Why Humour?
A young child reacts with glee to his father’s prank of pretending his slipper is a phone. In the school yard, one youngster tells a knock-knock that provokes uproarious chuckles in her classmates. An adolescent circulates a meme of a pop star superimposed on the body of a dancing chicken, causing a chain reaction of LOLs from his peers. A senior at a bridge game shares a story of a visit to the dentist gone wrong, triggering fits of mirth among her playing partners.
All are everyday examples of humour and laughter in people young and old – as much in our age and culture as in any other in the past. But what’s so powerful about humour and laughter?
First, laughter doesn’t actually require jokes or humour – it only requires another person. It’s one of the most basic social behaviours that serves to unite people and offers all kinds of useful benefits: creating and strengthening relationships (as much in the schoolyard as in the seniors residence and everything in between), lightening moods, lampooning, seducing or swaying, helping to cope with stress, learning new concepts or bringing attention to the absurdities of daily life.
Second, humour and the laughter it provokes is exhilarating, an immensely pleasurable response to the spontaneous play of thought and language. Not a sedate pleasure, like looking at a lovely sunset, but a lively delight involving some little twisting of the way our everyday language usually presents things. That’s why the best humour almost always offers a little surprise – free, spontaneous and rewarding.
Third, humour is generally liberating. In the comic mode, people think, say, and sometimes do all kinds of things that are normally forbidden or unusual in the “common sense” world (e.g., think of a child sticking Mr. Potato Head’s ears in his arm sockets, a teenager intentionally saying I buyed you something or an adult quipping that everywhere is within walking distance if you have enough time. All are playful, imaginative examples of how humour can liberate us from the burden of reason and conventional expression. As Milton Berle liked to say, Laughter is an instant vacation.
And we’re never too young or old to go on vacation! And the best news is that, with a bit of practice, any one’s sense of humour can be exercised, strengthened and improved in a way that brings enduring and tangible physical, mental and psychological benefits. Would you like to use humour more effectively as a coping strategy? Learn to write one-liners or observational comedy or just understand how jokes work? Learn to laugh at yourself? That’s the mission of Humour for Life!
"I realize that humor isn't for everyone. It's only for people who want to have fun, enjoy life, and feel alive."
Anne Wilson Schaef
"Jokes are the product of playing around with language to see what is possible and what happens. Playing is fun: it results in delight."
Debra Aarons
"Laughter is the closest distance between two people."
Victor Borge
What's Humour Education?
Isn’t it funny that people will admit to so many personal flaws such as being miserly, clumsy, or being terrible with directions, but rare is the person who will admit to not having a sense of humour!
It’s easy to understand why – humour in our culture is a highly desirable personality trait, usually associated with cheerfulness, higher self-esteem, intelligence, creativity and popularity, to name only a few.
Indeed, few individual predispositions would seem to offer so many personal and lifelong rewards. And although people don’t all use or respond to humour in the same way, we know from research that a sense of humour (i.e., the ability to appreciate, respond to and produce humour) begins to develop in a child’s earliest years (children can be observed laughing at unusual parental behaviours at around six months of age) and continues to evolve throughout a person’s life.
What we get out of it largely depends on our age. For kids, humour is a form of play that mirrors and supports their intellectual development and has documented benefits in terms of vocabulary enrichment, improved reading and critical skills, and heightened creativity, in addition to its many interpersonal advantages. Beyond the school years, humour is no less important, and is above all prized for its ability to entertain and amuse, to facilitate social interactions and to cope with life’s stresses.
But young or old, one thing is true: a sense of humour is not an unmovable personality trait: it can be nourished and improved to bring social, intellectual and creative benefits to people of all ages. Those are the goals of humour education.
The good news is that the tools needed to reach these goals are within everyone’s reach: language and a desire to play! And the best news is, unlike some subjects, it’s immensely fun! humourforlife
Who’s it for?
Humour For Life specializes in humour education and training, and that means helping people of all ages exercise their funny bones, develop a playful and creative attitude to language, and better appreciate the value and benefits of humour and laughter in their daily lives.
We do this by introducing these groups to age-appropriate humour forms – be it kids jokes, puns, witticisms, narrative jokes, one-liners or classic sitcom or movie comedy – and teaching them how to better understand and use these forms in a fun and accessible way. No special skills needed. Just a desire to laugh and have fun!
Of course, the material and learning objectives vary from one age group to another. With younger audiences (pre-school and elementary), the emphasis is on the pedagogical value of using verbal humour to support language, social and intellectual development. With older groups, we might focus more on what we find funny, on the value of humour as a coping strategy, or on the history of comedy and the craft of joke writing.
Click on one of the links below to learn more about how our classes are structured. You can even download a sample exercise and book a free consultation with us.
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Who’s my Humour Mentor?
R. Lawrence Marks was born in Ottawa and studied literature and linguistics in Canada and abroad before embarking on a career as a speechwriter and teacher. He holds a Ph.D in semiotics from the Université du Québec à Montréal.
He turned to the study and teaching of humour and the craft of joke writing a decade ago after realizing three interrelated truths:
1) Laughter is one of the cheapest and most effective ways of connecting with others and inspiring positive emotions;
2) Humour is fundamentally a form of play and offers a surefire (and creative) remedy to the stresses and inanities of day-to-day life;
3) A sense of humour is not an immutable personality trait: it can be nourished, developed and enhanced to bring benefits to people of all ages and backgrounds.
Lawrence has been sharing these insights with groups of people of all ages by talking about the uses of humour, the history of comedy writing, and by showing people how various joke forms work and giving them the simple tools to write their own – and in the process sharpen and develop their own senses of humour.
The result is simple: Humour For Life!
Janet M.
One thing I really appreciated was how Lawrence was able to explain joke forms in a way that ordinary people can understand. I found that knowing the formula makes writing jokes a whole lot easier. And it’s fun too!
Karen C.
As a recreation coordinator at a seniors residence, I was able to see first hand how engaging residents on the theme of humour really had an uplifting effect on their states of mind. It’s really nice to see how an hour of humour and laughter can break the monotony and put a smile on people’s faces.
Theresa L.
I think the older kids really benefit from the sort of humour training Lawrence does. It focuses them on the subtleties of language in a playful way and spurs their creativity.
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