Pupils laugh at teachers: the forms and functions of teacher-focused school humour

The article is related to the issue of pupil humor aimed at teachers in the setting of lower secondary schools and is based on an analysis of pupils' written narratives. The data are categorized according to various situational modes in which the teachers find themselves as objects of humor - unintended comic mode, mode of pupil snare and mode of teacher joke. The analysis shows a number of functions of the school humor, especially in terms of acceptable expression of hostile feelings among pupils and teachers.