What’s So Funny?

Order Description
In class, we will be reading several selections from experts that explain theories of humor and help us understand what humans think is funny and why. We’re going to explore this concept further by writing about it and applying a concept from one of the readings to our own experience. We’ll also continue to talk about what an academic essay is and the writing process we go through to create an academic essay to deepen our understanding of academic writing and sharpen our academic writing skills. The Assignment For your first essay of the semester, you will write an academic essay that applies a concept from one of our readings to something you’ve experienced in your life.
In a complete academic essay, use one of the theories we’ve read about to explain why something is funny. Focus on something specific: a movie, a television show, a book, an article, a viral video, a comedy sketch, a bit from a stand-up comedy performance, a webpage, a meme, a gif, or something from your real life (like an experience you’ve had or a recurring inside joke with friends).
Remember that according to our readings, humor can be explained in different ways. Your job is to analyze the humorous thing you’ve chosen in a systematic way using one of these readings. The final draft should have all of the parts of an academic essay: an introduction paragraph with a thesis, several focused body paragraphs with clear topic sentences, and a conclusion paragraph. The final draft should be at least four pages long, typed and double spaced in MLA format. Things to Shoot For
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A clear, specific thesis statement in the introduction paragraph that directly connects to the prompt (the part in bold). In this essay, it states the thing you’re analyzing it and makes a claim about why that thing is funny
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Multiple body paragraphs that follow an organizational strategy
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Body paragraphs that each focus on one specific subtopic related to the thesis; that subtopic is clear in each body paragraphs topic sentence
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Clear explanations of the key concepts from the reading
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Body paragraphs that accurately summarize the reading and state and support your opinion from the thesis
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A carefully proofread final draft that is generally free of distracting and confusing sentence-level errors and correctly cites the reading you’ve