Two words: benign violation. That’s University of Colorado professor Peter McGraw’s formula for explaining what makes something funny. He claims his theory can explain humor in its entirety, including every joke, ever.

Is that even possible? And why would you want to?

In this month’s special humor issue, Joel Warner explores McGraw’s “parsimonious” attempt to explain what makes us laugh (“The Humor Code“).

McGraw is just one of a bevy of researchers, each with a pet theory, who argue with each other at dueling conferences every year. For his story, Warner enters their world and finds out what happens when theory meets practice backstage in Louis CK’s dressing room.

In this edition of the Storyboard podcast, Warner and his Wired editor, Chris Baker, join host Adam Rogers for a behind-the-scenes chat about the story, McGraw’s theory and the weird world of serious humor science.

There’s a paradox at the center of McGraw’s work: As Baker says, “Pontificating about humor is the least funny thing imaginable.” No arguments here, but we promise the podcast will still be fun. No really.