In the Vox podcast In a Nutshell, hosts Jara Majerus and Antonia Leise take a deep dive into the university's most interesting, strange, and exciting research. Every two weeks, they invite Radboud researchers to talk about their favourite topics – explained in bite-sized episodes. In today's episode, Antonia is exploring the history of humour.

What makes a good political humour scandal? Why does what we find funny change over time? And what is the state of jokes today?

In the final episode of In a Nutshell’s first season, we take a look at jokes, politics, and how the combination of both can (and has) lead to historic scandals. With the help of assistant professor and comedy critic Ivo Nieuwenhuis, we detangle modern humour – and look for an answer to the question of what the jokes that make the headlines (and that make us laugh) say about us.

Ivo Nieuwenhuis is a researcher of Dutch literature with a strong interest in political humour scandals. Next to his work at the Faculty of Arts, Ivo also works as a comedy critic for the Dutch newspaper Trouw.

Would you like to learn more about humour and the scandals that come with it? Then follow Ivo’s tips and have a look at his book, Het was maar een grapje: Nederland in tien humorschandalen (in Dutch), this video clip about why humour is not as innocent as one might think (in Dutch), and this podcast, where Ivo talks more in-depth about his research (in English).