I was one of three faculty (pool of more than 50 applicants) selected to teach a ten-day course for the prestigious HCSPIP.
Philosophy and Comedy, Prof. Ashley Pryor (University of Toledo)
In this course, we will explore four major philosophical theories of comedy: Play, Relief, Superiority, and Incongruity. Not only will we consider what Aristotle and Kierkegaard had to say about incongruity or what Kant and Shaftesbury considered comedic relief to be, but we will also have the opportunity to examine the work of our favorite comedians and create our comedic work in the form of joke-writing, improv, satire, and sketch to produce a comedy showcase. Finally, we will learn ways to transfer the skills of comedic writing (creating a strong point of view, editing and revising work for clarity and force of expression, and doing quick but effective and ethically responsible research for a short satiric publication) to improve the effectiveness of our writing for other contexts
