Junior High/Middle School: The Serious Nature of HumorAuthor(s): M. Jerry WeissReviewed work(s):Source: The English Journal, Vol. 70, No. 6 (Oct., 1981), pp. 72-74Published by: National Council of Teachers of EnglishStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/817168 .

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Junior High/ Middle School The Serious Nature

of Humor

M. Jerry Weiss

A few 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. There were stories and poems about growing up, world events, futuristic societies, fantasies, mysteries, but nothing with a light touch. Why?

A few answers: "What's funny in today's world?" "It's easier to get people to think if you write serious stuff." "If you try to write humorous stuff, and if kids don't laugh, you sort of feel foolish." "Teachers prefer tragedy and lots of problems. I don't think they laugh very much at what we think might be funny."

As I listened, I realized how few 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 life on this amazing planet.

Once Upon a Line

I find 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 find 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 forever flawed." (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) "There's no heavier burden than a great potential." (Linus) "There will be sex after death-we just won't be able to feel it." (Lily Tomlin) "Middle age is when anything new in the way you feel is most likely a symptom." (Laurence Peter) "Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other." (Ann Landers) "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful." (Mae West)

I am not suggesting we all respond to these remarks with the same degree of affection. 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 feelings one has. The 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. These responses to "litera- ture" open all kinds of communication processes, and the profane can sometimes become more profound.

Once Upon a Time

Bill Cosby's record album, Why Is There Air, opens with a hilarious monologue about his memories of kindergarten, first grade, and junior high school. We laugh because he recalls some of the very same activities and experiences we had. This is not just a series of imaginary events about

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a mythical or fantasy school system. It is real, and we are or were there.

Sam Levenson, in Everything But Money, has some wonderful observations about the values people see in education.

The great dream of our poor parents was for higher education for their children. The 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." The 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 from nursery school through college. It comes as a great shock to many parents when they discover that the child's definition of opportunity does not always harmonize with their own. One parent went to pick up his child after nursery school. He was greeted with "Daddy, I was made a helper today, and the teacher sent me to pick up toys that were left on the sidewalk outside the building. You know something, Daddy? I could have escaped!" School is an easy topic for 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, The Not Ready for Prime Time 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. This 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 found in teaching and in other school situations. Bel Kaufman, in her modern classic, Up the Down Staircase, manipulates emotions, laughter, and suspense, as she describes a first- year teaching experience for her heroine. There is something about many school memos which defies logic.

FROM: JAMES J. MCHABE, ADM. ASST. TO: ALL TEACHERS THE FOLLOWING MATERIAL AND NO OTHER IS TO BE PLACED IN THE CENTER DRAWER OF YOUR DESK IN THE ROOM WHERE YOUR OFFICIAL CLASS MEETS AND LOCKED UP WITH KEY PROVIDED FOR THE PURPOSE. THIS MATERIAL IS TO BE KEPT LOCKED UP AT ALL TIMES EXCEPT WHEN IN USE BY TEACHER OR OTHER AU- THORIZED AGENT: ROLL BOOK, ATTEN- DANCE PADS, ABSENTEE POSTAL CARDS,

SEATING PLAN, EMERGENCY SLIPS, EXCUSE SLIPS, TRANSCRIPT SHEETS, PROGRAM CARDS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER), CON- SENT SLIPS, TRUANT SLIPS (BLUE), PARENT LETTERS #1 (YELLOW), PARENT LETTERS #2 (PINK), EXTRA-CURRICULAR CREDIT CARDS, AND LUNCH PERMITS.

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 fact, two whole drawers are missing from 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 safety valve for sanity in the seemingly insane world of academic routines and pressures. Woody Allen, James Thurber, Richard Armour, Delia Ephron, Jean Kerr, and Erma Bombeck are just a few of the delightful observers of life in education never-never-land. What wonderful models for students-and teachers-to discuss and use as springboards for creating a forum for ways to improve life in academia.

Love, Life, and Other Relationships At a recent seminar, I learned that the divorce rate had now reached one out of every two marriages. This is hardly a laughing matter. But this doesn't stop some talented writers from expressing their ideas about the highs and lows of romance. Judith Viorst, in her book, It's Hard To Be Hip over Thirty and Other Tragedies of Married Life, has written marvelously and wittily about love and marriage and the kinds of commitments needed for such happy events.

Woody Allen's new play, The Floating Light Bulb, talks about these topics. He has the gift of using funny lines to arouse deep feelings of compassion. He, as well as Viorst, knows how to describe insecurities people feel about themselves or when they are with others. A master at story- telling, Dorothy Parker, in "Just a Little One," shows how a few drinks can set a tongue free. The woman narrator is extremely critical of the atmosphere in the speakeasy setting, her date, his

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tie, and his friends. She really gets caustic when she finds out the reason he didn't call her last week was because he was out with another woman. Parker's stinging remarks bring a few smiles, but our sympathy is stirred up as the story unfolds, and we see how drink after drink can bring about all kinds of changes in human relationships and actions, even to the point of absurdity. It is not difficult for this conversation between these two characters to take place today. So many seem to take others for granted. What does it feel like to wait for the phone to ring, and it never does? How many times does someone say, "I really didn't care?" But friends all around know this is a veil to hide behind. We are all vulnerable, and excuses and jokes often provide a way of covering one's feelings.

People's most embarrassing moments may make for many laughs, and readers can't help but think or say, "There but for the grace of God go I." Paula Danziger, M.E. Kerr, Judy Blume, and Paul Zindel are just a few of popular young adult writers who have shown great skill in showing the pitfalls of adolescence in an upbeat manner. The most embarrassing moment for many young people can lead to feelings of self-destruct ten- dencies unless someone lets them know others have gone through these feelings before. Somehow we survive.

The 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 filled with great wits, including Benjamin Franklin, James Thurber, Mark Twain, O. Henry, G.B. Trudeau, and the talented contributors to Mad and National Lam- poon, who remind us that even the greatest have flaws. Laughter is not the only purpose of humor; it can be a vehicle for making readers more socially conscious of human values and the need for improving life 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. The History of Helpless Harry: To Which Is Added a Variety of Amusing and Entertaining Adventures. New York: Pantheon, 1980.

Brelis, Nancy. The Mother Market. New York: Harper & Row, 1966.

Danziger, Paula. There's a Bat in Bunk Five. New York: Delacorte, 1980.

Delacorte, Peter, and Michael C. Witte. The Book of Terns. New York: Penguin, 1978.

Greenwald, Sheila. It All Began with Jane Eyre: Or, the Secret Life of Franny Dillman. Boston: Atlantic Little, Brown, 1980.

Heide, Florence Parry. Banana Twist. New York: Holiday House, 1978.

Kaufman, Bel. Up the Down Staircase. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1964; Avon.

Kiesel, Stanley. The War between the Pitiful Teachers and the Splendid Kids. New York: Dutton, 1980.

Levenson, Sam. Everything but Money. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1974; Pocket Books.

Levitin, Sonia. The Mark of Conte. New York: Athe- neum, 1979; Aladdin.

Moger, Art. The Complete Pun Book. New York: Citadel Press, 1978; Ballantine.

Rowes, Barbara. The 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 Tale of Adventure Starring Jim Henson's Muppets. New York: Random House, 1980.

Thaler, Mike. Funny Bones: Cartoon Monster Riddles. New York: Watts, 1976; Dell.

Trudeau, G.B. Call Me When You Find America. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1973; Bantam.

Viorst, Judith. It's Hard to Be Hip over Thirty and Other Tragedies of Married Life. New York: NAL Signet, 1970.

Weiss, Helen S., and M. Jerry Weiss (eds.). The American Way of Laughing: From Benjamin Frank- lin to Woody Allen. New York: Bantam, 1977.

Weiss, Helen S., and M. Jerry Weiss (eds.). More Tales Out of School: Humor from the Classroom. New York: Bantam, 1980.

M. Jerry Weiss teaches at Jersey City State College.

74 English Journal

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