Humorous Interpretation Guidelines

High School students participating in the National Forensic League are all familiar with the different types of events offered in competition. One of the most thrilling and popular events offered for students branches from the "Interpretation" category titled "Humorous Interpretation." An event tailor made for performers and creative individuals, "HI" gives students an opportunity to express themselves through someone else's words with an original spin.

To begin, students must select a published work (must have an ISBN number) and make sure they understand the meaning of the piece on the whole. After becoming acquainted with the piece, the student must cut the piece down to ten minutes. Depending on where you perform and under what rules, the piece may be as short as 7 minutes and as much as 10 minutes and 30 seconds. After cutting the piece, the student must focus on memorization. No scripts, props, or costumes are allowed on stage while performing, so the piece must be completely memorized and if it calls for props or costumes, they must be mimed out.

The true nature of the Humorous Interpretation is how creative the performer is in their voices and "pops." Through different voices, students are able to portray an array of characters ranging from a crippled old lady to a boisterous young man all in the same performance. These voices help differentiate characters for the audience and judge, and the more authentic the voices, the more likely a judge is to rank you higher. Another way of differentiating your characters and narrator is through "popping" or "blocking" which is shaping your body to look like the character or pretending to use props. An example of this is hunching over and pretending to hold a cane if you're a crippled old lady.

Humorous Interpretation rounds usually consist of five to seven competitors who will all be ranked in numerical order with a ranking of 1 meaning the best. Depending on your rankings, you receive NFL Points which add credit to your overall reputation in the forensics world, with a ranking of 1 giving you 5 points, 2 giving you 4 points, 3 giving you 3 points, 4 giving you 2 points and a ranking of 5 or less only 1 point.

Unlike its sister event, Dramatic Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation is meant to be just that, humorous. Selections are meant to be light in nature and voices and pops are meant to be exaggerated for added humorous effect. Great HI's are meant to have a purpose and a story line that the audience can easily follow and completely understand.