THEORIES AND TYPES OF HUMOUR IN THE ENGLISH FOREIGN LANGUAGE HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOM

Abstract

Education and humour may seem two issues that definitely exclude each other, the first involving seriousness while the second mere enjoyment. However, at a deeper level, their close relationship in the complexity of a typical classroom environment will result into a genuine success. From the various theories on humour, incongruity, superiority, and evolutionary theories appear to be of great importance. When the taxonomy of humour comes into the spotlight, the views seem to be generally shared, as humour may be used in many different ways, but undoubtedly it is always situational. Humour is a fundamentally undefined emotional response and an accurate analysis of it seems almost impossible to achieve. As a matter of fact, defining humour has been compared with the attempt to express the essence of music in words. The same as in the case of music, humour is subjective; what one finds funny about a joke or situation another may not.

Key words: analysis, English as a foreign language, humour, taxonomy

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