News

October 2026

20th Annual Conference a Success!

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Thank you to everyone who joined us at the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library in Indianapolis for the 20th Annual Lighthearted Philosophers’ Society Conference! We are grateful to our hosts for such a warm welcome. Over two days, friends old and new gathered for lively discussion and debate, including papers on the clash theory of humor, humor and truth, humor in American justice, and jokes as authoritarian propaganda. We also held a Vonnegut and Humor panel, a student paper panel, and a debate on whether Cicero was right.

The Joseph S. Ellin Memorial Essay Prize ($100) for best paper went to Vanessa Voss, and the Richard C. Richards Almost Memorial Prize ($50) for best heckle went to Steve Gimbel.

On the first night, we celebrated our 20th anniversary with champagne and cake at The Athenæum, followed by an evening of improv exercises led by improv coach and IU Kokomo Communications Professor Joann Kaiser.

Next year, we’ll meet October 15-16, 2027, in Rochester, New York, sponsored by the University of Rochester and hosted by the Strong Museum of Play. We hope to see you there!

October 22, 2026

Returning Adult Student Earns Award at National Conference

Joanne Crawford, a communication major at Indiana University Kokomo, received the Eugenio E. Zaldivar Undergraduate Paper Award at our conference for her analysis of My Cousin Vinny using communication and humor theories. Three years after losing her factory job, she is now considering graduate school.

Read the IU Kokomo Story

November 2025

19th Annual Conference a Success!

Thank you to everyone who attended our 19th Annual Lighthearted Philosophers' Conference at the Intercontinental Hotel in New Orleans! We had an outstanding gathering featuring an Author Meets Critics session on Wilk and Gimbel's In On the Joke: The Ethics of Humor and Comedy, lively panel discussions, and engaging debates.

The conference brought together scholars from across the country to explore topics ranging from Dave Chappelle to universal funniness, continuing our tradition of combining rigorous philosophical inquiry with genuine merriment.

November 2024

18th Annual Conference a Success!

Thank you to everyone who attended our 18th Annual Lighthearted Philosophers' Conference at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, FL. We had an outstanding lineup of presentations exploring philosophy of humor and humorous philosophy.

Special thanks to our organizers Sophia A. Stone, Andrew Aberdein, and Thomas Brommage for making this event possible.

June 2022

Remembering Grant Julin

The executive officers of the LPS were devastated to hear about the sudden death of Grant Julin, Professor of Philosophy at St. Francis University, current President of the Lighthearted Philosophers' Society, and a long-standing member of our organization. Those of you who attended our last conference will vividly remember his beautifully presented and thoughtful opening panel memorializing comedian Norm MacDonald.

Grant's contributions to our organization long preceded his presidency. We're all familiar with his Richards prize-winning heckles—including his commentary presented as a stand-up routine, and his memorable mock children's book. As a scholar of humor, he always delightfully expressed hard-hitting, rigorous philosophical commentary in a way that would make you laugh so hard that you cried. We could always count on him for excellent conversation at conferences—both during the sessions, as well as our evenings together. Grant always made a point to enjoy his time with us to its fullest.

As LPS President, despite the fact that he'd only been in the office a short time, he had already made strides to expand the social media presence of the organization, including managing the organization's Twitter account. Grant was always willing to be a resource to colleagues in the organization.

"The work of love in recollecting one who is dead is thus a work of the most unselfish, the freest, and the most faithful love . . . [R]ecollect the one who is dead and just in this way learn to love the living unselfishly."

2023

Member Publications

Congratulations to our members who have published new work in philosophy of humor! Our community continues to make significant contributions to this growing field.

If you've published work that you'd like us to highlight, please let us know.