作者分享了在巴西军队教授紧急急救的经历，任务是在一周内培训整个团，时间远远低于标准。作者通过凝练急救知识，并用幽默的原则，如“对已经拉稀的人来说，放屁算什么？”，成功吸引了士兵们的注意力。然而，授课方式也引发了一些争议，例如用性感的姿势演示胸部按压。尽管如此，作者最终获得了意想不到的荣誉和赞扬，但也意识到军队并非喜剧中心，为了能更自由地表达，作者决定深入研究神经科学，用科学的方式解释幽默。

🚑作者接受了一项特殊的任务：在一周内向整个巴西军队团教授紧急急救知识，时间非常紧迫，任务艰巨。

😂作者通过凝练急救知识，并运用幽默的原则，如“对已经拉稀的人来说，放屁算什么？”，有效提高了学员的学习兴趣和参与度。

💃作者在演示胸部按压时，采用了性感的姿势和语言，引发了一些争议，但同时也得到了部分学员的认可。

🏅尽管授课方式存在争议，作者最终获得了军队的赞扬和荣誉，被授予“荣誉和平战士”称号。

Published on March 12, 2025 4:14 PM GMT

Publishing stories like this makes me feel more naked than if I were doing a striptease. And the worst part is that no one puts dollars in my underwear, but here it goes:

When I decided to write for the LessWrong community about the mechanisms of humor, I thought: "If I managed to avoid jail by using acid comedy in military barracks, I can certainly contribute something useful here. And here's an application."

Pre-Haiti Context

I received the most Brazilian mission possible:

Teach emergency first aid to an entire regiment of the Brazilian army"So it's for a peace mission? Will I be able to do this alone?""Relax, soldier, you have a week to train them"

The standard is 3 intensive months. My solution? Condense intensive care to "priority life" principles: E.g., Broken spine vs. Cardiac arrest -

What good is a spine to someone who isn't breathing?

And highlight this wisdom with a principle even soldiers couldn't forget:

"What's a fart to someone who's already crapped themselves?"

Day 1 - The Bathroom Revolution

After the fart principle, the class turned into a minefield. When a sergeant demanded physical punishment for the distracted class, I retorted: "Here we teach how to save lives. Physical education is during your shift."

Result:

Attentive students, checkSuperiors leaving the classroom slamming the door, check.

Day 2 - The Incident

I demonstrated chest compressions using hip movements (impeccable science):

Lowered samba positionBattle cry: "The movement is sensual, the movement is sexy."Didactic question: "Feel that? Nice, isn't it?"

The intervention came:

"This offends our female soldiers!"

So I began questioning a female student:

- First action when finding an unconscious person?

- Assess environmental risks

- Next sequence?

- Call for backup, evaluate victim...

- Were you offended by learning this?

- It was the most useful class I've had here"

*I was damn lucky she wasn't ultra-religious and didn't notice my logical fallacies, or I'd still be doing push-ups today.

Then the intervention man revealed himself as a general.

Unbelievable Epilogue

He gave me:

ApplauseA tribute from the warriors in formation as a professorDecorations as an honorary peace warrior.

Reflections

I wanted the power of being military to talk nonsense without much threat. But of course, the military isn't Comedy Central. That day I got away with it, but I accumulated so many disciplinary proceedings for saying things like "what's a fart to someone who's already crapped themselves?" that I decided to professionalize.

That's how I entered a postgraduate program in neuroscience to understand humor and be able to speak huge balderdash, but now with bibliographic references and social credit. "Neuroscientist famous for educating his 2 neurons with a banana."

Have you ever tried to do that? Define what humor is? Not just for you but something that works for all humanity? All this to make jokes without being arrested by the military? And having an advisor who questions you with all the love in the world when all you wanted to know was whether CPR works better with or without jokes?

References and Notes:

Brazilian Army's UN Peace Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)Video of me demonstrating some of these techniques (I added the subtitles for easier reading and structurefeel free to translate as needed)

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