Question #1: Humor in Science

Love the show – long time listener and so forth. I look forward to meeting you all at the upcoming Australian Skeptic's conference. This question may be of particular interest to Jay, as he strikes me as a Weird Al fan… I was listening to the new Weird Al Yankovic album Mandatory Fun earlier today and it got me thinking (always a good thing) – do you think humour is a good introduction to skepticism? Weird Al's song 'Word Crimes' is a good example of this – it attacks common grammatical and linguistic errors via a catchy (if somewhat disposable) song. George Hrab also skirts the line between education and piss-taking in some of his songs, but humour can be a double edged sword, particularly if people think you're making fun of them. What do you think? Is humour a good way to get around mental barriers that a logical argument may not? On a totally different note, I am a hot air balloon pilot and would like to offer you a flight when you're in Australia. Hopefully the finer details of the trip are starting to come together – please let me know if you're at all interested as there are some logistics involved in arranging crew. I gave Geo a flight the last time he was out here so he should be able to vouch for my comparative safety. Keep up the good work, Cheers, John Turnbull Sydney Australia ps. forgive the constant misspelling of the word 'humour' – I am Australian and that is how it is spelt ;)