Comedian and actor Dennis Miller was born in 1953.

Dennis Miller’s career in comedy did not begin until after his graduation from Point Park College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While doing standup in Los Angeles, he was discovered by Lorne Michaels, the producer of Saturday Night Live. This constituted Miller’s “big break,” as he rapidly rose to national fame as the deadpan and somewhat sardonic commentator for the show’s regular news program sketch, Weekend Update.

Following his six-year stint on SNL, Miller co-produced and starred in his own HBO show called Dennis Miller Live, for which he won two Emmys. In addition to appearances in a number of major motion pictures, Miller spent two years adding his voice to the play-by-play commentary for ABC’s Monday Night Football. Miller is known for being extremely literate, and some of his obscure references seemed out of place in sports commentary; in 2002, after some criticism, Miller was replaced by John Madden.

Science NetLinks
High school students learn about gelotology, or the science of laughter, in a two-part series on laughter. In the first lesson, The Laughing Brain 1: How We Laugh (9-12), students learn about how the brain reacts to an external stimulus that is funny and about the positive effects of laughter in terms of our social, mental and physical well-being.

The second lesson, The Laughing Brain 2: A Good Laugh (9-12), focuses on three concepts. First, it focuses on the various theories of laughter. Second, it focuses on the benefits of laughter to our mental health. And third, it explores psychoneuroimmunology (the scientific discipline which studies how our state of mind affects our health).

ARTSEDGE
In A Question of Style (9-12), students explore the nature of comedy by informally staging the opening scenes in Shakespeare's "As You Like It."

Illuminations
The unit Mathematics and Football (Pre-K–8) has five activities that focus on connections between mathematics and football by using the Super Bowl. Students are asked to look at the Super Bowl not just as "the big game," but as an opportunity to apply mathematics to some interesting problems. The activities involve number sense, geometry, measurement, statistics, estimations and problem solving.