ABSTRACT
School is full of tensions, dilemmas and contradictions for both pupils and teachers (Berlak and Berlak, 1981). Many pupils both like and dislike school. They want to work and to learn, but frequently do not like the work they are asked to do, or are otherwise distant from it. Some will assume the persona of ‘ideal pupil’ in some lessons and with some teachers, and ‘ace deviant’ in others. Some enjoy school greatly, though the official programme may be hated. Most pupils, however, work out a tolerable modus vivendi-through negotiating, through establishing relationships with their teachers and fellows, through employing sanctions from time to time. Running through all these transactions and enterprises is the powerful device of humour and laughter, the coping agency par excellence. In other institutions it has been shown to be a powerful resource in interpersonal relations in several ways, integrating, differentiating, liberating, and at times constraining. As an instrument to protect and develop the self, as political weapon to defend against or strike at an enemy, as a social regulator to highlight norms, as a bargaining counter, or as a cement for social relationshumour has been shown to be used in all these ways (Martineau, 1972). In this chapter I consider the various uses pupils make of humour and laughter in their efforts to manage the demands of school. Its essentially coping nature resides in its creative and adaptational aspects, and its resolution of problems in a way that protects and/or furthers pupil aims. I begin, however, by trying to convey some of the youthful exuberance observed during a typical day at a comprehensive school. Analysis follows in subsequent sections.
