Make ’Em Laugh

I walked into an 8 a.m. class to find two male students wearing tuxedos, their hands folded and gentle smiles on their faces. An awkward class followed as other students whispered and twittered. My two exhibitionists never explained their actions.

—William Badke, Trinity Western University

My funniest moment in the classroom occurred in an introductory English class at Eastern Kentucky University. That day, each student presented their research paper with a question-and-answer session after the presentation. After one student presented her paper on the Watergate break-in, a classmate asked who had discovered the crime. Without skipping a beat, the student replied, “Forrest Gump.” The class and I roared with laughter, and it took a bit for everyone to hear the real answer.

—Meg Matheny, Jefferson Community and Technical College

My students asked me to bring my dog, a chocolate lab named Charlie, into class for “pet therapy” during their final exam. All started off well. Charlie walked down the aisles and laid down next to each student, letting them pet him. After an hour, I placed a bowl of water on the ground at the front of the room for him. He proceeded to pick it up and swing it around all over the students in the first row. He then raced out of the classroom and into another class, running amok and making the students laugh. My students said that little bit of unexpected levity was actually a great stress reliever. Despite that, I said that Charlie would not be coming to any more exams.

—Máire Ford, Loyola Marymount University

In the introduction to mass media class that I took as an undergraduate, the twenty-five students consistently sat in the same seats in the same rows and columns three times a week for fourteen weeks. The last week of class, before the professor arrived, I told my peers to quickly do a back-to-front, left-to-right seat swap. Everyone relocated just in time to watch the professor enter, quickly become disoriented, and remain clearly off balance for the entire lecture.

—Robert Cole, Roger Williams University

In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Sebastian offers the following excuse for his unmanly tears: “I am yet so near the manners of my mother that, upon the least occasion more, mine eyes will tell tales of me.” I was searching for a way to highlight the deep illogic of the gender assumptions underlying this superficially banal comment when one of my students came up with this paraphrase: “I’m sorry—I know men aren’t supposed to cry, but I’m actually half woman on my mother’s side.”

—Joel Slotkin, Towson University

One of the moments I most cherish is when a seminar discussion gives me a chance to stand at the board and say to the room, “OK, what is love, anyway? Someone define it.” I always feel like I’m doing something cheeky and transgressive, raising the stakes of the conversation—being the cool professor. The funny moment occurred with a group of very smart students. The whole room froze, obviously daunted by the question. Probably a full thirty seconds went by, which feels like a very long time if you’re standing at the front of the class. Then a pale, elfin-looking young woman spoke. Her answer to the question, in complete sincerity: “Rats.”

It turned out that she had several pet rats that she loved, and she made a very compelling case.

—Rachel Trousdale, Framingham State University

Illustration by Tyson Cole