Michael Rosen: the trick to making children laugh

The novelist and poet on daring to be daft, remembering your own childhood and getting the timing right

I often ask myself, where does humour come from? What’s different about the things that children laugh at, and how can we help them laugh more? It’s well known that if you pull humour apart, you can kill it stone dead. But I’m going to risk a bit of a dissection in the hope that my personal angle into what tickles kids will help you create more laughter.

I start here: children (whether they are much loved and also if they are not) experience the world as people with very little power. As parents, most of us tell ourselves this is all for the good, because we are wiser and more knowledgable than they are. The power gap is inescapable. But, of course, as we exert our power, telling children we are right, right, right, we say and do crazy, illogical things, inconsistent things and, sometimes, horrible things.

Related: My inspiration: Michael Rosen on Molesworth (and his big brother)

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2AePT5I