Blog

We edit many very interesting papers, but so far we haven’t had any humorous ones … it would have been fun to edit this paper.

“We Decided We Don’t Want Children. We Will Let Them Know Tonight”: Parental Humor on Social Media in a Time of Coronavirus Pandemic

Co-authored by Nelly Elias of BGU’s Department of Communication Studies, and Dafna Lemish of Rutgers, the study analyzed humor about parenting that has been circulating on Israeli social networks this year. COVID-19, the novel coronavirus that has kept so many of us close to home, has proven to be a rich source of very black humor … and Israelis are experts at the dankest, darkest, black humor.

Of course, lockdown has allowed families to enjoy each other for long periods of extended time, for children to learn about the wonders of organic gardening and artisinal gourmet foods, and for adults to rekindle their love life now they have time together. Or at least, that’s what I see on my social media feeds … all those scrubbed shining faces gazing adoringly at their gorgeous parents.

But there’s a deeper, darker layer of enforced family time … children are bored and stir-crazy, parents are desperately trying to get some work done, and everyone’s just a bit tired of everyone else. It’s led to some pretty cold one-liners, including my personal favorite: “I am really tired of watching my mother’s grandchildren.”

So if anyone’s writing another research paper that can give us a good laugh, get in touch … we’ll be thrilled to edit it for you!

Fascinating and disturbing study by Emily Khazan of the University of Florida. Taking advantage of an online course on natural resource ecology, with no face-to-face contact between students and their teaching assistant, students were assigned either a male or female teaching assistant; Jesse Borden or Emily Khazan. Students saw a photo of each TA, with similar accompanying bios.

At the end of the semester, students gave higher course evaluation scores to Jesse, the male teaching assistant, with Emily receiving five times as many negative reviews.

However, there was no male TA … Khazan was the assistant for the entire class.

“Girls are told throughout their education that they’re not as good at science and math as boys. You have this pool of people who made it through all of that and are still being told by their students that they’re not as good. It can have a compounding effect,” Khazan said. 

University of Florida News

The study is to be published in the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Journal.