Humor in Grammar Teachings: The Strawman Meets His Match

This article, by Alleen and Don Nilsen proposes an interesting idea of teaching English classes with a more humorous style. They argue that humor should be incorporated into teaching because it will allow for students to learn and appreciate the subject more, and give six arguments for the study of humor in English classes. The article uses a clever approach, by using a “Straw Man”, to acknowledge the six arguments. But Alleen and Don Nilsen make some good rebuttals against the arguments. And at the end of the article, the authors give a few good in-class lessons/activities for teachers to try with their classes.
The first argument against the use of humor in class is that kids already receive enough humor outside of school. Alleen and Don Nilsen make some good points against this statement though. In doing so, they state that by using subtle forms of humor in the class, students can, indeed, become more mature. In the article they mention such examples of humor as David Letterman’s “Top Ten” lists. Not all people are educated enough to know what some of the things Letterman talks about are, and that is what they want to teach more.
The next argument that the Straw Man makes is teaching humor will take away from time of teaching all other English courses. In response to this the authors mention that students will have more fun by incorporating humor into the study. Dangling modifiers are a good way to use humor because it helps students realize the obvious mistakes while learning why the mistake should be changed too. They go on to say that writing and speaking are easier when it comes to writing something humorous too, because it is generally something a student is more comfortable with talking about. Following this statement was a list of 10 different features that people tend to find to be most funny, which I am not going to get into.
The next argument made by the Straw Man brings to forth the idea that teachers are supposed to be preparing kids to earn a living. To respond to this, the Nilsens’ talk about a specific time in recent years when television comedies were at an all time high and were in need of script writers. Due to a lack of talent in the field though, made it hard for networks to find experienced writers. Least to say, there are many of jobs out there that allow for humor. People in all professions are capable of using humor. In many cases humor is said to relieve stress from a rather stressful job. Humor may help people get through the day easier.
After this the Straw Man argues that bringing humor into the class will create censorship problems, because people may bring up touchy subjects. The authors believe that humor of this nature should be taught effectively too though. By this they mean that humor should be taught with an appropriate and respectful mind set. Yet, it is possible to bring up rational topics and still be polite about it according to the two, and that is what they would like to teach.
This connects to the Straw Man’s next argument, that humor hurts people’s feelings. In response they state that humor is a communication tool that can build or tear someone apart. None the less, teaching humor is a good way to talk about cultural differences, as long as its portrayed in a good manner. It may not necessarily be alright for someone to make humor about a minority group, but if a person of that minority group pokes fun at themselves, then it may be seen as okay.
The final argument the Straw Man makes argues that humor cannot be taught if the person does not know how to tell a joke or write a funny letter. So in response the authors list several different ways to gather material (writing parodies, gathering news clips, using humorous icons, etc). Again, it is these ideas that the authors believe will make the classroom a more fun filled and encouraging way to learning. And I could not agree with them more. Making English fun and humorous makes it that much easier and more enjoyable to learn.