Humor Research Articles

The Contributions of Teacher Humor in EFL Classes in Vietnam: University Students’ Perspectives

According to several studies on English teaching and learning, English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers tend to avoid humor in their classrooms. However, many studies have shown that teachers’ sense of humor plays an essential role in EFL students’ learning process. Therefore, this study utilizing a mixed-method design was conducted to determine students’ perceptions of the impact of teachers’ humor (TH) on their learning. Data were collected through a questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale comprising twenty-one items and semi-structured interviews. The study involved 158 university students in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. Quantitative data from the questionnaire were analyzed by using SPSS 20.0, and data from the interviews were analyzed according to themes. The survey results revealed that the students showed positive attitudes toward the effects of TH in EFL classrooms, especially reducing boredom (M=4.59), strengthening teacher-student rapport (M=4.53), decreasing sleepiness (M=4.47), promoting students’ cheerfulness (M=4.47), increasing students’ consciousness (M=4.46), and solving conflicts in classrooms (M=4.42). Additionally, non-majored students were appreciated for TH more than their counterparts. Moreover, students’ perceptions positively correlated with their gender. The interviews also showed that cultural factors affected the effectiveness of TH in EFL classes. EFL teachers are encouraged to use TH in their classes in order to foster its benefits. However, careful consideration should be taken before using TH in teaching different students with different learning styles or characteristics.

George D. Prentice and the Whig Sense of Humor

ABSTRACT Scholars have recently begun reexamining the Whig Party, paying particular attention to how the party gained adherents and challenged Andrew Jackson and his acolytes. Yet few scholars have focused attention on the Whig sense of humor. Typically portrayed as more uptight than their rambunctious Democratic counterparts, Whigs were seemingly unable to find humor in a burgeoning democratic society. This article challenges that traditional portrait by examining George D. Prentice, the long-serving editor of the Louisville Journal. Although largely forgotten as a humorist, Prentice gained a national reputation for his “hits” that appeared daily in the pages of the Louisville Journal from 1830 to 1868. By pillorying the opposition party, Prentice found a way to joke about corruption, adultery, drunkenness, and even death. In doing so, Prentice proved that Whigs did have a sense of humor, although it largely consisted of mocking Democrats for their eccentricities and supposed moral failings.

A Queer Heavenly Family: Expanding Godhood Beyond a Heterosexual, Cisgender Couple

A Queer Heavenly Family: Expanding Godhood Beyond a Heterosexual, Cisgender Couple

Finding a New Illinois History: Connecting with the Revival of Midwestern Regional History

Finding a New Illinois History: Connecting with the Revival of Midwestern Regional History

Bharathidasan’s Tamil Patriotism Manifested in the Kudumba Vilaku Book

Bharathidasan sang that our life and our prosperity have not faded and that Tamil is our breath, chanting ‘Sange Mulangu’ and doing heroic deeds with red blood. One of his works, The Family Lantern, highlights the idea of a good family university. The book has five sections: One Day Event, Hospitality, Marriage, Maternity and Elderly Love. He has created the events that take place in every part of life with a beautiful sense of humor. His Tamil patriotism can be known through this study.

Gavan Edmund Rosman (1934–2022)

Gavan Rosman was valued at the Telecom (later Telstra) Research Laboratories, Australia, for his expertise as a research engineer in radio and coaxial cable technologies and, in particular, for his pioneering work on optical fibre technologies. He was also valued for his wide-ranging intellect and gentle, satirical sense of humour. His fluency in speaking Japanese was appreciated by visiting Japanese researchers. In retirement from TRL, he worked at Optiscan Imaging in Melbourne on developing an optical endoscope.

The Current Situation and Improvement of College Students' Intercultural Awareness

The study is based on the theoretical model of intercultural competence proposed by Chen & Starosta and the self-assessment scale of Chinese college students’ intercultural communicative competence compiled by Wu Weiping. Combining with the actual situation of Chinese college students, the author compiled a scale of intercultural awareness among college students contains a set of evaluations including consciousness, emotion and behavior. The results of the study found that although the overall situation of college students' intercultural awareness is good, there are certain differences in different dimensions of awareness. College students perform better in cultural confidence and self-control, flexibility and adaptability, tolerance and patience, while they need to improve communication skills, curiosity about different cultural knowledge and customs, and a sense of humor.

Pranab K. Bhattacharyya

Pranab K. Bhattacharyya, 83, died Aug. 21, 2021, in Kearny, New Jersey. “Professionally a career executive and personally the chairman of our family, Pranab was unwavering in his scholastic pursuits, passionate about his occupation and field, and wholeheartedly committed to his family and friends. A born leader and a charismatic individual, he was also quite the culinarian of Indian food, enjoyed gardening, and developed a fondness for photography as well, eternally depicting his family’s most special moments. We will always reflect fondly on his love, his generosity, his willingness to always help others, and his quick-witted sense of humor. While he will be dearly missed, he will never be forgotten.”—Bhattacharyya family Most recent title: Executive vice president of quality management, Sandoz Education: BSc, physics, 1959, and MSc, nuclear physics, 1962, Kolkata University; PhD, chemical physics, Columbia University, 1971 Survivors: Wife, Rekha; daughter, Papia; son, Robin; two grandchildren To recognize your

The Universal Evergreen of Life: Lincoln’s Serious Use of Humor

It is widely known that Abraham Lincoln had an exceptional sense of humor. Entire books have been filled with his jokes and amusing stories. But Lincoln also used his humor to achieve political ends. For example, Lincoln used humor to ease the burdens of the executive position during a time of war. But Lincoln used his humor in another way – to draw attention to his rhetorical leadership. As this paper will show, Lincoln’s humor served as a kind of cueing device to draw the public’s attention to his leadership and statesmanship.

The Peripheral Kynurenine Pathway and Psychosomatic Comorbidity in Subjects with Morbid Obesity Undergoing Bariatric Surgery

Background: The Kynurenine pathway (KP) is involved in various disorders, but little is known about the KP and psychosomatic complaints. The aim was to study the peripheral KP and psychosomatic comorbidity in subjects with morbid obesity. Methods: Psychosomatic comorbidity (perceived general health, muscle-skeletal pain, well-being, mood disorders, fatigue, self-esteem, sleepiness, and sense of humour) was registered, and serum samples were collected six months before and after bariatric surgery. Results: A total of 141 subjects (men/women, 116/25) with a mean age of 43.0 (SD 8.7) years and BMI of 42.1 (SD 3.8) kg/m2 were included. No significant associations were seen between the psychosomatic disorders and the KP. There was a significant downregulation of all KP metabolites after surgery, a reduction in CRP, and strong associations between CRP and the KP, particularly with the ratios of Kynurenine/Tryptophan and Quinolinic acid (QA)/Xanthurenic acid (XA). The QA/XA ratio was negatively associated with diabetes. Conclusions: The peripheral KP seemed to be of minor importance for the psychosomatic comorbidity in subjects with morbid obesity. The downregulation of all KP metabolites after bariatric surgery indicated reduced inflammation. The QA/XA ratio seemed to be a marker of insulin sensitivity and favourable glucose control.

Experiences and Expectations of Patients Hospitalized for COVID-19: A Qualitative Study in Poland.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many new problems and challenges for medical personnel, patients and their families. The present study aimed to learn the difficulties and expectations of patients hospitalized for COVID-19. A descriptive qualitative research approach was adopted, and the study was carried out using semi-structured telephone interviews with 20 patients according to Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) guidelines. Two main themes were extracted from the experiences related by patients hospitalized for COVID-19: difficulties resulting from their poor health condition and difficulties resulting from hospital conditions and safety protocols. The patients’ expectations referred to professionalism and family members’ support. From the patient’s perspective, a sense of humor in the care provider is important, apart from professionalism and the effectiveness of treatment, because humor helps the patient endure difficult situations. The findings indicate that patients hospitalized for COVID-19 experienced both positive and negative emotions. Their negative experiences concerned organizational barriers and medical personnel shortages, especially of clinical nurses. Patients’ expectations are realistic and appropriate to the situation they are in. Learning the difficulties and expectations of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 may help care providers cope with this disease more effectively and ensure better care for patients, including nursing and psychological services.

Coping Strategies for Stress Used by People Working in Managerial Positions in Schools and Educational Establishments during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Although the ability to deal with stress is one of the key competences of people working in managerial positions in schools and educational establishments, principals in this area are very poorly diagnosed. The aim of this study was to consider the coping strategies used by headmasters and deputy headmasters of schools and educational establishments during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this purpose, Mini-COPE was used. The respondents (N = 159) obtained a higher mean for “active coping”, “planning”, “positive reframing”, “acceptance”, “use of instrumental support”, “venting”, and “problem-focused strategies” than the normative value. Compared to deputy headmasters, headmasters obtained higher mean results for “planning” and “religion”, and lower results for “behavioral disengagement”. Respondents with longer job seniority in a managerial position, obtained a higher mean for “use of instrumental support” and lower for “religion”. Compared to respondents employed in private schools, people in the public education sector are more likely to use “behavioral disengagement” and less their “sense of humor”. The respondents working in primary schools scored higher on average for “use of instrumental support” and “problem-focused strategies”. It would be advisable to compare the results with the teachers and the persons holding managerial positions in institutions and organizations not related to education.

Disparagement humor: Could laughter dissolve hostility?

<p id=C6>Disparagement humor refers to communication that derogates or denigrates a certain target but elicits amusement. Blending two contradictory elements in terms of social approvability, the paradox of disparagement humor has sparked three major questions: how does amusement arise from disparagement? What determines whether an attempt at disparagement humor is perceived to be funny or offensive? What are the unique aftereffects of this fusion? Four major theoretical frameworks have been proposed to understand the psychological mechanism of disparagement humor. From a psychoanalytic perspective, relief theory suggests that the entertainment of humor comes from the catharsis of hostility. From an intergroup perspective, superiority theory suggests that the feeling of superiority generated by the disparagement of others leads to humorous experiences. From a cognitive perspective, incongruity-resolution theory suggests that humor derives from the resolution of incongruencies. Additionally, from a cognitive perspective, to provide a more accurate and universal explanation for humor than incongruity-resolution theory, benign violation theory suggests that humor comes from appraising something as both a violation and benign. Among the theories, the former two address the unique motivational factors underlying disparagement humor, while the latter two provide universal cognitive models to explain all humor, including disparagement humor. Thus, a motivational cognition model proposed later in the article could effectively depict an integrated picture of the psychological mechanism of disparagement humor. However, people do not necessarily find disparagement humor funny; sometimes it is offensive. Factors influencing the reception of disparagement humor include group identities and attitudes, psychological distance between the recipient and the object of derogation, and personal and cultural differences. The social effects of humor and derogatory comments are usually opposite, but the fusion of the two can produce unique outcomes. First, it can serve as a prejudice releaser by creating a social norm that allows the expression of prejudice, which is normally forbidden in modern society. In addition, the use of disparagement humor can serve to reinforce social hierarchies by functioning as a legitimizing myth that justifies expressions of social dominance motivations. Conversely, when disparagement humor is used by a disadvantaged social group to subvert an inequitable social hierarchy, the strategy of covering an insubordinate message with humor may encourage the expression of subversion and thus promote social equity. Finally, the impacts of disparagement humor on interpersonal interactions are inconsistent due to the contradictory effects of disparagement and humor. After reviewing the relevant theories and studies, we propose an integrated process model of disparagement. The model takes benign violation theory as its fundamental framework, dividing the completion of disparagement humor into three parts: first, the expresser delivers disparagement; second, the audience evaluates the disparagement as benign; and third, a sense of humor is produced. The model also integrates the motivational perspectives of relief theory and superiority theory by addressing motivational factors in the delivery and evaluation process. In addition, the model displays the retroaction of disparagement humor’s aftereffects on its delivery and evaluation by combining the prejudice-releaser and legitimizing-myth role of disparagement humor. As it depicts a comprehensive process and captures the dynamism of disparagement humor, the model can hopefully serve as a scaffold for future research. It is also important for future research to explore the negative effects of disparagement humor. Moreover, the potentially positive effects of disparagement humor on intergroup relations and social justice when used by disadvantaged groups to fight social injustice merit investigation. Finally, it could be rewarding to study the cultural distinctiveness of disparagement humor in certain aspects of Chinese culture, such as its essential foreignness and prosperous localization, the commercialization trend of disparagement jokes, and the specifically Chinese content conveyed and popularized by disparagement humor.

Verba et Facta Ludicra Et Jocosa: Thomas Aquinas on the Moral Limits of Playful Enjoyment

Verba et Facta Ludicra Et Jocosa: Thomas Aquinas on the Moral Limits of Playful Enjoyment Elisabeth Uffenheimer PLAY HAS BEEN STUDIED over the past decades by scholars from various disciplines. Psychologists have stressed its role in child development, animal play has puzzled ethologists, and historians have understood play to be the central element for understanding culture. Philosophers have asked questions about its definition, its goal, its rationality. As a source of relaxation, it has been opposed to work, to seriousness, and to daily life.1 Thomas Aquinas wrote one explicit text on play—question 168 of the Secunda secundae2—in which he embeds his insights about the human being as a homo ludens in a rich philosophical [End Page 245] anthropology: we enjoy playing as rational, sensitive-emotional, embodied, and social beings. A subcategory of play is humorous words and deeds. In contrast to present-day studies on humor, Thomas is interested in the morality of humor rather than in its essence, thereby taking a fundamentally positive stance towards humorous play. For him the human person is homo ridens, the only creature that has the capacity to laugh and to make laugh.3 Throughout my analysis of Thomas’s texts, I shall argue for the following claims. First, Thomas’s texts on play and humorous play show that he considers the human being to be a homo ludens, homo delectans, and homo ridens. The capacity to play and to enjoy, and the possession of a sense of humor are undeniable and positive aspects of the make-up of the human being. Second, play can best be understood against the background of two passions of the soul, tristitia and delectatio. This point has not been stressed enough in the secondary literature on this topic. Third, eutrapelia, the specific virtue of play, concerns not only the mean between excess and lack of enjoyment, but is essentially a social virtue. Play contributes to our well-being as individuals in so far as it includes respect for our fellow human beings. As such it can help to express, sustain, and maintain our ethical relationships with our social surroundings.4 In the light of the above, this article is divided into three parts. Parts I and II will map out the philosophical anthropology [End Page 246] behind the idea of homo ludens. Part II discusses the pivotal role of the emotions in play. Part III will show that eutrapelia is essentially also a social virtue by focusing on two specific kinds of humorous play: derision and blasphemy. In the conclusion, I will point briefly to the relevance of Thomas for the contemporary discussion about the moral limits of play in general and of humorous play in particular. I. Homo Ludens: Play and Rest The Latin word for play (ludus) has different meanings: it can be a game of some kind, public games, sport; it can be spectacle, show, stage play, or social entertainment; it can be pastime, diversion, having fun, amusing oneself with others; and finally it can also be jest, joke, mockery, mimicry, banter, or ridicule. In this last case play includes humor and can be verbal or nonverbal. The different meanings of play show that one can be actively or passively involved in play. The common denominator of these different meanings is that play provides diversion, amusement, or enjoyment.5 Play is discussed by Thomas in his questions on temperance, and more specifically in his analysis of the annexed virtue of modesty, which concerns, among other things, our bodily movements and actions.6 The words and deeds of human social interaction can be either serious or playful (ludus).7 The point of departure in our analysis of play according to Thomas is that he emphasizes its beneficial consequences and distinguishes between its social and its individual purpose. Presupposing that we have a social nature, Thomas writes that play not only takes place in a social setting, but that it is necessary for human interaction (ludus est necessarius ad conversationem humanae vitae). It enhances community relations by bringing [End Page 247] about cohesion in a group of people.8 In his commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle...

Doctor, Patient, Relationships: Sophie Fillières's Gentille

Doctor, Patient, RelationshipsSophie Fillières's Gentille Lucas Wood (bio) I. Gentille and Medicine: Psychopathology and Therapy in Question An attractive woman in her late thirties strides briskly along a Paris sidewalk. Suddenly, she looks around and lunges across the street to accost a man walking a few paces behind her on the opposite side. He has, the woman accuses, been following her since they got off the metro, but he may as well give it up: she has no interest in joining him for a coffee, today or any other day. Nonplussed, the man insists that he was not following her and indeed had not even noticed her, but apologizes to the increasingly flustered woman for inadvertently causing any concern, either by following or by not following her. She proposes that they sit down for the coffee that she so categorically ruled out a moment before, but the man has an appointment; they agree to rendezvous the following afternoon. So begins Sophie Fillières's drolly disorienting romantic seriocomedy Gentille (2005), a film about uncertainty and doubt that constantly leaves both characters and viewers revising their initial assumptions about the identities of people and the meanings and governing logic of events, only to second-guess their own reassessments in light of the surprising truths that misrecognition and misinterpretation often turn out to tell. Like the writer-director's earlier Grande Petite (Big Little Girl, 1994) and more recent Un chat un chat (A Cat, a Cat, released in English as Pardon My French, 2009) [End Page 82] and La Belle et la Belle (Beauty and the Beauty, released in English as When Margaux Meets Margaux, 2018), Gentille, whose title translates to the English "Good Girl" or "Nice Girl" (or woman), profiles an endearingly off-kilter female protagonist wrestling with the conundrums of her own desires, social image, and sense of self. Fontaine Leglou (Emmanuelle Devos) has a respectable career as an anesthesiologist at a private psychiatric hospital and an apparently stable, fulfilling relationship with Michel Strogoff (Bruno Todeschini), a paleoclimatologist who shares her apartment and her offbeat sense of humor. But nothing in Fontaine's life is comfortably self-evident, least of all to her. As her response to "(not) being followed" suggests, she wants to feel desirable to other men and to explore the possibility of other erotic connections. This interrogation of her love life is connected to an anxious curiosity, which animates the film as a whole, about the way she is perceived by others more generally and about what it means to be oneself. In the park, Fontaine is spontaneously moved—"it came over me like the need to pee," she laughs—to sit for a street caricaturist; while posing, she is hailed by what seems to be a passing acquaintance, but the ensuing conversation reveals that neither she nor he is the person "recognized" by the other (the man is not really Fontaine's bank adviser, Mr. Loniewski, but rather one Dr. Gudarzi, a physician; Fontaine is not really his former patient, Ophélie Legouénédal), although the details of Fontaine's life parallel those of her alter ego (she has reconsidered a plan to move to Bordeaux, not to Toulouse, and is still with a boyfriend named Michel, not Bernard). At the public swimming pool, Fontaine, having lost her bathing suit, must borrow one from the reception and squeeze, disgusted, into someone else's second skin. Arriving home, she impersonates the cleaning lady as a joke and then worries that Michel has been fooled. Fontaine's questioning of identity penetrates into the heart of the erotic couple, which is always riven by the essential unknowability of the other: why is there a little girl in the apartment with Michel, and why is each of them wearing one glove? In bed, when Michel coyly asks if Fontaine knows what he is thinking about and she replies that she does, are the two of them really referring to and, more importantly, desiring the same thing? When, at the end of this inauspicious episode, Michel asks Fontaine to marry him, she is therefore [End Page 83] unable to agree, even though she is (almost) sure...

Beatrice Mintz (1921-2022): an innovator in embryo research and cancer biology

Beatrice Mintz (1921-2022): an innovator in embryo research and cancer biology

CASTIGAT RIDENDO MORES - ANALYSE DE L’HUMOUR NOIR DE LA PRESSE ROUMAINE SUR NOS POLITICIENS PENDANT LA QUATRIÈME VAGUE PANDÉMIQUE

A protean genre, difficult to frame and analyse, humor manifests itself, among others, in laughter, an expression of a feeling of fun and gaiety. Apart from its obvious social function, laughter also performs an educational and cathartic function, as long as by mocking at the faults of others, one corrects them. Based on a series of articles published between September-November 2021 by some Romanian daily newspapers, we review some forms of derision and humor in relation to Romanian politicians, including puns, cultural allusions, malicious nicknames and coinages. The working hypothesis is that laughing at the political power, whatever its form (mockery, irony, black humor, sarcasm, pamphlet, etc.) is a sort of protest, of virulent criticism of political decisions of the moment and that, despite the political, health and energy crisis that our country is going through, the Romanians have not lost their sense of humour.

Honoring Doran Ross: The Beads, Body, &amp; Soul Project &amp; Beyond …

Honoring Doran Ross: The <i>Beads, Body, &amp; Soul</i> Project &amp; Beyond …

Doran H. Ross: Generosity. Intellect. Passion.

Doran H. Ross: Generosity. Intellect. Passion.

Crowning Achievements: African Arts of Dressing the Head

Crowning Achievements: African Arts of Dressing the Head