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Writing Humor
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I have always been funny. In fact, I was voted “Most Likely to be a Comedian” by my peers in eighth grade, a feat which I regretfully omitted from the “Activities and Achievements” section of this application. In my experience, humor loses its “funny value” when broken down and analyzed, however the process of reflecting on my own wit helped me realize that my preceding statement is exactly what I’d like to write about. The fact that humor isn’t typically explored beyond the punch line contributes to its shallow perception. When one thinks of the word “comedy”, raunchy stand-up routines and exasperated sitcoms that should have ended four seasons ago come to mind for most, however I believe this is an incredibly one dimensional viewpoint. It’s
Racial relations vary across culture and time, even after the decision that deemed anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional, it took more time for everyone to come to the same agreement. Not to mention, the conditions that black people lived under due to the negative connotations that the term “black” held – evil, dirty, and impure. Towards the end of the 1960’s, the American industry utilized many different tactics to portray the lack of hope, income inequality, segregation, and change that was an attempt to make a difference during this time. The film, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) was a direct effort to view the polarity of race in the 1960’s through the lens of
“The practical disengagement of humor…helps explain the opposition between amusement and negative emotions.” (530) There are three effects of humor; irresponsibility, blocking compassion, and promoting prejudice. Humor can take away what we are/should be doing in life and sometimes there isn’t anything wrong with that. Sometimes when we hear a hateful thing we just laugh it off as if it was no big deal when it really was. “An
Stupid, retarded, crazy, insane; throughout time, these words are used to explain the behaviors of the mentally ill. These are just words, right? Actually, these words can have hurtful connotations. Since the first individual with a mental illness walked this earth until now, hurtful labels have been assigned to them. But society does not stop with just words, there are also unfavorable mannerisms used to explain visually, stupid, retarded, crazy, or insane. These descriptive words and mannerisms used in jest amongst friends can cause distress to anyone who bears witnesses to include an individual who is intellectually disabled or mentally fragile. If we look at it from the perspective of the intellectually disabled, they have been
Steve Almond’s “Funny is the New Deep” talks of the role that comedy has in our current society, and most certainly, it plays a huge role here. Namely, through what Almond [Aristotle?] calls the “comic impulse”, we as a people can speak of topics that would otherwise make many of uncomfortable. Almond deems the comic impulse as the most surefire way to keep heavy situations from becoming too foreboding. The comic impulse itself stems from our ability and unconscious need to defend and thus contend with the feeling of tragedy. As such, instead of rather forcing out humor, he implies that humor is something that is not consciously forced out from an author, but instead is more of a subconscious entity, coming out on its own. Almond emphasizes
Lieutenant Commander Oram and Captain John Adam are lethal weapons. These characters are leaders, kings of their castles. With emotions like storms that cloud their thoughts, makes hard decisions similar to escaping from quicksand. Below us, the submarine of Michael Bruce’s “Gentlemen, Your Verdict” lies helpless at the bottom of the ocean, Commander Oram must decide whether fifteen innocent men should die for five to live or if all twenty men will die from oxygen deprivation. Trusted by his crew with anything and everything, he is the Albus Dumbledore of his submarine: Colin McDougal’s The Firing Squad focuses on protagonist Captain John Adam, who is asked to be the executioner of a prisoner he feels innocent and with whose execution he disagrees. The characters in question are both placed in different situations, yet can be compared and contrasted through their moral dilemmas, tough decisions and their military
Humor is not traditionally thought of as a necessity in media; however, humor is an excellent vehicle for bringing to attention problems or changes that need to be made in society. In Alain de Botton’s 2004 book, Status Anxiety, he correctly argues that humorists, the messengers of news that might be too dangerous to say directly, play a vital role in society. Humor’s role in society has shown its importance in delivering messages to society through satirical writings, stand up comists and hosts of television programs.
According to Aristotle, “Comedy can be any colloquy or performance generally intended to amuse or stimulate laughter”. In modern times, comedy can be found in different forms, such as television, movies, theatres and stand-up comedy.
The reading “On Laughter” really opened my eyes to a more deeper understanding of how humor can make an impact on a piece of writing. Humor isn’t found on the surface of a writing but instead deeper in the context that makes it out of the ordinary. In “The Perimeter of Ignorance” the comedian exemplifies his essay with drops of humor. Some of the humor he displays is misleading. For example, “Cancers take over your body, congenital diseases force an early death”. This is an appalling statement but sometimes can bring out laughter to an audience when their feeling an extreme emotion. He continues by saying “So the universe wants to kill us all. But lets ignore that complication for the moment”. This statement might be a little over exaggerating
Psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists study humor because it is a fundamental culture value, but they still can’t determine why certain things make some people laugh and others not. There are “humor quotient” tests that are designed to measure an individual’s sense of humor, but these tests are questionable. These tests aren’t accurate because almost all humor depends on cultural background knowledge and language skills. Not every person in the whole world, or even in one country share the same background knowledge and skills, therefore they cannot have the same type of humor. “The fact remains that individuals vary in their appreciation of humor” (Rappoport 9). Since humor varies from individual to individual, humor lies in the individual. How successful or funny a joke is depends on how the person receives the joke, humor cannot be measured by a statistical
Like Bill Crosby said “Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, whatever your situation might be, you can survive it.” Humor can be taking a situation, event, or problem and adding little interesting details to make it hilarious. It can be composed of satire, offensive or gross humor. So, what is funny? Funny can have a variety of definitions for many people. People can think that acting foolish or falling down the stairs funny. What I really find funny is a comedian or a person making jokes about other person's race or copying their accent; in a good way. Everybody has something that makes them laugh; it can be as simple as farting in public.
Humor is more than just amusing entertainment to pass the time. Though jokes and witty banter can be shallow, humor can go deeper than surface level to convey messages to audiences who would otherwise be close-minded about certain ideas. Humor is a great tool to get audiences to change the way they think, feel, and act. In “Saying Goodbye to Yang,” Alexander Weinstein uses humor to criticize some of society’s faults such as the way it has become heavily reliant on technology, racially insensitive, and judgmental.
Humor is an essential part of my daily life. Causing someone to laugh and feel amused varies from person to person. What I find funny may not be funny to others. My sense of humor may vary, from watching comedy movies, to late night comedy talk shows. What I find mostly funny are Internet memes or funny Internet videos, because they have both been modified into distinct funny phrases or modified into funny videos that cause humor and they are always new ones being created, you can also share them to give someone else laughter. My sense of humor comes from my dad, growing up we would watch Spanish comedy on television together, though not all humor can be funny, because I believe there is a line that should not be crossed when using humor.
Humor has been the source of entertainment throughout history. Today humor is practiced in movies, plays, songs, television shows and radio. Humor has brought fame and fortune to those who have mastered its power.
If there is one way to bring a smile to someone’s face, it is laughter. Funny jokes, comical stunts, sarcasm- Every person is different when it comes to what makes them laugh. Some find dry humor comical. Others think sarcasm or joke-filled ranting are the best. ‘Comedy’ is such a broad term, broad enough to allow everyone to find something they find comical. In fact, ‘comedy’ includes a specific type of drama, one where the protagonist is joyful and happy endings are expected. Comedy is like a drug; it allows you to escape reality. When we say the word ‘comedy’ in the present, we are generally referring to a type of performance which provides humor. However, in its broadest sense, comedy has only one purpose: comedy makes people smile and