Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Age appropriate movies for humor development?

hmmm-DS8 and DS10 are starting to develop a sense of humor. What would be good movies to watch with them?

If they watch movies they might develop someone else's sense of humor.

Some may say this sounds rather late. Interested parents may wish to use a web search to locate lists of developmental milestones.

Movies may not be an effective media for parents to use in cultivating a child's emerging sense of humor, unless watching at home and stopping the scenes to discuss and explain.

Many children enjoy books of riddles and puns which may help acquaint them with word play such as homonyms, spoonerisms, oxymorons, and more. Word play may form the basis of much good humor. There are also websites which may be of interest to parents as a resource, such as Fun With Words.

A positive, intellectual sense of humor may be based on bonding over a shared understanding of word play... as opposed to a negative or ironic sense of humor based on win/lose scenarios such as mocking or schadenfreude. This article from the Davidson Database discusses humor, including Constructive vs. Destructive humor.

Beyond word play, there are many children's books categorized as "humor". Utilizing the search feature on the barnes&noble website retrieves many selections. This old thread on humorous books may also be of interest.

The word game Apples to Apples (also available in junior editions for children) presents humor and the opportunity for discussion of why something is funny.

Of course "age appropriate" is a shaky term here as my "age defying" eight year old argues for many variations of appropriate.

What he's really enjoyed are the Spy Kid movies as they have quite a few layers of humor. The Croods was a laugh fast and the Shrek movies. Watching at a theater gives some normative responses. Some cartoons like Phineas and Ferb have some great variations. Kid oriented sitcoms offer laugh tracks and the chnace to debate whether and why something is funny. I find it takes only a light comment to guide my DS away from the more low brow, but seeing it in play helps in not misunderstanding other people's laughter.

To clarify- I was thinking along the lines of movies with layers. Given that gifted kids pick up on both the constructive AND destructive humor, I thought some parents might have suggestions of movies they appreciated with their children. "Parental Guidance" comes to mind. We all enjoyed it shared a good laugh.

For example- while not a comedy, while we watched "August Rush" together, my DS7 found it hilarious when the little girl screams and says to the church pastor "You know how we learned about Mozart and how he was a prodigy?..... Well, I have one and he's living under my bed!"

My boys seem to be at stage where they are "trying out" sarcasm and playful banter - I accept it as a normal part of their development- I just want to make sure the influences we provide are constructive. My very verbal DS10 seems to have a great sense of humor which he is learning to express.

I am not sure what to suggest but just wanted to say we love "August Rush" and that scene always tickle me. I actually don't know anyone else that has seen that film!

I don't know when your boys will be ready for Monty Python or Hitchhikers Guide to Universe but my DD enjoyed the humour in those. She is a bit older and we are pretty permissive with viewing as she self edits very well.

Even Matilda has different layers.....

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a hoot. An oldie that hits that spot is Time Bandits. The Princess Bride is another. Depends on what sort of filters you want as those have various amounts of violence and dark humor. Beetlejuice, Hugo, Matilda, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Up.

Galaxy not Universe, gads where is my brain.

Good suggestions Zen Scanner. Love Princess Bride!

I suppose that now is not a good time to admit that my 10yo DD's favorite movies (aside from The Princess Bride and Monty Python anything) were Little Miss Sunshine and Groundhog Day. At 12, she developed a fondness for A Fish Called Wanda. I feel like a horrible person for admitting that, somehow. (I'm kind of reliving that awful moment at the homeschool day where my 4yo happily announced to the entire lab group-- that she knew exactly what a necropsy was, and that she intended to be a forensic pathologist and she LOVED watching CSI, even if some of that stuff wasn't very realistic... Yeah, good times. EVERY other parent looked at me as though I ought to be reported to... well, somewhere.)



She's got a WICKED sense of humor, and always has-- but has no trouble not leveling that destructive side at other people, and self-edits extremely well, as ndw notes. So we don't worry about it. At 5-8yo, she was VERY fond of comic anthologies like Garfield, Peanuts, The Far Side, and Calvin and Hobbes (which in some ways is almost perfect for HG+ kids).



The Muppet Show and Doctor Who might be appealing at the ages the OP noted. Ohhhh-- I know a film that you might consider, actually (but prescreen to make sure of any content that you might personally find objectionable)-- Dean Spanley.

Good suggestions- never thought about Groundhog Day but I can see how that would appeal! I'm ashamed to say that I've never seen Hitchhiker's Guide. I was wondering how Monty Python would be received by that age group?

We made the call to let our DS10 read Michael Crichton- he was concerned when he ran across a few "bad words."