Measuring Various

Cultural Limits of Humor

in Language Classes
John Rucynski

Ayako Namba
Gardner

Okayama University, Japan

Scott

Here Aristotle sees the tendency to laughter as a force for

good, which can also have an instructive value: through witty
riddles and unexpected metaphors, though it tells us things
differently from the way they are, as if it were lying, it actually
obliges us to examine them more closely, and it makes us say:
Ah, this is just how things are, and I didnt know it.
William of Baskerville,
The Name of the Rose (Eco, 1980)

It may be that human play...performs an educational role by

increasing general flexibility, thereby allowing humans to
develop, both as individuals and societies, a greater
understanding of their environment, and more creative
responses to it.
Cook, 2000

 Medgyes (2002), on humor in language teaching:

[H]umor is possibly the best source of authentic cultural
information about other peoples.
Schmitz (2002), on humor in language teaching:
[T]he teacher, in addition to introducing cultural jokes, can make
use of the opportunity to have students reflect critically about the
target culture.
Martin (2007), on humor in teaching (in general):
Humor may be used by teachers in potentially beneficial ways to
illustrate pedagogical points, to make lessons more vivid and
memorable, and to make the learning environment generally
more enjoyable and interesting for students. On the other hand, it
may be used in more negative ways that are coercive or
demeaning to students, and it can distract students attention
away from more important points or distort their understanding of
the information.

 Ford (1997), on stereotypes in TV programs:

...disparagement of social groups through humor (e.g., comical
stereotypical portrayals of social out-groups) may indeed create a
climate of tolerance of discrimination by providing cues that
discrimination is not serious or is not to be examined critically.
Billig (2005), on stereotyping jokes:
[I]nsiders may distrust the laughter of outsiders, even though
they might laugh at the same joke.

Billig (2005) again:

[T]he context in which a joke is told can influence how the joke is
understood.
Teacher: Billy, can you name two pronouns?
Student: Who, me?
Teacher: Very good!

Teacher Humor
Appropriate uses

Inappropriate uses

Related to study situation

Disparaging students(s)

Unrelated to study situation

Self-disparaging?
Unintentional

?
Offensive?
Disparaging others?
Self-disparaging?

(Wanzer et al., 2006)

What about intercultural humor

with intercultural groups?

REFERENCES
Billig, M. (2005). Laughter and ridicule: Towards a social critique of
laughter. London: Sage.
Cook, G. (2000). Language play, Language learning. (Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Eco, U. (1980). The name of the rose (William Weaver, Trans.). San
Diego: Harvest.
Ford, T. E. (1997). Effects of stereotypical portrayals of AfricanAmericans on person perception. Social Psychology Quarterly, 60(3),
266-278.

Martin, R. A. (2007). The psychology of humor: An integrative approach.

Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Medgyes, P. (2002). Laughing matters: Humour in the language
classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Schmitz, J. R. (2002). Humor as a pedagogical tool in foreign language

and translation courses. Humor, 15(1), 89-113.
Wanzer, M. B., Frymier, A. B., Wojtaszczyk, A. M., & Smith, T. (2006).
Appropriate and inappropriate uses of humor by teachers.