The Role of Humor in NSA

By Zoe B.

Did you know laughter is a great form of stress relief (Mayo Clinic Staff)? Laughing can have biological effects on our bodies that help reduce the physical symptoms of stress. In an environment like school, where students and teachers are surrounded by stress, humor is important. It makes lessons more engaging, brings students together, and provides outlets for students to have fun. 

One may think since NSA is an online school, there is no space for humor in the classroom, but this could not be further from the truth. In NSA Live classes, where weekly calls are held between students and teachers, many funny stories are shared by students. Mrs. Meyer, one of NorthStar’s teachers, shares, "As long as students are focused on the lesson and engaged, I enjoy jokes and humor in my NSA Live calls. Having fun is important to the learning process, and being comfortable with your teacher and classmates is a good thing, as long as the humor [...] is respectful and enhances the experience for everyone involved.”

Humor is not just present during calls in NSA Live classes. Many teachers add jokes or memes to lessons, which adds an element of fun to the class. While Isabelle does not enjoy this, saying it can make lessons longer, Nathan and Michaela agreed memes are great additions to lessons. Nathan mentioned how “it adds some life to an otherwise sometimes boring/tiring class.”

The humor in classes does not compare to its presence among the students. The school messaging site, Teams, serves as an amazing place for students to interact with one another, build friendships, and joke around 24/7. In Nathan’s words, “NSA humor is a normal every day, every hour, every second thing. A minute [doesn’t] go by without a joke or funny comment being made.” Michaela also adds how humor varies, since “You have silly humor, crazy humor, witty humor, and [...] any kind of humor you can think of. It appears just about anywhere [...].”

In addition to the day-to-day humor, other events and calls provide opportunities for students to joke and laugh among themselves. Calls like “You Laugh You Lose,” are some of the favorites, with Michaela sharing how the call can be very fun and “students really love sharing fun moments like that with their peers.” Other calls or events, that do not have humor as a focus, are still loved. The “End of Year Awards” are a classic, where students vote on which other students fit into different categories. Some are serious, including “Most Likely to be Successful,” but others like “Most Likely to Look Like a T-Rex” are categories based on famous NSA inside jokes. Michaela says she loves the End of Year Awards, while Nathan says, “I love the events, [and] think they have a lot of funny parts.” 

Concerning some of the students’ favorite funny memories, Nathan’s response reveals it as a difficult question to answer, saying he spent “too long trying to think of just one and [I can’t].” He shares how he has had “so many inside jokes, funny moments, [and] moments of dying laughing,” and highlights one of these moments, where, in a call with friends, “[I] had an apple, [...] [I] was eating. It was a rather crunchy apple and so all anyone heard on the call was me munching on an apple and it was quite funny and has been well remembered.” This shows how sometimes the most random moments turn into the fondest memories. Michaela shares “the first SEE afterparty [...]. That had to be the funniest game of mafia I ever played,” sticks out as a memory. She also adds she has many individual memories with friends which are her favorites.

NSA also has tons of inside jokes. Isabelle says her favorite is “Family Trees and being related to everyone a million different ways,” while Nathan says his favorite is the fact he is a blob in some contexts. He explains, “[a student] threw me [out of a] window a few years ago (role playing- for the record) and [I] squished into the ground turning into this weird disgusting blobby form of a human.” One of Michaela’s favorites is the question “So. Who do you like?” which came about when her brother used it as a conversation starter when conversations dried up.

Overall, humor is a huge part of the NSA community, and students enjoy the friendships and amazing memories that come from it. If you are a student and not involved in Teams, let this encourage you to talk to people, joke around, and have fun. In parting, here is Michaela’s final comment after being interviewed: “So. Who do you like?”

Zoe B. lives in Argentina with her parents, dog, and one of two brothers. She is an eleventh grader, and this is her third year at NorthStar but first in the Navigator. In addition to being a writer for the Navigator, she is also one of two Club Coordinators for Student Council and a tutor for High School students. She has been playing sports all her life and is currently a competitive tennis player who dedicates a lot of hours to training and competing around South America.

👤NSA People, 🧑‍🚀NSA Culture, PopularEIC NSA2024-2025, February 2025 Publication