Claire Newman could feel the air becoming tense when her roommate and her boyfriend were in a heated argument. But she immediately began to ramble off light-hearted sentences to ease the mood. The sociology sophomore found it easy to cool the escalating tension in her apartment by spouting off a joke.  ”Laughing is a very essential part of life,” Newman said.People like Newman are rewarded every time they make people laugh — a concept Twix brand is using to reward the funniest student in America.Twix is searching for “The funniest college student on campus” in a contest ending on April Fools’ Day.  The winner receives a $3,000 check from the company and a one-week internship to the TBS A “Very Funny” Festival: Just For Laughs, for which Twix is one of the main sponsors.Everyone enjoys well done comedy, said John Fletcher, theatre professor. But if people can’t connect with the person making the joke, they won’t find any humor in the situation, he said.”[People] like to laugh,” Fletcher said. “It’s freeing, and it gives us a sense of perspective.”Comedy allows people to laugh at the boring and stressful problems in life, and laughing can teach the moral of not sweating the small things, Fletcher said.Twix is trying to find the most entertaining candidate to give the winner “a break” from the stress of life, said Julie Curry, account executive for Weber Shandwick, a public relations firm. College, university and junior college students can submit a video up to three minutes long to the company’s Web site to compete in the contest, she said. “[Students] can tell a joke, act out [or say] anything clean to make the judges laugh,” Curry said.One of the most effective forms of humor is when the person making everyone laugh is the brunt of the joke, said Loretta Pecchioni, communication studies professor.Comedy makes everyone feel good about themselves, and audience members at a comedy show want to be engaged, Pecchioni said.”Laughing is one of the best things about letting off steam,” said Curry. The comedy festival, hosted by TBS for the first time in Chicago, will host famous comedians including Ellen DeGeneres and Dane Cook.Newman said she can turn anything she does into a funny situation because she just continues to talk until people start laughing.Zachary Lott, English sophomore, said the only time he laughs at comedy is when he can relate with the story the comedian is telling in the joke.”I think laughter is the best part about life,” Lott said.People tend to think a joke is funny when it’s original, but a lot of times good comedy is expected humor, Fletcher said.The reason humor is effective is the connection people can make with others, Pecchioni said.”Humor is a great coping strategy,” Pecchioni said. “It helps us make sense of the world.”Nervous or uncomfortable situations can be resolved by laughing or telling a joke, she said.”Shy people are generally not funny,” Pecchioni said.  Devin Allain, construction management senior, said he grew up in a house full of family members who “loved to tell dumb jokes.”He said he would sit back and listen but would never pipe in with his own.”I guess I’ve never been good at telling jokes,” Allain said. “I can’t seem to remember any jokes or the punch lines.”Pecchioni said noticing the little details is the heart of joking. “Going to get a book of jokes is not going to make you funny,” she said. “But I think people can look at structure of jokes.”People who are considered funny by their peers or co-workers generally understand when it is appropriate to make fun of a situation, Pecchioni said. If a joke is overly racist or sexist, people may be hesitant to laugh, Fletcher said.A recent study conducted by several graduate students in the Communication Studies Department explored the idea of how effective humor is in classroom settings.Michael Rold, communication study researcher and doctorate student, said the study measured how credible teachers who used humor in the classroom perform in three areas — confidence, trustworthiness and goodwill.One of the results of the study showed students perceived female professors as more trustworthy if they were funny, Rold said.”[Humor] can make an instructor more human in the eyes of the students,” Rold said. “It … can work to someone’s advantage but should be used sparingly.”Sometimes a professor may use humor to cover up a deficiency or a hole in the lecture, Rold said. Too much humor can take away from a teacher’s credibility, he said.Figuring out when it’s the right time to tell a joke is important, Pecchioni said.”They’re times when we just need to be serious,” she said. “[But] being able to tell a good story that makes people laugh and brings people together … is a positive feeling we like.”—-Contact Joy Lukachick at [email protected]