Seriously Funny

Welcome to the Seriously Funny elective. The more you know about humor and how to create it, the more fun your life will be, the more we will enjoy those around us, and the better off the world will be.

Daily Subjects

1. stand-up

2. puns & short jokes

3. story jokes

4. political

5. image-based

6. physical/slapstick

7. improvisational

8. songs

9. satire/spoof

10. movies/scenes

Prompts for "Scenes from a Hat":

Lines

Daily Schedule:

Day 11: May 1, 2012

1. Review your stand-up session

2. Written comedy: Calvin, FarSide, NewYorker, Story-Joke, Other

Day 10: April 17, 2012

1. Roll: do an impression of someone or something -- we guess who/what it is?

2. The collaborative story... one word at a time.

3. Acronyms. See the list then make up your own

4. Start planning your 4 minute stand-up session (5 people per day on May 1, 8, and 15)

Day 9: March 27, 2012

1. Best of the web... find 3 funny things (video, comics, jokes) and cue each on a different tab

Day 8: March 20, 2012

1. Remaining animated jokes (form and spreadsheet)

2. Physical Comedy Day:

   1. Mr. Bean

   2. Character, setting, situation... add more small and medium actions (not large)

Day 7: March 13, 2012

1. Showing the done animated jokes

2. How to Train Your Dragon

Day 6: March 6, 2012

1. Find (or think of) 3 to 5 good (!) jokes and then use GoAnimate or xtranormal to make an animated dialog between two characters that tell those jokes to each other. If they are "story-jokes" which are long, you can use fewer.

2. When done (and published), copy the URL (web address) and paste it into this form.

Day 5: February 28, 2012

1. Roll with end of knock-knock joke

2. http://iwastesomuchtime.com/popular.php?sort=month

3. find "best(s) of" and leave it/them open in tab(s)

Day 3: February 7, 2012

1. Roll with your superhero name

2. What things did your "research" yield

3. Improv Games: Freeze

4. Whose Line scenes

Day 2: January, 31, 2012

1. Roll with the punch line to a non-existant joke

2. Categorizing comedy types

3. Classic and cutting edge comedy -- what it takes to shock America

4. During the coming week, ask people of various (older) ages, "what comedy was inappropriate or controversial when you were young"?

5. Malcolm pilot episode (didn't work)

Day 1: January 24, 2012

1. Roll: as I call your name, correct me with your Adjective Noun name

2. Whoosh, Bang, Pow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxwXhjg4D_U & amplification game

3. Why do we laugh?

   1. Baby laughing

   2. Try to find a good explanation of what causes laughter, and why

   3. Post your findings (and the source) onto this form

4. Examples of funny stuff onto cards... we'll sort and classify next week

5. How to deal with the "appropriateness" (or inappropriateness) of material we come across in this class?

6. Before next week: Come up with a line from a funny movie (or show) and we'll guess

January 19, 2012

-ok, so THIS time is the last class (oops)

-roll with punch line from non-existant joke (again)

-Ferris Bueller's Day Off

January 5, 2012

-our last class... be thoughtful, tell us something you have learned

Written Comedy

-list the types and samples

-Calvin and Hobbes favorites... mark 5 then rotate books

-use this (un-vetted) Squiboo site to find more written comedy

December 8, 2011

-no StuCrew today

British Humor

1. Do You Speak English?

2. Charlie Speaks American

3. Argument Clinic

4. The Witch Test (Holy Grail)

5. Fruit Stand Technology

6. 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3

December 1, 2011

• 1. Roll: Indian Name

  2. Improv Game: Bucket combined with Scenes from a Hat

  3. Distinguishing stupid, silly, blah, funny, and hilarious

     1. Silly Songs with Larry

     2. You find 3 examples, we figure out which is which

November 3, 2011

1. Roll: punch line from non-existent joke

2. Find three good/great jokes

3. Tell to group, w/ an "I don't get it", and explanation

4. Comedy pushing boundaries (MiM Pilot)

October 13, 2011

1. Roll: with what comic or cartoon character would you like to spend the day?

2. The Amplification Game

3. How do you decide what is funny and what isn't?

4. History of the Joke (video from History Channel, hosted by Luis Black)

Physical Humor

1. Mr. Bean

2. Larry Griswold (1951)

June 2, 2011

Roll: Your "most likely to... " admission

Funny Women

1. Bon Qui Qui at King Burger

2. each of you find two other funny women and get each cued up

April 21, 2011

Roll: do a voice, noise, or gesture

Cartoon Humor

1. list of funny cartoons or characters

2. what lines from what shows/movies have become part of our culture?

3. Select scenes from my collection OR a search-n-show of great cartoon scenes

March 31, 2011

Roll: Indian Name

Improv Game: Bucket

British Humor

1. Do You Speak English?

2. Charlie Speaks American

3. Argument Clinic

4. The Witch Test (Holy Grail)

5. Fruit Stand Technology

6. 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3

March 17, 2011

1. Language and content boundaries

2. Intellectually snooty humor

3. Written humor: comics, satire, stories, even jokes

4. Find some & share out

5. Malcolm "Smunday"

March 10, 2011

1. Roll: funny username

2. Improv activity: scenes from a hat (writing them down and playing them out)

3. Riddles: questions or puzzles with "funny" solution

4. Puns: plays on words jokes that take the unexpected route

5. Acceptable comic role models (stand-up, shows, etc)

   1. one or two samples

   2. search for a few and find the best.... cue it up on a tab on the PC

   3. showtime

February 17, 2011

1. Roll: what funny character (real or not) would you like to spend a day with, and why?

2. Results of your research... what pushed the limits, when, and why?

3. When is "random" funny, and when is it not?

4. Veggie Tales: Silly Songs with Larry

5. Some funny commercials

February 3, 2011

1. Roll: punch line from a non-existent joke

2. Improv: Questions Only (example from Whose Line Is It?)

3. Cutting Edge... a moving target

-what it takes to make people laugh gets "edgier" with time

-ask some adults what was funny/edgy in their day

-watch pilot of Malcolm and write list of questionable aspects

January 27, 2011

1. Roll: as I call your name respond with your superhero name

2. The Amplification game

3. Funny Acronyms... see list then make up your own

4. History of the Joke (History Channel video with Luis Black)

December 13 and 16, 2010

1. roll with an absurd but non-random username

2. anatomy of intelligent funny stuff (Far Side)

3. making word play and building the stories

4. finding and submitting good online videos

December 6 and 9, 2010

1. Warm up: The Machine and/or "Line"

2. "We Know How it Ends"

3. Anatomy of a pun OR Malcolm episode: "Home Alone 4"

November 29 and December 2, 2010

1. Monty Pyton and the Holy Grail

November 15 and 18, 2010

1. Roll:

2. Some funny commercials

3. Improv of the day... questions only (example)

4. Mr. Dowling...

November 1 and 4, 2010

1. Roll: what funny character (real or not) would you like to spend a day with, and why?

2. Results of your research... what pushed the limits, when, and why?

3. When is "random" funny, and when is it not?

4. Veggie Tales: Silly Songs with Larry

5. Joke sites and hall of fame (be sure to be appropriate, only change your row or an empty column header)

October 11 and 14, 2010

1. Roll: as I call your name respond with your favorite knock knock line

2. The Amplification game

3. The Everlasting Sentence game

4. Funny Acronyms... see list then make up your own

5. Why do we laugh?

   1. Try to find a good explanation of what causes laughter, and why

   2. Post your findings (and the source) onto this form

6. Sort and classify examples of funny stuff on cards. Try to come up with groups

7. Tell us a line from a funny movie (or show) and we'll guess

October 4 and 7, 2010

1. Roll: as I call your name, correct me with your Adjective Noun name

2. Whoosh, Bang, Pow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxwXhjg4D_U

3. How do you decide what is funny and what isn't.

   1. Watch a stand-up segment and graph (timeline) your laugh-scale, marking what causes rise in your graph

4. Why do we laugh?

• 1. Baby laughing

  2. Try to find a good explanation of what causes laughter, and why

  3. Post your findings (and the source) onto this form

5. Examples of funny stuff onto cards... we'll sort and classify next week

6. How to deal with the "appropriateness" (or inappropriateness) of material we come across in this class?

7. Before next week: Come up with a line from a funny movie (or show) and we'll guess

Classification/organization of humor types: list alone, then with partner, then as table, then as class

Group database of funny stuff (some here and some at home... an ongoing assignment and ever-growing collection)

Warm Ups:

• 1. Exaggeration Circle

  2. Scrambled Eggs

  3. Big Booty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzRXoI-nJJU

Play On Words

Words or phrases that, when said out loud and perhaps enunciated slightly differently, can have two very different meanings.

• 1. I'm afraid not vs I a frayed knot

Winter 2017

Aidan McCracken 25

Andrew Woods 26

Aneil Shah 26

Caedon Gibson 25

Casey McDowell 26

Danchi Nguyen 25

Elijah Martinez 26

Gavin Lane 29

Gwendolyn Rogers 25

Jacob Aboytes 25

Kyante Smith 26

Max Behl 25

Saam Nasseri 26

Shea Walker 29

Taika Sorensen 25

Taran Gonzales 25

Thomas Damuni 25

William Caraccio 25

Zayd Mahmoud 29

Zoya Meydbray-Gonodanova 29

Winter, 2012

• 1. Aidan Poling 8 22

  2. Alec Shockowitz 8 25

  3. Alexis Biggs 8 26

  4. Alexis Santana-Quintana 8 22

  5. Audrey Randazzo 8 22

  6. Ciaran McCormack 7 27

  7. Evan Miller 8 26

  8. Harrison Eagle 8 22

  9. Isabella Jones 8 22

  10. Juliann Tsai 8 25

  11. Kevin Zhang 8 26

  12. Noa Michael 7 27

  13. Nolan Cox 8 25

  14. Prashanth Koushik 8 22

  15. Tomer Shlomovich 8 26

  16. Vanessa Dominguez 22

Fall, 2011

• 1. Nakiyan

  2. Dean

  3. Harrison

  4. Amanda

  5. Sarah

  6. Dominic

  7. Jack

  8. Michael