Category: Humor
We’re excited that you’ve joined the conversation! At HMU, we want to continue the great authors’ conversations in a contemporary context, and this blog will help us do that. We look back to Aristotle and the early philosophers who used reason and discourse to gain wisdom and now we endeavor to do the same every day.
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May 29, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Today’s blog continues a theme from the previous two weeks. You can find those blogs here and here.
I am still using chapter three of Candide as the basis for my definition of charity. Charity has many potential definitions such as “benevolent goodwill toward or love of humanity;” “generosity or helpfulness toward the needy or suffering;” or “the theological virtue by which humans love God above all things.” Charity can be synonymous with compassion,
July 25, 2025
Thanks to Chad Greene, a 2023 Fellow in Ideas recipient, for today’s post.
Part One: Why to Study Hugo Hercules
Although the study of comic books and graphic novels is becoming more and more popular with both teachers and students at the college level, faculty may feel like it’s difficult to find an introductory text suitable for their students that is not only historically significant to that medium,
» Read more about: “Just as Easy”: Introducing Students to Comics Studies with Hugo Hercules »
August 16, 2024
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
The Summer Quarterly Discussion on Erasmus covered a lot of territory. Participants brought a wealth of knowledge which we used to explore Erasmus’ language, satire, use of myth and religion, and social critique.
One of the questions that continues to interest me is why Erasmus uses a mythological figure to discuss religion. Folly goes through great pains to link herself to the Greek pantheon.
July 26, 2024
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
I recently picked up Rollo May’s The Courage to Create. In it, he wrote a line that struck a chord with the current blog discussion of satire. May wrote, “Certainly Dionysian periods of abandon are valuable, particularly in our mechanized civilization where creativity and the arts are all but starved to death by the routine of punching clocks and attending endless committee meetings,
July 19, 2024
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Last week, I took a look at some of the uncomfortable humor in Aristophanes’ The Wasps. I wondered why (or how) a play can poke fun at the very group that it also needs to please. How does this type of humor please an audience? It’s pretty widely known that sometimes we like to laugh at ourselves,
July 12, 2024
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Laughter is a tricky business. In fact, it’s never a sure thing. What makes one person laugh may offend someone else. I have seen this happen on a number of occasions when some of the audience at a comedy club get so disgusted that they walk out. Comedy is edgy, thorny, and sometimes uncomfortable. This type of laughter pushes our boundaries.
June 16, 2023
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
For me, reading Rabelais was slow going. Crawling through the text, however, brought moments of joy as I saw strains of other, later works. The past few blogs attempted to highlight some of those connections as a way to bridge the gap between Rabelais and contemporary students. I’m not sure what the best way might be to introduce students to his work,
June 9, 2023
Thanks to Chad Greene, a 2023 Fellow in Ideas recipient, for today’s blog.
Depending on your concentrations, perhaps you have read enough about probability and statistics to dissuade you from playing the types of lotteries states tend to sponsor, such as MegaMillions or Powerball. But, in my own reading of one of the Great Books this spring, I have discovered a delightful lottery that I encourage all lovers of epic poetry to try out.
» Read more about: Have a Difficult Decision to Make? Have a Copy of Virgil or Homer Handy? »
June 2, 2023
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Last week’s blog (https://hmu.edu/2023-5-26-reading-rabelais-part-ii/) concluded with a suggested connection between Book Two of Rabelais’s Gargantua and Pantagruel and Monty Python skits. We cannot stop at the end of Book Two, however. Moving into Book Three, we find a lengthy discussion between Pantagruel and Panurge about the pros and cons of marriage. Panurge wants to know whether or not he should marry.
» Read more about: Considering the Cuckold, Rabelais Continued »
May 19, 2023
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
I remember my first experience with Chaucer. At the age of fifteen or sixteen, I tried reading his stories in the original Middle English and was very disoriented. Of course, I had a lot of footnotes to rely on, but these also overwhelmed my slim teenage patience. I remember wondering why we still read this book. It seemed so ancient.