Not-so-serious games for language learning. Now with 99,9% more humour on top

Abstract

Verbal and figurative humour characterise some of the most memorable commercial video games. Humour, in general, is also a precious strategy to enhance language learning. What happens if we embed humour in serious games for language learning? This paper will briefly cover: a) the origin of fun; b) the essence of humour; c) both the cultural dependence and the universality of humour; c) its meaningfulness to language learning. In the end, a proposal for integrating humour in serious games is formulated, along with several examples of 'teaching humour' extrapolated from a successful commercial video game (Day of the Tentacle). © 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.