Welcome to Comedy Classroom for secondary schools
BBC Comedy Classroom provides teachers with a brilliant framework for young people to explore comedy writing and develop key literacy skills. Focusing on comedy writing is a perfect match for secondary level core curriculum requirements and for teaching English across the UK.
As well as a series of three 60-minute teaching sequences, the BBC Comedy Classroom pack also contains top tips from comedians, comedy industry producers and writers.
By using the resources in the pack and online, you will be able to help students address key literacy outcomes which have been drawn from the National Curriculum in England, the Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland, The Northern Ireland Curriculum and the Curriculum for Wales.
Click here to view the full outcomes this resource can deliver.
By using these resources your students will…
- Communicate clearly and confidently with an audience and also through evaluating their own work and the work of others
- Demonstrate the ability to gain, maintain and monitor the interest of an audience
- Consider how texts can be changed to appeal to different audiences
- Be able to assess the effectiveness of their own and others' writing and suggest improvements
All the activities and resources are designed to inspire you and your class or group to have fun with writing and to motivate students of all abilities. It really is designed to be flexible. Dip in and out of the Comedy Toolbox, put on your creative hat and encourage your pupils to ‘have a write laugh’ and start tickling those funny bones!
The resources are broken down in to 3 categories
- Class Joker
Stand-up comedy – the writer performs words that put across their own particular view of the world
- Class Act
Sketch comedy – the writer turns a funny idea into a scene that people can perform
- Class Comic
Caption comedy – the writer looks at an image and creates a funny line to go with it
You can access lesson plans, student-facing slides, and BBC archive clips from this page.
Class Joker - Stand-up comedy
Students will write a comedy script and perform their stand-up routine. They will learn how to put across their own particular view of the world in their own words.
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Lesson plan
Download the lesson plan for stand-up comedy writing.
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Student-facing slides
Download the student-facing slides to accompany the Class Joker lesson plan.
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Josh Widdicombe stand-up clip
Use this Josh Widdicombe clip as part of the Class Joker lesson plan.
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Stand-up resource clips
Watch some of the finest stand-up comedians deliver pitch perfect routines.
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David Walliams' stand-up tips
Comedian David Walliams offers some advice on writing stand-up comedy.
Class Act - Sketch writing
Students will script and perform a unique sketch. They will learn how to turn a funny idea into a scene that can be performed by more than one person.
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Lesson plan
Download the lesson plan for sketch comedy writing.
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Student-facing slides
Download the student-facing slides to accompany the Class Act lesson plan.
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Numberwang sketch clip
Use this Mitchell & Webb sketch as part of the Class Act lesson plan.
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Sketches resource clips
Watch examples of sketch-writing for television.
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David Walliams' sketch writing tips
Comedian David Walliams offers some advice on writing sketches.
Class Comic - Caption writing
Students will view the images and devise and write appropriate comedy captions in the spaces provided for each image.
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Lesson plan
Download the lesson plan for caption comedy writing.
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Student-facing slides
Download the student-facing slides to accompany the Class Comic lesson plan.
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Captions worksheet
Download the captions worksheet featuring images referred to in the lesson plan.
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David Walliams' caption tips
Comedian David Walliams offers some advice on creating captions.
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Have I Got News for You - Creating captions
This clip shows how parallel thinking can be effective in captioning.
General resources
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Secondary resource booklet
Download this resource booklet which provides a series of three flexible 60-minute teaching sequences. It also contains top tips from comedy industry professionals to help students write the funniest routines, sketches and comedy captions that they can.
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Comedy Toolbox
The Comedy Toolbox helps break comedy down into its separate literary components, helping students to create their own comedy using whichever tools they please.
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Comedy Glossary
The Comedy Glossary helps explain some of the terms often used in comedy writing.
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Lesson slides in JPEG format
View and download individual student-facing slides as JPEGs
Live Lesson
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Watch clips from a special Comedy Classroom Live Lesson
View the full Live Lesson, highlights, and behind the scenes footage
Top tips
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Get some top tips from comedians
Industry experts give their top comedy writing tips
Resource clips
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Stand-up resource clips
Watch some of the finest stand-up comedians deliver pitch perfect routines.
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Sketches resource clips
Watch examples of sketch-writing for television.