Browsing by Subject "Humor"
Now showing 1 - 18 of 18
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Chicks aren't funny : an ethnography of female stand-up comedians(2010-05) Grimes, Andrea Bradley; Stewart, Kathleen, 1953-; Campbell, Craig; Hartigan, JohnFemale stand-up comics occupy a permanently liminal space which can be broken down into three small areas, characterized thusly: the interpersonal, the sexual and the professional spheres. Issues of power, footing and the carnivalesque are threaded throughout these three spaces, and I use the work of Michel Foucault, Mikhail Bakhtin and Erving Goffman to examine the ways in which the female comics I talked, lived and performed with over a two-year period negotiate this permanent liminality to both their advantage and their detriment. The three liminal spaces overlap and intersect, with female comics occupying at times two, and sometimes all three, at any given moment, in a constantly forming and re-forming state of “otherness” that separates them from the default male comic body. In locating female comedians in a permanent liminality, I illustrate the structures at play that are demonstrative not only of the comic experience, but of larger issues surrounding gender in contemporary society.Item ColdTowne Theater : exploring disaster humor(2012-05) Parker, Sarah Anne; Maxwell, Madeline M.; Browning, LarryDisaster humor is a category of humor research that has not been much explored in terms of live audience reactions, something this study undertakes at a small improvisational theater in Austin, Texas. In generating the typology of jokes at this particular theater, instances of disaster humor in live performance were collected, coded and compared in terms of categorization and audience reaction. Ultimately this small study produced a promising look at the relationship between joke acceptance and what it meant for intergroup identity as a community, which should be further explored in future research; recommendations for this are made at the close of this work.Item The cross-cultural classroom in the context of radical language shift : humor, teasing, and the ethnolinguistic repertoire in the Blackfeet Nation(2013-05) Seifert, Nicole Rae; Woodbury, Anthony C.In this dissertation, I analyze classroom interactions between a White, nonlocal high school English teacher and American Indian students on the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. I focus on the participants' strategic use of humor and distinctive linguistic features in these interactions, particularly teasing as a cultural activity among the students, the teacher's immersion and adaptation to that culture, and the affective and sociocultural importance of the ethnolinguistic repertoire to the students. I argue that the main functions of the humor and teasing are threefold: (a) to build rapport, (b) to accomplish interactional goals in the classroom, and (c) to negotiate teacher-student power struggles in a socioculturally acceptable way. I show that the students' humor and discourse is constitutive of local culture and often counterhegemonic, implicitly and at times explicitly critiquing mainstream educational practices and the marginalized status of the students. My analysis considers the data from a discourse level as well as examines the indexical and patterned use of microlevel linguistic resources from the student's ethnolinguistic repertoire--specifically, distinctive interjections and scooped-accent intonation. The primary data is naturally occurring classroom discussions, complemented by individual and group interviews and ethnographic observations. This study points to the importance of sociocultural factors in language variation and change in communities undergoing or having undergone radical language shift. It thus adds to the literature that considers how cultural practices are disrupted and may be restructured as the linguistic code changes. This research also contributes to the research that details the difficulties nonmainstream students face in public schools when their home culture and language practices are at odds with those of the school, and it examines humor and teasing as student strategies to navigate these differences. This study aims to help paint a more complete picture of the contemporary social and linguistic contexts in which American Indian speakers live, with a mind toward how this understanding can be applied to the real-world circumstances of these youth.Item "Hazme un guagüis" : the politics of relajo, humor, gender and sexuality in teatro de revista, teatro de carpa, and cabaret político in Mexico City(2016-05) Sotelo-Miller, Sandra Edith; Domínguez-Ruvalcaba, Héctor, 1962-; Borge, Jason; Gutiérrez, Laura G.; Lindstrom, Naomi; Moore, LorraineThis dissertation focuses on how teatro de revista, teatro de carpa, and later cabaret político provide an outlet where humor and the politics of class, gender, and sexuality intersect, creating powerful, cultural sites of resistance in past and present day Mexico. More specifically, this study argues that teatro de revista and teatro de carpa, two theater genres developed in the first three decades of the twentieth century in Mexico City, created the foundation and tools for political and social criticism which were later appropriated and redefined by political cabaret theater artists in the 1980s and 1990s. Through close-readings and analysis of various performances and the work of Tito Vasconcelos and Jesusa Rodriguez, this study explores a festive dissidence that emerged in Mexico City where the stage became a space in which collective spheres of irreverence and criticism were and continue to be created. By exploring the performance styles and tools developed in these theatrical genres a window is opened into the critical nature of frivolous theater that has also opened avenues for resistance and defiance through irreverence. In a country where political criticism has often been violently punished, especially during periods of political and social crisis, critical sites like those created in teatro de revista, teatro de carpa, and political cabaret theater play a key role in building collective spaces of dissidence.Item Heavy Metal Humor: Reconsidering Carnival in Heavy Metal Culture(2013-06-05) Powell, Gary BottsWhat can 15th century France and heavy metal have in common? In Heavy Metal Humor, Gary Powell explores metal culture through the work of Mikael Bakhtin?s ?carnivalesque theory.? Describing the practice of inverting commonly understood notions of respectability and the increasing attempts to normalize them, Bakhtin argues that carnivals in Francois Rabelais? work illustrate a sacrilegious uprising by the peasant classes during carnival days against dogmatic aristocrats. Powell asserts that Rabelais? work describes cartoonish carnivals that continue in as exaggerated themes and tropes into other literary styles, such as comedy and horror that ultimately inform modern-day metal culture. To highlight the similarities of Bakhtin?s interpretation of Rabelais? work to modern-day metal culture, Powell draw parallels to between Bakhtin?s carnivalesque theory and metal culture with two different, exemplary ?humorous? metal performances, GWAR and Anal Cunt. Powell chooses ?humorous? metal groups because, to achieve their humor, they exaggerate tropes, and behaviors in metal culture. To this end, Powell explores metal culture through GWAR, a costumed band who sprays their audience with fake body fluids as they decapitate effigies. He points out examples of Rabelais? work which Bakhtin uses to describe carnivalesque tropes, and threads them to modern-day metal culture. Powell then indicates how carnivalesque performances amplify with Anal Cunt, a ?satirical? hateful, grindcore group. In the band?s performance which is both serious and humorous at once, Anal Cunt draws on several carnivalesque behaviors. To dissect this band?s performance, Powell augments Bakhtin?s carnivalesque theory with Richard Schechner?s theory of ?dark play? and Johan Huizinga?s ?play communities? to more describe and illustrate why some aspects of modern-day metal culture do not match Bakhtin?s theory based on medieval French literature. However, carnivalesque humor becomes ambiguous and social and political problems arise as it escalates. As disrespectability is promoted, social and political tensions surface. Countering Bakhtin?s utopian notion of carnivalesque uprising, Powell highlights how socio-political turmoil presents itself in carnivalesque performance by referring to examples of confusion and concern regarding racism and sexism, something left unexplored in Bakhtin?s work. Powell suggests expanding and modernizing Bakhtin?s carnival could open pathways toward solutions to carnival culture?s socio-political ills.Item Hitchcock and humor : a study in collaborative authorship(2012-05) Peterson, Julie Elizabeth; Staiger, Janet; Schatz, Thomas G.“Hitchcock and Humor: a Study in Collaborative Authorship” presents three case studies that examine how Hitchcock’s humor, a critical component of his touch, fluctuates and varies in accordance with his collaborators and his creative control. The first collaboration addressed involves Hitchcock’s dealings with producer David O Selznick on both Rebecca (1940) and Spellbound (1945). By tracing each film through its initial treatments to its final screenplay, the each man’s individual contribution comes to light and explains why Rebecca lacks the humor required for the full Hitchcock touch whereas Spellbound does provide comic moments. Under Selznick, Hitchcock first established a working relationship with actor Cary Grant. The two would continue to collaborate as the years went on and made four films together in all: Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955), and North by Northwest (1959). In each subsequent film Hitchcock’s methods of humor mesh more with Grant’s screwball persona culminating in a Hitchcock classic full of funny moments. Along with Hitchcock’s wit and Grant’s physical comedy, North by Northwest owes a debt of gratitude to its screenwriter Ernest Lehman who created the original script simply out of sketches of characters and moments. The third case study examines the humor in Frenzy (1972). While Hitchcock’s recent films had failed to reproduce the Hitchcock touch for an uncharacteristic lack of humor, Frenzy is laced with tongue-in-cheek action. The story was based on Arthur La Bern’s novel Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square (1972) and was adapted to the screen by playwright Anthony Shaffer to create what many call Hitchcock’s return to form. These case studies reveal that the inclusion of humor in Hitchcock’s films comes about when Hitchcock has the freedom away from the pressures of the studio and studio heads to assert his creative control with the collaborators and films of his choosing, preferably collaborators whose aesthetics compliment his own, and preferably films whose genre allows for generous tongue-in-cheek.Item Humor and parodies in the foreign language classroom(2010-05) Zwietasch, Anke Julia; Abrams, Zsuzsanna; Urlaub, Per K.This paper examines the use of humor in the foreign language classroom. Humor is an essential part of culture and a sociolinguistic phenomenon that speaks to the uniqueness of a language and culture. Thus, I argue that an application of humor as an educational objective as well as an educational strategy in the foreign language classroom is valuable in order to lower learners' anxiety and to foster language learning through an increase in culture and humor competences and critical thinking skills. First, I define humor and explore its linguistic functions as well as psychological features and effects that need to be understood to make humor an integral part of a foreign language learning setting. My theoretical research is primarily based on Raskin's Semantic Sript-based Theory of Humor and general theories of incongruity and ambiguity. I further illustrate the effects of using humor in the classroom with psychological research and Krashen's affective filter theory. I then relate the effects of humor to the National Standards of Foreign Language Learning (1996). Eventually in a case study I demonstrate how parodies, as a specific type of humor, can be implemented in the foreign language environment. This is done through the examination of the German film parody "Sieben Zwerge" and it supports my argument that humor deserves an autonomous place in foreign language education as an educational objective and strategy. Finally, I discuss pedagogical recommendations. This paper explores the opportunities and effects of an incorporation of humor in the foreign language classroom.Item Humor at work: using humor to study organizations as a social process(Texas A&M University, 2005-08-29) Lynch, Owen HanleyHumor is usually associated with trivial or non-serious banter; it is however a significant factor in the construction of organizational culture. This work provides an experience based organizational account of how organizations are produced and reproduced, as well as how organizational interaction is coupled with structure. This dissertation is based on two ethnographic studies: the first, a year-long study of a hotel kitchen, and the second, a three-year study of a private boarding school. This long term examination of an organization??s interaction is used to illustrate how organizational interaction produces the duality of organizational structuration overtime. An ethnographic communication-focused approach provides methods for recognizing multiple sites and levels of the Structuration process. As a result, this approach provides a major contribution to understanding the process of Structuration through agents?? actions in the context of their organizational culture.Item Laughter and consequence : rhetoric and the trouble with intention in humor and identity politics(2015-08) Blouke, Catherine McKenzie; Davis, D. Diane (Debra Diane), 1963-; Roberts-Miller, Patricia; Gunn, Joshua; Boyle, Casey; Hodgson, JustinAt the turn of the 21st Century, comedians such as Sacha Baron Cohen and Dave Chappelle, as well as the theater group Speak Theater Arts (figures analyzed in the following chapters), use humor to critique contemporary notions of identity in terms of race, gender, and sexuality. As we increasingly see humor used to address issues of identity, we must strive to understand the implications and effects of laughing at/through/with (our) communities. When and how do performers and audiences perceive humor as the means to disrupt harmful cultural stereotypes? And when, conversely, does humor reinforce negative ideologies, preserving racism and homophobia, chauvinism and bigotry? By thinking through individual relationships to various topics and to the structural modes of presentation, we might move a step closer to understanding humor’s positive potentials and its destructive forces -- how they veer in one direction or another, how it can be used as a tool of liberation and oppression, and how this depends fundamentally on the subjects it touches (upon). Read across texts of cultural and linguistic theorists of the past fifty years, the works of many contemporary comedians question the possibility of stable contexts and fixed meanings, as well as the very notion of group or self-identity. The humor we see emerging from the chasm that the civil rights and political correctness movements sought to bridge operates within and relies upon instabilities: challenging the notions of what a humorist can get away with and what an audience will (or should) accept. Within the system of identity politics, these humorists act as double agents: often gaining authority from the notion of a group identity while simultaneously breaking that notion apart. They highlight the totalizing effects of identity politics: the claim that one voice may speak for the many (with or without their consent) on the basis of a shared identity. And they do it with a smile. Laughter and Consequence analyzes the relationship between humor and identity politics, how we tend to read laughter and intention in relation to the body, and how language, violence, and power come together in comic performances.Item Linguistic humor comprehension in Spanish as a second language(2011-12) Rayburn, Karyn Hopper; Koike, Dale April; Toribio, Jaqueline; Blyth, Carl; Nishida, Chiyo; Walters, Samuel K.The aims of this study are twofold: (1) to examine the development of linguistic humor interpretation and comprehension by second language (L2) Spanish learners by using a linguistic humor instrument comprised of comic strips, considering the linguistic properties of Spanish; and (2) to see whether and how reading comprehension ability is reflected in the understanding of four types of linguistic-based humor (i.e. semantic, syntactic, phonological, and morphological). Also discussed are the comprehension strategies utilized by the participants during humor processing. To address these goals, a mixed methods approach was implemented through a linguistic humor multiple-choice questionnaire together with a think-aloud protocol. Results are discussed with reference to Raskin’s (1985) Semantic-Script Switch Theory of Humor (SSTH). The data indicate: (1) comprehension of linguistic-based humor increases with L2 study; (2) L2 learners struggle most with polysemic lexical items; and (3) cognate status and pseudofamiliar words impede comprehension. Considering the analysis of the data, a reassessment of the SSTH and how it applies to L2 humor processing is suggested. Notably, linguistic-based scripts tend to dominate access to other non-linguistic based scripts because L2 learners remain within the linguistic-script frame and are unable to access and/or utilize non-linguistic scripts such as background knowledge. Furthermore, L2 learners contend with error scripts as an additional obstacle, which NS do not experience. The findings suggest that learners should be encouraged and explicitly taught about lexical depth in order to increase their ability to infer meaning from context, thereby increasing their metalinguistic knowledge base. Recommendations are made for the adjustment of the SSTH theory to be more inclusive of L2 learning environments. Finally, suggestions for the L2 classroom include: (1) methods to increase metacognitive awareness; and (2) pedagogical approaches to introduce language-based humor.Item Modalities of freedom : toward a politic of joy in Black feminist comedic performance in 20th and 21st century U.S.A.(2014-05) Wood, Katelyn Hale; Jones, Omi Osun Joni L., 1955-; Canning, Charlotte, 1964-Modalities of Freedom argues that comedy and the laughter it ignites is a vital component of feminist and anti-racist community building. The chapters of my dissertation analyze the work of three Black standup comedians from the United States: Wanda Sykes, Jackie Mabley and Mo’Nique. These three women have an outsized presence in standup comedy, but have been chronically underrepresented in academic literature despite their nuanced, complex and emboldening performance styles. I claim that their particular brands of humor are modalities of freedom. That is, under varying social, temporal and cultural contexts, Sykes, Mabley and Mo’Nique resist and expose marginalization and oppression. In turn, their comedic material and the act of laughter bond their audiences and generate anti-racist/feminist coalitions. The first chapter of my dissertation shows how Wanda Sykes employs comedic performance to “crack up” white supremacist historical narratives. That is, Sykes’ comedy functions as historiographical intervention that not only critiques history, but also moves Black lesbian women from silenced subjects to active (re)creators of United States’ collective memory. My chapter on Jackie “Moms” Mabley claims that Mabley’s legacy has been misremembered in both mainstream and scholarly texts. Employing Black queer theoretical frameworks, I trace how Mabley’s standup solidified important precedents for Black female comics in contemporary U.S. performance and generated specific modalities of freedom unique to Black feminist humor. The final chapter of my dissertation analyzes Mo’Nique’s 2007 documentary I Coulda Been Your Cellmate. This film is a live taping of Mo’Nique performing for convicts at the Ohio Reformatory for Women. Mo’Nique’s performance articulates the multiplicities of identity, and builds feminist community across difference. Mo’Nique and the women in the audience demonstrate how laughter is an intimate survival strategy and a freeing act even while under the restriction of state power. In short, my dissertation is an effort to validate how laughter can harness and express the complexities of Black feminist lives, and be a productive site for social change and stability.Item New media is a joke : tracing irony, satire, and remediation in online discourse(2014-12) Faina, Joseph Michael; Brummett, Barry, 1951-The social and political function of humor in any era is to provide commentary, insight, and catharsis into the concerns facing that time. In this dissertation I investigate the role humor, particularly irony and satire, plays in informing public discourse and civic participation in the contemporary Internet age. This age is often characterized a highly mediated one with the proliferation of increasingly powerful, and increasingly mobile, media an ongoing concern of communication scholars. Understanding how these new forms refashion public discourse to address new contexts is important. In order to understand these differences it is necessary to understand how newer media work in relation to older media. I contend this relationship can be understood through the trope of irony. More importantly irony shares a relationship to the rhetorical process of remediation, whereby newer media are placed in a dialectic relationship with older media. For rhetorical and media scholars these relationships represent an opportunity to understand new possibilities for discursive action. This dissertation provides answers to three questions. What is the relationship between irony and remediation? How can mediated texts of humor illustrate the relationships between irony and remediation? What rhetorical implications might these relationships have for communication scholars interested in civic engagement, political participation, and mass mediated public discourse?I argue that remediation, the underlying rhetorical structure of media, is ironic. This structure is best revealed through analysis of highly mediated humorous texts. To answer these questions I conduct a rhetorical analysis of several case studies using irony and remediation as guiding theoretical mechanisms. Each case study focuses on a text characterized as ironic, though not necessarily humorous. I illustrate how irony contributes to the creation of multiple, and often contradictory, meanings in a text while remediation illustrates how media forms influence the creation of increasingly fragmented texts. When combined in a rhetorical analysis these mechanisms work to reveal underlying ideological concerns prevalent in public discourse in an age of new media. The significance of these concerns, and their relationship to irony, satire, and humor is discussed.Item Paper bullets of the brain(2010-12) Markarian, Sandra Suzanne; Beaver, David I., 1966-; Bannard, ColinUsing the social networking site Facebook as a corpus, I collected 1,500 random samples of interactions between friends. I tracked the use of jokes and disparaging humor between same- and opposite-gender pairs to discover that there is a strong correlation between the style of joke-making evoked by the speaker and the gender of both the speaker and the hearer. The men in the study were about eight times more likely to make insulting or degrading jokes with other men than the women were with each other. Following the study is a discussion where I address methods of politeness across genders, approaches to humor, and how sex, culture, and gender expectations influence our communicative choices. Though the discussion is based in our linguistic choices, the results of the study reflect trends that are present in countless aspects of society, and the issues that are raised go far beyond the spoken word.Item The pleasure is all ours : race and queerness in the Promised Land(2012-05) Ramirez, Alexandro Rudolpho; Bonin-Rodriguez, Paul; Canning, CharlotteThis paper calls for a queer art and politics that treats identity categories such as race, gender, sexual orientation, class and others as co-constitutional. With the writer's one-man show, Promised Land: A Radical Queer Revival, as its central text, this paper describes a performance of co-constitutionality that acknowledges the artist's subordinate and privileged statuses through carnivalesque performance tropes such as humor, open sexuality and audience interaction. The first chapter uses media and performance studies to address the investment in whiteness by heteronormative gay politics and culture. The second chapter explores the creation of a racially constituted queer world in Promised Land through the performance and its intertexts. The conclusion offers a notion of performing "the utopian identity" as a means of engaging with and resisting normative hegemony.Item Ridicule, emotion, and community in ancient Rome(2015-12) Rich, Laura Brooke; Riggsby, Andrew M.; Beck, Deborah; Ebbeler, Jennifer V; Haimson Lushkov, Ayelet; Moore, Timothy JThis dissertation examines the effects of ridicule on emotions and communities in Latin literature. Ridicule has a social function of marking objectionable behavior and reinforcing acceptable behavior, since individuals seek to avoid ridicule by acting in a manner that has been deemed appropriate by their community. Errors in judgment of the power relationship between two parties can also provide opportunities for ridicule, since an individual who esteems himself too highly is brought down by the ridicule of his peers because of that prideful over-estimation (superbia). Ridicule evokes an emotional response known as the “shame state,” or a cluster of emotions, including shame, humiliation, and embarrassment. By emphasizing the values and emotions privileged by groups of people, or “emotional communities,” I focus on these social functions of ridicule, and I explore the ways that an emotional community responds to ridicule. In the introduction, I contextualize my study in the scholarship on ridicule, emotion, and emotional communities. I discuss the function of pride and ridicule in ancient Rome, and I provide an analysis of the Latin words for laughter and ridicule. The body of this dissertation is divided in two, with concentrations on ridicule domi militiaeque, or at home and abroad. The first chapter focuses on the Roman army as an emotional community. I offer an overview of evidence for this militiae emotional community, and I review in detail some examples of the army experiencing ridicule from Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita, Vergil’s Aeneid, and Tacitus’ Annales. I demonstrate that the Roman preference for victory narratives encourages an exaggeration of the Roman army’s shame state in response to ridicule, in order to allow for a more impressive recovery and eventual triumph. The second body chapter explores the domi emotional community of elite civic leaders in the Republican period. I use Cicero’s In Verrem to show that members of this community perform their membership by participating in legal and political matters. I argue that Cicero presents himself as the embodiment of the emotional ideals of the community, and that he attacks his opponents for their failure to live up to those standards.Item 'Tab' figurines and social identity at La Blanca(2011-05) Long, Michael James, 1985-; Guernsey, Julia, 1964-; Stuart, DavidThis thesis examines a special group of Middle Preclassic (900-600 BC) figurines excavated at La Blanca, an early Mesoamerican site on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala. Figurines at La Blanca are ubiquitous and derive from both elite and non-elite household contexts. Because of their widespread distribution, archaeologists associate figurines with daily practice and household ritual in ancient Mesoamerica. They represent a rare opportunity to examine materializations of the human body across social strata, and because their depositional contexts do not seem to suggest ritual care, their context of use remains enigmatic. With the dawn of the Middle Preclassic period, the community at La Blanca was at the center of a dramatic transition: in addition to the reconfiguring of political, social, and economic structures, the nature of personhood was profoundly transformed during this period. I argue that figurines were actively involved in the ongoing negotiation of social identity and personhood at La Blanca during this important transitional period. I specifically discuss a group of figurines from La Blanca called 'tab' figurines, which are remarkable for their exaggerated sexual characteristics and distinct approach to depicting the human form. I examine the 'tab' figurine assemblage in depth and examine how aspects of their context, form, and function helped their makers negotiate social identity at La Blanca.Item Transcending invisibility through the power of story: an analysis of the life journey of Mr. John, a rural school custodian, as told by his granddaughter(Texas A&M University, 2005-02-17) Maxwell, Gerri M.Public school leaders routinely overlook the talents and contributions of blue-collar support staff that can and do play viable roles in the success of schools. Somewhat ironically, a common piece of advice given to first year teachers by more experienced mentors is, ?Get to know the school secretary and custodian ? everybody knows they really run the school.? Although this phrase is commonly bantered about by educators and informal school lore accords it the status of truth, the school leadership research literature is virtually silent about the contributions such workers can make. In Texas, where there are over one thousand school districts, many of which are rural and ?stepping stones? for career track administrators, it is these community members who work as the secretaries, bus drivers, and custodians that many times serve as the cultural glue helping these districts survive. These invisible workers make important contributions to the coherency of the culture and mission of the school. My white maternal grandfather worked as a custodian in a rural school district for more than fifty-three years. Within the past five years, in the course of conversation, two casual acquaintances volunteered information regarding my grandfather?s contributions as a custodian in that school district that later I realized were instrumental in the sense of the project coming to me (Cole & Knowles, 2001). As a rural school custodian with a third grade education, my grandfather lived with multiple oppressive forces in his life. The lack of opportunity for education, the low socio-economic status of his rural family, the marginalization that society deals to those persons who choose dirty work (Meagher, 2002), and the sometimes overt, but often just an unintentional, power struggle with school leadership were all oppressive forces in his life. Whether he consciously realized it or not, my grandfather?s behavior (as evidenced by informant conversations) revealed this oppression. He survived, even thrived, and dealt with this oppression through the most effective means he knew of and obviously honed throughout his lifetime. My grandfather used humor as a means of survival. My grandfather was a master storyteller. This is his story.Item Why did the professor cross the road? How and why college professors intentionally use humor in their classrooms(2010-07-14) Buckman, KarenCollege professors face many pressing challenges: staying current in their disciplines, becoming familiar with new technology, responding to national accountability issues, publishing scholarly research in their fields, and facilitating student learning in their classes. Teaching and learning are complex processes. Humor is a powerful instructional resource. The purpose of this study is to understand how and why college professors intentionally use humor in the classroom and what influence humor has on their teaching. This qualitative study focuses on ten college professors who have a reputation for using humor in their classrooms. I conducted semi-structured interviews with these faculty and made four classroom observations. The interview transcripts were coded and analyzed using the constant comparative method. Three major findings emerged from the research. First, humor, for these professors, is a constitutive part of their identities as teachers. The professors articulated the belief that their sense of humor and the ways they used humor in the classroom made them better teachers. Their teaching identities were created as they learned from their own teaching mentors, developed their personal teaching philosophies, and became confident enough to show their own personalities in their classrooms. The second finding was that these professors have constructed very student-centered, positive classroom climates. All of them recognized the benefits of humor for their students and were aware of the advantages of humor for the learning process and to foster bonds between students and teacher. They also said humor made their jobs as teachers more satisfying. They were also cognizant of appropriate and inappropriate uses of humor and were careful exactly how they used humor in their teaching. The final finding refers to how a professor may be viewed as a performer. These professors have constructed teaching identities that allow them to go into the classroom and present information often in a dramatic, striking manner. The teachers in this study have developed teaching methods that capture the students? attention, and the techniques often reflect theatrical styles or approaches that make them feel like performers.