Don't laugh - comedy is a serious matter for academic study. Gone are the days when "Mickey Mouse degrees" were the butt of abuse from scornful government ministers - now Mickey is more likely to be on the syllabus.
Claiming a world first, Southampton Solent University is launching a degree in comedy. But can it really be taught? Can seminars or lectures replace the grotty venues of the traditional stand-up circuit?
Chris Ritchie, who devised the course, says: "This is something that has never been done before and for too long stand-up comedy has been ignored as a 'serious' performance based practice and a major part of the entertainment industry.
"The course is three years in duration and aims to develop and encourage students abilities in writing comedy, understanding the theory and history of comedy and how it is performed in different media. The course looks at stand-up comedy, radio and TV sit-com as well as the history and ethics of comedy," adds Dr Ritchie who has a PhD in alternative comedy from the 1950s to the 1990s.
He believes there should be a debate about whether comedy can or should be taught in an academic context, but he points out, "After all, acting, writing, music and film and TV is, so why not comedy?"
Far from sitting around swapping jokes, students will be required to look at writings about comedy which stretch back more than 2,000 years to Aristotle and the ancient Greeks.
And they will be marked on how much work they put into the course, says Dr Ritchie. Students won't get firsts by making the examiners laugh.
.jpg?w=600)
