Comedyblog

Posts

November 19, 2019

This is my response to Walker's lead blog. First of all, I think that Anthony Jeselnik is very funny as I very much enjoy dark humor. I think that many people believe there is something wrong or immoral about dark humor. However, in my opinion, this is not the case for a couple of reasons. First of all. and most obviously, we have the relief theory. Relief theory states that relief is achieved by talking about things which we typically can not talk about. For example, in Jeselnik, we see him talking about topics like gun violence, dementia, etc. However, I think that one could look at the relief theory from two different angles, and view Jeselnik's comments from two different angles.Through these, we can see the value and purpose of dark humor. Firstly, relief can function by relieving the individual of certain societal restrictions.That is, in humor, the individual is no longer obliged to stay silen about taboo subjects. Because of this suspension of the oppressive rules...

November 12, 2019

This is my response to Rebecca's lead blog. I thought Rebecca's lead blog was very interesting in its application of Alastair Clark's theory of humor. Obviously, his pattern recognition theory of humor is relatively new, but his theory does seem to have some strong merit. It does seem to be the case that any instance of humor will involve pattern recognition. After all, how could something be an incongruity without being an unexpected or atypical pattern? I also think Clark's theory has the strong advantage of being able to explain why humor is present in every society that has ever existed. In Clark's theory, pattern recognition permits us to discern the rules by which our world works, understanding the rules by which are world works allows us to predict our environment, and being able to predict our environment allows us to act on our environment in an effective manner. So, in other words, we had every incentive from an evolutionary point of view to develop a s...

November 05, 2019

This is my response to Mallory's lead blog. I think that Mallory is completely correct in noting that the incongruity theory is a very good explanation of this video. The main character is acting in a manner which is incongruous with the way people typically behave regarding water. That is, we typically look at water as being a very everyday sort of beverage which is only remarkable for how unremarkable it is. Nevertheless, we see the main character and, later on, the others acting as though water was the most astounding and remarkable beverage one could possibly encounter. The surprising linking of two typically unconnected things, (the unremarkable nature of water, and the attitude of the characters in relations to water) is clearly explained by incongruity theory. In addition to this, and even though it is a little harder to see, we can also apply the benign violation theory to this case. Initially, it seems difficult to do this. After all, in what sense is the act of deli...

October 29, 2019

This is my response to Elizabeth's lead blog. First of all, I thought that the video was a great example of the use of exaggeration in comedy. That is, the exaggeration creates an incongruity which, in turn, makes us laugh. Everyone as seen there parents behave in this frantic way trying to clean up for company before, but what makes it so funny is the extreme way the mom figure in this video does this. She uses statements such as "We can't let people know we live in this house," which are so hyperbolic that we can not take them seriously. So we have here an incongruity between something very familiar on the one hand, and bizarre statements that none of us encounter with any regularity on the other. We can also see superiority and relief theory at work in this case as well. The relief comes from the fact that cleaning for company is oftentimes a very stressful experience, but the fact that this particular scene is so unrealistic makes it relieving. In other words, ...

October 22, 2019

This is my response to McKenna's lead blog. In her blog, McKenna talks about SNL's Debbie Downer. I think that the video is very funny and we can apply the comedy theories quite well to it. Perhaps the theory which applies most clearly to the video is incongruity theory. First of all, by the fact that Debbie Downer is talking about all the terrible things that could happen at Disney World, there is an incongruity between the typically carefree and joyous experience of Disney World and the terrible things that Debbie Downer is talking about. Of course, Benign Violation theory applies to the video as well. When people go to Disney World, we typically don't talk about all the terrible thing that could(at least theoretically) happen; this is because there is a social norm which dictates that we not discuss topics at an amusement park that are considered too heavy or too dark. It would ruin the light and fun mood that we typically associate with Disney. Debbie breaks this n...

October 15, 2019

This is my response to Lauren's lead blog. Lauren points out that in the video she posted, we see both the relief theory and exaggeration at work. This seems to be obviously true, so I would like to point out how some of the ways exaggeration fits into the theories of comedy. First of all, it seems very easy to see how exaggeration fits into the superiority theory. After all, exaggeration makes it very easy to highlight faults. That is, it amplifies a certain foible or oddity so that it appears to be something ridiculous. Because of this we have sense of superiority over and above the person who has these foibles or oddities. Secondly, it seems that relief theory is able to accommodate exaggeration as well. For example, by exaggerating a foible about something we might typically look at as scary, it becomes less scary. Zombies are typically pretty disturbing creatures, but if we exaggerate the zombie's slow movements to the extent that one can just walk circles around a...