1. Rewrite the ending to a tragedy (like Romeo and Juliet before Mercutio dies) and make into a
comedy
2. Rewrite as a different type of genre as in James Thurber’s
rewrite of Macbeth as a mystery
story. (rewrite Oedipus Rex as a comedy of manners)
3. Create a board game where different scenarios are available for
the story. Student lands on space/draws
card for that scenario and plots the new course of events.
4. Create discovery scenes for tragedies that would change them into
comedies.
5. Create an advertisement campaign for the story that is
ironic.
6. Create an ironic ending to a story
7. Write short story line on front a T-shirt with ironic twist
written on back of the shirt.
8. Create a parody of a work.
9. Study the movie Princess Bride as a parody.
10. Study the movies You’ve
Got Mail or Sleepless in Seattle for comic elements: comic characters, blocking agent, etc.
11. Analyze sitcoms for
characters, plot and purpose.
12. Analyze sitcoms four of six basic criteria
for humor: appeal to intellect rather
than emotion, established societal norms, incongruity to those norms,
perception that participants are not harmed.
1. Watch sitcoms to analyze characters for stock characters
2. Have tragic characters appear on a talk show and transform them
into comic characters.
3. Have small group of characters from various stories meet and
discuss an issue. Examine the different
points of view for the comic characters and tragic characters.
4. Position signs about perspectives on an issue around the room and
have students (assuming a character’s persona) stand at that sign,
adopting that position. They have to answer why that character would
assume that position.
5. Turn around—half the class assumes the
persona of a character who represents the blocking force in the play. The other half of the class must argue
against the other side’s positions. As
soon as a blocking force student is
convinced by the argument, the student
turns around (indicating a change of mind).
6. Act as Hollywood director and cast actors/actresses for the
different characters in a work. Discuss
stock characters and audience perception.
1. Draw out tired metaphors:
lilies of the field clothed etc.—and examine the humor of the
illustrations.
2. Discuss the humor in the combining of strange words: like using the Jerry Maguire list of
Shakespearean compliments, or list of Shakespearean insults.
3. Write a limerick about a serious work. Discuss the humor of using a funny format for serious material.
4. AMBIGUITY IN LANGUAGE
A Headline:
Disappearance of Man in Lake Called Strange
B.
Actual announcements taken from church bulletins:
This
afternoon there will be baptisms in both the south and the north end of the church. Babies will be baptized at both ends.
This
being Easter Sunday, we will ask Mrs. Johnson to come forward and lay an egg on
the altar as an Easter offering.
On
Sunday, a special collection will be taken to defray the expense of the new
church carpet. All those wishing to do
something on the new carpet, come forward and get a piece of paper.
A
bean supper will be held on Saturday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.
5. One of the difficult things about teaching comedy is analyzing
how exactly a phrase, a sentence a joke is constructed as funny. Emma contains the following introductory description of Emma’s
friend. “Harriet Smith was the natural
daughter of somebody”(53). Here are
some sample questions to pose to your students that should help them understand
the construction of this joke.
A How does beginning of the sentence lead us to believe
it will end?
B. What word makes the sentence a joke? Where is the word placed in the
sentence? How does this placement
matter?
C. Is the sentence “balanced”? How does balance/lack of balance help
advance the joke?
D. What does it mean to be the “natural
daughter of somebody?” Which words have
multiple meanings? How doe these
multiple meaning operate to define Harriet in Emma eyes? Does Emma’s society view Harriet the same
way?
E. Paraphrase the meaning of this sentence and
then explain how Austen’s delivery is different from your own. How is hers “tight”?
F. How does
paradox operate in Austen’s joke?
G. How does the joke help to characterize
Harriet? Are we supposed to think her
clever, pitiable, beneath us?
H. How does this
joke allow us to predict future events in the book?
I.
Does Austen make similar jokes elsewhere?
Where else do you observe her use of paradox, concision, balance and
words’ multiple meaning for comic effect?
How do these jokes operate?
6. Peanuts—lines from Snoopy’s book:
1. Joe Sportscar spent ten thousand dollars on
a new twelve cylinder Eloquent. “You
think more of that car than you do of me,” complained his wife. “All you ever do these days,” she said, “is
wax Eloquent!”
2.Once
there were two mice who lived in a museum.
One evening after the museum had closed, the first mouse crawled into a
huge suit of armor. Before he knew it,
he was lost. “Help!” he shouted to his
friend. “Help me make it through the
knight.”
7. Write and explain a pun.
8. Write and explain an epigram.
9. Use examples from Will Rogers to illustrate understatement. Explain.
10,.Write and explain
exaggeration and its humorous effect.
11. Use Shakespearean
compliment sheet to introduce Shakespeare.
Explain the humor of juxtapositioning the words from the list.
IRONY--
1. Identify the irony and type of irony from cartoons. (There is a Calvin and Hobbes web
site on the internet with great cartoons for this.)
2. Come to class with a joke a day.
Explain the irony and the type of irony.
3. Rename the title of a serious work with an ironic title.
4. Coordinate music to a
piece of literature that produces an ironic effect.
5. Place characters that have been studied in settings/situations
that would produce an ironic effect.
Explain.
6. Create wacky definitions: i.e., paradox: what it takes 2 apples to get rid of.
7. Write jokes that certain characters would be likely to tell (or
not likely to tell). Explain the humor
behind the choice.