At "the Festival of Bad Ad-Hoc Hypotheses, or BAHFest, a satirical conference on evolutionary biology held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology."

One theory addressed "why we yawn... one of 'the enduring mysteries of human physiology,'" according to Emma Kowal, who offered this bogus theory:

Flying insects are high in protein. They gather in dense swarms most frequently at dawn and dusk, not-so-coincidentally the times of day when we are most likely to yawn.

Therefore, she says, “these insects served as an alternative protein source for our hunter-gatherer ancestors, with yawning as the primary gathering mechanism.” In other words: We evolved to yawn to catch bugs to eat.

Ms. Kowal, a senior studying chemical and physical biology, cited as evidence everything from our chemical response (“after we yawn, there’s a spike in cortisol levels, which is a mark of hunger”) to the way our faces distort (“eyes shut so insects won’t get in, mouth open as wide as possible to maximize capture”).

 (That link was sent by a reader who saw that I'd taken an interest in a particular yawn.)

The Yawn.

Perhaps you witnessed it, on this week's episode of "The Comeback":

While Valerie [Lisa Kudrow] is talking to the landlady, Mrs. Yi (AkikoKato), she spontaneously erupts into what could have been a seizure, a mating call or an alien birth, but it turns out to be simply…a yawn.

"[Akiko] is a woman with a genuine accent and she made a choice to yawn because she thought the character was tired," explains writer and co-executive producer Amy B. Harris... "So that's a perfect example of Lisa's improv. That was not in the script. (Akiko) just sort of made some interesting choices and it was 3 am. And when Lisa saw the yawn, she just said, ‘What is that?' and then several beats later, ‘Oh, it's a yawn.' She never breaks."

But the people working behind the scenes? They could not have broken more. "I remember it was 3 am and we were all sitting in a random apartment building parking lot just rolling around laughing," Harris says. "Honestly, I don't know that I've ever laughed that hard in my life. We were dying laughing." 

But you probably missed it, because hardly anyone is watching "The Comeback." It's a big ratings flop. A yawn.

"If I hear one more of these overly loud yawns, get up and walk the hell out."

"You should be asking yourself: Why am I the one loser who has to do that and 220 other people know better?"



Via TaxProf, who says "Cornell Prof Goes Nuts After Student Yawns in Class."

Frankly, I don't think what this teacher (Mark Talbert) did is that bad. The student didn't just yawn, he yawned in an exaggerated, loud way that sounds like intentional disrespect. The teacher indicates that this has happened more than once. How dare one student disrupt a class — a large, serious class — for his personal amusement? 220 students are there, working hard, having paid big tuition, and one loser is appropriating their time and attention and knocking the professor off stride. It's not acceptable, and why doesn't the student know that? Why should a college professor have to give remedial etiquette lessons?

"It was not a simple yawn. It was a loud and boisterous attempt to disrupt the proceedings."

Contempt! Jail!