Humour Studies - Learning with and about Humour LIBS 7009

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Appreciate that comedy is the result of interpretation, influenced by the traditions, prejudices, preferences and circumstances.
• Acknowledge that different kinds of comic structures and content appeal to different people for different reasons.
• Understand mindfulness and practice it to an increased degree.
• Define concepts of voice, genre and stereotype and describe their contributions to comedy.
• Understand the power of satire as a form of social commentary and practice effective satirical writing.
• Appreciate a variety of comedic forms including mime, stand-up, physical comedy, gags, satire, situation comedy, repartee, theatre sports.
• Understand the elements of cartooning and apply them to interpret an event in comic form.
• Use word games and puzzles (e.g. Spoonerisms, malapropisms, Tom Swifties, puns, eponyms, tropes) to examine the inconsistencies and rhetorical devices of the English language as a source of humor.
• Analyze texts, video and audio material and personal experience to develop a better understanding of one's own sense of humor and an appreciation for diverse interpretations of what is deemed funny.
• Identify the key elements of a philosophical tradition (existential, pragmatic, hermeneutic and Zen), and interpret humor from the perspective of this tradition.
• Take a comic look at machinery and build Rube Goldberg machines from common materials. Examine the impact of the unintended consequences of machines and other technologies (e.g. the Internet).
• Appreciate diversity, surprise, and unpredictability as fundamental aspects of human life and develop a capacity for flexibility, creativity and letting go of control.
• Contemplate death from a comic viewpoint and consider the implications of death's inevitability for the quality of life.
• Demonstrate risk taking, imagination and flexibility in a comic performance.
• Consider the value of a comic perspective in dealing with life's challenges.

Effective as of Fall 2004