Speakers Bureau Speaker
Don Nilsen, Ph.D., Tempe
Don and Alleen Nilsen are both Professors in the English Department of Arizona State University. Together they have written The Encyclopedia of 20th Century American Literature, Names and Naming in Young Adult Literature, and Vocabulary Plus: A Source-Based Approach to Teaching about Metaphor. They are co-founders of the International Society for Humor Studies, and immediate-past co-presidents of the American Name Society.
Humorous Names in Political Campaigns
During the 2008 presidential campaign, we were surprised at how such playful names as Hockey Moms, Joe Six-Pack, Joe the Plumber, and Wall Street vs. Main Street were used as metaphors to stand for some fairly complex ideas. Such names as Poppy Bush, Hillary Hotrod Clinton, Rocky Obama, Governor Gidget, Caribou Barbie, and Miss Congeniality were a kind of teasing that came early in the campaign but later evolved into more personal and even vicious jokes. Humor based on names was also used for purposes of group identity as when Mike Huckabee would bond with the Religious Right by alluding to Biblical characters. When Jon Steward hosted the Oscars, he got laughs by saying that Barack Obama’s name was as jarring in 2008 as a candidate named Gaydolf Titler would have been in the 1940s. In this intriguing presentation, these incidents, including the mini-flap over whether it was insulting to use Barack’s middle name of Hussein, will be described and categorized according to what they have in common and what purposes they filled besides bringing smiles to campaign-weary voters.
Host organization provides PowerPoint setup
Features, Functions and Subjects of Humor
Humor can be looked at from three quite different perspectives. One of the features of humor is that it must contain some level of surprise. Not all surprises are funny, but for people to be genuinely amused there has to be some kind of a surprise. This surprise might come from language play, from an amusing anecdote, or from the quick thinking of someone thrust into an unexpected situation. In this interactive presentation, explore the functions and subjects of humor, and discover why humor works!
Host organization provides PowerPoint setup
The Recycling of Visual Symbols in Political Cartoons
On average, viewers spend almost four seconds looking at a cartoon. This forces the artist to use well-known symbols and slogans which will be immediately understood by a viewer, who is then free to concentrate on the one new idea that the cartoonist is trying to put across. In this visual presentation, explore how and why cartoonists repeatedly use many of the same symbols. Some of our most interesting examples are variations on a theme as with different interpretations of President Theodore Roosevelt’s “Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick,” and Harry S. Truman’s “The Buck Stops Here”
Host organization provides PowerPoint setup
Visual Humor: Some Humorous Analogies between Language and Art
Humor that is both linguistic and artistic is based on the ability to see a pattern, a deviation from that pattern, and a resolution back to the original pattern. Terms used to describe linguistic humor, therefore, can also be used to describe visual humor. This visual presentation explores the combination of linguistics and art, such as Visual Ambiguities, Visual Anachronisms, Visual Analogies, Visual Antithesis, Visual Aptness, Visual Archetypes, Visual Ironies, and more!
Host organization provides PowerPoint setup
