What's So Funny?
Posted on Sunday August 6, 2006 at 5:51pm.
In the fall I'll be teaching a new course I'm creating for the University of Pennsylvania called "What's So Funny?" It's a critical writing course that focuses on understanding humorous writing. Students will be reading essays, articles, reviews, plays, stories, maybe a couple of novels, Internet sites, whatever else I can find, and then discussing the use of humor and writing papers analyzing the whole thing. Maybe we'll also view a couple of good standup routines or sitcoms. Toward the end of the semester I might give students a chance to do a little creative writing and construct their own short humor pieces (which is what we do for the entire term in the Writing Humor and Comedy course I started at Drexel University, named one of the "Ten Best Things about Drexel" in the book Drexel University Off the Record).
I mention all of this because I am working on the "What's So Funny?" syllabus and wouldn't mind help from millions of strangers. I'm in that stage of developing the course that might lead a weaker man to panic. Fifteen weeks to fill and some of the nation's most intellectually aggressive students expecting to be challenged and enlightened every second could intimidate some people. But compared to the pressure of waiting to have a new novel released in a few months and not knowing what to write my next novel about, this is cake. Really moist cake, with icing, probably chocolate.
Cake aside, I would welcome suggestions about what to include on the reading list. Feel free to comment on this blog entry with as many suggestions as you have of funny poems, stories, novels, sites, essays or essay collections, anything that might fit what I describe above. Any kind of humor could work for the course, from the most sophisticated, meaningful satire to the silliest just-for-laughs comedy sketch. No choice is too obvious. After all, somehow I never got around to reading P.G. Wodehouse until this year.
Although the course will not focus on partisan political humor that is mostly only funny to people who share the source's perspective, including some of it is probably inevitable. Given that, I hope to have some balance in that aspect of the course, since it is not my goal to indoctrinate students in any one view. Other included humor might have political implications even if it isn't specific or partisan, and I hope for some balance there as well. Still, my main goal is not balance in all things, but to have the students look at the best and most interesting material I can find. And, as I said, political humor isn't going to dominate the course.
If I use your suggestion, I will give you absolutely no credit, but you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you have added in your own special way to some Ivy Leaguers' educations. I know, payment enough. And used or not, your suggestion will add to the list that might be a good resource for my blog's visitors looking for a funny read, so consider it public service. The really important kind. I'll be busy researching this for the next few weeks and will probably end up having to photocopy excerpts and essays from a bunch of different sources and make one of those wirecomb books to use as a text since, despite my offer to edit one for a hefty fee and substantial royalties, no textbook publisher has yet produced an appropriate anthology.
Finally, if you are a blogger, please consider posting a link to this post so more people will be able to make suggestions.
I mention all of this because I am working on the "What's So Funny?" syllabus and wouldn't mind help from millions of strangers. I'm in that stage of developing the course that might lead a weaker man to panic. Fifteen weeks to fill and some of the nation's most intellectually aggressive students expecting to be challenged and enlightened every second could intimidate some people. But compared to the pressure of waiting to have a new novel released in a few months and not knowing what to write my next novel about, this is cake. Really moist cake, with icing, probably chocolate.
Cake aside, I would welcome suggestions about what to include on the reading list. Feel free to comment on this blog entry with as many suggestions as you have of funny poems, stories, novels, sites, essays or essay collections, anything that might fit what I describe above. Any kind of humor could work for the course, from the most sophisticated, meaningful satire to the silliest just-for-laughs comedy sketch. No choice is too obvious. After all, somehow I never got around to reading P.G. Wodehouse until this year.
Although the course will not focus on partisan political humor that is mostly only funny to people who share the source's perspective, including some of it is probably inevitable. Given that, I hope to have some balance in that aspect of the course, since it is not my goal to indoctrinate students in any one view. Other included humor might have political implications even if it isn't specific or partisan, and I hope for some balance there as well. Still, my main goal is not balance in all things, but to have the students look at the best and most interesting material I can find. And, as I said, political humor isn't going to dominate the course.
If I use your suggestion, I will give you absolutely no credit, but you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you have added in your own special way to some Ivy Leaguers' educations. I know, payment enough. And used or not, your suggestion will add to the list that might be a good resource for my blog's visitors looking for a funny read, so consider it public service. The really important kind. I'll be busy researching this for the next few weeks and will probably end up having to photocopy excerpts and essays from a bunch of different sources and make one of those wirecomb books to use as a text since, despite my offer to edit one for a hefty fee and substantial royalties, no textbook publisher has yet produced an appropriate anthology.
Finally, if you are a blogger, please consider posting a link to this post so more people will be able to make suggestions.