Abstract: Fred Gardaphe uses his training as a professor to teach students how humor has affected and can affect their lives, bringing a lot of fun to his class, but his sense of humor was hard-wrought. Family tragedies left a horrid, indelible imprint on his mind, and they became a major obstacle to his emotional development. “Writing has helped me to understand what happened and sometimes even why it happened. Every time I put words onto the page, I learn something new.” Gardaphe had to produce criticism worthy of attention by the kind-hearted scholars as well as the hard-hearted snobs by writing Italian Signs, American Streets, to prove to the world that Italian American literature existed. Believing that the best response to reading is writing, he has written many books on Italian American culture. He is currently working on a book about the role of humor in Italian American communities, including what he sees as a notable “irony deficiency” among second-generation Italian Americans.