Junior High/Middle School: The Serious Nature of Humor

Author(s): M. Jerry Weiss

Reviewed work(s):
Source: The English Journal, Vol. 70, No. 6 (Oct., 1981), pp. 72-74
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/817168 .
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Junior High/
Middle School
T he Serious Nature
of Humor
M.
Jerry
Weiss
A f ew weeks
ago
I visited a middle school
and talked with some seventh and
eighth grade
students about
writing
and
editing.
I had been
given
a
copy
of the school
literary magazine,
and I was
impressed
with the
quality
of
writing.
However, nothing
humorous
appeared
in the
publication.
T here were stories and
poems
about
growing up,
world
events, f uturistic
societies,
f antasies, mysteries,
but
nothing
with a
light
touch.
Why?
A f ew answers: "What's
f unny
in
today's
world?" "It's easier to
get people
to think if
you
write serious stuf f ." "If
you try
to write humorous
stuf f ,
and if kids don't
laugh, you
sort of f eel
f oolish." "T eachers
pref er tragedy
and lots of
problems.
I don't think
they laugh very
much at
what we think
might
be
f unny."
As I
listened,
I realized how f ew of them had
been introduced to the
powers
and
purposes
of
comedy.
Some of the most
provocative
writers
have used
exaggerations,
and even
absurdities,
not
only
to make readers
laugh,
but also to
get
them to think about the varieties of
ways
of
viewing
lif e on this
amazing planet.
Once
Upon
a Line
I f ind
delight
in
watching
humorists
manipulate
language.
A
witty way
with words
absolutely
intrigues
me. I
laugh.
I think. And sometimes I
wish I had said that.
I ask students to look
through
books of
quotations
to f ind some
lighthearted
remarks
which amuse and
might provoke
some
thoughts
about
people, places, things,
events. Here are
some
quotations
to
place
on the bulletin board to
stimulate discussion and creative
writing.
72
English Journal
"I am f orever f lawed."
(W.C. Fields)
"I do not care to
belong
to a club that
accepts people
like me as members."
(Groucho Marx)
"At least
my
neurosis is creative. It could have been
writer's block."
(Woody Allen)
"T here's no heavier burden than a
great potential."
(Linus)
"T here will be sex af ter death-we
just
won't be
able to f eel it."
(Lily T omlin)
"Middle
age
is when
anything
new in the
way you
f eel is most
likely
a
symptom." (Laurence Peter)
"T elevision has
proved
that
people
will look at
anything
rather than each other."
(Ann Landers)
"T oo much of a
good thing
can be wonderf ul."
(Mae West)
I am not
suggesting
we all
respond
to these
remarks with the same
degree
of af f ection. But
readers can sense the lilt in these
expressions.
As
long
as there can be wrinkles in
time,
there
can be twinkles in
expressions.
It is not
important
to
explain
the
f eelings
one has. T he best
question
I have used is, "What comes to
your
mind as
you
read this?" One-liners can cause an
explosion
of ideas and
images.
T hese
responses
to "litera-
ture"
open
all kinds of communication
processes,
and the
prof ane
can sometimes become more
prof ound.
Once
Upon
a T ime
Bill
Cosby's
record album, Why
Is T here Air,
opens
with a hilarious
monologue
about his
memories of
kindergarten,
f irst
grade,
and
junior
high
school. We
laugh
because he recalls some of
the
very
same activities and
experiences
we had.
T his is not
just
a series of
imaginary
events about
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a
mythical
or
f antasy
school
system.
It is real, and
we are or were there.
Sam Levenson, in
Everything
But
Money,
has
some wonderf ul observations about the values
people
see in education.
T he
great
dream of our
poor parents
was f or
higher
education f or their children. T he middle-class
mother
today
announces that her
two-year-old
will
go
to
college. "My problem,"
she
says,
"is how to
get
him out of the house
now."
T he
high IQ
has become the American
equivalent
of the
Legion
of
Honor, positive proof
of the child's
intellectual credit card
acceptance
in
any
institution
of
learning
f rom
nursery
school
through college.
It comes as a
great
shock to
many parents
when
they
discover that the child's def inition of
opportunity
does not
always
harmonize with their own. One
parent
went to
pick up
his child af ter
nursery
school.
He was
greeted
with
"Daddy,
I was made a
helper
today,
and the teacher sent me to
pick up toys
that
were lef t on the sidewalk outside the
building.
You
know
something, Daddy?
I could have
escaped!"
School is an
easy topic
f or most students to
discuss, satirize, ridicule,
or
destroy
with
thoughts,
words, and barbs. One teacher had her class
revitalize the humorous
literary magazine,
and the
students decided to entitle
it,
T he Not
Ready f or
Prime T ime
Learning.
What a
joy
to see
cartoons,
anecdotes,
horrible
puns,
and the sick-sick-sick
stories that
only junior high
school students can
produce, gene-like.
T his is the best of
ages;
this is
the worst of
ages.
But it is the
age
when a student
can ask a
teacher, "If I
get
sick at the
airport,
is it
a terminal illness?"
Many
authors have written about the
pains
and
joys
f ound in
teaching
and in other school
situations. Bel
Kauf man,
in her modern
classic,
Up
the Down
Staircase, manipulates emotions,
laughter,
and
suspense,
as she describes a f irst-
year teaching experience
f or her heroine. T here is
something
about
many
school memos which
def ies
logic.
FROM:
JAMES J. MCHABE, ADM. ASST .
T O: ALL T EACHERS
T HE FOLLOWING MAT ERIAL AND NO
OT HER IS T O BE PLACED IN T HE CENT ER
DRAWER OF YOUR DESK IN T HE ROOM
WHERE YOUR OFFICIAL CLASS MEET S AND
LOCKED UP WIT H KEY PROVIDED FOR T HE
PURPOSE. T HIS MAT ERIAL IS T O BE KEPT
LOCKED UP AT ALL T IMES EXCEPT WHEN
IN USE BY T EACHER OR OT HER AU-
T HORIZED AGENT : ROLL BOOK, AT T EN-
DANCE PADS, ABSENT EE POST AL CARDS,
SEAT ING PLAN, EMERGENCY SLIPS, EXCUSE
SLIPS, T RANSCRIPT SHEET S, PROGRAM
CARDS (IN ALPHABET ICAL ORDER), CON-
SENT SLIPS, T RUANT SLIPS
(BLUE), PARENT
LET T ERS #1 (YELLOW), PARENT LET T ERS #2
(PINK), EXT RA-CURRICULAR CREDIT CARDS,
AND LUNCH PERMIT S.
JJ MCH
Dear Mr. McHabe-
My problem
is I've
got
the material all
right,
and
the
key,
but no center drawer. As a matter of f act,
two whole drawers are
missing
f rom
my
desk. Please
advise.
S. Barrett
Light
on the outside but
deep
when it
pene-
trates the inside.
Just imagine
the comments
students will make about this situation. Do
things
like this
happen
in their schools? Are there ever
any replies?
How
long
does it take to
get
a
reply?
Students demonstrate time and time
again
that
laughter
is the
saf ety
valve f or
sanity
in the
seemingly
insane world of academic routines and
pressures. Woody Allen, James T hurber, Richard
Armour, Delia
Ephron, Jean Kerr, and Erma
Bombeck are
just
a f ew of the
delightf ul
observers
of lif e in education never-never-land. What
wonderf ul models f or students-and teachers-to
discuss and use as
springboards
f or
creating
a
f orum f or
ways
to
improve
lif e in academia.
Love, Lif e, and Other
Relationships
At a recent
seminar, I learned that the divorce rate
had now reached one out of
every
two
marriages.
T his is
hardly
a
laughing
matter. But this doesn't
stop
some talented writers f rom
expressing
their
ideas about the
highs
and lows of romance.
Judith
Viorst, in her book, It's Hard T o Be
Hip
over
T hirty
and Other
T ragedies of
Married
Lif e,
has
written
marvelously
and
wittily
about love and
marriage
and the kinds of commitments needed
f or such
happy
events.
Woody
Allen's new
play,
T he
Floating Light
Bulb, talks about these
topics.
He has the
gif t
of
using f unny lines
to arouse
deep f eelings
of
compassion. He, as well as Viorst, knows how to
describe insecurities
people f eel about themselves
or when they are with others. A master at story-
telling, Dorothy Parker, in
"Just a Little One,"
shows how a f ew drinks can set a
tongue f ree.
T he woman narrator is
extremely critical of the
atmosphere in the
speakeasy setting, her date, his
October 1981 73
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tie, and his f riends. She
really gets
caustic when
she f inds out the reason he didn't call her last
week was because he was out with another
woman. Parker's
stinging
remarks
bring
a f ew
smiles, but our
sympathy
is stirred
up
as the
story
unf olds, and we see how drink af ter drink can
bring
about all kinds of
changes
in human
relationships
and
actions,
even to the
point
of
absurdity.
It is not dif f icult f or this conversation
between these two characters to take
place today.
So
many
seem to take others f or
granted.
What
does it f eel like to wait f or the
phone
to
ring,
and
it never does? How
many
times does someone
say,
"I
really
didn't care?" But f riends all around
know this is a veil to hide behind. We are all
vulnerable,
and excuses and
jokes
of ten
provide
a
way
of
covering
one's
f eelings.
People's
most
embarrassing
moments
may
make f or
many laughs,
and readers can't
help
but
think or
say, "T here
but f or the
grace
of God
go
I." Paula
Danziger,
M.E.
Kerr, Judy Blume, and
Paul Zindel are
just
a f ew of
popular young
adult
writers who have shown
great
skill in
showing
the
pitf alls
of adolescence in an
upbeat
manner.
T he most
embarrassing
moment f or
many young
people
can lead to
f eelings
of self -destruct ten-
dencies unless someone lets them know others
have
gone through
these
f eelings
bef ore. Somehow
we survive.
T he
proper study
of humor should show that
no
person
or institution is immune to a comic's
talents. Will
Rogers
took on
presidents
and
congress;
Art Buchwald takes on the
mighty
Washington establishment;
Langston Hughes
reduced the
complex
bureaucracies to
reigns
of
little value. Our
history
is f illed with
great wits,
including Benjamin Franklin, James T hurber,
Mark T wain,
O. Henry,
G.B.
T rudeau,
and the
talented contributors to Mad and National Lam-
poon,
who remind us that even the
greatest
have
f laws.
Laughter
is not the
only purpose
of
humor;
it can be a vehicle f or
making
readers more
socially
conscious of human values and the need
f or
improving
lif e on this
planet
and
among
the
merry Martians.
Where Some of the Fun Books Are
Avi.
Emily Upham's Revenge:
Or How Deadwood Dick
Saved the Banker's Niece. New York: Bantam, 1979.
Avi. T he
History of Helpless Harry:
T o Which Is
Added a
Variety of Amusing
and
Entertaining
Adventures. New York: Pantheon, 1980.
Brelis, Nancy.
T he Mother Market. New York:
Harper
& Row, 1966.
Danziger,
Paula. T here's a Bat in Bunk Five. New
York: Delacorte, 1980.
Delacorte, Peter, and Michael C. Witte. T he Book
of
T erns. New York:
Penguin,
1978.
Greenwald,
Sheila. It All
Began
with
Jane Eyre: Or,
the Secret
Lif e of Franny
Dillman. Boston: Atlantic
Little, Brown, 1980.
Heide, Florence
Parry.
Banana T wist. New York:
Holiday House, 1978.
Kauf man,
Bel.
Up
the Down Staircase. New York:
Prentice-Hall, 1964; Avon.
Kiesel, Stanley.
T he War between the
Pitif ul
T eachers
and the
Splendid
Kids. New York:
Dutton, 1980.
Levenson, Sam.
Everything
but
Money.
New York:
Simon and Schuster, 1974;
Pocket Books.
Levitin,
Sonia. T he Mark
of
Conte. New York: Athe-
neum, 1979; Aladdin.
Moger,
Art. T he
Complete
Pun Book. New York:
Citadel Press, 1978; Ballantine.
Rowes, Barbara. T he Book
of Quotes.
New York:
Dutton, 1979.
Schwartz, Alvin. Cross Your
Fingers, Spit
in Your Hat.
Philadelphia: Lippincott,
1974.
Sperling,
Susan Kelz.
Poplollies
and Bellibones: A
Celebration
of
Lost Words. New York:
Potter, 1977;
Penguin.
Stevenson, Jocelyn. Robin Hood: A
High-Spirited
T ale
of
Adventure
Starring Jim
Henson's
Muppets.
New
York: Random House, 1980.
T haler, Mike.
Funny
Bones: Cartoon Monster Riddles.
New York: Watts, 1976; Dell.
T rudeau, G.B. Call Me When You Find America. New
York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1973; Bantam.
Viorst, Judith.
It's Hard to Be
Hip
over
T hirty
and
Other
T ragedies of
Married
Lif e.
New York: NAL
Signet,
1970.
Weiss, Helen S., and M.
Jerry
Weiss
(eds.).
T he
American
Way of Laughing:
From
Benjamin
Frank-
lin to
Woody
Allen. New York: Bantam, 1977.
Weiss, Helen
S., and M.
Jerry
Weiss
(eds.).
More T ales
Out of School: Humor
f rom
the Classroom. New
York: Bantam, 1980.
M.
Jerry
Weiss teaches at
Jersey
City
State
College.
74
English Journal
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