They say that laughter is the best medicine. But can it also be a poison? This course explores the ability of comedy to heal as well as harm. We will explore the nature of comedy — how it works, what tools it uses to raise a laugh, and how it shapes our ideas and worldview. Using contemporary comic forms, we will consider how the business of making people laugh and our own instinct to let out a guffaw at a joke have social, emotional, political, and ethical dimensions. Do we have a right to “freedom of laughter”? Or should there be some limits to the jokes we make.