'Did you hear the one about ...?' : humour and comedic devices in marketing education

Marketing academics are not stand-up comedians, but humour can be used for valid educational purposes. Whilst a considerable amount of literature exists on humour, limited discussion has been afforded to the ways humour can be incorporated into marketing classrooms. This conceptual paper surveys relevant literature on both humour in education and comedic devices and proposes a research study whereby students reflect on the memorable exposure to teacher humour through critical incident technique. The results of the proposed study have implications for marketing educators seeking to understand what millennial students ('Gen Y') find funny and identify potentially effective comedic devices that have application in higher education.