Carly Thomsen

A seminar designed to introduce first-year graduate students to different methods and theoretical approaches, to the history and culture of the university as an institution, and to professional genres. Restricted to first-semester graduate students in the English Department.

What makes something funny, socially, politically, and aesthetically? This course guides students through both the critical study of humor and the creative production of comedy in a diverse range of media forms, from stand-up to TikTok. By studying theories of humor and crafting original jokes in a community of peers, students will navigate firsthand the complicated ways that humor gets at the heart of questions of social difference. What does the need to laugh teach us about the human condition? Why do we find some things funny? How do jokes both create group belonging and police group boundaries? How do we account for differences in sense of humor? Is there such a thing as politically correct humor—or should there be? When should we laugh? When shouldn’t we laugh? Who gets to decide?