ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the many ways in which young children engage with carnivalesque in early childhood contexts as rituals, feasts and festivals of laughter. It invites teachers to consider the role(s) they might play in such contexts by exploring horizontal and vertical approaches to pedagogy. Eavesdropping is presented as one of several intentional alteric acts employed by young children in early years settings. Humour plays a very important role in the early years of life. Several early years theorists have categorised laughter as a form of social development, often sparked by conceptual incongruities. Laughter is, without doubt, a bodily experience. One cannot avoid paying attention to the body when laughing, even if just to catch breath. Carnivalesque is the bodily manifestation of humour. The banging becomes louder and louder as the children laugh heartily. A loophole is the retention for oneself of the possibility for altering the ultimate, final meaning of one's own words.
