Teaching Humour

[Mince]

How would you teach youngsters to use humour in their writing? I know some would say humour is not something that can be analysed, or is something that comes naturally to some and not others, but those people are not let out too often. (See what I did?)

My young newspaper editor wrote this in the opening of her article:

My Office
It's dark, mostly empty and full of craziness. But enough about Giggle's head. Unlike Giggle's head, my office is full of bright colours.

[Giggle is another student.]


I taught her to use the "But enough about ..." as a simple technique, but I am looking here for more general and more widely applicable rules.

So for example, there is Oscar Wilde's "A is like a B", parodied by Monty Python.

Also, how would you explain this kind of humour?

INVIGILATOR to LATE STUDENT: Linda, this exam began fifteen minutes ago!
LINDA: Don't worry, sir. It was supposed to. You're doing fine.

I would say that the humour comes from Linda deliberately misunderstanding the invigilator and treating him as someone in need of help, which reverses the power role.

I remember asking Roger once whether he had a formula for humour, whether he analysed it, and his answer was that he did not analyse his humour at all but just used what made him laugh, which I guess is actually quite a helpful answer in that it allows to understand much more clearly how useless he really is at answering questions properly. See! Is there a technique in that? Did I "lead you down the garden path" with the words "helpful" and "understand more clearly" before changing directions with the word "useless"?

So, if anyone has any techniques for teaching humour, and unlike Roger can articulate them without the need for crayons, I would be much obliged.

[Roger Kettle]

What you're talking about is the "misdirection" technique, more commonly applied to a magician's tricks.
I genuinely don't like analysing my humour as I'm not sure it would bear much scrutiny. Also, I've seen comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and Ricky Gervais analysing their work and it was toe-curlingly pretentious. I write one-a-day, throwaway jokes. That's it.
Maybe Malky McGookin will drop in with his views on this. I know he taught both cartooning and the art of humour at one stage.

[Sandy Buttcheeks]

As the newest poser...postee...posterior or whatever i am........would it be wrong of me to admit that i have brought my children up on a diet of Monty Python from a shockingly young age  (and not a social worker in sight !!) and allowed them to laugh at unfortunate incidents as long as they dont get caught.
As far as i am concerened they have thus embraced good humour ....even the odd Peep book or two......and therefore dont think that humour can be taught as such but it sure can be force fed from the cradle onwards.  should this seem like the ramblings of a mad-man ......thank you ....im touched.  I'm also overly excited about being able to post and i'm away for a lie down !!

[Diamond Lil]

I'm going to have to go for a lie down...this young 'un has a total disregard of apostrophes that leaves me feeling faint.

[Sandy Buttcheeks]

Apologies !
Being from North of the border, English is a second language to me.  I shall endeavour to ensure both my spellar and gramming arechecked two times before posting in the future.
 
ooooo   andmyspacings          too
 

[Diamond Lil]

Thank you

[Bilthehut]

........ and ////// excess ~~~~~~ things.

[The Peepmaster]

Often, humour is about the unexpected. Simple as that.

[Bilthehut]

Often, humour is about the unexpected. Simple as that.

I laughed.  There was no snipe at Mince.

[Mince]

Yes, he's not as good as he used to be.

[The Peepmaster]

Often, humour is about the unexpected. Simple as that.

I laughed.  There was no snipe at Mince.

Meant to add, I often call Mince "the unexpected".

[Bilthehut]

Weak.

[Sandy Buttcheeks]

Often, humour is about the unexpected. Simple as that.

I laughed.  There was no snipe at Mince.

Meant to add, I often call Mince "the unexpected".

I often call 118 118, i find it's more useful.

[Malc]

Yes, I did indeed once hold seminars on How To Do Jokes. They were in some ways jokes in themselves, because there are inherently funny people and there are some who will never be funny as long as their sphincters point to the ground.

I used to cover Freud's Seven Jokes

Absurdity
Allusion
Analogy
Exaggeration
Faulty reasoning
Play on words
Reproach

Well, I say "cover" in the sense that I admitted I had not a clue what he was on about, and strongly suspected he was as funny as a fire in a geriatric ward.

There are other versions of the "There Are Only Seven Jokes" theory, for instance:

Slapstick, Exploitation, Class Consciousness, Concealment, Surprise, Dramatic Irony and Misunderstanding.

So it depends who you talk to. My view is that anything can be funny, even the most hideous acts, and no definitive "list" suffices.

I gave a couple of examples of my favourite jokes, with explanations of why they worked and of incidents where humourless people tried to be funny, dissecting the reasons why they weren't.

I finished with a demonstration of how you COULD be funny if you had the knack of word play. I drew two lions hiding in long grass stalking two impala-type deer. The image itself wasn't funny at all, until I wrote the punchline "Lunch Boks". That always got a titter and a couple of "aaaah"s.

I'm with Roger in that I believe analyzing your OWN humour can be destructive or pretentious at least. I never worry about how or why I come up with gags, though I do obsess sometimes about where a comma should be placed in the punchline. On occasion I don't actually know if I have a gag at all, or whether it's just me who thinks it's funny, but I draw it anyway and see if anyone gets it.

[Roger Kettle]

I share Malc's obsession with punctuation in a punchline. As I've admitted before, I can spend ridiculous amounts of time trying to decide if a joke is funnier with an exclamation mark or a full stop. I also work at getting the rhythm of a punchline right. It has to read smoothly and have the right tempo. Sometimes an extra syllable or two can spoil a gag.