Phyllis Diller and Mae West were both women who kicked the doors of the comedic world open for other women such as; Joan Rivers, Kathy Griffith, and Sarah Silverman. Both Phyllis Diller and Mae West stood out in their own times as masters of their craft though each women approached their lives and comedy in completely different ways In the way their career paths emerge some of the women's surface differences become clear. Diller started later in her life, not entering the comedic stage until her mid-thirties whereas West ran away from home at the age of seven to join the "Blood and Thunder" theatre circuit (Lecture). Though she started late Phyllis Diller's career lasted until her early nineties when she retired due to health problems. Mae West's career peak last only a few years before she was ruined by the Hollywood production code (Lecture). The ways they approached comedy, specify the topic of sex is where the women differ in more radical ways. Diller's comedy was self- deprecatory, set them up and hit them hard jokes. Her style bordered on confessional and breeched into the o...
Barbara Ehrenreich employed the use of humor multiple times in Nickel and Dimed; it was perhaps her most frequently used rhetorical device. Ehrenreich was trying to portray the tragedy and heartbreak of the situation by using that sort of hopeless, sardonic humor. She also used her humor as a way to camouflage topics that would otherwise be off-limits. Although some of the humor included in the narrative may have seemed distasteful, it all had a purpose and was rarely used inappropriately.
In the movie, the three main types of comedy I recognized were farce, parody, and satire. Farce is comedy designed to provoke the audience into simple, hearty laughter and often uses highly exaggerated or caricatured character types and puts them into improbable and ludicrous situations. It also makes use of broad verbal humor and physical horseplay. Some examples of farce in the movie are:
Diller has established a reputation for herself as a seasoned veteran of the game of polo. She has played for six years but has been on horses since she could remember.
Adam Sandler has been a box-office draw for a decade now, with hardly a dip in fortunes since he first parlayed his break on TV's Saturday Night Live into a string of hit films. From the get-go Sandler was good on jokes about sports, six-packs and the need to stop goofing off and start playing nice with women. He made his success without any support from critics, many of whom seemed to find the frat-house element of his shtick so ghastly as to inoculate them against its sweet and silly aspects. It is unlikely that Sandler cares much for the views of festival-going connoisseurs, though he served notice on their carps by his seamless crossover into Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love (2002). "I wanted to work with Sandler so much," Anderson said. "I love him… He's always made me laugh."
Zoglin, Richard. "Lucille Ball: The First Lady of Comedy Brought us Laughter as Well as Emotion Truth." Time June 1998: 188-191.
Willowbrook Institute was built in the late 1930s. It was a state-supported institution for mentally retarded children located in central Staten Island in New York City. By 1965 it had 6,000 residents, while it was only planned for 4,000. “A combination of rising placements, budget cuts, ignorance, arrogance and indifference, created notorious conditions at Willowbrook.” This institution was called a “snake pit” by Senator Robert Kennedy. It was very unsanitary and short staffed. Even though it was called a state school but very little “teaching” happened. Under these horrible conditions, children were deliberately infected with Hepatitis under the guidance of Dr. Saul Krugman, as part of an experiment to understand it more.
The immigration of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans has brought tremendous talent and great people. However, in the process, the culture of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans are slowly diminishing. The idea of jobs being readily available for immigrants has deprived the culture and saturated the perception of Latin Americans as workaholics. The essays I chose were Puro Border and the Puerto Rican Obituary. Both essays have given context of how Puerto Ricans and Mexicans are slowly losing their identity in this great America. Also in this essay I will be explaining how material wealth can cause the border to become a vacuum.
cille Ball. Many younger people only know her for her tv show “I Love Lucy.” The spunky redhead put a smile on many faces with her silly faces and crazy adventures. Ball was also one of the first women to become an entrepreneur by creating a studio with former husband, Desi Arnaz. Lucille Ball was a wonderful woman of her time. She was a strong-willed woman, not caring what the rest of the world thought about her. She was one of the first women to not hide her pregnancy on television. She wore what she wanted to wear while filming her show. She married the man she loved even when society said it was wrong. Ball was an icon for many young women in the 50’s. She taught them that they don’t have to do what society tells them. Ball opened many
At the same time, there is Hedda Gabler, who is a product of social determinism. She was raised in an upper middle class ambient with different ambitions from the women at her time, where they supposed to stay at home and have kids. But just to meet the expectations of the society, she got married to a man that she never loved, and she started to live a life she never wanted.
Noted in Yvonne Tasker’s Working Girls: Gender and Sexuality in Popular Cinema, Goldie Hawn says this about women's role in the film business “There are only thee ages for women in Hollywood: Babe, District Attorney and Driving Miss Daisy” (1998, p. 3). While Haw...
Many newspaper articles described her background in acting and her ongoing work as a teacher and director. However, she was careful not to appear as if she wished to take the spotlight for herself. Her characterization as a bright and interesting person “in her own right”—as she absolutely was—had the dual effect of highlighting her individuality and of making her insistence that her husband was her first priority seem all the more striking and
Comedy often allows for a subversion of the status quo that is not tolerated in more serious genres. Beginning in the 1930s, the subgenre of screwball comedy presented female characters who were active and desiring, without evoking negative characterizations as "unfeminine" or "trampish." Screwball comedies represent a specific form of romantic comedy that features a complicated situation--or more often a series of complications--centered around a strong-willed, unpredictable female. The comedy is generally physical as well as verbal. Screwball and other forms of romantic comedy do not just reverse the masculine/active, feminine/passive paradigm--which as E. Ann Kaplan notes accomplishes little in terms of change--but instead strengthens the female and weakens the male just enough to put them on more equal footing.
...le would criticize them or call them unladylike, they did not care. They both had very unique styles of portraying their conviction, for example, Fuller’s tone was intellectual and demanded an argument and the content of her writing consisted of her side of the debate. Fern, attempted to attract readers by touching their emotions. Fern wasn’t interested in offering an argument, but she wanted an argument to arise out of her readers. Despite all of their differences in tone and content, their purpose was to inspire and make a change for women of the time. Through the works of Woman in The Nineteenth Century, Aunt Hetty on Matrimony, and The Working-Girls of New York, a reader can fully understand and realize the differences between the two, yet begin to see the reality of what women had to endure. Fanny Fern and Margaret Fuller are truly two sides of the same coin.
Dillard¡¯s mother possessed extremely exceptional personalities. She had a preference for bizarre pronunciations. One day as Dillard¡¯s mother passed through the kitchen, she heard the baseball radio announcer shouted, ¡°Terwilliger bunts one!¡± Thereafter, she repeated those words whenever she was testing a microphone, and when someone spoke a foreign phrase she responded, ¡°Terwilliger bunts one.¡± Additionally, Dillard¡¯s mother loved unexpected but creative responses to conversations. Anyone who met her verbal challenges she adored. Dillard¡¯s mother was also mischievous. During a family trip to the Highland Park Zoo, she acted as if she had had a relationship with a young man who was with his girlfriend. In brief, it was ¡°torpid conformity¡± that Dillard¡¯s mother would never cease to strive. She always had the courage of her opinions, no matter how unpopular. When any person objected to her, her belief was so profound that she was fearless to take on any challenge. Particularly, Dillard¡¯s mother taught her children not to take anything everyone-says-so for granted; rather she wanted them to think independently. In a nutshell, Dillard¡¯s mother avoided clich¨¦s and craved for drama in her life.
...rough what he or she revealed of universal human nature, rather than individual differences, forever changing French theatrical comedies.