What’s the deal with the jokes? Students, teachers use humor as tool at school Nate Albin
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or some, the classroom can become a sounding board for young jokesters. Whether it be the traditional class clown or someone making a one-off line about the subject matter, school and comedy have been linked together for ages. Senior Bradley Lister is an aspiring comedian and writer. Comedy has always stuck out to him as something intriguing that he wanted to pursue, even during school hours. “When I was young, I’d see the specials on TV, and I was always Senior Bradley Lister interested in them and I kept performs a standup set at asking my parents if I could do it, Cracker’s Comedy Club but they’d always say ‘no’ because in Indianapolis on May I was a big troublemaker in 13, 2021. Photo used school and they said that was the with permission of Bradley last thing I needed,” Lister said. Lister. Lister still decided to continue
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down the path of creating humorous content. After seeing him speak in public, his parents rethink their decision and let him try standup. “But I’d started writing jokes anyway, every day since the start of 2020,” Lister said. “And then about a year ago, I had a friend pass away and I gave a speech at his vigil and my parents saw that and saw I had some talent for public speaking.” Since then, Lister has developed his standup work, performed sets and has also started joke writing for the nationally syndicated Bob and Tom Show. While some perform out of school, others, like sophomore Casey Alexander, use in-school avenues such as the speech team as their stage. They work their pieces through a similar process as comedians like Lister. “A lot of the other events [in speech team] are focused around drama, and I can’t do that without feeling fake, so I figured humorous was for me,” Alexander said. “It’s a lot of brute-forcing. You try a line in one way, and if it doesn’t work one way, it doesn’t work; if it does, it’s good.” While similar, a venue like a speech meet differs greatly from a local club. One of the most important parts of comedy is greatly changed when at a speech meet: the laugh. “In standup, people are laughing all the time because they are the audience,” Alexander said. “But in speech, you aren’t actually supposed to laugh. So when you do actually get a laugh, it lets everyone else laugh a bit easier and that makes my job so much easier and my piece seem a bit funnier.”
Even teachers get in the joke-making racket. For English teacher Keith Shelton, who actively inserts comedic moments into his teaching, the key is making sure to blend the fun and the learning. “Some of it is my personality, but honestly, it’s intentional,” Shelton said. “I realize that though this is the subject matter I have chosen to pursue on a daily basis, many of my students are taking it because a computer is telling them they have to take this class at this time. Many of them dread classes they don’t love, so if you make it a little lighthearted, you get them to relax and see the humor because life has humor.” Laughter can be fun for teachers and students alike, but the point of school is still to learn. Shelton knows he has to build that report with students to ensure the work is done while having fun. “Like everything with a relationship, it takes trust,” Shelton said. “Early on, it’s setting the expectations, but even on the days when I’m setting the expectations, I’m going to show some of my personality. Building those moments of being realistic allows you to build moments of levity later.” Comedy and school can be intertwined, whether practiced in the class or performed in comedy clubs. And for some, hearing other people joke around can help make them the funniest they can be. “You go to these open mics,” Lister said. “You see people killing it, and it makes you want to get to their level. You also see people who aren’t great and it makes you want to not end up like them.”
April 2022
