Category Archives: HUMOR

Second City college comedy classes

Posted on February 16, 2007 by Kevin

Chicago’s famous The Second City Training Center is now offering a college “semester abroad” in comedy history, performance, improvisation, and writing through Columbia College Chicago (suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/entertainment/253209,5_1_WA12_ILLCOMEDY_S1.article) [EDIT (6/4/10): dead link]. Comedy Studies program There have been individual college classes in … Continue reading →

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U.S. reality comedy ‘Thank God You’re Here’

Posted on January 23, 2007 by Kevin

Imagine a celebrity reality-show where the celebrities aren’t being annoying while stranded in the jungle or locked up in a house together. Imagine instead celebrities who have acting talent, like Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle), Jennifer Coolidge (A Mighty … Continue reading →

Posted in Comedy / Humor Media, Foreign Languages, HUMOR, LANGUAGE | 1 Comment

Humor might save your life

Posted on January 10, 2007 by Kevin

Humor can help us deal with difficult situations; laughter can make us feel better. But can they help with disease, as American Norman Cousins (more) believed about his own heart disease? A modest study in Trondheim, Norway, shows there may … Continue reading →

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In-joke: ‘Numb3rs’

Posted on November 6, 2006 by Kevin

There was a cute in-joke at the end of last week’s episode of the American television drama Numb3rs (3.7, “Blackout”). The father, played by Judd Hirsch, turns on late-night TV saying that’s when “the classics” are on. Then we hear … Continue reading →

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Unintentional humor: ‘Déjà Vu’ film, Neil Simon

Posted on November 3, 2006 by Kevin

Sometimes you don’t want the audience to laugh. According to contactmusic.com (more spoilers there than below) the new Denzel Washington movie, Déjà Vu, has a scene where Washington is surprised by someone and says “Jesus.” But that someone is James … Continue reading →

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The Four Essential Travel Phrases

Posted on October 20, 2006 by Kevin

The Four Essential Travel Phrases Web site is an amusing site that translates the following questions into hundreds of languages and dialects. 1) Where is my room? 2) Where is the beach? 3) Where is the bar? 4) Don’t touch … Continue reading →

Posted in Dialects, Foreign Languages, HUMOR, Humor-Sites, LANGUAGE, Language Error, Language-Sites | Comments Off

Follow-up: Oral language-play for speech impaired

Posted on October 6, 2006 by Kevin

Back in August I posted (Oral language-play for speech impaired) about the System to Augment Non-speakers Dialogue Using Puns (STANDUP) project that helps speech-impaired children develop language analysis through puns. The Discovery Channel has a little more information. The program: … Continue reading →

Posted in English as a Second / Foreign Language, Foreign Languages, HUMOR, Humor Research, LANGUAGE, Language Media, Language Technology, Linguistics | Comments Off

Arrr! Talk Like a Pirate Day 2006

Posted on September 20, 2006 by Kevin

’Tis still September 19th here. That be International Talk Like a Pirate Day, mateys. A fun little “holiday” invented by Americans John Baur and Mark Summers a bunch a voyages round t’sun ago. Official Site, with pirate dictionary and English-to-piratese … Continue reading →

Posted in Dialects, HUMOR, LANGUAGE, Language-Sites, Words / Dictionaries | 2 Comments

Comedy veteran Bill Dana aids humor archive

Posted on September 18, 2006 by Kevin

Bill Dana (IMDb entry), probably best known for his José Jiménez character on The Steve Allen Show and elsewhere in the 1950s and 1960s and more recently for a recurring role on The Golden Girls in the early 1990s, has … Continue reading →

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Correction: Gervais not quitting comedy

Posted on September 10, 2006 by Kevin

It was reported in late July that British comedy performer/writer/producer Ricky Gervais (The Office UK) and his writing partner Stephen Merchant were quitting sitcoms, maybe for dramas. I included this in my post Cleese, Gervais quit comedy; Williams returns. The … Continue reading →

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