This lesson should be used, ideally, with 4th ESO students. It's based on a voki of Borat, a satirical fictional character performed by English actor Sacha Baron Cohen.
What is this lesson for?
This lesson enables students to recognise and get in contact with different types of humour and the role they play in our modern societies, also from a cultural perspective. It requires students to make an effort to practice their listening skills and gives them the opportunity to reflect on the nuances of the language through the Alanis Morrisette song "Ironic", whose use of the term has been linguistically disputed.
VOKI-BASED LESSON: A SENSE OF HUMOUR
1. Click on the image and access the Voki. Can you recognise the character? Would you be able to transcribe what he is saying? Give it a go! Then, compare your answer with a classmate.
2. Can you tell the difference between irony and sarcasm? And between satire and bigotry? Play the matching columns game and find out how much you know about humour!
3. Which of the words included in the game would you use to classify Borat's sense of humour? Why? Discuss in pairs.
4. Listen to Alanis Morrisette's song "Ironic" once. Then listen to it again and fill in the blanks.
An old man turned 98 He won the _______ and died the next day It's a black fly in your Chardonnay It's a death row pardon two minutes too late And isn't it ________, don't you think?
It's like rain on your wedding day It's a free ride when you've already paid It's the good ___________ that you just didn't take And who would've thought, it figures
Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly He packed his ___________ and kissed his kids goodbye He waited his whole damn life to take that flight And as the plane crashed down, he thought "Well, isn't this nice?" And isn't it ironic, don't you think?
It's like ______ on your wedding day It's a free ride when you've already paid It's the good advice that you just didn't take And who would've thought, it figures
Well, life has a funny way of sneaking up on you When you think everything's okay and everything's going right And life has a funny way of helping you out When you think everything's gone __________ and everything blows up In your face
A traffic jam when you're already late A no-smoking sign on your ___________ break It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife It's meeting the man of my dreams And then meeting his beautiful _________ And isn't it ironic, don't you think? A little too ironic And, yeah, I really do think
It's like rain on your wedding day It's a free ride when you've already paid It's the good advice that you just didn't take And who would've thought, it figures
And, yeah, life has a funny way of sneaking up on you Life has a funny, funny way of helping you out Helping you out
5. Linguistic dispute. Did you know the song's usage of the word "ironic" attracted media attention? Can you guess why?
Comedian Ed Byrne jokingly attacked the song for its lack of ironies: "The only ironic thing about that song is it's called 'ironic' and it's written by someone who doesn't know what irony is. That's quite ironic."
CollegeHumour released a spoof video of the song called "Actually ironic", featuring actress Sara Natochenny in which Patrick Cassels amended the lyrics in a form that would be appropiately ironic. For example: "it's like rain on your wedding day to the Egyptian sun god Ra"
Sisters Rachael and Eliza Hurwitz, from New York City, published their version on Youtube adjusting the lyrics to reflect irony. For example: "it's a black fly in your Chardonnay that was specifically purchased to repel black flies".
6. Following the examples by sisters Rachael and Eliza and by CollegeHumour, would you able to amend some of the lines or create news ones to reflect irony?
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