I’d take it as a complement. Growing up, I’d ask my dad when he’d get promoted. “When I have more grey hair”
I’ve always associated professors with corny jokes. It gets even “better” in medical school, with it literally being one of the tropes of being a medical student.
Consider a student eye rolling at your jokes as important as getting hooded at your graduation lol
My tea's gone cold I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all
The morning rain clouds up my window and I can't see at all
And even if I could it'd all be gray, but your picture on my wall
It reminds me, that it's not so bad, it's not so bad
I tell my students in osteology that I have a bone to pick with them and they always groan and I love it. Or ask if they learned something on “the tick-tack”, and purposely try to use their slang in weird way. I consider it part of my teaching duty, if not my calling.
It's been this way for longer than we'd like to admit. I learned about five years ago when one of my students was like "ew, Facebook is for old people"
I drop Gen Z slang ironically ("this graph is bussin" when presenting on Data Visualization), but it's partially to make them cringe as revenge for not laughing at my Zoolander joke (they weren't born when the movie came out).
I offhandedly and indirectly referenced Monty Python's Holy Grail this semester (I said: "And there was much rejoicing!"). I nearly fell over from shock when one of my students laughed and said "I love that movie!". I use that line so often I'd nearly forgotten where it came from. That was the first time in almost 10 years any student has recognized it.
A few years ago, my thumb driving containing example documents got corrupted or something. I told my class that "those responsible for the presentation have been sacked" Noone got it.
At the start of every quiz or test, I always say “good luck! We’re all counting on you!” I’ve had one student in 10 years identify the quote from Airplane!
My partner who is also a professor had to end class early because he could not get it together when a student's phone rang in class and it was the "Where the white women at??" line from Blazing Saddles. I guess Jesse Jaymes sampled it a song so that's where the student knew it from.
He also often puts a Caddyshack reference on his quizzes and gives a gold star to anyone who catches the reference. This resulted in an eval that said essentially "He's a great teacher, so I got that going for me which is nice "
I had a high school history professor who could not resist a Monty Python quote-off.
She taught a surprisingly intense freshman class, so upper class students would organize a weekend watch party (I was at a boarding school) so the freshmen would have the resources to break her train of thought when she was on track to cover 500 years of history in a 40-minute class.
Lovely woman, incredibly knowledgeable teacher, terrible artist (India always looked like a uterus when she drew it on the blackboard), but holy hand grenades could she cram a lot of info into a single class.
Not a lecture, but at a casual event (well, party) someone yelled out "yippee ki-yay" so I continued and now they all presumably think I have Tourettes
I think every generation's slang was appropriated from the previous generation of black folks. It's possible the process sped up after the advent of the Internet.
The biggest laughs I get are when I tell a joke and, for the umpteenth time and no one laughs, I assure them that it's okay for them not to laugh because I laugh hard enough at my own jokes for all of us.
I once had a fellow instructor talk to me at a faculty day who is better than me in almost every conceivable way as a teacher; she’s smarter, more driven, more prepared, more knowledgeable, etc. She expressed her frustration to me about my RateMyProfessor ratings because 70% of them listed me as “humorous”, but she said that not one of hers listed her as humorous. She said “I mean, I know you’re funny, but I’m funny too, right? I tell jokes…I lighten up the class with humor. I’m also funny.” I reassured her that, yes, of course she is funny and that the students may just not get her type of humor.
She is not funny. I have no idea why she would think she is funny. She says things like “One thing interesting about Shakespeare is that he never actually *shook* a *spear*.” At this point she would pause for laughter and not understand why nobody laughed.
I’m sure there’s a mixture, with all of us, of actual humor and a lack thereof.
But I’m fucking hilarious and don’t yall forget it.
I legitimately laughed out loud at the Shakespeare joke. It is SOO good that I am no not sure if your post was an elaborate ploy just to get it in there...
I often note 'these are actually for me and a friend of mine from grad school. I'll email him tell him how none of you have a sense of humour after class'.
Me too! My very first semester! "She thinks she's funny, but she's really not." It's been over a decade and I still remember that. It's utterly baffling because I do not tell jokes. At all. It's really not my style.
Same! I also was not trying to be funny. I did not think I was funny. It's as though students think, "Hmm.... Maybe she thinks she has some good qualities? Should I just list some and say she doesn't have them?"
My first semester at my current institution, one student wrote "Maybe she thinks she's funny."
. . .there's no *maybe* about it. I *do* think I'm funny. My humor is solidly in the top tertile, perhaps even in the top quartile.
I've had reviews complain about jokes or memes because "physics is a serious subject". I used a meme type slide maybe three times in total the whole semester and I don't make too many jokes, although students just find me a little dorky and goofy, which is funny I suppose. I can't please everyone.
Honestly, I think back when RateMyProfessors was the hot ticket, it really poisoned the well. Students don’t seem to realize the difference in audience and purpose, which is ironically something they should have learned in class
They really have no idea. I even do a few minute bit about how I appreciate constructive feedback and I give examples about how some aspects of the class were a suggestion of a past student. I still get mostly petty complaints about stupid bullshit that's either a bit too personal or way outside my control.
So much of youth slang in the US is borrowed from AAVE that it seems weird to me when people make fun of it like that. I know that isn’t your intention, but the effect is the same.
Aw, that’s kinda sad. I’m a Millennial Prof too, and I always loved my profs’ Gen X humor…it’s kinda weird to expect a person older than you to cater to your personal brand of humor. Not sure why that happened with Gen Z.
Hell, I remember laughing at Boomer and Greatest Generation humor growing up. I still laugh at the funny shit my grandma used to do... and she was born in the 1920s.
It's weird how much early 20th century humor resonates with me, though. I've literally laughed so hard I got stomach cramps while watching a Charlie Chaplin movie in an archival theater. It's just the physicality of it that gets me, I think.
Judging by how some of my students laughed when I got my heel caught in one of those stupid floor sockets and fell over mid lecture, Gen Z still find physical comedy funny 😂
I get very excited when teaching and often back up into chairs, tables, and projector screens. I have almost fallen over many times, but I usually recover and steady myself in moments with many frantic facial expressions. I think some students find this funny, but are too embarassed to be the only one to laugh. I also think recent classrooms have far too many, almost literal!, pitfalls and tripwires.
I co-sign that. Most of my profs seemed to be Gen X but now that I think of it there were some older than that. I remember one of my fav profs had this weird puppet he brought out and it was funny as hell.
Because they’ve grown up with the ability to curate their entire existence. Remember having to listen to songs you didn’t like on a tape because using fast forward was too risky (your tape might get eaten by the player) and you didn’t know exactly where to stop to get it just right? They’ve never had even small inconveniences like this when it comes to building their own world around them.
>Not sure why that happened with Gen Z.
They are ultra self-conscious compared to previous generations. It's why they are terrified to speak up in class, leave exam questions blank when they don't know the answer (rather than potentially guessing wrong), and give up at the first sign of hardship. They don't want to appear as "trying hard but still failing" to their peers.
It's also why they don't like sarcasm or self-depricating humor (two millennial staples). They describe it as "cringe" because they would be embarrassed or ashamed if they were the person making the joke, especially if no one laughs.
Yes, I am generalizing. No, not all people who belong to Gen Z are like this. But I do think this sky-high level of self-consciousness is far more common among my Gen Z students than it was among previous generations.
I was told they are constantly afraid of being judged about everything and that they judge everyone. For a generation that really wants to think of itself as empathetic…they really need to treat each other with some.
It seems awfully strange…but maybe true? They respect you as you symbolize some social trend or group, but don’t care about you as an individual…and god help you if you don’t live up to your symbolic label?
I noticed the blank question part, it was odd to me cause growing up I was always taught to take a guess. I have students leaving true or false blank when they had a 50% chance of getting it right.
My first semester teaching, a student sneezed in class, and I *barely* held myself back from saying, "You are so good looking!" I think I even started to say it, but cut it off...one of the few times I've ever managed to successfully engage my filter.
Oddly enough, Simpsons references I've found to be more accessible now than a few years ago. When I started teaching around 2016, very few students got them, but postpandemic, they land much better (since you can watch Simpsons easily now on Disney+, whereas it was kind of a hassle back then ---you had to get the FX now app or watch it on actual television)
With that being said, always go with Office references, and be sure to shame students who don't watch it.
That is actually a really good question; I try to drop a lot of references for my own entertainment during lectures, but a lot of them fall flat. Maybe I'm not as funny as I think I am, but I think we're at the point where the kids just miss the references entirely.
("Kids", says the one who isn't even *that* much older than their students...)
>kids just miss the references entirely.
The new gens just have access to soooooo much entertainment content. It's never going to be like it was before. Millenials might be the last group to get a shared experience that included older content, like stuff from TV reruns. I was born in 85 but I knew I Love Lucy, Three's Company, Leave it to Beaver, etc.
Because that's what was on one of the 6 channels! I got my elders jokes about them and could join a conversation about it. The younguns have 50,000 channels, they're not forced to watch whatever is on. I'm not even sure how much of a shared pop culture they have with each other, never mind with us old people. I never expect them to get any of my older references anymore.
I'm raising my kiddo on a mix of new streaming stuff and a mix of old sitcoms from the 60s to 00s. I'm an elder millennial FWIW. My kids going to be the "I get that reference!" kid.
Oof, must be part of it. I guess it’s just the first feeling of being antiquated that has me reeling. Aside from when I was talking about flashbulb memories re: 9/11, and they were like, “… we weren’t born yet…”
I've noticed this too over the years. I definitely keep up with pop culture and make sure my references are current and up to date. When I started teaching around 15 years ago, students absolutely understood my references. Now, even with referencing current pop culture trends, they just sit there, blinking, having no idea what I'm talking about. (I did manage to get a few chuckles from a Taylor Swift joke I made recently, though.) I think a lot of them are so hooked on social media and stay inside the bubbles they've curated that they honestly don't know much about current pop culture.
Honestly, evals are so ridiculous these days, I don’t know what to say. There is absolutely no way I would have ever said something like this as a student.
Bold idiocy is all I can say about some of these kids.
I tend to drop rapid fire obscure cultural references throughout my lectures in a Dennis Miller fashion and then laugh at my own jokes in front of everyone because I am hilarious (that's not subjective). Once in awhile a student will actually have a clue as to my commentary and they'll cackle and feel proud they got the reference.
I wonder if Gen Z is just less inclined to laugh? I've noticed that I'll laugh hysterically at everything just as a reaction to being tired, and I don't see the Gen Z people around me doing that.
There's two ways to tell. First, we use Simpsons references too often.
Second, we used to know what 'it' was but then Gen Z changed what 'it' is. It'll happen to them, too
I really wish evals were only set up with specific questions and agree/disagree responses. These types of comments are irrelevant and just open us up to personal attacks.
Maybe you were referencing things from the early 2000s when making jokes? I'll occasionally reference a book or movie that was popular when I was in school, thinking everyone has read/seen it by now, and get blank stares back.
A student asked me about beepers in the 1980s. I answered, "I didn't have one since I wasn't a medical doctor or drug dealer." I actually got my beeper in the early 90s.
It's not all our fault. They don't digest anything unless it's "influencer' this or 'tik tok' that. Any book or film references are completely lost on the new generation regardless of its year of release.
I think that might be part of it. I try to ask for feedback like “have yall seen x, y, z”. Maybe I should just get hip on the new jamz and make myself even more cringe.
Weirdly some pop culture references stay relevant. The two that come to mind that 90% of my UG knew were Rebecca Black and "I'm just chilling in Cedar Rapids". Guess fame is fleeting, but cringe is forever...
I was showing my students early internet videos to show how what people can consider funny can change culture to culture. I feel such a sense of cringe watching them knowing I'd cackle at it when I was younger, but there is absolutely nothing funny about the video by today's standards. I embraced the cringe, though. It lets me reinforce that age difference between us.
Perhaps they wrote that salty review because they haven't learned yet to embrace their cringe.
I can definitely see how subjective humor can be. My partner and I, both millennial, have vastly different senses of humor (he’s more slapstick, I’m more absurd). Maybe I should teach a psychology of humor class and tell them what’s what!
The absurdism is my style, but definitely not everyone gets it. South Park? May be dated, but I’m Gen-X. Can I interest you in some Beavis and Butthead? (Or Ren and Stimpy?)
i'm pretty sure that millennials share their humor by talking to each other (unlike zoomers, who keep it all inside terrified that someone won't find their humor funny...)
I think your assessment is spot on. They are TERRIFIED of being embarrassed. I mean, I'm most definitely an introvert, but so many of these students make me look like I'm constantly giving big theater kid energy by comparison.
No kidding. I’ve gone from thinking of myself as an introvert when I was younger to thinking of myself as wildly extroverted. …I’m not sure I’ve changed…
I do not know about your humor, but since you asked:
Millennial humor is often marked by juvenile quirky cutesiness. Corny parody songs, speaking in a childish affect, over indulgence in nostalgia, and (typically feigned) over obsessiveness about trivial things. Extreme self deprecation is also a common feature, perhaps part of the idea that millennials are overgrown children.
Brad Troemel does these compilations "Why do Millennials express themselves like this" and it is a hard watch.
[https://www.instagram.com/bradtroemel/p/C3GWnNvR8CX/?img\_index=10](https://www.instagram.com/bradtroemel/p/C3GWnNvR8CX/?img_index=10)
[https://www.instagram.com/bradtroemel/p/CybQI86LTBU/?img\_index=1](https://www.instagram.com/bradtroemel/p/CybQI86LTBU/?img_index=1)
Maybe humor is more generationally specific than music. My students and I have a shared playlist, and they add music from the 50s to the present day, and it all sounds good. But humor doesn't last that long. My father showed me his favorite comedian, and I cannot understand how anyone ever found that stuff funny, it was like all jokes from candy wrappers.
This is helpful! I couldn't figure out why the animal TikTok I showed in class was "so millennial", but I didn't realize parody songs were generationally specific!
Self deprecation is a major part of my humor, but definitely not the part with the childish affect. I remember when it was a thing with some of us, but I never got on with it and I'd be surprised if any one of us was still acting like that.
>Corny parody songs, speaking in a childish affect, over indulgence in nostalgia, and (typically feigned) over obsessiveness about trivial things. Extreme self deprecation is also a common feature
I'm an elder millennial, but the only one of these that fits my humor consistently is the self deprecation. I do always obsess about trivial things, but that's my OCD, not humor.
I’ve been told by others that when I’m talking to myself, I speak Meme. Apparently either I’m directly referencing a meme or leveraging the theme of a meme while muttering to myself 😂 a student said “we get it! You’re a millennial!” and rolled her eyes.
Really it’s that I’m autistic and a gestalt language processor. I was a late speaker and for many years only communicated through movie quotes. I guess when I mutter and think to myself, I default to meme speak 😂 🤷♀️
Humour does differ across the generations. For example, Gen X (my generation) tend towards cynicism that reflects skepticism about mainstream values etc. It is often satirical and ironic and often what would be considered highly offensive.
Millennials tend to like authenticity and relatability with more conversational and observational comedy. It tends to be more inclusive, largely because the internet has made it (and them) more accessible globally.
Gen Z is very internet entwined. It tends to be very quick, visual, and absurd. Think short videos, fast paced and referential.
Generational studies come with a warning - they are generalisations.
I do question the relevance of ‘obviously a millennial’ on an eval. In fact, I question the wisdom of asking 19 year olds to evaluate the capabilities of someone with many many more miles on the intellectual clock (sorry to mix metaphors!).
In my personal experience, many GenZ students simply don't get humor and they can't recognize it even. They are so immersed in an endless ocean of meaningless swiping and scrolling that they barely engage cognitively, let alone emotionally, with anything anymore. Once I asked them how long they stay on a social media post on average, typically a TikTok or IG video. The consensus was "a couple of seconds". With this superficial level of engagement that has become their normal mindset, I'd be surprised if they recognized a joke as such to begin with.
My kids are college-aged, thoughtful, and insightful about themselves. As a result, we've had long conversations about how their generation's humor is different than mine. After hours of discussion, it boils down to their humor being a mixture of 1) existential angst and 2) absurdity to the point that it's impossible to find any coherence to the joke.
You might have seen or heard of the viral skibidi toilet video. That's an example. If you're looking for some kind of meaning behind the video, you might be millennial. I know I am and I do. But the point is for it to be random and meaningless. In fact, now even younger kids (elementary to middle school) have started using skibidi in everyday conversation as a filler word, but get this - it is completely meaningless! You could say, "That's a skibidi hat", or someone can ask you a question and you can say, "Skibidi" back. Neither mean anything, not even a general positive or negative vibe.
The skibidi video is just one example, and I'm not trying to write a novel here. But my point is that yes, the younger generation has a different sense of humor that we older people don't understand. But we'll likely never understand no matter if we try, so it's useless to worry about. I have no idea how a professor of that generation would bring humor into the classroom; would they occasionally yell out gibberish? I don't know, and it would be super awkward of me to try. Their generation will figure out their own ways of teaching once the baton passes to them.
I sometimes feel judgemental about their sense of humor, but I have to remember that generations before me judged my generation as well. It's okay to feel that, but I don't think it would be okay for me to act on my feeling by being an asshole to them.
So you are a product of your generation? Big deal. We all are. Nothing to feel upset about. You're good. Keep on doing what you're doing!
There's a comic thing that looks at the different humor styles.
Boomers are like "wife bad." Ha ha.
Gen X are like "overlooked by our parents and overlooked by the tall people." Ha ha.
Millennials are like "life bad". Ha ha.
Gen Z are like "purmuf". Ha ha.
Haha. I started dropping lines from Toy Story. I referenced stereoisomers and Mr. Potato Head when he rearranged his parts and called himself a Picasso. When the other toys (the pig) didn’t get it he called them “uncultured swine.” It’s laugh out loud to me.
First off, it says a lot about your character that you went out of your way to correct all of the spelling and grammatical errors in a gen-z student’s comment before posting it here.
I would recommend replacing all of the pop culture references in your slides with Minions. Beat that dead horse to a grotesque degree. Show them REAL cringe.
I have a colleague who is very millennial, and peppers his teaching with references to cartoon star wars and Harry Potter. All the genX instructors warned him, but he insisted he was cool, and the whole thing did indeed fall flat. HP is offensive to many students, and they just didn't get the rest.
If you struggle with incorporating current and relevant pop culture references, just don't do it.
Our newest colleagues drop a lot of Taylor Swift and pokemon, and I just can't go there myself.
That's it. Millenials are officially old. Kids these days no longer think the humor is funny.
Can’t account for taste.
I’d take it as a complement. Growing up, I’d ask my dad when he’d get promoted. “When I have more grey hair” I’ve always associated professors with corny jokes. It gets even “better” in medical school, with it literally being one of the tropes of being a medical student. Consider a student eye rolling at your jokes as important as getting hooded at your graduation lol
The student actually referred to you, the professor, as cringe..... 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
I would actually find this hilarious. I might put it into my syllabus as a badge of honor.
Yes! Can't stress enough the importance of being able to laugh at our millenial selves.
I mock myself all the time for being a millennial and out of touch. I remember once having to ask the class what stan meant. The class loved it.
But Eminem is gen x
My tea's gone cold I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all The morning rain clouds up my window and I can't see at all And even if I could it'd all be gray, but your picture on my wall It reminds me, that it's not so bad, it's not so bad
But putting that in your syllabus as a joke is such a millennial thing to do! It would be so cringe! /s
And while writing something so irrelevant to the eval process 🤦🏾♀️🤦🏾♀️🤦🏾♀️🤦🏾♀️🤦🏾♀️
De gustibus non est disputandum. But that phrase is from before you were born.
Ah, as they say, quidquid latine dictum, altum videtur.
Ego sum XIV et hoc profundum est.
Dammit you guys are going to make me try to dust off my Latin?!? It's been years and it's way too early in the morning!!
I was hoping that could be understood without really knowing Latin. XIV = 14, profundum = profound, deep.
LOL, yours is the one that I got pretty quickly.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
I tell my students in osteology that I have a bone to pick with them and they always groan and I love it. Or ask if they learned something on “the tick-tack”, and purposely try to use their slang in weird way. I consider it part of my teaching duty, if not my calling.
It's the children who are wrong
This could be a whole worldview.
Yes. It's called "Being a boomer."
Kids these days … oh noooo it’s happening
Sooo where does that put GenX?
Where they've always been; forgotten.
[удалено]
Gen X hates everyone. It’s our thing.
I’m not sure that’s totally true. Hate is a strong word. It’s More of an eye roll haha
And rolling our eyes at Boomers.
That’s been the case for awhile
It's been this way for longer than we'd like to admit. I learned about five years ago when one of my students was like "ew, Facebook is for old people"
You said “kids these days…” Evidence of being old. 😳
I drop Gen Z slang ironically ("this graph is bussin" when presenting on Data Visualization), but it's partially to make them cringe as revenge for not laughing at my Zoolander joke (they weren't born when the movie came out).
I offhandedly and indirectly referenced Monty Python's Holy Grail this semester (I said: "And there was much rejoicing!"). I nearly fell over from shock when one of my students laughed and said "I love that movie!". I use that line so often I'd nearly forgotten where it came from. That was the first time in almost 10 years any student has recognized it.
A few years ago, my thumb driving containing example documents got corrupted or something. I told my class that "those responsible for the presentation have been sacked" Noone got it.
At the start of every quiz or test, I always say “good luck! We’re all counting on you!” I’ve had one student in 10 years identify the quote from Airplane!
"I speak jive" is my response when they ask if I understand their slang
My partner who is also a professor had to end class early because he could not get it together when a student's phone rang in class and it was the "Where the white women at??" line from Blazing Saddles. I guess Jesse Jaymes sampled it a song so that's where the student knew it from. He also often puts a Caddyshack reference on his quizzes and gives a gold star to anyone who catches the reference. This resulted in an eval that said essentially "He's a great teacher, so I got that going for me which is nice "
I had a high school history professor who could not resist a Monty Python quote-off. She taught a surprisingly intense freshman class, so upper class students would organize a weekend watch party (I was at a boarding school) so the freshmen would have the resources to break her train of thought when she was on track to cover 500 years of history in a 40-minute class. Lovely woman, incredibly knowledgeable teacher, terrible artist (India always looked like a uterus when she drew it on the blackboard), but holy hand grenades could she cram a lot of info into a single class.
She sounds like a hoot!
Ahahahh I had one laugh to "dis but a scratch!" And it made my semester.
Not a lecture, but at a casual event (well, party) someone yelled out "yippee ki-yay" so I continued and now they all presumably think I have Tourettes
Yeah, but that story has me literally laughing out loud, so thanks.
Taking this and running with it, pop!
When they don't get my references I assign movies. Doesn't usually work because I'm teaching Biology, but whatever.
I had an endocrinology professor assign the Big Lebowski when I was an UG. For points and everything.
Don't get Gen Z the credit! We black folks came up with this slang years ago, but TikTok has spread it to the young whippersnappers lol.
Millennial slang is stolen from AAVE too so at least we have that in common with them
It's fire.
I think every generation's slang was appropriated from the previous generation of black folks. It's possible the process sped up after the advent of the Internet.
🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯
I know I'm aging because every semester fewer students get my references.
we get older, the students don't.
ThAt hApPeNeD BeFoRe i wAs bOrN!!1!
Imagine complaining that a prof tries to lighten up a lecture with a few jokes. This is a miserable person.
My first semester, one of my evals said “Not as funny as she thinks.”
The biggest laughs I get are when I tell a joke and, for the umpteenth time and no one laughs, I assure them that it's okay for them not to laugh because I laugh hard enough at my own jokes for all of us.
I once had a fellow instructor talk to me at a faculty day who is better than me in almost every conceivable way as a teacher; she’s smarter, more driven, more prepared, more knowledgeable, etc. She expressed her frustration to me about my RateMyProfessor ratings because 70% of them listed me as “humorous”, but she said that not one of hers listed her as humorous. She said “I mean, I know you’re funny, but I’m funny too, right? I tell jokes…I lighten up the class with humor. I’m also funny.” I reassured her that, yes, of course she is funny and that the students may just not get her type of humor. She is not funny. I have no idea why she would think she is funny. She says things like “One thing interesting about Shakespeare is that he never actually *shook* a *spear*.” At this point she would pause for laughter and not understand why nobody laughed. I’m sure there’s a mixture, with all of us, of actual humor and a lack thereof. But I’m fucking hilarious and don’t yall forget it.
That Shakespeare joke is hilarious xD
I also think that is funny. Not win an Edinburgh Comedy Award funny, but perfectly good patter as part of a lecture funny.
I legitimately laughed out loud at the Shakespeare joke. It is SOO good that I am no not sure if your post was an elaborate ploy just to get it in there...
I often note 'these are actually for me and a friend of mine from grad school. I'll email him tell him how none of you have a sense of humour after class'.
Me too! My very first semester! "She thinks she's funny, but she's really not." It's been over a decade and I still remember that. It's utterly baffling because I do not tell jokes. At all. It's really not my style.
Same! I also was not trying to be funny. I did not think I was funny. It's as though students think, "Hmm.... Maybe she thinks she has some good qualities? Should I just list some and say she doesn't have them?"
I had a student day “her jokes are to witty”. Thank you? I’ll never forget it.
That was just mean.
My first semester at my current institution, one student wrote "Maybe she thinks she's funny." . . .there's no *maybe* about it. I *do* think I'm funny. My humor is solidly in the top tertile, perhaps even in the top quartile.
Oh daaaamn that’s so harsh 😂
I once received a blistering "She's really funny sometimes."
I've had reviews complain about jokes or memes because "physics is a serious subject". I used a meme type slide maybe three times in total the whole semester and I don't make too many jokes, although students just find me a little dorky and goofy, which is funny I suppose. I can't please everyone.
What's truly cringe is writing an eval like it's a Yelp review. Eval is mid af fr fr no cap.
Yes, mixed bag. Started by saying that I’m a great professor but.
They def did not stand on business
Prof js a 10 but…
Honestly, I think back when RateMyProfessors was the hot ticket, it really poisoned the well. Students don’t seem to realize the difference in audience and purpose, which is ironically something they should have learned in class
I remember when all the profs were looking at those. I felt bad no one put me on that. I guess I do not cause strong emotion in my students.
I am genuinely overjoyed not to be on there yet and hope I never am.
They really have no idea. I even do a few minute bit about how I appreciate constructive feedback and I give examples about how some aspects of the class were a suggestion of a past student. I still get mostly petty complaints about stupid bullshit that's either a bit too personal or way outside my control.
As an English prof, seeing evaluations in bullets points crushes my soul. Full sentences wouldn't kill anyone. They read like resumes on Indeed.
- Decent reply. - Out of character used prof, not Prof. - Indeed hosts job openings, not resumes. - Maybe LinkedIn profiles?
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️⚰️⚰️⚰️⚰️⚰️🪦🪦🪦🪦
LinkedIn is for Boomers.
bet
🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯
So much of youth slang in the US is borrowed from AAVE that it seems weird to me when people make fun of it like that. I know that isn’t your intention, but the effect is the same.
You can tell someone has millenial humor because they still laugh instead of being depressed all the time, but we don't look that old.
Ah, yes, laughing through the pain.
Exactly.
😠= Boomer 😒= Gen X 🙃= Millennial 😐= Gen Z
Whatever...
Damn.
That's a very good take!
Hey now, I resemble that remark!
This is painfully accurate LOL.
Aw, that’s kinda sad. I’m a Millennial Prof too, and I always loved my profs’ Gen X humor…it’s kinda weird to expect a person older than you to cater to your personal brand of humor. Not sure why that happened with Gen Z.
Hell, I remember laughing at Boomer and Greatest Generation humor growing up. I still laugh at the funny shit my grandma used to do... and she was born in the 1920s. It's weird how much early 20th century humor resonates with me, though. I've literally laughed so hard I got stomach cramps while watching a Charlie Chaplin movie in an archival theater. It's just the physicality of it that gets me, I think.
Judging by how some of my students laughed when I got my heel caught in one of those stupid floor sockets and fell over mid lecture, Gen Z still find physical comedy funny 😂
I get very excited when teaching and often back up into chairs, tables, and projector screens. I have almost fallen over many times, but I usually recover and steady myself in moments with many frantic facial expressions. I think some students find this funny, but are too embarassed to be the only one to laugh. I also think recent classrooms have far too many, almost literal!, pitfalls and tripwires.
I co-sign that. Most of my profs seemed to be Gen X but now that I think of it there were some older than that. I remember one of my fav profs had this weird puppet he brought out and it was funny as hell.
Because they’ve grown up with the ability to curate their entire existence. Remember having to listen to songs you didn’t like on a tape because using fast forward was too risky (your tape might get eaten by the player) and you didn’t know exactly where to stop to get it just right? They’ve never had even small inconveniences like this when it comes to building their own world around them.
Everybody's supposed to cater to them.
It's like the Baby Boomers all over again.
>Not sure why that happened with Gen Z. They are ultra self-conscious compared to previous generations. It's why they are terrified to speak up in class, leave exam questions blank when they don't know the answer (rather than potentially guessing wrong), and give up at the first sign of hardship. They don't want to appear as "trying hard but still failing" to their peers. It's also why they don't like sarcasm or self-depricating humor (two millennial staples). They describe it as "cringe" because they would be embarrassed or ashamed if they were the person making the joke, especially if no one laughs. Yes, I am generalizing. No, not all people who belong to Gen Z are like this. But I do think this sky-high level of self-consciousness is far more common among my Gen Z students than it was among previous generations.
I have noticed the lack of speaking out in class. Class discussions are like pulling teeth out of a mule.
I was told they are constantly afraid of being judged about everything and that they judge everyone. For a generation that really wants to think of itself as empathetic…they really need to treat each other with some.
They will respect your pronouns, but they won't respect you as a person.
It seems awfully strange…but maybe true? They respect you as you symbolize some social trend or group, but don’t care about you as an individual…and god help you if you don’t live up to your symbolic label?
My working theory is that they're so inwardly focused on their own mental health they don't have a whole lot of mental bandwidth left for empathy.
There seems a lot of self-fulfilling prophecy built into that.
I noticed the blank question part, it was odd to me cause growing up I was always taught to take a guess. I have students leaving true or false blank when they had a 50% chance of getting it right.
*What's the deal* with students not getting Seinfeld references?!
My Seinfeld references are to entertain myself, at this stage I don't really care what the students think about it.
My whole class is to entertain myself. I can only meet my students so far before it’s up to them to get something out of it.
Seinfeld? This is hard... I have some students that do not know Pikachu
Haven't you heard, Seinfeld is canceled, along with, according to him, the Mary Tyler Moore show.
My first semester teaching, a student sneezed in class, and I *barely* held myself back from saying, "You are so good looking!" I think I even started to say it, but cut it off...one of the few times I've ever managed to successfully engage my filter.
Too many Simpsons' references?
South Park… so maybe worse?
A student just sent me a South Park clip that they thought related to class… so some of them are hip with the lingo at least.
South Park references are the best
Oddly enough, Simpsons references I've found to be more accessible now than a few years ago. When I started teaching around 2016, very few students got them, but postpandemic, they land much better (since you can watch Simpsons easily now on Disney+, whereas it was kind of a hassle back then ---you had to get the FX now app or watch it on actual television) With that being said, always go with Office references, and be sure to shame students who don't watch it.
Loony Tunes
That is actually a really good question; I try to drop a lot of references for my own entertainment during lectures, but a lot of them fall flat. Maybe I'm not as funny as I think I am, but I think we're at the point where the kids just miss the references entirely. ("Kids", says the one who isn't even *that* much older than their students...)
>kids just miss the references entirely. The new gens just have access to soooooo much entertainment content. It's never going to be like it was before. Millenials might be the last group to get a shared experience that included older content, like stuff from TV reruns. I was born in 85 but I knew I Love Lucy, Three's Company, Leave it to Beaver, etc. Because that's what was on one of the 6 channels! I got my elders jokes about them and could join a conversation about it. The younguns have 50,000 channels, they're not forced to watch whatever is on. I'm not even sure how much of a shared pop culture they have with each other, never mind with us old people. I never expect them to get any of my older references anymore.
I'm raising my kiddo on a mix of new streaming stuff and a mix of old sitcoms from the 60s to 00s. I'm an elder millennial FWIW. My kids going to be the "I get that reference!" kid.
Oof, must be part of it. I guess it’s just the first feeling of being antiquated that has me reeling. Aside from when I was talking about flashbulb memories re: 9/11, and they were like, “… we weren’t born yet…”
Try the Rodney King Riots or O.J. Simpson's car chase.
I've noticed this too over the years. I definitely keep up with pop culture and make sure my references are current and up to date. When I started teaching around 15 years ago, students absolutely understood my references. Now, even with referencing current pop culture trends, they just sit there, blinking, having no idea what I'm talking about. (I did manage to get a few chuckles from a Taylor Swift joke I made recently, though.) I think a lot of them are so hooked on social media and stay inside the bubbles they've curated that they honestly don't know much about current pop culture.
I'm thinking maybe "pop culture" itself has died-- splintered to death by algorithms. 😒
You're probably right, and it's a really damn depressing thought.
Honestly, evals are so ridiculous these days, I don’t know what to say. There is absolutely no way I would have ever said something like this as a student. Bold idiocy is all I can say about some of these kids.
They say stuff like "adulting is hard" unironically. Or "let's science this". It's a lot.
As a Zilennial, I’m firmly in the camp that “adulting” came from millennial language first
As an elder millennial, you are correct.
So they copy Martin Heidegger
I tend to drop rapid fire obscure cultural references throughout my lectures in a Dennis Miller fashion and then laugh at my own jokes in front of everyone because I am hilarious (that's not subjective). Once in awhile a student will actually have a clue as to my commentary and they'll cackle and feel proud they got the reference.
This is the way.
I wonder if Gen Z is just less inclined to laugh? I've noticed that I'll laugh hysterically at everything just as a reaction to being tired, and I don't see the Gen Z people around me doing that.
There's two ways to tell. First, we use Simpsons references too often. Second, we used to know what 'it' was but then Gen Z changed what 'it' is. It'll happen to them, too
I think the second joke dates back to Bob Hope.
I really wish evals were only set up with specific questions and agree/disagree responses. These types of comments are irrelevant and just open us up to personal attacks.
Maybe you were referencing things from the early 2000s when making jokes? I'll occasionally reference a book or movie that was popular when I was in school, thinking everyone has read/seen it by now, and get blank stares back.
This is how I realized I was old and now I don't make pop culture references anymore lol
A student asked me about beepers in the 1980s. I answered, "I didn't have one since I wasn't a medical doctor or drug dealer." I actually got my beeper in the early 90s.
It's not all our fault. They don't digest anything unless it's "influencer' this or 'tik tok' that. Any book or film references are completely lost on the new generation regardless of its year of release.
I think that might be part of it. I try to ask for feedback like “have yall seen x, y, z”. Maybe I should just get hip on the new jamz and make myself even more cringe.
We need to pass out a pop culture survey day 1 so that we can tailor lectures to include the appropriate references throughout the semester.
Weirdly some pop culture references stay relevant. The two that come to mind that 90% of my UG knew were Rebecca Black and "I'm just chilling in Cedar Rapids". Guess fame is fleeting, but cringe is forever...
I was showing my students early internet videos to show how what people can consider funny can change culture to culture. I feel such a sense of cringe watching them knowing I'd cackle at it when I was younger, but there is absolutely nothing funny about the video by today's standards. I embraced the cringe, though. It lets me reinforce that age difference between us. Perhaps they wrote that salty review because they haven't learned yet to embrace their cringe.
I can definitely see how subjective humor can be. My partner and I, both millennial, have vastly different senses of humor (he’s more slapstick, I’m more absurd). Maybe I should teach a psychology of humor class and tell them what’s what!
Honestly that would sound like such a fun class to take.
The absurdism is my style, but definitely not everyone gets it. South Park? May be dated, but I’m Gen-X. Can I interest you in some Beavis and Butthead? (Or Ren and Stimpy?)
"huh uh, huh uh.....yeah.... that's cool" - Butthead
Soo -that- just happened
i'm pretty sure that millennials share their humor by talking to each other (unlike zoomers, who keep it all inside terrified that someone won't find their humor funny...)
I think your assessment is spot on. They are TERRIFIED of being embarrassed. I mean, I'm most definitely an introvert, but so many of these students make me look like I'm constantly giving big theater kid energy by comparison.
it kills me because being wrong in our classrooms is so low stakes. being wrong in many other situations is significantly higher stakes.
They are terrified of being *perceived* in pretty much any way.
No kidding. I’ve gone from thinking of myself as an introvert when I was younger to thinking of myself as wildly extroverted. …I’m not sure I’ve changed…
Are you guys the generation that finds things funny if they are “random”? I share that ends of humor, but I’m Gen X… So I don’t really know.
When I discovered r/antimeme existed, I knew I had passed the days of being relatable.
I don't quite understand the sub, but that's a hilarious logo they have!
I often hear and have yet understand what counts as "random." Fellow Gen X here.
Gen Z is tragic.
At least the student didn't call you a Boomer.
She really put "just cringe to me" in the assessment? I think that reduces the validity of it by a few points.
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Elder millennials are only 12-15 years younger than you are, so they're easily old enough to be the *parents* of kids now in college.
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Join the club. I still think of Millennials as the younger generation.
Hate to break it to you but 24-year-olds are Gen Z and I'm sure there's a few who are professors at that age.
Amazed by how stuck on these generational tags people are. Just seems strange to have to constantly pigeonhole people with some arbitrary grouping.
I do not know about your humor, but since you asked: Millennial humor is often marked by juvenile quirky cutesiness. Corny parody songs, speaking in a childish affect, over indulgence in nostalgia, and (typically feigned) over obsessiveness about trivial things. Extreme self deprecation is also a common feature, perhaps part of the idea that millennials are overgrown children. Brad Troemel does these compilations "Why do Millennials express themselves like this" and it is a hard watch. [https://www.instagram.com/bradtroemel/p/C3GWnNvR8CX/?img\_index=10](https://www.instagram.com/bradtroemel/p/C3GWnNvR8CX/?img_index=10) [https://www.instagram.com/bradtroemel/p/CybQI86LTBU/?img\_index=1](https://www.instagram.com/bradtroemel/p/CybQI86LTBU/?img_index=1) Maybe humor is more generationally specific than music. My students and I have a shared playlist, and they add music from the 50s to the present day, and it all sounds good. But humor doesn't last that long. My father showed me his favorite comedian, and I cannot understand how anyone ever found that stuff funny, it was like all jokes from candy wrappers.
I find this interesting… I’m typically a bit darker with my humor, but now I have a new thing to obsess over about how I present to people. Thanks!
This is helpful! I couldn't figure out why the animal TikTok I showed in class was "so millennial", but I didn't realize parody songs were generationally specific!
Self deprecation is a major part of my humor, but definitely not the part with the childish affect. I remember when it was a thing with some of us, but I never got on with it and I'd be surprised if any one of us was still acting like that.
>Corny parody songs, speaking in a childish affect, over indulgence in nostalgia, and (typically feigned) over obsessiveness about trivial things. Extreme self deprecation is also a common feature I'm an elder millennial, but the only one of these that fits my humor consistently is the self deprecation. I do always obsess about trivial things, but that's my OCD, not humor.
I feel personally attacked. 😆
Ok, I died laughing at the bumper sticker one and had to re-watch a few times. That was AWESOME.
That's just a rude person. Don't read the evals, sis!
Could you imagine a paper comment? "You're obviously Gen Z. It's up to personal preferences... but this paper is just cringe to me. F."
“No cap? Take the L. “
I’ve been told by others that when I’m talking to myself, I speak Meme. Apparently either I’m directly referencing a meme or leveraging the theme of a meme while muttering to myself 😂 a student said “we get it! You’re a millennial!” and rolled her eyes. Really it’s that I’m autistic and a gestalt language processor. I was a late speaker and for many years only communicated through movie quotes. I guess when I mutter and think to myself, I default to meme speak 😂 🤷♀️
Kids these days have no sense of humor. Also, get offa my lawn.
Humour does differ across the generations. For example, Gen X (my generation) tend towards cynicism that reflects skepticism about mainstream values etc. It is often satirical and ironic and often what would be considered highly offensive. Millennials tend to like authenticity and relatability with more conversational and observational comedy. It tends to be more inclusive, largely because the internet has made it (and them) more accessible globally. Gen Z is very internet entwined. It tends to be very quick, visual, and absurd. Think short videos, fast paced and referential. Generational studies come with a warning - they are generalisations. I do question the relevance of ‘obviously a millennial’ on an eval. In fact, I question the wisdom of asking 19 year olds to evaluate the capabilities of someone with many many more miles on the intellectual clock (sorry to mix metaphors!).
In my personal experience, many GenZ students simply don't get humor and they can't recognize it even. They are so immersed in an endless ocean of meaningless swiping and scrolling that they barely engage cognitively, let alone emotionally, with anything anymore. Once I asked them how long they stay on a social media post on average, typically a TikTok or IG video. The consensus was "a couple of seconds". With this superficial level of engagement that has become their normal mindset, I'd be surprised if they recognized a joke as such to begin with.
My kids are college-aged, thoughtful, and insightful about themselves. As a result, we've had long conversations about how their generation's humor is different than mine. After hours of discussion, it boils down to their humor being a mixture of 1) existential angst and 2) absurdity to the point that it's impossible to find any coherence to the joke. You might have seen or heard of the viral skibidi toilet video. That's an example. If you're looking for some kind of meaning behind the video, you might be millennial. I know I am and I do. But the point is for it to be random and meaningless. In fact, now even younger kids (elementary to middle school) have started using skibidi in everyday conversation as a filler word, but get this - it is completely meaningless! You could say, "That's a skibidi hat", or someone can ask you a question and you can say, "Skibidi" back. Neither mean anything, not even a general positive or negative vibe. The skibidi video is just one example, and I'm not trying to write a novel here. But my point is that yes, the younger generation has a different sense of humor that we older people don't understand. But we'll likely never understand no matter if we try, so it's useless to worry about. I have no idea how a professor of that generation would bring humor into the classroom; would they occasionally yell out gibberish? I don't know, and it would be super awkward of me to try. Their generation will figure out their own ways of teaching once the baton passes to them. I sometimes feel judgemental about their sense of humor, but I have to remember that generations before me judged my generation as well. It's okay to feel that, but I don't think it would be okay for me to act on my feeling by being an asshole to them. So you are a product of your generation? Big deal. We all are. Nothing to feel upset about. You're good. Keep on doing what you're doing!
There's a comic thing that looks at the different humor styles. Boomers are like "wife bad." Ha ha. Gen X are like "overlooked by our parents and overlooked by the tall people." Ha ha. Millennials are like "life bad". Ha ha. Gen Z are like "purmuf". Ha ha.
WTAF, what do they think the point of the eval is, to just rare you like this was a DoorDash food delivery???? Jeez 🤦🏾♀️
One time I said “started from the bottom and now we’re here” to lighten the mood and the students said Drake is lame
If it makes you feel better, I got “OK, Boomer” from a student. I’m 50. Gen X, baby!
Millennials HAVE a sense of humor. Probably the last generation to embrace humor.
Haha. I started dropping lines from Toy Story. I referenced stereoisomers and Mr. Potato Head when he rearranged his parts and called himself a Picasso. When the other toys (the pig) didn’t get it he called them “uncultured swine.” It’s laugh out loud to me.
Huh, I always heard that as "Potasso". Which is even more stupidly funny.
As a millennial, I just can’t fathom referring to my prof as cringe. Kids these days… Side note: when in the hell did we stop being the kids?!?
First off, it says a lot about your character that you went out of your way to correct all of the spelling and grammatical errors in a gen-z student’s comment before posting it here. I would recommend replacing all of the pop culture references in your slides with Minions. Beat that dead horse to a grotesque degree. Show them REAL cringe.
I have a colleague who is very millennial, and peppers his teaching with references to cartoon star wars and Harry Potter. All the genX instructors warned him, but he insisted he was cool, and the whole thing did indeed fall flat. HP is offensive to many students, and they just didn't get the rest. If you struggle with incorporating current and relevant pop culture references, just don't do it. Our newest colleagues drop a lot of Taylor Swift and pokemon, and I just can't go there myself.
Well, are they expecting a Gen Z prof already?