Whose line is it anyway

Description of the tool

The plenary has to be arranged as a TV studio, where participants alternate as audience and as actors. The trainers will have to act as anchorman and anchorwoman. The only guideline given to participants is to be funny and make comedy.
At first the whole group is divided into 2 groups, who will compete with each other.

ACT 1 – Scenes from the Hat.
5 participants per team stand at two sides of the plenary room. The trainer will read out a situation. Participants need to think a one-liner joke about this situation, no longer than 5 seconds. The team who manages to make 5 sketches, gets 5 Points. For every extra sketch they get an extra 1 point.

Situations:
- Bad choices to make if the Alladin lamp grants you one wish
- Things you don’t expect to hear when you put your ear in a sea shell.
- If comedians/entertainers were directing funerals
- What is George W. Bush thinking right now
- Worst things to say in the ear of your girlfriend/boyfriend when in bed.

At the end of the scenes the trainers assign points.

Then a task for TEAM 1.
One is acting as a host, and receives guests to a party, just has no idea of who the guests are. The guests are other participants who are given a secret role. (The Audience knows the roles)
The guests come in one by one and are already acting. At the end of the sketch the host has to guess who the guests are.
1) Guest : Depressed wrestler because he failed to be an Aerobic instructor.
2) Guest: Fashion Police Instructor
3) Thinks that people’s bottoms are magical and when touched can make wishes.
Then the host has to guess . if guesses right gets 10 points to TEAM 1

Then its TEAM 2 turn. They need 3 participants and 3 chairs. This is the rule, constantly during the sketch, one has to sit on a chair, one has to lean on a chair, one has to stand, and they have to make it as spontaneous as possible. The three participants are asked to act out an argument involving husband, wife and the lover of the husband, the wife had discovered them not long before. Depending on how much the audience laughs they get 10 points maximum.

The it is TEAM 1 final turn.
The have to pretend they are a cast of a Hollywood film. 2 participants are acting as two Italian chefs making Pizza, when they discover a huge rat in the kitchen and they call for another participant who is a pest disinfector. The film director can come in any time he/she wishes and change the style of the film . for example Gangster film, romantic film, Action movie, Musical, etc…
Depending on how much the audience laughs they get 10 points maximum.

Then it’s TEAM 2 final turn
They have to ask the audience for a language, any language they wish as long as its not a language from the group or that the group might know, and then a possible title for an Action Film from that country. Once they have the language and movie title . 2-3 participants have to be the actors in the movie and prepare the scenes pretending they are speaking in that language. Two other participants from TEAM 2 have to be the dubbers, and dub the film in English according to the actions of the actors.
Depending on how much the audience laughs they get 10 points maximum.

Then an energiser brings participants back to themselves, and all are seated, the feedback after the exercise is about humour, about what makes you laugh what doesn’t, what differences are there in humour and how to categorise humour.

This exercise apart from being fun and creating a fun sharing situation with all the participants can be used to understand how humour influences culture and vice-versa, and in intercultural communication how can humour be used and what to beware of.