make 'em laugh

April 17, 2015 11:47 AM

Please help me talk about jokes and comedy by linking me to funny videos on youtube. It's for a class, so they have to be 'clean' and not offensive.

The class is an advanced ESL class, mostly university age.

posted by betweenthebars to Media & Arts (17 answers total)

The mirror scene from the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup. (There's no dialog at all, so maybe not helpful for discussing humor in the context of English... but on other hand it's the kind of visual comedy that transcends language, which could be an interesting discussion too.)
posted by usonian at 12:11 PM on April 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

I don't know if this fits, but the first thing I thought of was this clip of Louis CK deconstructing one of his 5 year old daughter's jokes.
posted by Duffington at 12:12 PM on April 17, 2015

Can you be more specific in terms of what kinds of jokes you think would be helpful? Is this more "Iconic funny scenes from movies" or "examples of clever wordplay" or "Famous Stand-up comedy routines"?
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:12 PM on April 17, 2015

Nonsense humor: Kristan Schaal is a horse
posted by edbles at 12:21 PM on April 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I'm not really looking for wordplay, but anything else is good as long as it's on youtube and is fairly short.

An example of what doesn't work - I love Mitchell & Webb, but their comedy is too wordy, often too culturally specific, and there is definitely too much swearing.
posted by betweenthebars at 12:42 PM on April 17, 2015

Best answer: Jimmy Fallon Kid LettersThis segment from the Tonight Show is short, entertaining and rated G. There are lots of things to deconstruct with non-native speakers about language and humor that they would find educational and entertaining.
posted by effluvia at 12:42 PM on April 17, 2015

This may be cheating about being "clean," as it may rely on familiarity with or spur curiosity about the Aristocrats joke, but the Smothers Brothers' rendition of it is pretty damn textbook comedy.
posted by cmoj at 12:43 PM on April 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Actually, I just watched it again and it may not be clean enough even without having to consider it cheating.
posted by cmoj at 12:44 PM on April 17, 2015

Do a video search for "trotify"
posted by aniola at 1:08 PM on April 17, 2015

Dansons le capucine
posted by aniola at 1:10 PM on April 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

John Pinette hates lines
Suburu Dog Commercials
Polar Bear Jeep Commercial
Simon's Cat
posted by BoscosMom at 2:47 PM on April 17, 2015

Not sure how useful it is for a class on language, but one could spend hours discussing why the Kids in the Hall shower meal is funny.

In talking about humor in an international context, Yatta and its countless amateur covers could be interesting.
posted by eotvos at 4:08 PM on April 17, 2015

Newscaster singing his traffic report
The Boy With Tape on His Face
posted by BoscosMom at 5:21 PM on April 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

my absolute favorite skit ever, 100% clean, The Front Fell Off
posted by namewithoutwords at 9:41 PM on April 17, 2015

Jerry Seinfeld on Halloween is something a lot of people can relate to, also showing an example of comedy when hearing only one side of a conversation.
posted by alchemist at 1:24 AM on April 18, 2015

Best answer: For something a bit different, maybe Peter McGraw What Makes Things Funny?
posted by Jonathan Livengood at 8:06 AM on April 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you! These suggestions were really great. The ones that are marked 'best answer' were the students' faves - they loved the kid letters and 'my pen is huge'.
posted by betweenthebars at 4:31 PM on April 24, 2015