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By day, Ori Amir is a mild-mannered 30-something college professor.
白天的時候，30多歲的奧里·阿米爾是個舉止溫和的大學教授。
He teaches undergraduate psychology and neuro-science classes, conducts research into how the brain functions,
他教授心理學和神經科學的本科教程，做關于大腦是如何運行的研究，
and holds regular office hours on the leafy campus of Pomona College in South-ern California. But his students aren't fooled.
并在加州南部的波莫納學院綠樹成蔭的校園里有固定的辦公時間。但他的學生不傻。
They've seen the YouTube videos, the ones that document his not-so-secret other life.
他們看過那些油管視頻，那些記錄他并不隱秘的其他的生活的視頻。
In one of them, Amir is gripping a micro-phone and standing center stage at the 1,400-seat Alex Theater in Glendale, California,
在其中一個視頻中，阿米爾身穿條紋橄欖球衫，褪色的藍色牛仔褲，破舊的施工靴，還有一件蓬松得可笑的白色毛皮大衣，
wearing a striped rugby shirt, faded blue jeans, battered construction boots—and a ridiculously shaggy white fur coat.
他拿著一個微型電話，站在加州格蘭岱爾市有1400個座位的亞歷克斯劇院的中央舞臺上。
It's the second night of the Glendale Laughs Comedy Festival,
這是格倫代爾喜劇節的第二晚，
and Amir is grinning broadly at the audience through his ample beard, looking like a crazed six-foot-two red-headed Fozzie Bear.
阿米爾正透過他的大胡子對觀眾咧著嘴笑，看起來像一只瘋狂的六英尺二英寸紅頭發的熊。
"As you can tell by my accent, I'm a neuroscientist," says Amir, who grew up in Israel.
在以色列長大的阿米爾說道，“你可以從我的口音上辨別出來，我是個神經學家。”
"They tell the professors at the university where I work to dress ‘business casual.' This is pretty much the best I can do.
“他們告訴我就職的大學的教授們要穿商務休閑裝。這是我能做到的最好的了。
My wardrobe ranges from very casual to inappropriate." Tonight, he's wearing the full spectrum.
我衣柜里都是從非常隨意到不恰當的衣服。”今晚，他將全面亮相。
Amir likes to tell his audiences—and occasionally his students—that his dream is to become a "professional comedian and an amateur neurosurgeon."
阿米爾喜歡告訴他的聽眾-有時告訴他的學生-他的夢想是成為一名“專業的喜劇演員和業余的神經外科醫生?！?/div>
("That way I could cut up brains for fun!") In fact, he has already managed to combine these seemingly unrelated passions.
（“這樣的話我就能開開心心地切開腦子了！”）實際上，他已經將這兩個似乎不同的興趣結合在了一起。
Amir is one of the leading researchers studying the way the brain creates and understands humor.
阿米爾是研究大腦創造和理解幽默的方式的主要研究人員之一。
Unless you happen to be a neuroscientist who moonlights as a stand-up, that specialty might seem trivial compared with other fields of cognition.
除非你是一名兼職單口相聲演員的神經科學家，否則與其他認知領域相比，這個專業可能顯得微不足道。
But the question of why we find things funny has fascinated philosophers for centuries.
但是幾個世紀以來，我們為什么會覺得事物好笑這個問題一直讓哲學家們著迷。
This is a particularly exciting time for Amir and his fellow humor researchers.
這對阿米爾和他的同事們來說是一個特別激動人心的時刻。
It has been only in the past few years that scanning technologies, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI),
直到最近的幾年，掃描技術，像功能性磁共振成像技術，
have let us see how the brain works when it is processing information:
才讓我們看到大腦在處理信息時是如何工作的：
which parts do what and what benefits might accrue from exercising different areas.
各個部分的功能和鍛煉不同的區域會有什么好處。
It turns out that joking, long dismissed by some as a frivolous diversion from the serious business of reality, may make us smarter and healthier.
原來，開玩笑可能會讓我們更聰明、更健康，盡管它長期被一些人視為對嚴肅現實的無聊消遣。
There is even some evidence that a sense of humor helps the human species survive.
甚至還有一些證據證明幽默感能幫助人類生存。
To understand why humor is a kind of superfood for the brain, it helps to know what our brains crave in the first place.
為了理解為什么幽默是一種大腦的超級食物，首先要知道我們的大腦渴望什么。
You might think they'd prefer when we sit alone in a room and stare at a blank wall—we don't burn up much energy doing that.
你可能會認為他們更喜歡我們獨自坐在房間里，盯著空白的墻壁——這樣做不會消耗太多能量。
But the brain is like a muscle, and it needs exercise.
但是大腦就像是肌肉，它需要鍛煉。
