What goes ha ha ha bonk? School children laughing their heads off at a comedy workshop organised by De Montfort University Leicester (DMU), that's what!
Around 50 youngsters from Leicester schools were invited to DMU to learn the art of a good gag with professional comedians from the Dave Leicester Comedy Festival.
The Loving Laughing event was part of a larger project called E-Twinning, which is connecting schools from across Europe, encouraging schoolchildren to understand different cultures and backgrounds by sharing online videos of themselves.
At DMU, pupils from three of those schools - all based in Leicester - met for the first time and were challenged by comedy pros - and joined by Leicester's Lord Mayor, Ted Cassidy - to deliver their best material in front of a tough crowd: dozens and dozens of youngsters.
All the children were set the task of coming up with a joke involving three elements: a shoe, a pencil and a doctor.
After some workshopping in groups, volunteers came to the front of the lecture theatre and tried their best to land a well-timed punchline and bring the house down.
Loving Laughing - the top five kids' gags
- Why was the doctor angry? Because he had no patience!
- Did you hear about the doctor who got a pencil stuck in his shoe? He got straight to the point!
- What did the one shoe say to the other shoe? Stop copying my style!
- What do jokes and pencils have in common? Both are no good without a point!
- Why did the banana go to the doctors? Because he wasn't very a -peeling!
With a wryly raised eyebrow, nine-year-old Kyle Howells, of Braunstone Frith Primary School asked the audience whether they'd heard about the doctor who got a pencil stuck in his shoe.
No, they answered back, they hadn't.
Quick as a flash, Kyle returned with: 'he got straight to the point!'
The house came down.
Afterwards, Kyle explained his inspiration for the joke. He said: "I'm, quite surprised I came up with it, really. It was better than I hoped.
"My little brother is quite funny but dad's jokes are really bad. The funniest thing which happened recently was when I was playing football on Tuesday. I went to kick the ball, missed and slipped over. That kind of thing is really funny."
Also getting a good laugh was seven-year-old Alfie Breed, who suggested that a banana which had visited its doctor had done so because, quite simply, it wasn't very appealing.
Alfie, of Mayflower Primary School, said: "My dad's the funny one in our family but I like making people laugh. I don't do it at school though, I don't want to get into trouble."
Mayflower teacher Hannah Boyden, who had helped co-ordinate the Loving Laughing event, said it had been fascinating.
She said: "We have 28 schools from countries including England, Greece, Spain, Poland, Turkey and France and pupils have all been sharing jokes.
"We've seen versions of 'knock knock' jokes in other languages, like 'mum-mum' in French. It's been a really good way for children to learn about other cultures."
Posted on Monday 15 February 2016