{"id":2190,"date":"2015-09-11T09:00:59","date_gmt":"2015-09-11T16:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=2190"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:45:17","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:45:17","slug":"fun-toefl-listening-practice-online-comedy-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/fun-toefl-listening-practice-online-comedy-videos\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun TOEFL Listening Practice: Online Comedy Videos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Learning English should be fun. No, really\u2014 it has <\/em>to be fun, at least sometimes. Research has shown that it\u2019s next to impossible to learn a second language unless some of your learning experiences are genuinely enjoyable. And everybody likes to laugh. This post will look at three Internet video series that are laugh-out-loud funny and surprisingly useful for TOEFL practice. (To get even more out of them, check out Magoosh’s best TOEFL Listening tips and tricks<\/a> first!)<\/p>\n

Ze Frank\u2019s True Facts About Animals<\/h2>\n

Ze Frank is an Internet Comedian who does strange, funny, and surprisingly educational videos about animals. Ze Frank\u2019s factual animal videos are especially good for TOEFL practice. This is because\u2014as \u00a0Lucas has explained before<\/a>\u2014 the TOEFL loves animals. Readings and Listening tracks about animals are very common on the TOEFL, and the \u201cTrue Facts\u201d videos contain animal-related ideas and language that are very TOEFL-Like.<\/p>\n

These animal videos also contain some silly comments that aren\u2019t true at all. In one video<\/a>, for example, Ze Frank jokes that clowns (the human circus performers) must have evolved from the mantis shrimp, because of that animal\u2019s strange, colorful appearance.<\/p>\n

The mixture of educational \u201cscience talk\u201d and stand-up comedy is one of the things that makes these videos such great listening practice. The challenge here is try to figure out when ZeFrank is joking and when he\u2019s serious.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrue Facts About\u2026\u201d is hosted on several different video websites, including YouTube. You can find all of the YouTube videos here<\/a>. In addition, the video transcript website Lybio<\/a> has transcripts for most of the series, along with the videos themselves. You can look up all the Lybio videos by custom Yahoo search<\/a> or custom Google search<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in a country that doesn\u2019t have YouTube, fear not— these videos are posted to plenty of other video sites<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Onion News Network<\/h2>\n

Don\u2019t let the name of this website fool you. Nothing on The Onion<\/a> is news. Or at least none of it is real<\/em> news. It\u2019s all fake news\u2014designed to imitate and make fun of the things you\u2019d see on real news websites such as BBC<\/a> and CNN<\/a>. Because The Onion closely imitates the style of real news sources, it\u2019s easy to get fooled by the website. Other news websites and even entire governments have been fooled into thinking that The Onion\u2019s \u201creporting\u201d is real.<\/p>\n

Because The Onion\u2019s fake news is so realistic, it\u2019s great TOEFL listening practice. You\u2019ll get to see funny news-like videos in the style of other serious, TOEFL like news sites. Like the \u201cTrue Facts\u201d videos, The Onion\u2019s videos allow you to challenge yourself by distinguishing the false information and the jokes from the more serious language.<\/p>\n

You can watch most of the Onion\u2019s videos on their homepage<\/a>. The selections include fake news reports,fake interviews, and even fake TED Talks. In addition, The Onion has a really funny nature animal\/video series<\/a> that is exclusive to YouTube. The nature videos are narrated in a British accent. This can be especially helpful, because the TOEFL has recently started featuring some British accents on their exam.<\/p>\n

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver<\/h2>\n

Like the narrator of The Onion\u2019s \u201cHorrifying Planet\u201d<\/a> video series, John Oliver is also a British comedian who narrates informational videos. Unlike The Onion, John\u2019s videos (which are taken from his television show on HBO<\/a>) are meant to be genuinely educational. Last Week Tonight looks at American politics and culture from an outsider\u2019s perspective. Because of this, these videos are very popular with both Americans and non-Americans.<\/p>\n

John Oliver pokes fun at the US in a way that\u2019s both informative and very funny. He mocks a lot of the sillier things about life in America. He also criticizes the things he feels the US is doing wrong. You can find hours and hours of his videos on the show\u2019s official YouTube channel<\/a>. The YouTube videos are also hosted with transcripts on Upworthy<\/a>. And of course, there are also non-YouTube options<\/a> for viewing Oliver\u2019s talks.<\/p>\n

In English, we have an expression that \u201claughter is the best medicine.\u201d If you\u2019re stressed out about TOEFL prep or English studies, these videos could be just what the doctor ordered. They can help you relax, smile, and laugh, while still continuing your studies. They\u2019re just what the teacher<\/em> ordered too. I\u2019ve used these videos successfully with many of my ESL students.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Learning English should be fun. No, really\u2014 it has to be fun, at least sometimes. Research has shown that it\u2019s next to impossible to learn a second language unless some of your learning experiences are genuinely enjoyable. And everybody likes to laugh. 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Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS and MA from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew"],"knowsAbout":["TOEFL","IELTS","TOEIC","PET","FCE","BULATS","Eiken","SAT","ACT","GRE","GMAT"],"knowsLanguage":["English","Italian"],"jobTitle":"Content Creator","worksFor":"Magoosh","url":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/author\/davidr\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":13630,"user_id":80,"is_guest":0,"slug":"davidr","display_name":"David Recine","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Recine","first_name":"David","description":"David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT.\r\n\r\nDavid has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C50&q=Recine+magoosh&btnG=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> many scholarly articles<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/minds.wisconsin.edu\/handle\/1793\/65479\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> his Master's Thesis<\/a> is featured on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingwithpictures.org\/2013\/09\/research-highlight-teaching-english-language-learners-with-comics\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Reading with Pictures<\/a> website, and he's presented at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.witesol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-WITESOL-Program-FINAL-10-28-14.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> WITESOL (link to PDF)<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/interoff\/docs\/nafsaregionv_2014conference\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> NAFSA<\/a> conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru.\r\n\r\nCome join David and the Magoosh team on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew\"> Youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\"> Facebook<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magooshenglish\/?hl=en\"> Instagram<\/a>, or connect with him via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/\"> LinkedIn<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2190"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}