SNL Comic Responds to Bronxville students’ “Deep Thoughts”
All year, students in Jackie Silvestri's Creative Writing Through The Arts classes at FlexSchool's Bronxville location have been studying the art of writing comedy. So, when it came to considering the notion that "Brevity is the soul of wit”, students looked to the writings of Jack Handey, specifically, his Deep Thoughts, which were featured on Saturday Night Live in short, faux-meditative segments, and for which Jack Handey was a writer for many seasons.
According to Handey's Deep Thoughts, "The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face." Using the same approach to whimsical, stand-alone, deadpan one-liners, students wrote and shared their own unique Deep Thoughts. They also read about and researched Jack Handey's own approach to writing comedy, which often involves sharing absurd facts about the world in matter-of-fact approaches. Earlier in the year, students had even taken a look at the SNL sketch "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer," also written by Handey, for their unit on writing and performing Sketch comedy.
Not only did students enjoy reading and creating their own inspired Deep Thoughts, students were so excited about their own work they emailed several of their favorites to Jack Handey himself! To their surprise and delight, he responded to each student in the class within 24 hours of sending him their original Deep Thoughts!
When asked about the experience, students were excited. Matteo, an 8th grader at FlexSchool explained, "I really enjoyed the assignment, and thought that hearing back from someone this influential to the world of comedy, was awesome." When asked about his experience, Danny, also in 8th grade responded by saying, "It was thrilling emailing Mr. Jack Handey. Deep Thoughts are fantastic, and the entire class was ecstatic when we got a response." Another student, Ariel, shared that the entire experience was "very fun," and, specifically "liked that the [Deep Thoughts] were very short and creative."
Even Jackie got a response, not only referring to her as a "Comedy Compatriot”, but letting her know how exciting it was to see her students' original work, and how honored he was to be considered in this course of study. This was exciting for a longtime fan of Jack Handey to hear, and an honor unto itself.
With only a few weeks left in the school year, this was certainly an exciting highlight for students in Creative Writing at FlexSchool this Spring!
