final blog

First of all, Prof. Katz- sorry this was late. I have been so busy with exams and all it completely slipped my mind. Thank you for letting me finish this tonight.

I do not think that my blog has changed over the course of the year. Throughout the year, I generally kept up with all of the blogs, but, recently, I have not kept my blog up to date.

Looking over the blog made me realize exactly what I have learned over the course of the year. The three theories- Superiority Theory, Incongruity Theory, and the comedic theory rules. To me, the superiority theory relates to me the most. I think that feeling as if you are better than the comedian makes me laugh more. But, another reason why I enjoy comedy is the feeling of how the comedy is related to my personal life. When I know that there is someone making fun of something that I seem to relate to, I seem to laugh at it even more.

I have learned from my writing that when I put more effort into writing the post/paper, the outcome is so much better. If I try to put it together in a few minutes, the outcome is crappy.

I will remember the Superiority theory probably forever. That idea is so true but I had just never realized it. My sense of humor definitely has not changed throughout the course of the semester. I still watch the same shows, movies and comedians (although still rare). I do believe that some of my humor has deepened due to the fact I learned about the humor theories. Now I will be able to understand a few more ideas of the humor atttmpts.

To me, I am not quite sure if maintaining a blog is necessary. I do not think that many people looked at other kids blogs. I commented on a few of the other student's blogs but I never received a comment on my page. I understand where Nicole was coming from where she didn't like having her essays posted online. At first, I didn't care about what went on the web, but now, after I thought about it, I would have to agree with her. I don't feel comfortable with students in our class reading my essays, let alone the entire world. The one thing I did like about the blog was having the ability to look at other student's ideas about the paper topics and getting ideas about what I could write about.

I really enjoyed being a part of this class this semester. It was really one of the classes I actually enjoyed going to. Not knowing what might go on in the class; I don't want to miss those youtube videos. Thanks for a fun year, Prof. Katz.

the movie

I thought the movie was pretty funny. at the beginning, I really thought that the movie wasn't going to be very good because of the theme and idea of the movie. having a person that was trying to "transmigrate" into another person's body didn't really appeal to me. but as the movie went on, i began to like it.

one of the first things i noticed in the movie was how the main character really proved that a dog is a man's best friend. he would take his dog along with him every where he went. but my point was disproved when he gave his dog away to the blind jazz player to be taken care of.

there were a few quotes that stuck out in my mind.

when the rich lady was reincarnated into his body. he had to go to the bathroom, and he told her to grab his penis. and she responded with "how dare you say penis to a dead person!"

when she was reincarnated in him, someone didn't understand why there was a dead person apart of his body. the person responded to him by saying "you did it with a dead person!"

when she died the eulogist read aloud all of the "i miss you cards" at the funeral since no one came to the funeral. The only cards that she received were from companies like a mattress company and an air supply company.

the last thing that i thought was funny was when he was trying to have sex with the blonde lady who she was supposed to be reincarnated with but it kept failing. since the lady in his body was a virgin she was against intercourse and didn't understand why people would do this. he and the other lady would begin making out but then were forced to stop because the virgin needed an explanation.

great movie

nothing about nothing

When I woke up this morning I was already upset since it was just 6:25am and I had to go to lift with running. I already exhausted from spring weekend; all I wanted to do was sleep. But anyways, when i woke up, there was a surprise in the bathroom for me. Someone had crapped in the sink and the entire hallway and bathroom stinks. I was forced to go into the bathroom and grab my toothbrush, then I sprinted out of there. I wanted to brush my teeth in the other bathrooms but every bathroom door was locked and I could only get into my own bathroom. It was probably the hardest thing I had to do by brushing my teeth in that bathroom. I had to hold my breath the entire time I was in there. It was AWFULLLLLLL!

ted to bill

My first reaction to reading this article was about the first quote/joke that was made in the article. Reading the joke rather than hearing it may have effected my outlook on the joke. Not hearing how "so er" , or "er" was actually pronounced and having to make my own pronunciation of the word made the joke uninteresting. I think I put too much emphasis on the fact of attempting to say the word in the manner in which it was meant to be rather that looking at the joke as a whole. Doing this, made me not understand the joke whatsoever.

But then I kept reading, and I would have to agree with Lupino Lane's instruction manual of "How to become a Comedian." One of his points that put emphasis on was to stay away from the words that I presented earlier. "you see?" "you know" "um" and "er". Some of the audience would be thrown off be the use of these words. Later in that section, Lane says, "As we have seen, convention decreed that comedians should avoid that 'terrible syllable' that ray was fastidious in preparing his patter, but in the first joke...the joke is preceded by an 'er'. It is not out there to get a laugh in its own right, why did he make such an effort to produce it?" These are my thoughts exactly. If its not intended to make laughs...don't use it.

The one way I feel as if making comedy is different than acting is that you must be prepared to how the audience is acting and to distinguish exactly what they want and do not want. Lane also recommended to comedians, "It is just as well to have at least a half dozen songs in your repertoire." You never know what you will expect from your audience, so you must be prepared.

My essay

After sitting down with Hank, he gave me some insightful ideas of how to expand on some of the ideas while making them funnier. The part that made me feel better about my paper was hearing Hank's laugh/chuckle at my paper. Hearing him laugh allows me to continue to write without feeling like it is an awful paper and stop caring how well I do with it.

One of the ideas that helped me make it funnier was that I just kept telling a story and expanded on the spots that I personally thought was funny without thinking about intentionally making it funny. The hilarity in it just came out without really trying. (I know this seems difficult to understand..sorry about that)

Initial thought for paper

My initial thought is to right a comedy. This idea sounds extremely difficult but i think that this idea is the only way I think that I will be able to make people laugh. I am terrible acting and I think I have a better chance at writing humor.

Sitcoms

The tv shows that I watched repeatedly over break were The Office, Seinfeld and Two and a Half Men all of the shows appeal to me in different ways. The one way that all the shows appealed to me in the same way was the fact that they all seemed to make fun of one character over and over again. For Two and a Half Men its Allen, Seinfeld its Kramer and The Office its Dwight. All of these characters are slightly abnormal. Dwight acts awkward around the rest of the office employees because he was given the fictional title name of "office manager." He thinks he is more important than the other employees because he earned this fictional name. Allen is constantly made fun of because he and his son are living with he older brother. Allen drives his brother insane because he feels as if Allen is a "cock block" for him and the fact that Allen does not pay for anything around the house or even rent. For Kramer, I found it a little hard to describe his behavior. He likes to make people laugh. I just cannot find the reasons why I like his character.