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.

I found some really funny clips that are related

I was told by my brother about these two clips from collegehumor.com and I found them hilarious. First watch this one and then, second, watch this.

Yes prof. Katz, I finally learned how to insert a link.

my attempt

This past weekend for Trinity days, I went to Princeton to hang with my good friend from San Diego. It's a Saturday night and we have been partying all night. One of my buddy's friend decided to start running down the street...yes, she was inebriated... Turned out that running was probably not the best idea to do when it is cold out as there might be ice somewhere. Well, she failed to recognize that. She was running back to her dorm because she was frozen. Just about half way to her room, I see this girl completely slip and land on her back. One moment she is running, the next she is on her back in hysterical tears. I think her crying actually made it funnier, as mean as that might sound, it's just the truth. But don't worry, we didn't leave her, we went and checked on her and after we found her to be alright then we left. Na just kidding, she turned out to be just fine and shook it off like a champ.

political humor

Political humor generally stems from political unrest or turmoil. Political humor is used to enhance/change the existing politics.

Recently, the most common political humor stemmed from the 2008 presidential election. Most of the humor was about Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. The reason for her being chosen to be humiliated is because she is attractive, and many people seem to find that there are very few attractive women in politics. One of the other women in politics that seem to get a lot of attention in humor is Hilary Clinton. When she visited Bosnia, she was being shot at as soon as she landed. But some people decided to change the image around a little bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHVEDq6RVXc&feature=PlayList&p=0B8F18F3C334DC27&index=0&playnext=1

Another clip I found was regarding Obama and Hilary Clinton. This clip was different because both of them were the first of their kind, Hilary- a woman and Obama and african American. This clip shows all the controversy that Clinton faced in an attempt to reach the White House, with her husband having an affair with Monica Lewinski.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMs-p5y6cvo&feature=PlayList&p=0B8F18F3C334DC27&index=1&playnext=2&playnext_from=PL

my essay topic

My initial thought for an example of humor that i would like to analyze is how does humor make situations better. For example, when someone is hurt/sad, someone always likes to make a sarcastic remark in order to make the person feel better.

A Monument to Adam

Mark Twain's short story, A Monument to Adam, is all about how the city if Elmira believes that Charles Darwin completely forgot about Adam when discussing the evolution of man. Darwin describes that humans came from monkeys, but where does Adam fit in? "We had monkeys, and "missing links", and plenty of other kinds of ancestors, but no Adam." The people of Elmira believe Adam's name will be forgotten unless they do something about it, like build a monument. "Elmira ought not to waste this honorable opportunity to do Adam a favor."

Two bankers came forth and met with Mark. They came up with a proposal that would cost $25,000. The town believes that if they construct this monument, Elmira will be the new Mecca; people would come across the globe to see this statue. When the idea really hit the ground running was when the three of them submitted the proposal to General Joseph R. Hawley, who was supposed to be in the House and read the proposal aloud for the rest of the members. When time came to give the proposal, General Hawley was afraid it was "too serious, too gushy, too sentimental." But unfortunately the town never constructed the monument to honor the first male.

Defining satire

An object is criticized because it falls short of some standard which the critic desires that it should reach.
"a literary manner which blends a critical attitude with humor and wit to the end that human institutions or humanity may be improved. The true satirist is conscious of the frailty of institutions of man's devising and attempts through laughter not so much to tear them down as to inspire a remodeling" (Thrall, et al 436).

Examples that everyone will know and understand are movies like Scary Movie, and Not Another Teen Movie. These movies make a mockery of other films, frequently horror films.

Twain vs. Article

This is similar to my previous article. I believe that you cannot build up the humor in a story; the humor must be unexpected. If you build up the humor...you expect too much. The audience expects the story to be once in a life time story, but it does not turn out that way.

The only way to build up a story is with suspense. Suspense entices the audience. It gets the audience thinking over and over... what's next? This is similar to watching one of your favorite movies, or even a movie that you have never seen before, and the movie is just starting to get good but then a commercial comes on. When that happens I nearly shoot myself. I hate having to wait and see what happens later on.

The pause at the end of telling a funny joke/story is the where it really entices the audience. It gives the audience a chance to think about the answer or what will happen later. Then the punch line comes in, and the audience comes to expect something hilarious.

The "Golden Arm" was very difficult to read (well to the lazy reader). You must interpret the sounds and the spelling. This article was similar to the writer from the "celebrated jumping frog".

Mark Twain

I cannot say that I have a favorite author, probably because I do not read enough to have one, but I could say that Mark Twain would definitely be included in a list if I made one. Dating back to high school, one of my favorite books of all time was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In Tom's book, my favorite part was when the come out the back during their own funeral to surprise the town as the town thought he and Huck had died. In Huck's book, the part of the book that intrigued me the most was the controversy that Huck was faced with with the runaway slave. He struggled with the idea of whether to turn him in or not.

I agree with what the article said about Twain's humor in his stories. He knows what he says will be funny, but he plays it off as if he didn't think it would be funny. Conversely, the European writers would make a big deal of how a joke was upcoming. Humor for me comes when it is not expected. I feel as if humor is built up, you end up being let down cause it's not as funny as you had hoped it would be. Humor must be solely unexpected.

Why Can't you be normal looking?

Why Can’t You Be Normal Looking?

Anchorman. Zoolander. Two and a Half Men. Seinfeld. The Simpsons. King of Queens. Entourage. Wedding Crashers. Old School. Billy Madison. If anyone were to catch me watching the television, at any given point in time, they would most likely find me watching one of these shows or movies. Each of these comedies depict a humorous way that these characters live their everyday lives which happens to appeal to me. I never thought to think of why I found these kinds of comedies funny until I took this Rhetoric of Humor and Satire class. As class went on, I slowly began to realize which type of humor causes me to laugh on a consistent basis. Of the three mains theories, Superiority Theory, Incongruity Theory and Release Theory, I think the most evident reason why something amuses me is the Superiority theory. I realized I found comedians like Mitch Hedberg or Dave Chappelle amusing because I was laughing more at them than with them. I think this relates to Professor Katz’s point that generally most comedians are less than average looking.
The other day I was watching Mitch Hedberg after having watched and discussed him in class, and I strongly believe that he was a classic example of how a member of the audience could relate to the Superiority Theory. Hedberg was much less than the average looking with his long hair and grungy look. However his approach to telling his jokes the more interesting part. He is extremely nervous when on stage, he has this sort of stutter that effects the delivery of his speech, along with the fact that he struggles making eye contact with the audience. I find Hedberg hilarious because of the fact that he jokes about simple every day struggles. He is able to look at these daily routines in a third person, and find the humor within something so simple. He once made a joke after watching a commercial for a tool to water your hard-to-reach plants, but “who the fuck would want to make their plants hard to reach?” When watching these infomercials, we always hear the generic payment process. This tool was available for four easy payments of $19.95, and we hear this saying in so many infomercials but do not think much of it. Of course Hedberg would much rather make joke about this. He mocked the infomercial saying, “I rather have three easy payments and one complicated payment.” After watching these videos in class, it caused me to want to watch them more often on my own in my free time as well.
I have noticed that many of the humorous shows and movies that I find appealing happen to follow many of the comedic rules we discussed in class. In all of these shows and movies, there is a great deal of embarrassment or physical harm. All the humor from my favorite movies of all time like Anchorman and Billy Madison is due to the pure embarrassment presented by each character. In Anchorman, all of the humor relates to the character of Ron Burgandy, played by Will Ferrell, and his stupidity and common sense. Throughout the movie, Ron’s dog, Baxter, was literally his best friend. He would dress his dog up in the same pajamas as he wore at night while having the dog wear a similar retainer. Ron convinced himself that he was able to speak with Baxter. After nights out on the town he would go home and have a conversation with his dog just to relive the night. One of my favorite lines and one of my most quoted lines from the movie when Ron came home from a date and Ron began talking with the dog. The dog barked at Ron and Ron interpreted it as “you ate the whole wheel of cheese?!?!? I’m not even mad…that’s just amazing”. It appears to be funny when you see the miniscule dog in the movie and you are able to picture the dog attempting to eat the wheel of cheese. The movie goes downhill for Ron when he throws a burrito out of his car window and accidentally hits a motorcyclist. Once both vehicles come to a stop, the motorcyclist grabs the dog out of his car and dropkicks Baxter off the Coranado Bridge. Many of these movies deal with extreme absurdity as well.
My other favorite movie of all time is Billy Madison. Billy, played by Adam Sandler, is a son of a multi-millionaire hotel owner. Everything in life came too easy to Billy. He was given anything and everything he wanted from his father. Billy barely made it through elementary and high school because he never thought he would need to learn anything with the kind of money he had. Billy did nothing with his life after high school. He and a few of his friends would live in his guest-house drinking and partying all day and all night long. The boys would do absurd things like go around lighting bags of human disposal on fire, ringing the door bell and watching from a distance. The opening scene from the movie was one of my favorite parts because it opens up with Billy lying in a floating pool toy as he realizes that he has not put sun screen on while in the sun. Getting distracted he thought we would make a smiley face by putting sunscreen on his nipples for eyes and creating a smile under his belly button for the mouth. Once he finished his artwork he said “smiley” in a hysterical manner that could only be understood if seen the movie. His foolish idiotic actions are so ludicrous one can only laugh hysterically.
Humor is a lot more complicated that I thought before I took this class. I never thought it would be as hard as it is to talk about, describe, or explain humor. I have found that I agree with the Superiority Theory the most. This is due to the fact that in the shows and movies that I watch, I am usually laughing at the actor or speaker for his or her embarrassment or absurdity. This is the kind of humor I have found that I am most attracted to throughout taking this course.

my simpsonian beliefs

Coming into the Rhetoric of Humor and Satire class, I had no idea what I should expect. Initially, my first thought that I should just take this class in order to finish my credit for the English. Then, I was told by another student that this class was going to be fun and we were going to analyze why we find humor funny. Once the student brought this to my attention, it really opened my eyes and, so far, I am really happy I have taken this class. Each class we find something that is appealing to someone and we have a discussion on it.
I think opening up the class with a speech from the Inauguration was a great place to start as most of the people had watched it live while others actually attended the Inauguration live. Each person was able to bring in their own argument and beliefs to the discussion. When I watched the Reverend’s speech, at first I was unaware of the humor associated with it until I changed the channel after the Inauguration and saw another channel replaying the speech. The second time through I noticed the race incorporated in the speech. During the humor in Reverend’s speech, I wanted to make sure other people also found it funny. Once I heard the crowd in the background, I knew that I believe that people did not perceive the speech to be racist in any way as this election was monumental for the United States of America as an African American is elected to the White House. Americans accepted this as humor for the fact that all races are coming together in an effort the restore the American Economy. Another reason that I think that the humor was accepted in this context was the face that audience was in jovial state, and it did not seem like it would bother anyone if the Reverend discussed race as people in America are coming together.
When I first came into this class, I never realized why I find things funny. Then we started analyzing the humor and how it appeals to each individual. As class went on, I slowly began to realize which type of humor causes me to laugh. Of the three main theories, Superiority Theory, Incongruity Theory, and Release Theory, I think the most evident reason for my humor is the Superiority Theory. When I listen to comedians, I believe that a reason for most of the laughter seems to be more at the comedian rather than with the comedian. As Professor Katz pointed out, most of the comedians are, generally, less than average looking which causes much of the laughter. The audience also has a great deal with the reason why comedians always tend to do well, unless of course the comedian is just awful. The reason people attend
The other main reason for the cause of my laughter is by following the comedic rules. In the shows/movies that I enjoy the most, there seems to be a great deal of embarrassment or physical harm. Through the movies of Anchorman, and Zoolander, much of the humor involved is due to pure embarrassment. In Anchorman, all of the humor relates to the character of Ron Burgandy, played by Will Ferrell, and his stupidity and lack of common sense. This idea of the character of not being intelligent relates to the Superiority Theory about how I am laughing “at the messenger”; knowing that I am more intelligent than the character. In Zoolander, there is a similar idea to that of Anchorman. Each character of Zoolander is a male model, and it is safe to say that each one of the characters are not the smartest people in the world. Each model lacks common sense while frequently pronouncing words; Derek Zoolander, played by Ben Stiller, mispronounced eulogy as ugoogulee. These examples represent the Superiority Theory by laughing at the messenger.
Over the past two weeks of class, I have learned about a great deal about humor while learning which types of humor I find most entertaining. Before the class started, I did not realize why I enjoy humor, but now, as we have been analyzing humor, I have learned a great deal about humor. With the incorporation of other people in our class’ beliefs about humor, my total understanding of humor has greatly increased.

humor over the weekend and favorite movies

Over the weekend, I did not find myself laughing too much, well from what I could remember. The one big laugh I had over the weekend was when my buddy and two of my friends were walking back to my dorm from mather on Friday night. My friend was imitating one of my other friends, dare I say his imitation was not very good, and as he was walking he tripped over it seemed like a crack or rock. I thought he would be able to brace his fall since he is a fairly athletic kid, however, he failed to stick his arms out and the first part of his body to touch the ground was his chest. Luckily, the kid was not hurt severely, but he did walk away with a scratch or two. This humor reminded me of the inconcrugruity theory as it was a surprise to see and athletic boy be so unathletic during his fall. Another reason why it made me laugh was because of the embarrassment and physical pain as told in the Comedic rules.

Favorite movies and Shows:
Two and a Half Men
Entourage
Wedding Crashers
Anchorman
Zoolander
Friends
King of Queens

Debauchery

Why did I think that my joke was funny? I began to think why exactly I enjoyed it, and the only logical idea I had is that it relates to the college experience; something that see (debauchery) every weekend and I could completely agree with the comments made during the joke. Part of the enjoyment of the joke relates to the Comedic Theory rule. The joke made references to physical pain, sexual references, fear of death and embarrassment. I believe that I am most able to relate to these topics, which, in the end, make me laugh the most.
In a way, I was able to relate to my self to the Superiority Theory. When I am around drunken individuals, I feel as if I am their superior. Their inability to make conscience decisions, and me have the ability to laugh at their decision making process and the final outcome.

What makes me laugh?

To be honest, until class I had never thought of why is I enjoy humor. This made me think of the movies and shows that I really enjoy. When I was younger, my favorite show was The Simpsons and other similar cartoons. Nowadays, the shows and movies that grab my attention is Two and a Half Men, Wedding Crashers and 40-year old Virgin. Once I thought of the shows/movies that intrigue me, I couldn't think of the reasons why I enjoy them, other than the humor. I couldn't think of the reasons of why they may be funny, or the reasons that they are funny. I could only think that they are funny is because the may either relate to my life, or the fact that they make fun of people's lives and how each character goes about attempting to change their lifestyle.