has an undercurrent indi
cating social trends, he said. Jokes
come into fashion quickly and then
disappear; Nilson points out that
jokes about drinking were dropped
f rom Johnny Carson’s monologue as
the awareness of dangers of alcohol
ism and drunken driving increased.
Each nation has its own sense of
humor that can be hilarious to the
native but meaningless to the for
eign visitor, Nilsen said.
Jokes in the United States often
have focused on the battle between
the sexes, such as “women driver”
jokes, or the mistrust between races
and nations.
“Western and Eastern humor is
different,” Nilson said. “Western is
sexist and racist. We’re afraid the
Italians are going to take our jobs or
something, so they’re put down.
“In jokes in the Eastern bloc coun
tries, youi job is fairly secure but the
humor is used on politicians, but it’s
underground humor; it’s a way of
coping.”
Americans’ sense ol humor has
changed lately, he said. “We don’t
tolerate racist, sexist, age-ist jokes so
much anymore. It’s not that we’re
becoming a lax society, it’s that we’re
changing.,
“We have a different taboo sys
tem. We have more feeling — you
don't hear women driver jokes un
less the person telling it is over 50
years old.”
“A joke is a test of tension,” Nilson
said. “If you have joking between
two groups, the best kind of joking is
when there’s moderate tension. If
there's no tension — no humor.”
What’s up
Thursday
CAMPUS CRUSADE-NA V1GATORS-INTERVARSITY:
will have a Faculty forum 12:50-1:15 p.m. in 146 Phvsb
Bldg.
HAGGAI FELLOWSHIP: will meet at 7 p.m. in 502 Ruddei
MSC PUBLIC RELATIONS: will have a workshop lor ail
Student organizations at 5 p.m. in 308 Rudder: “Market,
ing: You Look Ma-h-velous!” Dr. John Burnett of Market
ing Dept, will speak.
MESQUITE HOMETOWN CLUB: will take group pictures
a) /:45 p.m. Cali 605-0218(Bryan) ot 260-28f»5(Roti) for
info.
VIETNAMESE AMERICAN STUDENT ASSOCIATION:
will meet at 8:30 p.m. in 302 Rudder.
GUATEMALAN STUDENT ASSOCIATION: will meet at i
8:30 p.m. in 402 Rudder. a
CLASS OF ’86: Class shirts on sale at MSI — Elephant Walk
is Nov. 26.
DELTA SIGMA PL will meet at 7 p.m. in Blocker (room
TBA). Speaker on hotel management. Professional Attire. I
ALPHA LAMBDA DELTA: will have a short meeting and
take Aggieland picture at 7 p.m. in 203 Zacht \.
AGGIES SPACE DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY: will meet to
hear Joyce Davis of NASA's Mat him l oo) Programming
speak on Employment and Co-op with NASA at 7 p.m. in
501 Rudder.
MSC CAMERA COMMITTEE: will not have a seminar on
studio photography at 6 p.m. in MSC basement camera
darkrooms. 1 lie seminar has been cam elled.
DANCE ARTS SOCIETY: will have Aerobics at 6:30 p.m.,
Intermediate tap at7:3() and Inter./Adv Jazz, at 8:30 in 26H
E. K.vle.
NATIONAL SOCIETY OF BLACK ENGINEERS: will meet
at 7:30 p.m. in 401 Rudder.
INTERNATIONAL STUDENT ASSOCI ATION: will mm
at 7 p.m. in 404 Rudder.
Friday
MSC CAMERA COMMITTEE: will have a seminar on studio |
photography at 5:30 )>.m. in MSC basement camera dark
rooms. Cost $25.
H1LLEL FOUNDATION: will have Sabbath services at 8
PO
INTER VARSITY CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP: will meet at
7 p.m.in Rudder (see screen lot room).
CAMPUS CRUSADE FOR CHRIST: will have a leadership
trainingclass at 7 pan. in 701 Rudder.
OFF CAMPUS AGGIES: will meet at 1 1 ;30 p.m at Mt. Aggie
to go to yell practice.
UNITED CAMPUS MINISTRY: will have Bible study at
6:15 p.m. at A&M Presbyterian Church offices.
TAxMU VET CLASS OF ’87 8c BRAZOS CO. UNITED
WAY: will have hog calling Sc greased pig t,mi ting contest |
at 7 p.m. at Louis Pearce Animal Science Pavilion. J-mati, j
4-nerson co-ed teams. Honorary jmlge: Coach Jackie Sher- i
t ilt. Applications available at Office of the Dean, College of |
Vet. Medicine. $ 10/team of 4. Prizes will be awarded. IB ■
Plane crashes give NTSB hectic year
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Ron Schleede
hasn’t had a good night's sleep in
months) He keeps gelling telephone
calls from places like India, Tokyo
and Ireland where there is no re
spect for different time zones.
“And that’s just the routine stuff,”
says Schleede, acting chief of the avi
ation accident division at the Na
tional Transportation Safety Board.
Those calling him are NTSB investi
gators with updates on some of the
major air crashes that have swamped
the agency this year.
Things have been so hectic at the
NTSB that it is not unusual for in
vestigators to juggle two or three
crashes at the same time.
To make matters worse, key se
nior staffers have left, some com
plaining about the style of manage
ment, and the five-member board is
going into its second year short two
members because of a political fight,
between the White House and Con
gress.
The safety board, which is
charged with investigating not only
aviation accidents but major acci
dents involving rail and highway
transportation, has always been a
busy place.
But this has been an unusual year
even for this small agency which
numbers just 340 employees and has
a budget of $22 million.
NTSB insiders acknowledge that this year’s unprece
dented string of air accidents has put unseasoned inves
tigators to the test as never before.
At least a half dozen times, it has
had to cancel meetings because it
couldn't get a quorum. The board
hasn't had a full complement of five
members since February, 1984.
The White House has proposed
three nominees to the board, but the
Senate Commerce Committee is re
fusing to approve two of them be
cause senators question their techni
cal competence.
John Lauber, a NASA researcher
on human factors involving aviation,
has unchallenged credentials and is
expected to be approved by the com
mittee on Thursday. But he will re
place a current member, so the
board is likely to go for another six
months or so still two people short,
congressional sources say.
It has been a strange year for the
board in other ways:
• Investigators have had to orga
nize a climbing expedition into the
Andes to examine a plane wreck;
they’ve helped put together a sal
vage operation in the Atlantic as part
of another accident probe; and
they’ve shuttled between Washing
ton and Tokyo in connection with a
third crash.
• The chief of the aviation acci
dents division resigned for a job at
the Federal Aviation Administra
tion, and the board has had trouble
filling the post from within because
top investigators are too busy hand
ling ongoing crash cases.
• Critics have begun talking of a
“brain drain” because some veteran
investigators have left — a charge
that makes some who haven’t left an
gry because, as Schleede com
plained, it implies “that those still
here are imeompetents.”
Among those that have left are
the agency’s top experl in pilot be
havior, who went to the E’AA, and its
leading expert in analyzing aircraft
black box recorders, who took a bet
ter job at NASA.
While there has been turbulence,
board chairman Jim Burnett says the
talk of poor morale has been exag
gerated. And he says those who have
been promoted to fill vacancies have
a better! technical education than
those they replaced, although they
may not have had much on-the-job
“tin kicking" at crash sites. ^
NTSB insiders acknowedgefhat
this year’s unprecedented sll '‘ ll 8),a
air accidents has put unseasoned in
vestigators to the test as never W
fore. Two top investigators "ho iv
cently were brought in front Ml
offices had little i nance to test tn||
new surroundings before t¥f
found themselves heading. JpB
team” on its way to a major airline
crash.
There also have been cases whfiH
special projects such as one examlfb
ing the increasing number of C|B
collisions on runways have had w
put on hold. jw
Investigator Jack Drake, R||
barely settled in to the Washington
of fice last summer after trartsferrffl
from the Atlanta field offu%jM
he was put in charge of the runWi
investigation. But then he loif
himself heading for Milwaukee n
head of a “go team investigating 1 -
crash of a Midwest Express J < •
He was barely back in Washing
when his work on that crash was y
terrupted by a near collision at
tional Airport involving an Em
Airlines jet and a helicopter. ,||
The runway incursion ' nvestl ^i
tion again has been delayed, _
knowledges Burnett. 38, a f ()in
Arkansas traffic judge who vv j aS J|
pointed to the board three and a|H
years ago and later made chairn»s|l
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