Feb 06, 2017 09:52 AM EST By Amanda Foster, UniversityHerald Reporter

Comedy is the art of professional entertainment consisting of acts and funny jokes to invoke laughter from an audience. What was once considered to be a gift of humor is now being taught in colleges. Comedy Studies is now a minor at Lake Erie College. Performance majors can now pursue a minor in this study which is a new offering at the College's School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

Lake Erie College's announcement on the new addition to the program explains that the Comedy Studies minor will help students harness their creativity and sharpen their skills while exploring the different dimensions of comedy as an art form, as reported by The News Herald.

The Comedy Studies class at Erie will be led by associate professor of theater Jerry Jaffe. He is the man behind the conception of the minor in Erie College.

Jaffe is excited to lead the class and says that comedy can be used in a whole lot of areas. But he points out that stand-up comedy is not the only subject in the class. Also, Comedy Studies can be used in different professions too, such as public relations and marketing.

According to Jaffe, he senses a growing interest in the field of comedy because of the different programs that showcase comedy in the school and in the different colleges around the country. Comedy Studies will focus on the different forms of comedy such as performance, creative writing, art, stand-up comedy, film, design, advertising and history.

Other students have benefited from comedy studies. Senior theater majors from a local campus has launched a web series for the LGBTQ community titled "Chapstick." The seniors leading the web series are Charlotte Kennett and Kearney Fagan from Columbia, as reported by The Columbia Chronicle. The show is about a comedic LGBTQ story between best friends and their journey as artists and queer women. They used essential issues in the LGBTQ community and added comedic content to create a perspective on the story.

Watch the season 1 trailer promo of "Chapstick" below, a comedy studies project:

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