Pedagogically, humor may be the most potent tool we have for executing compulsory classes such as composition, but what constitutes “humor” in the twenty-first century occurs along a spectrum of the banal, the disinviting, and the opaque—image macros (i.e. “dank memes”), Tik Tok, fleeting dance crazes, the zeitgeist will fail us as teachers…[Read more]

The world of modern-day comics is remarkably dynamic, textured, detailed, and popular. In it, we encounter infinite earths and limitless timelines; rebooted characters that shift in gender, race, and powers; superheroes and villains who routinely return from the dead; competing origin stories; and a robust history of crossover storylines. The…[Read more]

Raucous comedy and relentless parody did perhaps as much or more than violence and the Ku Klux Klan to end Reconstruction and set the stage for Plessy v. Ferguson and the Jim Crow era.  This essay discusses the use of two Uncle Remus Tales to introduce students to the literary caricatures of African Americans that presented them in an arrested…[Read more]

Learning to read through and with comic  texts is not just a rhetorical exercise in understanding humor; it is also a powerful way to teach close reading in an introduction to literature course. Literature instructors often note that students struggle to choose meaningful details to analyze in their papers about literature—and when they do find us…[Read more]

Teaching from comic texts can be an unfunny experience because there is very little universal humor. Humor ages and, as we know, changes of cultural expectation make teaching from it fraught.

I write from experience. I could play a tape of the half hour I spent on public radio being interviewed on the history of British humor, so I felt…[Read more]

The success of satire today as a popular televisual and online comedic form is both a benefit and a challenge for teaching material from that other golden age of satire, the eighteenth century. Because students ordinarily encounter satire on networks like Comedy Central and sites branded as humor destinations, like The Onion and Clickhole, they…[Read more]