This semester, our course will be HYBRID. We will meet in-person on Tuesdays. The rest of the week you do ASYNCHRONOUS coursework on your own schedule. Assignments are submitted through Blackboard.
[OER ] Refers to an article accessible at Prof. Friedman's Open Educational Resource - Readings in Jewish Humor [LINK].
[eReserve] Books, articles and movies available for streaming may be found on the Newman Library's eReserve site for our course. See Bb for the password.
[TV] Some TV episodes listed may not be available through the library but may be found by searching on YouTube or your subscription streaming services. These are useful but not required.
August 25 - First Day of Classes at Baruch
Tuesday Aug 29 (Week 1)
Overview of the Course
Chapter 16, God Laughed [eReserve & on Blackboard; also available in public libraries]
Laughing Matters: When Humor is Meaningful [OER]
Email Me (see Bb)
Post your Intro to "Our Class" (Bb Blog)
Monday September 4- Labor Day - College Closed
Tuesday September 5 (Week 2)
Why Study Humor? Benefits of Humor
Introduction to Jewish Humor
Vid Lecture: Benefits of Humor https://youtu.be/NTQB_dhl83g
I-Get-It as a Type of Bonding Humor: The Secret Handshake. [OER]
Terminology, the Language of Humor:
http://www.pbs.org/weta/onstage/twain2002/teachers/glossary.html
Reflection 1 (Submit thru Bb) on the 2 readings assigned for week 1.
For Reflections instructions, see Assignments page
Tuesday September 12 (Week 3)
What is Humor? Defining terms
Why We Laugh (Theories of Humor)
"Philosophy of Humor," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/humor/
Review Lectures from Topics page:
Benefits of Humor
What is Humor?
Theories of Humor
Begin work on your Term Project [TP}
September 15-17 : No Classes at Baruch
Tuesday September 26 (Week 5)
What is Jewish Humor? (continues for several weeks)
Today's Zoom class [LINK] Characteristics of Jewish Humor
Discussion - "The Producers" and "The Frisco Kid". Change due to College closing today: Reflection 4 takes the place of class discussion.
Read Friedman, L.W. and H.H. Friedman (2009), Jewish? You Must Be Joking! the Jewish Take on Humor. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1439936
Reflection 3
Tuesday October 3 (Week 6)
What is Jewish Humor? (continued)
Character Tropes in Jewish Humor
The Pious Fool: A Sometimes-Hermetic Jewish Humor Trope. International Studies of Humour, 7(1). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3234745
"The Survivor," Curb Your Enthusiasm, Season 4, Episode 9 (7 Mar. 2004) [TV]
LECTURE: Topics in Jewish Humor [PPT]
Reflection 4. About the movies we saw last week. Choose 1; or, compare 2 or 3. ("The Frisco Kid"; "The Producers" (2005) and (1967).
October 9 - College Closed
October 10 - Baruch Monday
Tuesday October 24 (Week 8)
Our Term Projects - Class Discussion
Standing Up (film available for streaming through eReserves
Friedman, L.W. and Friedman, H. H. (2023, forthcoming). "Jewish humor as a survival tool and a bridge to social justice." In Ofer Feldman (Ed.), Political Comedy: The Cultural Roots of Political Humor, Satire, and Parody Worldwide. Springer Series of The Language of Politics. [OER]
Reflection 6
Movies and documentaries available for free (mostly on Tubi). Feel free to use one or more for your Reflection.
"The Infidel" (2010)
"When Do We Eat?" (2005)
“The last laugh” (2019)
"When We Were Funny" (2013)
Reflection 7
Tuesday November 7 (Week 10)
Were Jews Always Funny? (History of Jewish Humor / Ancient Jewish Humor)
Friedman, Hershey H. (1998). He Who Sits in Heaven Shall Laugh: Divine Humor in Talmudic Literature. Thalia: Studies in Literary Humor vol. 17, March: 36-50. [OER]
email assignment: A joke, an image, a youtube clip, a story expressing the humor of a group in which you feel you belong: nationality, ethnicity, sex (gender), sexual orientation, faith, etc.
Tuesday November 14 (Week 11)
Humor of Other Groups
Boskin, J. (1987). "Beyond Kvetching and Jiving: The thrust of Jewish and Black folkhumor." In S.B. Cohen, Jewish Wry, Indiana University Press, 1987, 53-79 [eReserve]
Just Kidding: When Workplace Humor is Toxic", In F. Maon, A. Lindgreen, J. Vanhamme, R.J. Angell, J. Memery (eds.), Not all Claps and Cheers: Humor in Business and Society Relationships. Taylor and Francis. 2018. pp. 216-227. [Chapter available in Blackboard]
Reflection 8
Tuesday November 21 (Week 12)
Humor as a Weapon
The Pen Is Mightier than the Sword: Humor as a Social Justice Tool [OER]
Submit Your Own Final Exam Question
Extra Credit Essay Due
November 22-26 : Baruch Thanksgiving Recess
Tuesday November 28 (Week 13)
Humor as a Weapon: Social Justice Humor
Review previous readings and lectures
TP: Final Video Due (Post on Bb Discussion Forum)
Tuesday December 5 (Week 14)
Wrap up and Overview
Review for Final Exam
Review previous readings and bring questions to the final exam review
TP Assessments Due (Bb)
December 11 - Baruch Last Day of Classes
December 14-20 - Baruch Final Exam Period
Also see the Baruch College FALL 2023 academic calendar