Can a Search Engine Detect and Rank Comedy? Google Tries.
Look out “I Are Cute Kitten.” There’s a new cat in town, and she says No No No No. And according to research it’s the funniest video out there.
Google is trying to create an algorithm that ranks a video in terms of humor/comedy. Here’s an article about the subject, and here’s a BBC World Service Radio interview I just did live on the topic. Humor is a difficult thing for a computer to detect, but I do think we can collect viewer reactions to draw conclusions.
I spoke last year at the International Society for Humor Studies (see presentation) and the academics and psychologists were having trouble agreeing on the constructs and classifications of humor. It’s a bit like sculpting fog to predict what makes us laugh.
Can Google do it? It is a company made up mostly of engineers. It won’t be an easy or precise task, but I won’t rule it out.
Naturally I DO think that humor can be researched based on human reactions. That’s why (as seen below) I always test my videos behind one-way glass with indepth interviews and focus groups.
Where’s the link to the interview?
If anybody can make an algorithm to rank funniness it’s Google, but this doesn’t look terribly innovative or sophisticated.
I think the cat video would be funnier if the talking feline didn’t look so traumatized.
Why do I even read this blog anymore? Oh, that’s right. I don’t.
This blog needs more shiny ads!
Look I read my comments. ANd sukatra- make it part of your daily return.
I agree with the cat.
To clarify; on the question of whether a search engine can detect what’s ‘funny’, I agree with the cat.