Teacher's Corner: Lesson 2

Lesson #2: What Makes Something Funny?

Students should know and understand:

The concept of humor and what makes something funny.

Students should be able to:

Identify what the criteria are for something to be perceived as funny.

Use the criteria to create a something humorous

Analyse a joke/cartoon in terms of the criteria

Method:

This involves going through our Laughter section in great detail (specifically the sections where we discuss the various theories of "Why we laugh" and "what's so funny?"). Also, students can use such resources such as CD-ROMS (e.g. Britannica and Microsoft Encarta) and the Internet (we offer some links on our site)

There are various ways to go about discovering the criteria of what makes something funny:

the students can first do research on their own (or in groups) using the above mentioned resources and come back to the class for a discussion, or
there can be a class discussion in the beginning, using the visual gathering technique, each person taking turns, etc.

The class is then divided up into groups where they analyse a funny joke or drawing in terms of the criteria (what is exaggerated, where are the incongruities, how do we identify with it, etc). If they have trouble analysing the joke/drawing in terms of the criteria, the group should talk about why it is humorous. Room here for a report back to the class (optional).

After this, the groups are assigned to make their own joke/cartoon using the discussed criteria. (an example of a criteria: exaggerating a situation the class can identify with/relate to.). The joke/drawing should be shared with the class and they can decide if it is successful or not and why.