Suggests ways of using parody, comedy, language play, and satire to vary classroom routines and to maintain a level of excitement in the English classroom. (RL)

Writing under a pseudonym, the author recounts in a humorous style his experiences serving as an assistant principal under four different principals. Suggestions are made for effective ways to utilize the abilities of assistant principals. (MLF)

Introduces a theoretical framework applicable to the political and social uses made of humor. Focuses on the uses individuals make of jokes and joking in relation to the constant interchange involved between institutional stability and social change. (FL)

Discusses food and food-related images, notions, values, and customs that have a unique and significant role in children's literature. (MKM)

Provides a humorous lexicon of terms relating to characteristic conditions and persons in a university setting to point up the inertia of universities that is "a condition of their existence." (GT)

A spoof about how English might be taught a decade from now in a worst-of-all-possible worlds. (DD)

An ex-teacher discusses her inability to handle sex-related issues in her eighth-grade classroom and explains her method of dealing with the situation by ignoring it. (MB)

Examines the attitudinal components of humor in terms of Heider's cognitive balance model and suggests that self-directed humor is an apparent exception to such an interpretation. (MH)

Investigates positive and negative perspectives of self-disparaging humor. (MH)

Describes the ways in which a professor of statistics uses humor in the classroom. Ronald A. Berk uses humor as systematic teaching tool even though some other faculty and administrators consider his approach frivolous. (SLD)

Five- through 9-year olds and adults heard ironic and literal criticisms and literal compliments. Found that comprehension of irony emerged between 5 and 6 years; and ratings of humor in irony increased with age but ratings of meanness in irony did not. (BC)

Includes fascinating stories about mathematicians and their interesting lives. Shows that mathematicians are human beings with peculiar foibles and personality quirks just like the rest of us. (KHR)

Argues that humor serves a critical ethos function in online communities created by mailing lists. Connects what humor theorists already recognize as a social dimension in joking to the contemporary interpretation of ethos as a constitutive force. Applies the model to the rhetoric of a university writing center mailing list. (SG)

Hermeneutic interpretation of discussions with female nursing students in their 30s revealed a constitutive pattern of teacher as partner or as despot. The humor used to forge connections between teachers and students was reflected in three themes: we're all adults, I'm only trying to learn, and looking forward to nursing practice. (Contains 35…

Assesses and compares hope levels and laughter and humor experiences of 24 elderly residents and 21 staff at an assisted living facility. Residents and staff reported numerous benefits from humor and laughing, but differences arose between the two groups about the source and frequency of humor and laughter. Implications for mental health…