Is Humour in the Classroom Important? Turns out it is!

We all remember that one teacher who made us actually want to show up to class. The one who could crack a well-timed joke about the lab equipment or poke fun at themselves mid-lecture. As it turns out, there may be real science behind why those classrooms felt different — and why the lessons stuck.

New research from the University of Georgia suggests that instructors who use humor don’t just make class more enjoyable — they may genuinely improve how students learn.

It’s Not About Being Objectively Funny

Here’s where it gets interesting: the researchers didn’t just take the teachers’ word for it, nor their own. More than 45 instructors recorded audio from their classes, and researchers identified every instance of humor used. Students then filled out surveys rating whether they found their instructor funny.

The key finding? What the researchers thought was funny had no bearing on student outcomes. What mattered was whether the students found their teacher funny.

“If a student thought their instructor was funnier, they had more positive emotions about the course and fewer negative emotions about the course as well,” said Trevor Tuma, a postdoctoral research associate at UGA and coauthor of the study.

In other words, humor isn’t a performance to be evaluated from the outside — it’s a connection felt from within the classroom.

Emotions Are Part of Learning

It might be tempting to dismiss classroom mood as a soft concern compared to the hard work of actually learning. But the researchers push back on that view.

“People might look at emotions and say, ‘Oh, you know, that doesn’t really matter. What matters is they’re learning,'” said coauthor Erin Dolan, a professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology. “But emotions influence our learning and our motivation to continue with a subject.”

Positive emotions don’t just make a class feel pleasant in the moment — they’re linked to better retention and, crucially, a greater desire to keep pursuing a subject after the course ends. A student who leaves a biology lab feeling good about the experience is more likely to sign up for the next biology course.

A Word of Caution

The study also found wide disagreement within some classrooms about whether the teacher was funny at all — a reminder that humor is deeply subjective. What lands for one student might fall flat (or worse) for another.

“Humor is going to depend on the type of humor. It’s going to depend on the context. It’s going to depend on your relationship with that instructor,” Tuma noted. The researchers encourage instructors to be thoughtful and intentional rather than treating humor as a simple fix.

The Takeaway

You don’t need to be a stand-up comedian to be a great teacher. But a genuine moment of levity — a self-deprecating comment, a playful aside about the topic at hand — can shift the emotional climate of a classroom in meaningful ways. And that shift, it turns out, has real consequences for how students feel, learn, and grow.

The findings were published in the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education.

This topic was featured in Great News podcast episode 32.

Source: Futurity