EN 490.01 Writing Workshop: Humor Writing (Spring 2007-2008: 3)
They say that humor is the one thing that cannot be taught, but why they
say this is unclear. And who are they anyway, these energy-depleting, humor-learning
skeptics? Is there any way they can be persuaded to just zip it? Perhaps
the best possible refutation would come in the form of a workshop devoted
to understanding and creating humor: a course built around a series of both
collaborative and individual writing projects—including parodies, political
and cultural criticism, and autobiographical essays. Perhaps reading work
by humorists as original and inventive as Ambrose Bierce, Woody Allen, Ann
Hodgman, and David Sedaris would help. Moderate reading, regular and intensive
writing, frequent conferences, and an open, encouraging workshop atmosphere
will promote the goal that they—in their stubbornness, their
obstinate perseverance, their mulish unwillingness to stop already with
the negativity, indeed their dreary determination to speak words we would
prefer not to hear—say cannot be achieved.
Paul Lewis
Last Updated: 24-JAN-07