Analyzing Humor in Literature Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan: How to Analyze Humor in Literature


Although you can’t teach someone to be funny, you can teach them to be humorous. Start with this analyzing humor in literature lesson plan.


Not Everyone is Funny

After reading Mark Twain, James Thurber, and Ring Lardner for a week, I thought I was pretty funny. I told a joke in my first period class. Nobody laughed. Three people in the front row slobbered. Bobby Langston’s blood pressure dropped so low, he died.

Racked with guilt I decided to punish myself by reading puns. After the 29th page, I passed out. When I awoke, the ghost of George Carlin sat at my desk, writing lesson plans on analyzing humor and irony in literature. He said a few words that resembled swear words, smiled, and said, “Maybe next time you can use this lesson plan, and nobody will die.”

The Writer’s Humorous Tools

Writers are at a disadvantage when it comes to humor. They, unlike the comic, do not have voice inflection or physical movements to cause laughter. They do, however, have the following:

Understatement or Meiosis: When an author deliberately understates the obvious, he or she is using meiosis. Shakespeare uses understatement in Romeo and Juliet with one of his wittiest creations: In Act II, scene i, Mercutio describes his mortal wound “not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but ’tis enough, ’twill serve.” More recent examples include Mark Twain’s famous “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” and Richard Dreyfuss’ “We’re gonna need a bigger boat” from Jaws (Yes, I know Jaws was a movie, but it was a book first.).

Hyperbole: The opposite of understatement, a writer uses hyperbole to exaggerate his or her point to create humor. James Thurber’s “The Night the Ghost Got in” narrates the exaggerated mind of a child who hears a noise downstairs and assumes it’s a ghost. Before the story ends, the mother calls for help and the grandfather shoots a police officer in the shoulder.

Comic Irony: A writer creates comic irony by stating one thing while meaning another. It is an application of verbal irony used with humorous intent.In his speech “Advice to Youth” Twain mocks standard wisdom: “If a person offend you, and you are in doubt as to whether it was intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measures; simply watch your chance and hit him with a brick.”

Dialect: the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people is called dialect. Ring Lardner uses dialect to create humor in You Know Me Al:

“I says Well I won the pot didn’t I? He says Yes and he called me something. I says I got a notion to take a punch at you. He says Oh you have, have you? And I come back at him. I says Yes I have, have I? I would of busted his jaw if they hadn’t stopped me.”

Satire: Writers use ridicule to point out human folly. Satire is not limited to fiction pieces as demonstrated by Common Core maven Trent Lorcher’s description of hiking in the Dominican Republic: “A three day, two night trek up Pico Duarte, the highest peak in the Caribbean, provides sore feet, blisters, mosquito bites, and bragging rights back home for a year.” More famous satirists include Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain, and Voltaire.

Lesson Ideas for Analyzing Humor

  1. Create a six-column chart with the following headers: Example, Meiosis, Hyperbole, Comic Irony, Humorous Dialect, Satire. Read a humorous work–“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” by Mark Twain, “Gary Keillor” by Garrison Keillor, any of Shakespeare’s comedies, “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger, or “The Once and Future King” by T.H. White, for example–and identify elements of humor and categorize which type. For an extension activity, assign a paragraph analyzing the humor in a passage that includes a discussion on the author’s purpose in using humor.  There’s an example below.
  2. Imitate a humorous work with a creative writing assignment. Read several humorous works in class and instruct students to choose one to use as a model.
  3. Take a serious work and make it a parody, using humor techniques. For example, students enjoy writing Shakespeare’s plays in slang or taking a humorous piece and writing it in Shakespeare language.
  4. Assign each student a class presentation on a humorist

Example 1

Citation: In Romeo and Juliet Act III, Mercutio describes his mortal wound “not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but ’tis enough, ’twill serve.

It’s an example of meiosis. The quote could also serve as a pun.  Shakespeare’s use of meiosis in this example shows Mercutio’s humor even in grave situations.

Example 2

“A three day, two night trek up Pico Duarte, the highest peak in the Caribbean, provides sore feet, blisters, mosquito bites, and bragging rights back home for a year.”

This is an example of satire. Trent Lorcher pokes fun at the “picturesque” description commonly found in tourist guides.

Common Core Standards

RL.9-10.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
W.9-10.4  Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

Last Updated on April 17, 2015 by Trenton Lorcher

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