Humor!
Understanding the World’s Best
Medicine in the American Context
Course Objectives
Students Will Be Able To:
•recognize and use adjectival suffixes to make adjectives out of nouns.
•identify homonymy.
•identify jokes (puns) made by taking advantage of homonymy
•recognize and understand a list of idiomatic expressions.
•identify jokes made from the idiomatic expressions.
•]recognize syntactic ambiguity and by doing so have a better command
of word roles
•identify jokes made by taking advantage of syntactic ambiguity.
•use vocabulary: ridiculous, ludicrous, outrageous, preposterous,
syntactic ambiguity, lexical ambiguity, homonymy, puns
•Recognize ‘what’ and ‘who’ as subjects.
•Understand Abbot and Costello’s “Whose on First”
•Answer questions about ambiguity from the listening “Hu’s the leader
of China?”
To be funny is to be:
Ridiculous!
Outrageous!
Ludicrous!
Preposterous!
What do these words all have in
common?
1. All are Adjectives
3. All end in (-ous)
2. All are contrary to our
expectations
4. All are possibly:
horrible or offensive
Most important for the
purposes of understanding
Grammar:
All are Adjectives
+
All end in -ous
Attaching
suffixes in
order to
Make
Adjectives(-ous)
Ridicule + (-ous) =
Ridiculous
Outrage + (-ous) =
Outrageous
Ludicrous =
Ludicre?
(-ical)
(-ful)
Economy + (-ical) =
Economical
Wonder+ (-fu) =
wonderful
Myth = ical =
Mythical
Power + (-ful) =
powerful
Cynical – Cyny?; Cyn?
(-ic)
Economy+(-ic) =
Economic
Irony + (-ic) =
Ironic
Spastic = Spasty?
Spast?
Awful – Awe?; Aw?
(-al)
Logic+ (-al) =
logical
magic+ (-al) =
magical
Final = Fin? Finic?
Time for Worksheet A!
Activity A Vocabulary Recap
•Pitiful = to be deserving of or to inspire pity
•Humongous = To be very big
•Historical = To be of or pertaining to history
•Intentional = To be done with purpose
•Awful = to be terrible, lamentable
•Ethical = to be in accordance with a particular set of principals
•Historic = to be so influential or great as to be ensured a place in history
•Literal = Strictly true and unexaggerated
•Joyous = to inspire much joy.
•Geographic = To do with location on Earth
•Mirthful = To be characterized by good humor and light heart
•Classic = to be the established and standard model – Classic Rock
•Whimsical = to tend toward and embrace fantasy
•Classical = Pertaining to somewhat antiquated – Classical Music
•Humorous = To have or inspire humor
•Geographical = To do with location on Earth.
Ambiguity!
Words or phrases that are ambiguous
have at least 2 interpretations. A
contextually ridiculous or outrageous
interpretation of a word or phrase is
the funny one.
Lexical ambiguity
gives rise to Puns
!
Lexical ambiguity is often the result of
Homonymy
Homonymy describes groups of words that differ in meaning
but have: the same spelling and pronunciation; the same
spelling but different pronunciation; or different spellings but
the same pronunciation.
Examples:
Same spelling and
pronunciation
1) Bill
Bill
3) Leaves
Leaves
2) Tired
Tired
Same spelling,
different pronunciation
1) Read
Read
1) Live
Live
Different spelling,
same pronunciation
1) Flower 2) Horse
Hoarse
Flour
3) Two
To
Too
4) Their
There
They’re
Puns with Homonymy
-A duck walks into a pharmacy and tells the
pharmacist that he wants some chap stick.
When the pharmacist asks the duck if he
wants to pay cash or credit he says, “Just put
it on my bill.”
1. Bill = The ducks
beak or beak like
organ
2. Bill = The
account at a store
or business to
which we charge
items we cannot
pay for at that
moment.
-The bicycle can't stand on its own because
it was two-tired. http://www.punoftheday.com/
1. (Too) Tired = The
bike is so tired it can
no longer stand
2. (Two) Tired=
The bike has two
tires, and so it
falls over for lack
of support
Time for Worksheet B!
Semantic Ambiguity can also be
used to make jokes/puns with
Idioms
Idioms are traditional expressions that often
have a meaning quite different from their
literal translation.
Examples:
1) “To cost an arm and a leg”
2) “Excuse my French.”
3) “To see right through someone” 4) “To hit the nail on the head”
5) “To let the cat out of the bag”
6) “To let sleeping dogs lie”
Literal Vs. Figurative
-Literal is to be strictly true and unexaggerated; to be
exact in meaning and description.
-Figurative is to be metaphorical, not strictly true
or exact in meaning.
Idioms are figurative, in that they are metaphorical and not
exact in meaning. Literal translations of idioms are a bit
ridiculous, and thereby somewhat comical.
! Many times people say that something literally happened, when in fact they are
exaggerating!
Example: “The bullet passed literally in front of my nose.”
-From this example we can surmise that the bullet came very close, however, it
likely did not truly pass “in front of (his or her) nose”.
Jokes with Idioms:
http://www.foundstuff.co.uk/store/gas/gas15.jpg
Puns with Idioms:
http://www.iceteks.com/forums/uploads/post-15-1087588578_mitsoujunejpg.jpg
Time for Worksheet C!
Worksheet C - Directions
Directions: Read the sentences or pun you have
been given. Then try to find the person whose pun
aligns with your sentences, or the person whose
sentences align with your pun. Try to decide if the
puns you read are funny or horrible.
Worksheet C Example
Grouping
Yesterday I accidentally swallowed some food coloring.
The doctor says I'm OK, but I feel like I've died (dyed) a
little inside.
Idiomatic Meaning : To have lost something vital and feel
terrible
Ridiculous Meaning: To have the color of the internal organs
changed
Jokes can be made by taking
advantage of Syntactic Ambiguity as
well!
Syntactic Ambiguity is when the relationships of words
in a sentence are not entirely clear, and can change the
interpretation of the sentences overall meaning.
Examples:
1) A panda walks into a restaurant and eats shoots and leaves.
2) The chicken is ready to eat.
3) Eye Drops Off the Shelf.
Syntactic Ambiguity
The chicken is ready to eat.
http://www.needofmeats.co.uk/images/imagebank/uploads/Cooked_Chicken_Fillet
s.jpg
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/4803404/2/istockphoto_48
03404-hungry-chicken.jpg
Syntactic/Semantic Ambiguity
A panda walks into a restaurant and eats shoots and leaves.
http://www.mammalz.com/UserFiles/2007/5/25/panda
_eating_3370_473.jpg
http://bayimg.com/image/ganlhaabl.jpg
Time for Worksheet D!
Newspaper Headlines =
Ambiguous Headlines
- When writing newspaper headlines, many times
an editor will write incomplete sentences in order
to save space on the page.
Examples:
- Eye Drops Off the Shelf = “Eye drops are available to be
bought off of the shelf”
-Miners refuse to work after death = “Miner’s refuse to
work after the death of a co-worker.”
Worksheet D – Directions
Directions: Some students have pictures while others have
ambiguous headlines. Students with pictures must move
about the room until they find the two students who are
holding headlines relevant to each of their pictures. Students
with pictures are not allowed to show their pictures but must
describe them to other students. Students with headlines are
not allowed to share their headline with other students unless
they believe that that student’s picture pertains to their
headline.
Worksheet D - Example
A panda walks into a restaurant and eats shoots and leaves.
http://www.needofmeats.co.uk/images/imagebank/uploads/Cooked_Chicken_Fillet
s.jpg
http://www.mammalz.com/UserFiles/2007/5/25/panda
_eating_3370_473.jpg
http://bayimg.com/image/ganlhaabl.jpg
Time for Worksheet E!
The Role of What and Who
-Unlike why, where, and how who, what, can
serve as the subject of a sentence.
Examples:
Q. Who stole my car?
A. Who did it should be obvious.
Q. What happened?
A. What happened is regrettable.
**Unlike**
Q. Where are your favorite stores? A. Where I like to go is
Meijer.
Q. Why does he do it?/Why do they do it? A. That is why.
Q How is she?/How are they?
A. That is how she is.
Who’s on First!
Second base
Man on second:
__________
First base
Third base
Man on first:
‘Who’
Man on third:
__________
Home base
Click here to start:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77azRkVHtqM&feature=related
Time for Worksheet E!
Hu’s (Who’s) The new leader
in China
Hu Jintao
http://www.humanrights.cn/en/Messages/Video
/W020080102316736004178.jpg
Kofi Annan
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/140/320165172
_90773e80db_m.jpg
Yasser Arafat
http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2005/10/24/Y
asser_051024022914127_wideweb__300x375.jp
g
Homonymy in Review!
Go here to start:
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/b2288e0a1f/hu-is-theleader-of-china-from-ron
Time for Worksheet F!