Chapter 1 Outta Left Field What comes to mind when you think about sports For some it might be uniforms Others might think of physical fitness or their favorite team mascot But what about humor and making people laugh Sports are serious but they are also fun And they can be really funny to watch Think about the last time you saw a sports blooper reel on television It may not be funny for the player who makes a mistake and slams into his teammate on the field but it sure gets the viewer giggling Q Why did the golfer wear two pairs of pants hole in one In case he got a A 4 HUMOR EASES TENSION One of the reasons sports are such an easy subject for humor and jokes is that they can be very serious and tense You may think its just a game but try telling that to a professional player or coach Laughing and joking helps people relax and takes the pressure off It’s also one way to make sense of the world around us Why do we laugh or make fun when we see an athlete run trip and bounce back up again One reason is because running seems so natural that a baby can do it For a trained athlete running shouldn’t involve falling Mistakes especially exaggerated ones can seem funny But it’s also important to understand when something is funny and when it’s not An athlete carried off the field on a stretcher is not something to laugh at
HOW DOES A JOKE WORK QUESTION Why did Tarzan spend so much time on the golf course ANSWER He was perfecting his swing See what we did here In order to make a joke that people will understand and find humorous we have to understand all of the pieces of the joke and how they work together For example we know that in the game of golf you swing a golf club We also know that the character Tarzan lived in the jungle and liked to swing from tree to tree We are using the word swing but in reference to two different things In this case swing is a homonym a word that is spelled and pronounced the same but has different meanings In the question we imply club swinging and in the answer we mean swinging from tree to tree Humor and joke-making are actually very complex when you think about it You have to understand how language is used and the culture of the world around you Q Why did Cinderella get kicked off the baseball team from the ball always running away Because she is A FuNnY BoNe When a group of people are lively and playing rough people typically refer to that as horseplay The word is often used as a metaphor for something that is silly That’s just horseplay 5
JOKE PARTS So what exactly makes up a joke How do you put one together A joke really has two main parts The Setup and the Punch Line The setup of a joke is the beginning when you give your audience the context or the background information needed to get the joke For example the question what lights up a soccer stadium is a setup since it tells the audience the premise or the subject of the joke In this case the premise is the game of soccer The punch line is the end of the joke or the part that makes the audience laugh A good joke usually works because the audience is taken in a surprising or unexpected direction For example THE SETUP What lights up a soccer stadium THE PUNCH LINE A soccer match This punch line is a play on words It takes the word match and humorously uses its two different meanings match as in a soccer game and match as in the wooden stick you strike to make a fire and create light Wordplay includes the use of homonyms homophones or homographs These are words that sound alike or are spelled alike but have different meanings Q What’s a vampire’s favorite sport Casket ball A Q What position does a monster play on a soccer team Ghoulie A 6
H O M ONYM WORDS Sound the same and can have the same or different spelling Match a contest or game Match something you strike to light a fire Be to exist Bee an insect H O M OGRAPH OR H E T ERONYM WORDS Sound the same or sound different but have the same spelling Lie to lie down horizontally Lie to tell an untruth Heteronym Different sound but same spelling Tear a drop of water from the eye Tear to rip something H O M O PHONE WORDS Sound the same but have different spelling Sell to exchange something for money Cell a small room and also a microscopic unit or life form Pare to cut away the edge of something Pair two of any one thing Pear a fruit FuNnY BoNe Not all jokes are simple Many are long or complicated and involve buildup which is the creation of anticipation in a joke It is important for the delivery of the joke or how you tell it to the audience Buildup keeps the audience interested and eager to hear the joke’s punch line 7
