What is stand-up comedy? Can you think of any famous stand-up comedians?

Transcription

1 Robot comedy A A ENGLISH IN VIDEO Lesson code: 9ZE7-QCV9-Z472 ADVANCED 1 Warm-up What is stand-up comedy? Can you think of any famous stand-up comedians? 2 Watching and listening - Part 1 Heather Knight runs Marilyn Monrobot Labs, which creates socially-intelligent robots. You are going to watch her give a talk and demonstration of one of her robots at TEDWomen, a global event held in December Before you watch, look at the words below from the first part of the talk, and match them to their definitions on the right: 1. robotics a. a new business activity 2. dramatic arts b. approval for a performance, involving clapping the hands and making noise 3. venture c. disapproval for a performance by making a noise 4. adorable d. performances in front of people, e.g. acting in a play 5. applause e. the science of making and using robots 6. booing f. very attractive and small, making you feel great affection What do you think the demonstration is going to be about? Watch the first part of the video clip to see if you are right. 3 Checking understanding Put T (True) or F (False) next to the statements below: 1. The speaker is interested in entertainment and robotics. 2. The robot Data is named after a character from the television series Star Trek. 3. The robot cannot know what the audience think of its performance. 4. The audience can show their approval by holding up the red paddles. 5. The audience who are not in the middle section can only show their response with applause or booing. 6. The robot can learn from the audience and make decisions. You can review this worksheet online at 1/3

2 Robot comedy 4 Watching and listening - Part 2 In the second part of the video, the robot is going to tell three jokes. Before you watch, answer the questions below: 1. Name four things the Swiss are renowned for. 2. Name three things the French are renowned for. 3. What is the common emergency telephone number used in the USA and Canada? 4. Explain the difference between the terms rare, medium and well-done. What else do these words mean? Now watch the second part of the video. Did you get the jokes? 5 Find the words Study the transcript for the second part of the video. Put each words or phrase in bold next to the correct definition below: 1. takes a short, fast breath because of surprise or shock: 2. takes something quickly out of its place: (informal) 3. an area of land covered with trees: 4. is heard on the phone again: 6 Adjectives for describing humour The adjectives below are often used to describe jokes and people s sense of humour. Match them to their correct definitions on the right. 1. amusing a. childish, silly 2. hilarious b. clearly making an effort to be funny but not succeeding 3. lame c. extremely funny 4. black d. funny in a clever way without showing emotion 5. immature e. funny in an ironic, slightly unkind way, e.g. "Working hard, I see!" to someone who is playing computer games. 6. try-hard f. mildly funny 7. dry g. not funny at all 8. crude h. related to taboo topics, especially death 9. sarcastic i. rude and offensive 10. corny j. very unoriginal and therefore not funny Describe Data s jokes using the adjectives above. You can review this worksheet online at 2/3

3 Robot comedy 7 Talking point Discuss any of the following questions: 1. Do you think robots can replace stand-up comedians? 2. What kind of humour do you like? 3. What kind of humour is popular in your country? 8 Flashcard review Don t forget what you learned in this lesson! Go to click Learning English and enter Lesson code: 9ZE7-QCV9-Z472. You can review this worksheet online at 3/3

4 Robot comedy - Transcripts 2- Watching and listening - Part 1 Heather: Some of the greatest innovations and developments in the world often happen at the intersection of two fields. So tonight I d like to tell you about the intersection that I m most excited about at this very moment, which is entertainment and robotics. So if we re trying to make robots that can be more expressive and that can connect better with us in society, maybe we should look to some of the human professionals of artificial emotion and personality that occur in the dramatic arts. I m also interested in creating new technologies for the arts and to attract people to science and technology. Some people in the last decade or two have started creating artwork with technology. With my new venture, Marilyn Monrobot, I would like to use art to create tech. So we re based in New York City. And if you re a performer who wants to collaborate with an adorable robot, or if you have a robot that needs entertainment representation, please contact me, the bot agent. The bot, our rising celebrity, also has his own Twitter So I d like to introduce you to one of our first robots, Data. He s named after the Star Trek character. I think he s going to be super popular. We ve got the robot -- in his head is a database of a lot of jokes. Now each of these jokes is labelled with certain attributes. So it knows something about the subject, it knows about the length. It knows how much it s moving. And so it s going to try to watch your response. I actually have no idea what my robot is going to do today. So it can also learn from you about the quality of its jokes and cater things -- sort of like Netflix-style -- over longer-term to different communities or audiences -- children versus adults, different cultures. You can learn something from the robot about the community that you re in. And also I can use each one of you as the acting coach to our future robot companions. So some of you in this middle section. You have red/green paddles. If you like what s going on, show the green. If you don t like the subject or the performance, you can hold the red. Now don t be shy. It s just a robot; it doesn t have feelings... yet. And the rest of you, you still count, you still matter. There s also a microphone that s listening to the aggregate laughter and applause and booing -- I hope not -- to help make some of its next decisions. Right, so, let the robot stand-up comedy begin. You can review this worksheet online at i

5 Robot comedy - Transcripts 4- Watching and listening - Part 2 Data: Hello TEDWomen. It s an honour to be here. You guys are looking good out there. Ready for some jokes? Audience: Yeah. Data: Here s the first one. Right, so, a doctor says to his patient, "I have bad news and worse news. The bad news is that you only have 24 hours to live.""that s terrible," said the patient. "How can the news possibly be worse?" "I ve been trying to contact you since yesterday." The Swiss have an interesting army. Five hundred years without a war. Heather: He s talking about the Swiss. Data: Pretty lucky for them. Ever see that little Swiss Army knife they have to fight with? "Come on buddy, I have the toe clippers right here. You get past me, The guy behind me has a spoon." Heather: He s a French robot. Data: A couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods. One of them falls to the ground. He does not seem to be breathing. The other guy whips out his cellphone and calls 911. He gasps to the operator, "My friend is dead. What can I do?" The operator says, "Just take it easy. I can help. First, let s make sure he s dead." There s a silence, and the operator hears a shot. The guy s voice comes back on the line, "Okay, now what?" Question: Why is television called a medium? Anyone? Because it s neither rare nor well done. But to be completely honest with you, I kind of love television. Any of you like television? Audience: Yes. Data: I find it incredibly educational. Actually, as soon as someone turns it on, I go into the other room and read. That s all for now. Was that okay for my first time? You ve been a great audience. Thank you. Heather: So this is actually the first time we ve ever done live audience feedback to a performance. So thank you all for being a part of it. There s a lot more to come. And we hope to learn a lot about robot expression. Thank you very much. You can review this worksheet online at ii

6 Robot comedy - Key 1- Warm-up Stand-up comedy is comedy performed by a single person on a stage in front of an audience. 2- Watching and listening - Part 1 1. e 2. d 3. a 4. f 5. b 6. c Play the video. For a less advanced class, select English subtitles. Pause at the end of Heather s introductory speech (03:00). Note: At 01:57, Heather makes a reference to Netflix. This is an American company that provides on-demand internet streaming media and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. 3- Checking understanding If necessary, play the first part again, selecting subtitles in the student s language (for one-to-one or monolingual classes). 1. T 2. T 3. F 4. F 5. T 6. T 4- Watching and listening - Part 2 Try to prompt Swiss Army knives for Q1 and cuisine for Q2. Possible answers (for Q1 and Q2): 1. chocolate, cheese, banks, Swiss Army knives 2. cuisine, wine, fashion They refer to how a steak is cooked (rare - not cooked for very long and still red; medium - no longer red in the middle, well-done - cooked all the way through). Rare also means not common. Medium also means between high and low and a method or way of showing/expressing something, e.g. Television is an entertainment medium. Well done is also a phrase used to praise something. Play the second part of the video (from 03:00). Select English subtitles for less advanced classes. You may need to pre-teach toe clippers (a device for cutting toenails). 5- Find the words Hand out a copy of the second transcript page to the students. 1. gasps 2. whips out 3. the woods 4. comes back on the line 6- Adjectives for describing humour 1. f 2. c 3. g 4. h 5. a 6. b 7. d 8. i 9. e 10. j You can review this worksheet online at i