Humor!

Understanding the World’s Best Medicine in the American Context

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?”

Course Objectives

To be funny is to be:

Ridiculous!

Ludicrous!Outrageous!

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

All end in -ousAll are Adjectives +

Most important for the purposes of understanding Grammar:

Attaching suffixes in order to Make Adjectives-

(-ous) (-ic)Logic+ (-al) = logical

(-al)

Ludicrous = Ludicre?

Spastic = Spasty? Spast?

Ridicule + (-ous) = Ridiculous

Economy+(-ic) = Economic

Outrage + (-ous) = Outrageous

Irony + (-ic) =Ironic

magic+ (-al) = magical

Final = Fin? Finic?

Wonder+ (-fu) = wonderful

(-ful)

Power + (-ful) = powerful

Time for Worksheet A!

(-ical)Economy + (-ical) = Economical

Myth = ical = Mythical

Awful – Awe?; Aw?Cynical – Cyny?; Cyn?

•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.

Activity A Vocabulary Recap

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.

3) Two To Too

1) Bill Bill

2) Horse Hoarse

1) Flower Flour

Examples:Same spelling and pronunciation

Same spelling, different pronunciation

Different spelling, same pronunciation

2) Tired Tired

3) Leaves Leaves

4) Their There They’re

1) Live Live

1) Read Read

-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.”

Puns with Homonymy 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.

2. (Two) Tired= The bike has two tires, and so it falls over for lack of support

1. (Too) Tired = The bike is so tired it can no longer stand

http://www.punoftheday.com/

Time for Worksheet B!

Semantic Ambiguity can also be used to make jokes/puns with

IdiomsIdioms are traditional expressions that often have a meaning quite different from their literal translation.

Examples:

1) “To cost an arm and a leg”

3) “To see right through someone” 4) “To hit the nail on the head”

2) “Excuse my French.”

6) “To let sleeping dogs lie”5) “To let the cat out of the bag”

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.

! 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”.

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.

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.

Idiomatic Meaning : To have lost something vital and feel terrible

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.

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.

The chicken is ready to eat.

Syntactic Ambiguity

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/4803404/2/istockphoto_4803404-hungry-chicken.jpg

http://www.needofmeats.co.uk/images/imagebank/uploads/Cooked_Chicken_Fillets.jpg

A panda walks into a restaurant and eats shoots and leaves.

Syntactic/Semantic Ambiguity

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.”

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 – Directions

A panda walks into a restaurant and eats shoots and leaves.

Worksheet D - Example

http://www.mammalz.com/UserFiles/2007/5/25/panda_eating_3370_473.jpg http://bayimg.com/image/ganlhaabl.jpg

Time for Worksheet E!

http://www.needofmeats.co.uk/images/imagebank/uploads/Cooked_Chicken_Fillets.jpg

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!

First baseThird base

Second base

Home base

Man on first: ‘Who’

Man on second: __________

Man on third: __________

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77azRkVHtqM&feature=related

Click here to start:

Time for Worksheet E!

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2005/10/24/Yasser_051024022914127_wideweb__300x375.jpg

Yasser Arafat

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/140/320165172_90773e80db_m.jpg

Kofi AnnanHu Jintao

http://www.humanrights.cn/en/Messages/Video/W020080102316736004178.jpg

Hu’s (Who’s) The new leader in China

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/b2288e0a1f/hu-is-the-leader-of-china-from-ron

Go here to start:

Time for Worksheet F!

Homonymy in Review!