I hope this bodes well for the semester: when I used the "stop and think" example out of the book (about hypothesis generation) concerning "your" co-worker Homer and the donuts all going missing, one of the students responded with "D'Oh!" after I read the example.

I like them to think they can have a little fun in the class. I don't find that kind of thing disruptive at all, and it's much better than having people stealth-text under the table.

I did also suggest "Lenny and Carl" as an "alternative hypothesis" and I think some of them thought that was funny.

(And it's a little shocking to realize that for most of them, they don't remember - or, in some cases, have never been alive during - a time when the Simpsons were NOT on television.)