Humorinamerica
MY BLOGS
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Humor in America
http://humorinamerica.wordpress.com/
“Humor in America” (HA!) is a blog dedicated to the discussion of humor and humor studies in America. Authors retain copyright to their work as posted. *********************************************************** "The great virtue of humor is that it is philosophizing in action, a bright silver thread in the great duvet of existence. And one can easily engage in it for an hour or two every day." --Simon Critchley, On Humour
LATEST ARTICLES ( 325 )
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Happy Birthday Sarah Josepha Buell Hale!
Two-hundred and twenty-five years ago today, Sarah Josepha Buell Hale was born in Newport, New Hampshire. Widowed at age thirty-four and with five children to... Read more
Posted on 24 October 2013 HUMOR, SOCIETY -
“A University Course” on the Value of Satire in a Crazy World
Life, fundamentally, is absurd. Every day we encounter opinions, actions, experiences, or events that make us wonder whether we are crazy, whether the world... Read more
Posted on 17 October 2013 HUMOR, SOCIETY -
Ethical Conundrums: Gerhard Reinke’s Wanderlust and Las Hurdes
You probably never saw it, but it was a funny show with something and nothing to say. Back in 2003, Jimmy Kimmel’s Jackhole Productions produced six episodes... Read more
Posted on 15 October 2013 HUMOR, SOCIETY -
In the Archives: Edgar Allan Faux (1877 Then 1845)
They say humor is based on timing. Yes, as is everything else. Ask Elisha Gray about telephone patents. I was plugging along, working on a piece about the... Read more
Posted on 07 October 2013 HUMOR, SOCIETY -
The Timelessness of Satirical Art
While leafing through Herblock On All Fronts, a book of editorial cartoons by Herbert Block, I was struck by one cartoon in particular that was published on... Read more
Posted on 01 October 2013 HUMOR, SOCIETY -
Happy Birthday, T.S. Eliot!
T.S. Eliot 1888-1965Poet T.S. Eliot was born in Saint Louis 125 years ago today. He professed that “Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood. Read more
Posted on 26 September 2013 SOCIETY -
Heteroglossia and Dialect Humor: Buck Fanshaw’s Funeral
Jan McIntire-Strasburg, Executive Director–American Humor Studies AsociationHumorist employ many different stylistic techniques in order to incite... Read more
Posted on 23 September 2013 HUMOR, SOCIETY -
Jim’s Dilemma
Your pa, he says to me that I need to come and help you understand why he had to go away, why he had to join the Missouri Colored Regiment. Read more
Posted on 19 September 2013 HUMOR, SOCIETY -
Editor’s Chair: Catching up with the American Humor Studies Association
Tracy Wuster, Vice President–American Humor Studies Association The American Humor Studies Association has been active this past year working to promote humor... Read more
Posted on 17 September 2013 HUMOR -
Ask a Slave: The Exasperating World of Teaching Tourists About American Slavery
Tourists say the dumbest things. They travel the globe ostensibly to learn and to gain experiences so that when they return home they can do so as more... Read more
Posted on 12 September 2013 HUMOR, SOCIETY -
In the Archives: Sprachen Studies (1917 Then 1897)
Not Zach Galifianakis, around 1906So last month, when I recounted the recent Mark Twain Quadrennial, in Elmira, New York, I did not lie to you when I said my... Read more
Posted on 09 September 2013 HUMOR, SOCIETY -
Taylor Williamson: Stand-up Comedy on America’s Got Talent
Stand-up comedy can be a tricky product for television, in part because it depends upon the relationship between the comedian and a live audience. Read more
Posted on 03 September 2013 HUMOR, SOCIETY -
Happy Birthday, Thom Gunn!
Thom Gunn 1929 – 2004Thom Gunn wasn’t an overtly humorous poet, but his sharp wit, incisive irony and visceral imagery were brilliant. His poems have been... Read more
Posted on 29 August 2013 HUMOR, SOCIETY -
Teaching American Humor: Back to School
Editors of Humor in AmericaAs many of us prep our syllabi and get ready to head back to school, some of our readers will be so lucky as to get to teach humor... Read more
Posted on 26 August 2013 HUMOR, SOCIETY -
Murder and Blueberry Pies: Shel Silverstein as Songwriter
Gather ‘round fellows I’ll tell you some tales about murder and blueberry pies And heroes and hells and bottomless wells and lullabies, legends and lies And... Read more
Posted on 19 August 2013 HUMOR, SOCIETY -
Teaching American Satire: A New Piece for the Classroom from the Onion
It is fun to teach humor, laughter helping to keep students’ attention more effectively than most things. The promise of relief or diversion from the cultural... Read more
Posted on 15 August 2013 HUMOR, SOCIETY -
One Tan, Many Memories: Elmira Mark Twain Conference 2013
Breaking a sweatIt was seven years ago. June 13, 2006. After watching the Mark Twain Forum rage for a week about a neocon skeleton’s consideration as the next... Read more
Posted on 10 August 2013 HUMOR, SOCIETY -
Remembering Theordore Roethke
Theodore RoethkeMay 25, 1908 – August 1, 1963We lost this prolific Pulitzer Prize winning green-house-worker-turned-poet fifty years ago today.Theodore Roethke... Read more
Posted on 01 August 2013 SOCIETY -
Editor’s Chair: Mark Twain Summer Camp
Tracy WusterMark Twain scholars from all over the world are packing their scholarly papers, writing their names in their underwear (in marker, please), and... Read more
Posted on 28 July 2013 HUMOR, SOCIETY -
There Ain’t No Cure for the Summertime Blues
We’re smack dab in the middle of those lazy-hazy-crazy days of summer, and with it an incurable affliction – the Summertime Blues.The title to Eddie Cochran’s... Read more
Posted on 25 July 2013 HUMOR, SOCIETY