Top 10 Benefits of Humor in the Classroom

This article proposes ten reasons why humor can be a beneficial tool for teachers. Humor can support academic success, improve classroom management, and build positive relationships inside and outside of the classroom.

Humor Guidelines

Let’s define humor as positive exaggerations, puns, and funny stories directed at a neutral party. Avoid using your students as the topic of humor. When implementing humor in your classroom, follow these guidelines to avoid pitfalls.

Keep it Relevant

Humor in the classroom is most effective when it relates to what students are learning. This relevance will allow you to get the most from the benefits of humor in the classroom, especially the cognitive, creative-thinking building ones.

Avoid Negativity

Humor in the classroom should never be offensive and must consider “1) the subject, 2) the tone, 3) the intent, and 4) the situation, including the teller and the audience” (Nilsen, 1994, p. 930). At no point should an attempt at humor make anyone in the classroom feel uncomfortable. Avoid negative topics and keep humor clean, constructive, and impartial.

Benefits of Humor in the Classroom

There are many reasons to use humor in the classroom to benefit students, families, and teachers. Here are the top ten, with activity suggestions for each benefit of humor in the classroom to get you started.

Reduce Stress

Humor reduces stress in the classroom. After a laugh, an atmosphere of cooperation enters the room. Introduce humor through political cartoons as starters. Critical thinking and knowledge are benefits that come after the chuckle.

Increase Creativity

Humor increases creativity. One good pun creates another. Start the class with a famous quote on the whiteboard and ask students to give it a “modern touch.” You will definitely get a laugh, and students will increase their knowledge.

Reduce Negative Talk

Humor reduces negative talk. It is hard to complain after smiling. Have students begin the class by writing captions to a photo you have chosen to introduce your lesson.

Design Memorable Lessons

Humor creates more memorable lessons. Used effectively, humor can help students pay attention and maintain their focus. I once put a small pebble on everyone’s desk before the start of a class debate on the legalization of pot. Can you think of a pun? They sure could.

Increase Productivity

Humor leads to more work being completed. Humor is like an appetizer. Your students may not start out all that hungry for what you have to offer that day but throw in a little humor and they are ready to finish the plate. Have them start by writing a limerick on the concept that you are presenting. Of course, share out.

Improve Behavior

Humor leads to fewer discipline problems, resulting in a big classroom management win. It’s hard to defy authority when you’re smiling. Open with a short video clip that students have made on their cell phones. I have them give it to me on a flash drive. It can be an imitation of you teaching a past lesson. In this way, you can review what you have already taught and assess what they remember. You will love (I hope) to see how they view your teaching mannerisms.

Create Buy-In

Humor creates more student “buy in.” When introducing a new topic or concept, begin by putting students in groups and having them draw pictures of what they already know or think about the topic on small whiteboards (like Pictionary). Warning: There will be laughter.

Connect with Families

Humor improves your relationship with families. Dealing with parents is tough at times. When parents hear how much their child loves your class, it becomes easier for them to accept what you have to say in times of stress. Try having students warm-up by (for example) telling how their dad/uncle/friend would have handled the topic of that day’s lesson. This provides laughter and valuable insight into the people in your students’ lives.

Build Rapport

Humor is team- and family-building. We rarely laugh with our enemies because laughing brings people closer. Introduce your lessons with sound effects. They never fail to amuse and engage younger students. Don’t have any recorded sounds? Ask your students what would be (for example) a good sound effect for a dangling participle or for a trapezoid? Every time they hear trapezoid, they will remember its auditory definition.

Have Fun

Beyond these benefits of humor in the classroom, teachers who use humor have a lot to gain, too. Use humor to form more joyful relationships with the students you teach.

Using humor (positive exaggerations, puns, and funny stories directed at a neutral party) in the classroom has clear benefits, from boosting creativity to building community. Humor is less about the jokes than it is about the way that teachers using humor make students feel and the resulting bonds that are formed.

Nilsen, A.P. (1994). In defense of humor. College English, 56, 928-933.

Powers, T. (2005, December 1). Engaging students with humor. Association for Psychological Science–APS. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/engaging-students-with-humor