Shakespearean Humor

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One of my favorite things when learning more about Shakespeare is finding his quotes in everyday things. Whether it is in advertising, movies, TV shows, or even finding myself quote weird lines, it brings me a little bit of joy. I don’t know if this my inner English nerd coming out, but I kind of think it’s funny to see the quotes misinterpreted, more often not. One example I see more often than I probably should is on the inside of the Chick-fil-a nugget box of “To dip or not to dip.” Another that I’ve only seen once was on the inside cap of a Sobe Water bottle with the quote of “star-crossed lizards” rather than “star-crossed lovers” of Romeo and Juliet. As lame as it sounds, I get a kick out of seeing these things.

Personally, incorporating humor into Shakespeare’s play has helped me further understand the context of the scene. One of my favorite things that I find funny, as weird as it sounds, is looking at the play or the scene and trying to imagine it happening in modern times. For example, in our Qualities of Mercy scene, the writers adopted the script to involve memes and just a sense of humor in general. There were certain parts of the scene that had me trying to hold in my laughter a little bit, but it helped me better understand the attitudes of the characters and the tone of the scene better. For example, way back in Henry V, the scene regarding the Pistol and the leek, “You called me yesterday “mountain squire,” but I will make you today a squire of low degree. I pray you, fall to. If you can mock a leek, you can eat a leek” (5.1.31). This literally made no sense to me when I first read it, but then after a joke was made in class about it, I realized it made no sense to anyone.

But the best part of learning and “understanding” Shakespeare is finally being able to understand some of the more in-depth humor and memes that come with it. Shakespeare memes are by far the best modern translation. They get to the point and they add a sense of humor that makes the scene or quote so much more memorable. There have been so many plays that I haven’t read yet but know just enough about the plot because of memes.




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