Earlier this month, Chancellor Ronnie Green, in conjunction with the College of Business, Dean, Kathy Farrell, revealed their newest major at UNL: comedy.
The major will include a variety of focuses such as joke analysis, applied humor, secondary joke education, general comedy, and circus performance.
Students will have the option of selecting either a Bachelor of Arts option, intended for those who want to waste their time and money, or a Bachelor of Science option, intended for those that want to pursue graduate comedic studies.
The College of Business is anticipating general comedy to be the most popular option for incoming high school dropouts. The list of new classes includes, but is not limited to:
COMD101 Hook, Line, and Sinker – Intro to the College of Business
COMD104 Jests and Japes
COMD208 One-Liners for All Occasions
COMD217 History of the Nebraska Cornhuskers
COMD219 Funnies, Goofs, and Gaffs
COMD314 Gut-busters: Comedy as a Weapon
COMD315 Nuances of Satire and Religious Imagery
COMD489 Poop Jokes Beyond Middle School
COMD499 Wisecracks and Witticisms
The major will require students to take at least one lab. This can be fulfilled through COMD124 Stand Up or COMD125 Sit Down. Comedy majors will not be required to fulfill the ACE 8 (ethical reasoning) requirement. Their ACE 10 (capstone) requirement will be met by creating a joke that is able to make Ronnie Green laugh – and the subject cannot be Nebraska nor anything related to Nebraska.
In an interview with Dean Farrell, we asked why the College of Business was hosting such a program. We didn’t get the response we wanted, so here is what we thought the reasoning was: it has the funniest building. I mean, seriously? $84 million for that? All I’m saying is, is that if I had the same $84 million it would have looked a lot cooler. You could build a really cool waterpark for that much, I reckon.
The addition of the comedy major marks another degree program that UNL offers that few other schools do (the other program being, of course, Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law). At this rate, we’re expecting a Cat Herding or Outer Space Cow Tipping major to debut shortly.
This major is set to be available starting next semester, but you have the option to pre-enroll in the program by enrolling in Business Administration and selecting the “management” option.
