Literature at its most serious is almost always funny. It’s hard to name an authentic great—Dickens, Faulkner, Zadie Smith—who’s not a gifted comic, too. In our conversation for this series, Sean ...

I’ve long believed that if we want students to improve as writers, it makes sense to make writing as fun as possible. Ask students how often they experience school-related writing as fun and expect a ...

She writes sketches on Inside Amy Schumer and short humor for The New Yorker. Here’s how Hallie Cantor stays succinctly funny. Brevity is soul. Usually that quote is longer, but who has that kinda ...

Some children enjoy spending hours on end writing paragraphs and stories, but others absolutely dread it.‎ They may have great ideas but struggle to express them on paper. Yet as students move through ...

I’ve long been jealous of science teachers because they have liquid nitrogen. I remember the day in eighth grade science class when my teacher brought in the semi-sinister looking metal canister, ...

How am I qualified to advise anyone on how to write funny? Well, I’ve published three collections of humorous essays and another three compilations of whimsical light verse, so I feel I can speak with ...

You can't force funny writing. It helps to look for the absurdities in everyday life, make fun of yourself and, like the best comedians, learn how to set up the punch line. When we recently polled our ...

Twitter was abuzz with chatter about Mindy Kaling yesterday. She had attended a breakfast at Book Expo America and said funny things like “This is like a high school reunion where all the jocks were ...