Activities to encourage

student-created humor
Scott Gardner
Okayama University
part of
Borderline Funny: Humor in Language Education
JALT2014: Conversations Across Borders
Tsukuba International Congress Center, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
Sunday, 23 November 2014

Is humor valuable in learning?

Students were...
practicing language
qualifying as classroom participants
securing more occasions for practicing
Cekaite & Aronsson, 2005
Language play was...
motivating students
facilitating language use (although off-task at times)
Bushnell, 2009
Students were...
resisting English
asserting local cultural identity
Luk & Lin, 2007

How do I do funny?

draw humor out, dont force it in

respondent in Zielinski, 2005

get the audience (class) in on the act

Tamblyn, 2003

collide; juxtapose; question; take a different view

Herring, 2008

mix the unsettling with the safe

McGraw & Warner, 2014

go too far; find the line, step over it

To the Best of Our Knowledge (Mary Walsh), 2013

Textbook examples
Patient: Help me, Doctor! Everywhere I touch on
my body, it hurts! If I touch my head, it hurts. If I
touch my elbow, it hurts. My stomach, my
knees...everywhere I touch it hurts! Whats wrong
with me?
Doctor: Your fingers broken.

Textbook examples
Patient: Help me, Doctor! Everywhere I touch on
my body, it hurts! If I touch my head, it hurts. If I
touch my elbow, it hurts. My stomach, my
knees...everywhere I touch it hurts! Whats wrong
with me?
Doctor: Your fingers broken.

Textbook examples
Patient: Help me, Doctor! Everywhere I touch on
my body, it hurts! If I touch my head, it hurts. If I
touch my elbow, it hurts. My stomach, my
knees...everywhere I touch it hurts! Whats wrong
with me?
Doctor: Your fingers broken.

Teacher example from

university English class
Student A

Student B

Which of the following bodies has the

strongest force of gravity?
a. Earth
b. Hakuho
c. the sun
d. the moon

Which of the following countries was once

a colony of Great Britain (England)?
a. The Philippines
b. Tottori
c. The United States
d. Mozambique

Which of the following animals has the

largest footprint?
a. a camel
b. a grizzly bear
c. an elephant
d. a whale

Which of the following is a natural satellite

of the earth?
a. the Death Star
b. the moon
c. the sun d. the International Space
Station

The Wright brothers were pioneers in

the field of ________.
a. medicine
b. computers
c. manzai
d. aviation

Who was the first person to walk on the

moon?
a. Lance Armstrong
b. Neil Armstrong
c. Stretch Armstrong d. Buzz Lightyear

Teacher/student example from

jr high school English class
Assignment:
Write reported speech of requests between two
people (A told B to...; My teacher asked
Masahiro Nakai to...; Matsuko DX wanted me
to...; etc.)

Student creation:
I told Kentaro not to fart because it smelled bad.

Some activities that promote

creative humor

Punchline Exchange
Mad Libs
Middle of the story
Fortunately... (Tamblyn, 2003)
Describe and draw...the opposite
(Lindstromberg, 2004)
Make Your Own Skit

Some activities that promote

creative humor

Punchline Exchange
Mad Libs
Middle of the story
Fortunately... (Tamblyn, 2003)
Describe and draw...the opposite
(Lindstromberg, 2004)
Make Your Own Skit

Mad Libs: A trip to

Walley World
Last month, I went to Walley World with my friend ___________.
(PERSON'S NAME)

We traveled for ______ hours by __________. Finally we got there, and it

(NUMBER)

(TYPE OF TRANSPORTATION)

was very ___________. There were ___________ people ___________

(ADJECTIVE)

(ADJECTIVE)

(VERB ending with -ING)

everywhere. There were also people dressed in ___________ costumes.

(ANIMAL)

I wish it had been less ___________, but we tried to have fun

(ADJECTIVE)

anyway. We went on some __________ rides, including one called Magic

(ADJECTIVE)

___________. My friend nearly fell off, and afterward (s)he felt very
(NOUN starting with the letter M)

___________. Later we went to a restaurant and ___________.

(ADJECTIVE)

(past tense VERB)

Next year, I want to go to _________-land, where I can _________!

(FRIEND'S NAME)

(VERB)

Some activities that promote

creative humor

Punchline Exchange
Mad Libs
Middle of the story
Fortunately... (Tamblyn, 2003)
Describe and draw...the opposite
(Lindstromberg, 2004)
Make Your Own Skit

15

16

Some activities that promote

creative humor

Punchline Exchange
Mad Libs
Middle of the story
Fortunately... (Tamblyn, 2003)
Describe and draw...the opposite
(Lindstromberg, 2004)
Make Your Own Skit

Fortunately...
Bad news...

Your tooth will have to come out.

Your computer crashedagain.
Theres a snake under your desk.
Theres a 3-hour faculty meeting scheduled
at 8:00 am tomorrow.
Your St. Bernard is having septuplets. You
live in a studio apartment.
Fortunately...

Some activities that promote

creative humor

Punchline Exchange
Mad Libs
Middle of the story
Fortunately... (Tamblyn, 2003)
Describe and draw...the opposite
(Lindstromberg, 2004)
Make Your Own Skit

Some activities that promote

creative humor

Punchline Exchange
Mad Libs
Middle of the story
Fortunately... (Tamblyn, 2003)
Describe and draw...the opposite
(Lindstromberg, 2004)
Make Your Own Skit

Skits: Joke Numbers

(A jail cell. Inmate 1 and Inmate 2 are
sitting. Jailer brings New Inmate in.)
Jailer: Welcome to your new home. Dont
expect to get out anytime soon!! (laughs
devilishly and leaves)
(Inmates 1 and 2 look at New Inmate
without interest, then go back to what
they were doing. After a short silence...)
Inmate 1: (yelling) Five !!
(Inmate 1 and Inmate 2 laugh
hysterically. New Inmate is confused.
Laughing stops and everyone is quiet.)
Inmate 2: (yelling) Twenty-two !!
(Inmate 1 and Inmate 2 laugh again,
and New Inmate starts to get angry.
Laughing stops and everyone is quiet.)

Inmate 1: Forty-three !!
(Inmate 1 and Inmate 2 laugh again,

and New Inmate finally speaks.)

New Inmate: (frustrated) Whats going
on? Why are you laughing at numbers?
Theyre not funny!
Inmate 1: Well, weve been in this jail for
so long that weve memorized every joke
we know.
Inmate 2: So to save time, we gave each
joke a number. Instead of telling the joke,
we just say the jokes number. Sixty-six!
(Inmate 1 and Inmate 2 laugh again.)
New Inmate: OK, Ill give it a try... (yells)
Seventy-eight!!
(Absolute silenceno one laughs)
New Inmate: Whats wrong with seventyeight?
Inmate 1: Its a good joke. You just dont
tell it very well.

Skits: Kitchen Pot

(Mom is in kitchen with a big pot boiling
on a stove. She stirs the pot several
times with a cooking spoon. She looks at
it with satisfaction, turns off the heat,
then checks her watch and leaves. Two
Kids enter kitchen.)

Kid 2: (not very impressed) Uh, yeah, its

ok.
Kid 1: Ok!? Its great! This is my favorite
kind!
Kid 2: It kind of reminds me of...

Kid 1: Its great you could come over for

lunch. My mom is a fabulous cook. Just
wait till you try her soup.

Kid 1: Of what?

Kid 2: Thanks for inviting me.

Kid 1: (lifting bowl to mouth to slurp down

soup) Mmm, that was delicious. Come
on, lets go outside and play!

Kid 1: (sees pot on kitchen table) Oh, it

looks like she already made some. Lets
try it!
Kid 2: Are you sure its ready? Maybe we
should wait for your mom.
Kid 1: Come on, its ok. Im hungry!

(They get some bowls and spoons and

serve soup to each other. They start
eating.)
Kid 1: Wow, this is good, isnt it?

Kid 2: Oh nothing. (tries to eat more, but

not really able to)

Kid 2: (glad not to have to eat any more)

Ok, lets go.
(They leave. Mom comes back in and
looks into the pot. With the cooking
spoon she lifts out a big sock.)
Mom: Oh good. These old socks are
looking much cleaner now.

Make your own skit

Lost Cell Phone
Silly Interview
Toy Sale
Medical File
Restaurant
Car Accident

Make your own skit

Lost Cell Phone
Silly Interview
Toy Sale: There is a sale on a popular toy at a
store, and only one of the toys remains. Two
people both want it, and they grab the toy at the
same time. Make a short, funny, dialog between
the people. They can be parents, kids, collectors,
whatever you like.
Medical File
Restaurant
Car Accident

Tell me once more how to do

funny stuff in class

if you can, link humor to subject matter and use it to emphasize

important stuff
Suzuki & Heath, 2014

dont use it too much, or too little

Blackmore, 2013

leave them laughing (as we often try to do in ordinary

conversation)
Dubinsky &Holcomb, 2011

know your students; get a feel for who you can be funny with;
gradually include more in that group
Hellman, 2007

sarcasm might be usable where there is already good rapport

(good luck with that!)
Torok, et al., 2004

Every joke is a tiny revolution.

Orwell, 1945

REFERENCES
Blackmore, A. (2013). If humour be the food of
learning, joke on: Perspectives of several Italian and
Swedish upper-secondary school students on
humour and dialogic classroom interaction.
Unpublished research paper, University of Halmstad.
Bushnell, C. (2009). Lego my keego!: An analysis of
language play in a beginning Japanese as a foreign
language classroom. Applied Linguistics, 30(1), 4969.
Cekaite, A, & Aronsson, K. (2005). Language play, a
collaborative resource in childrens L2 learning.
Applied Linguistics, 26(2), 169-191.
Dubinsky, S., & Holcomb, C. (2011). Understanding
language through humor. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Hellman, S. (2007). Humor in the classroom: Stus
seven simple steps to success. College Teaching,
55(1), 37-39.
Herring, R. (2008). How to write comedy (Guardian
and Observers How to write series). London: The
Guardian and Observer.
Lindstromberg, S. (2004). Language activities for
teenagers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Luk, J. C. M., & Lin, A. M. Y. (2007). Classroom
interactions as cross-cultural encounters: Native
speakers in EFL lessons. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum.

McGraw, P., & Warner, J. (2014). The humor code: A

global search for what makes things funny. New
York: Simon & Schuster.
Morreall, J. (2014). Humor, philosophy and education.
Educational Philosophy and Theory, 46(2), 120-131.
Orwell, G. (1945). Funny, but not vulgar. Leader, July
28. Retrieved from
<http://orwell.ru/library/articles/funny/english/e_funn
y>
Suzuki, H., & Heath, L. (2014). Impacts of humor and
relevance on the remembering of lecture details.
Humor: International Journal of Humor Research,
27(1), 87-101.
Tamblyn, D. (2003). Laugh and learn: 95 ways to use
humor for more effective teaching and training. New
York: Amacom.
To the best of our knowledge (Producer). (2013,
December 22). How to be funny [Audio podcast].
Retrieved from <http://www.ttbook.org/book/how-befunny>
Torok, S. E., McMorris, R. F., & Lin W-C. (2004). Is
humor an appreciated teaching tool? Perceptions of
professors teaching styles and use of humor.
College Teaching, 52(1), 14-20.
Zielinski, D. (2005, June). Humor 101. The
Toastmaster, 8-11.

scott@okayama-u.ac.jp