The document provides examples and explanations of different types of verbal irony and humor devices, including situational irony, dramatic irony, sarcasm, hyperbole, understatement, malapropism, puns, and oxymorons. The examples range from poems, news articles, advertisements, comic strips, videos, and images. The document analyzes each example and whether or not it illustrates the given device effectively or humorously.

1. Hunt for Humor
Laughter: Lesson 5

2. Verbal Irony
 Earth by John Hall Wheelock
"A planet doesn't explode of itself," said drily
The Martian astronomer, gazing off into the air –
"That they were able to do it is proof that highly
Intelligent beings must have been living there.‖

3. Verbal Irony cont.
 The poem ―Earth‖ by John Hall Wheelock is an example
of verbal irony. Basically, a Martian is looking at earth
and saying that a planet cant blow up by itself. It then
predicts that human beings were intelligent enough to
invent something so powerful, most likely nuclear
bombs. The irony is that the humans weren’t so
intelligent because they blew up their own planet. The
device in this poem made me laugh.

4. Sarcasm
 HEMPSTEAD, NY—Highly emotional in the wake of last night’s town-
hall-style debate, a tearful Mitt Romney called a press conference
this morning to ―come clean‖ about having a rare, little-understood
disease known as Shuttlesworth Syndrome, a condition that
prevents its victims from sitting quietly on stools anytime they are
repeatedly told to do so. ―As a sufferer of this rare disorder, being
told to sit down and shut up—particularly when a stool is involved—
only provokes in my central nervous system a violent overreaction
that forces me to behave in the exact opposite manner,‖ Romney
told reporters, his voice cracking with emotion as he revealed his
secret to the world. ―Without meaning to, I reflexively stand
up, stride forward, and continue trying to speak—doing so
even, and especially, when one or more people are instructing me to
stop talking immediately and go back to my stool. It is a truly
debilitating condition that I have battled all my life.‖ Romney said
additional symptoms of the syndrome include an inability to
maintain a convincing human smile, inexplicable reversals of
previously stated policy positions, and an impaired ability to chuckle
without sounding like a deranged maniac.

5. Sarcasm cont.
 This article is an example of sarcasm. The author is
making fun of how Mitt Romney wouldn’t stay seated at
the debates. The author also makes fun of other things
Mitt Romney does, for example how he smiles and
laughs. The whole time the author is trying to sound
serious and convincing by stating that Romney has a
disease called ―Shuttlesworth Syndrome.‖ I thought it
was quite funny that he was making fun of him but kept
the story serious.

6. Situational Irony
 http://youtu.be/Nm-1xvWibt0
 An example of Situational Irony is the song ―Irony‖ by
Alanis Morissette. In the song she sings, ―An old man
turned ninety-eight, he won the lottery and died the
next day,‖ What is expected is that he uses the money to
live the last days of his life happily, but what really
happens is that the old man dies the next day. The
whole song involves situations that have irony in them
so I thought the whole song was pretty funny.

7. Dramatic Irony
 This Advertisement for the movie
Jaws is an example of Dramatic irony.
In the picture there’s a person swimming
and a huge shark swimming up to attack.
The swimmer is not aware of the huge shark
coming up to him, but the person looking
at the ad is fully aware. I don’t really think
this is funny. I think it’s more of a scary ad.

8. Hyperbole
 This greeting card is an example of a hyperbole.
Basically, the boy on the card is saying he would do
anything for you. He is exaggerating. I thought this card
was very funny because of the choice of words and
exaggeration.

9. Understatement
 The comic strip is an
example of understatement.
In the comic strip it shows 2
men out in the wilderness
with one fly swatter. They
find a huge monster fly and
they think they should’ve
brought another fly swatter.
Even with another fly swatter,
they wouldn’t be able to kill the monster fly. I think this comic strip
is really funny because of the understatement.

10. Malapropism
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxmkiy9txBE
 In this commercial for Orbit gum, there is a lot of
malapropism. They change words that are supposed to
be swear words to words that sound familiar. I thought
this commercial was hilarious because of the words they
chose to say.

11. Pun
 ―I work as a baker because I knead dough.‖
 The quote is an example of a pun. There are two
meanings to it. For example, he works as a baker
because he kneads dough. And he works as a baker
because he needs dough, or money. I thought it was
funny because of how the words ―knead‖ and ―need‖
sound alike but give the sentence a different meaning.

12. Oxymoron
 The picture is an example of an oxymoron. It’s a sign
showing where the health center is located. But the
name of the health center is Death Valley, which is the
opposite of healthy. I thought it was funny because of
the two contradictory
words, ―death‖ and
―health.‖