101: Sense of Humor

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Questions about the Video File:
1.  How is sense of humor defined by the lecturer?
2.  What is the sixth sense?
3.  What does the word ‘elusive’ mean?
4.  What’s wrong with those who lack sense of humor?
5.  What’s the relationship between this English proverb (beauty is in the eye of the beholder) and sense of humor?
6.  What is the first technique for increasing your sense of humor?
7.  How differently do comedians look at things around them in comparison to other people?
8.  Which of the tips on increasing your sense of humor seems to be more important to you?
9.  How can you crack jokes more effectively?
10.  When aren’t you supposed to practice your sense of humor?
11.  What is the mean spirit of sense of humor?
12.  Is sense of humor genetically endowed or could it be acquired?

Questions:
1.  Discuss the main characteristics of a successful comedian.
2.  How can you tell a joke humorously?
3.  Is there any difference between comedy and satire?
4.  What is wry humor?
Please answer the following question:
How can wry humor help you in your life?

Idioms, Proverbs and Expressions:
1.  In stitches: Laughing heartily and uncontrollably:
a.  His hilarious stories had us in stitches.
2.  Be convulsed with laughter: Be in stitches:
a.  I’m sorry. I couldn’t control myself. I was convulsed with laughter.
3.  Bring down the house: Make a lot of people laugh especially as an actor:
a.  In that spectacle, the comedian just brought down the horse so effectively.
4.  Laughter is the best medicine: Used to focus on the usefulness of humor and laughter:
a.  Hey boy, cheer up! Haven’t you heard that laughter is the best medicine?
5.  Make fun of somebody: Laugh at somebody – Poke fun at somebody:
a.  Alex is notoriously rude. He doesn’t hesitate to make fun of his friends.

Words and Phrases:
1.  Wry humor: Laughing at your problems
2.  Hilarious: Funny
3.  Witticism: Using sense of humor in your remarks
4.  Comicality: Funniness
5.  Satire: Criticizing sb/sth by using wit

Level: 
B1 (Intermediate)
B2 (Upper-intermediate)

There are 22 Comments

Submitted by Fateme on Sun, 2016/05/29 - 12:19

Wry humor is an extraordinary therapy to cheer me up at once in gloomy moment of my life and put up with it. Humor help me to have a bright perspective and see the mirthful side of everything. Even sometimes poking fun at hardship is as a good resort to get distracted and laughing. There is no point in taking the life too serious. In sum for me humor is cheerful and its side effects are pleasant.

“A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.”  Dwight D. Eisenhower

Submitted by Hossein-Hariri on Mon, 2016/05/30 - 17:01

I did enjoy this response.

By considering the following, you may improve your English:

  1. Gloomy moment --> moments
  2. It can help you to put up with life difficulties.
  3. Humor helpS you ...
  4. Have a perspective on sth
  5. Poke fun at (only sb, not sth).
  6. There is no point in taking life too seriously.
  7. Does humor really have any side effect? I don't think so.

Submitted by fatemeh2 on Mon, 2016/05/30 - 16:51

To see wry humor as something that can help us to cape with the difficult situations and problems, I can say that they are really helpful and beneficial. In fact it can be regarded as somehow a professional technique. We heard the proverb” that laugh is the medication for every incurable pain”; when we are in a very tense situation and we are very nervous we should try to see those sites of the problem that are a little funny and also say something funny this cause us to laugh and when we laugh our brain can have some times to rest so that the pressure will be reduced.  Even maybe after laughing a new solution comes to our mind!

 

Submitted by Hossein-Hariri on Mon, 2016/05/30 - 19:48

1. to cope with
2. Wry humor is singular, so --> it is helpful and beneficial.
3. We should see those sides of the problem.
4. This causes us ...
5. Our brain has some time to rest

Thanks for your informative response.

 

Submitted by fatemeh2 on Mon, 2016/05/30 - 17:00

6. What factors should we keep in our mind when we want to use our sense of humor to laugh people and at the same time not bothering them?

 

Submitted by Hossein-Hariri on Mon, 2016/05/30 - 19:52

Good question!

* To make people laugh
* bear / keep sb/sth in mind (not in my mind)

 

Submitted by Fateme on Mon, 2016/05/30 - 23:30

In my view, at first we should put ourselves in their shoes and judge our humor with equity. Afterwards we should consider the capacity of people that we want to mock at them whether they can take the joke or not. Perhaps someone is touchy and gets mad at our unintentionally humor. Even in humor we have to keep people’s dignity and don’t let them feel humiliated. Above of all our sense of humor has to warm the cockles of others’ heart not break their heart. 

Submitted by Gilnar on Mon, 2016/05/30 - 17:13

Advantages of humor are listed below:
1. Being happy
2. Raise the confidence and ability of the immune system
3. easier deal with problems
4. Reduce depression, anxiety and anger

We all unconsciously attracted to people who are humorous. Even we are interested in store photos and videos of laughing small kids and enjoy watching them.

As u know, the sense of humor has a lot of advantages that mention above. In case the joke unhealthy bothering others and hurt to personality and has undesirable effects and makes one person have unstable emotions so can't easily establish a relationship of friendship.

Submitted by Fateme on Mon, 2016/05/30 - 17:14

Wry shows a difficult situation but amusing. Wry humor is sarcastic, we mock a difficulty and laugh at it instead of grieving at. Wry humor is cleverly and often ironically or grimly humorous. According to text wry humor: Laughing at your problems

In oxford dictionary wry means amusing in a way that shows irony

• a wry comedy about family life

• a wry comment

• wry humour

Wry humor is a kind of humor indeed.

Submitted by Reza2015 on Tue, 2016/05/31 - 02:49

It seems to me that wry humor is often something houmorous and funny in a sad way, so insted of responding to "How can wry humor help you in your life?" I wanna answer this sort of question (if you please); ""How can good sense of humor help you in your life?". It is crystal clear that we can capture the attention of other people in the best way through "having good sense of humor".Keen people know that it can help them to make a good/positive impression on others. when you show your good sense of humor to others, in fact you somehow make kind of eagerness on their side to carry on the communication with you. This skill can help you interact easily with others, improve your health, and even help diffuse difficult situations. Successful people have a strong network of friends and all the time they cement their friendships with having good sense of humor. For instance, They know very well during a meeting, they should be a good ice-breaker, to do this, they tell jokes, funny things etc., But as you know different people find different things funny, and what may seem hilarious to some, will be highly offensive to others!

Submitted by jafar.kianpour on Tue, 2016/05/31 - 20:31

Great response! Thank you.

However, I need to add that wry humor is a specific type of humor that you develop in the face of problems. Not all humorous people can have wry humor. It requires self-control and optimism. We will discuss it in the class.

By the way, you did NOT make a single question. You have 2 assignments: (1) respond to my question as the teacher, and (2) make your own question about the topic. That's all.

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