Funny old world: the week's offbeat news

Funny old world: the week's offbeat news

From a kitty being treated like a criminal to why it is no good trying to reason with seagulls... Your weekly roundup of offbeat stories from around the world.

Helen Lederer on What It Takes to Be Funny

Any canny publisher knows that witty literature shifts more units, than, let’s say, books about maths, voles, or trees. And with good reason. Humor connects people. Laughter keeps the fear of loneliness at bay and acts as a protector against anxiety and depression. Of course we, as readers, won’t be consciously considering the mental health aspect when we find ourselves laughing at witty words on the page, but the cost of an efficiently funny pa…