The context of online teaching changes humor expectations.
Students assume their instructors will be serious and scholarly. At the same time, most people expect online classes to be painfully boring.
That lowered expectation works in the instructor’s favor.
Humor that would completely bomb in a comedy club can still work in a virtual classroom. Simple forms of humor—puns, mild wordplay, or clever observations—often get a reaction.
And in instructional humor, a reaction is enough.
For professional comedians, lame humor is fatal. Audiences pay to laugh, not to smirk politely.
In education, the standard is different.
Consider this joke:
“I just wrote a book on reverse psychology.
I decided not to read it.”
On a comedy stage, that joke might produce silence.
In an online class, it might produce a groan.
And that groan is a small victory.
Humor in education doesn’t need to bring down the house. It only needs to break the monotony and remind students that a human being is teaching the course.
Even a modest attempt at humor signals that the instructor is trying to make the experience more engaging.
Of course, lame humor should be used sparingly. Too much of it quickly becomes… well, lame.
But the occasional pun or groan-worthy joke can nudge students toward a more positive view of both the course and the instructor.
In comedy, a smirk is failure.
In online teaching, a smirk counts as success.
