Walter is an older, naggy, and grumpy man. Jeff created Walter because everyone knows someone who acts the same way that he does (Simon). That is one of the things that makes Walter so funny. Jeff creates puppets that relate to the audience because that draws them further into his act (McGraw). People are found during the act comparing the two characters. Walter also often insults people, whether in his own life or in the audience, using the Benign Violation theory. The Benign Violation theory, which is presented in chapter one of the book The Humor Code: A global search for what makes things funny by Joel Warner and Peter McGraw, is when humor is perceived as okay even with a bad topic as long as it happens in a normal situation (McGraw). …show more content…
He uses the example of reincarnation in the video. He says that he would like this theory to be true because then he would come back as his wife and “...leave me the hell alone” (Simon). Walter also uses the theory when he interacts with the audience. During Walter’s segment, he and Dunham discuss whether they please their wives and start to make subtle sexual jokes that only the old audience would understand. After one of the jokes, Walter notices one woman in the front row not laughing and calls her out and exclaims, “Screw you! That was funny!”(Simon). Dunham knows when writing this that he can say things like this through his characters and manage for it to be funny. Walter also uses wordplay, like discussed in the book Language Play by David Crystal, during his time on stage (Crystal). Walter and Dunham begin ‘talking’ about their individual styles when Walter brings up an old watch that Dunham used to wear. Dunham claims that instead of it being an ordinary watch it was called a “swatch” because the company produced it in Switzerland (Simon). Walter replies back saying “Well good thing it wasn’t made in Croatia” (Simon). He then follows by saying something like “What time is it? Oh, let me take a look at
Here is where Walter first goes to the first grade. When he got there it was suggested that he move on up to second grade because he could read on a second grade level. But his first grade teacher, Mrs.Dworkin Said it was a bad idea because he speak is very bad. On page 18 It states that it wasn’t until second grade that he realized that he had a speech problem. On page 18 around the 2nd paragraph he says that this boy named manual was making fun of his speech by saying “dabba, dabba, dabba” to his face. Walter then states that he stopped that dabba, dabba, dabba when he popped him in the face. On page 19 he say that he heard that his uncle lee was in jail and that he had been in there longer then he had been
that a discontented individual is often unable to take ownership of his life until he realizes that he must set a good example for his children. Walter is a protagonist who seems to only care about himself. He is really dependent on his mama's huge insurance check. Walter wants his mama's check so he and Willy Harris can open up a bar. This character continues to go down the wrong path until something tragic happens.
• Incongruity Theory posits that comedy is derived from the perception of something incongruous violating our mental patterns and expectations. Sunny Prestatyn initially constructs an idyllic image of femininity only to undermine it through coarse sexual innuendo, offensive language, and violent imagery to comedic effect.
Walter’s archetype can also be seen in the first film we watched Tootsie with the television producer. He is also a well-dressed man in power that manipulates the women around them, to either do what he wants or into a relationship with him.
The first reason I believe that Walter is the protagonist is because he isn’t a selfish man. What I mean by this is when he is talking about issues he tends to discuss family issues above his own personal things. Though at times in the play when he is drunk and loses his temper he does start speaking selfishly, I believe that his overall attitude in the play is for his family to move up the world. I believe that Walter’s son Travis is the main reason why he acts so unselfishly. He seems to want the best for this son and doesn’t want his son to feel that there isn’t anything he can’t have or do.
Walter wants the best for his family and he thinks the liquor store will provide him the financial security needed to boost them out of poverty. "I'm thirty five years old; I've been married eleven years and I got a boy who sleeps in living room (Hansberry 34). best describes the sympathy and compassion Walter feels for his son. Although his family's financial position has a strain on it, Walter doesn't want his son to see him struggle. Even in today?s world, children are very susceptible. Walter displays a selfless characteristic which becomes overshadowed by unwise decisions later in the play. In one particular scene, his son Travis asked both parents for money. Walter acts out of pride by giving Travis his last pocket change. This symbolizes Walter's willingness to be a moral father. In a different situation, Walter would not display his selfish intentions. This behavior can be attributed to working in a degrading, underpaid position and not seeing results. Metaphorically speaking, Walter can be related to the furniture in the small apartment, ?tired and broken in spirit?.
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
Another symbolic part of the play is when the men overhear the women talking about Mrs. Wright’s quilt, wondering if she was going to quilt it or knot it, and they laugh at them. Mrs. Hale is immediately offended by the way they laughed at them where Mrs. Peters is apologizing for them because "they have a lot on their minds".
Conflict with reality and appearance brings to surface the elements of the traditional commedia dell’arte in the form of mistaken identity, which enriches the farcical plot-lines that occur in the play. The very embodiment of mistaken identity establishes that what may be seem real could be quite the opposite, however the characters in the play are unable to distinguish this as their vision becomes distorted by their fall into the deception of appearance. It is this very comedic device that enables the conflict between Roscoe (Rachel) and Alan, or Charlie and Alan’s father to occur which is a significant part of the comedic nature of the play as the unproportional situation is what sparks laughter from the audience, and so it is the presence of mistaken identity alone that conveys the play into a light-hearted comedy. Furthermore, Peter O'Neill quotes that ‘using humour can provide a degree of safety for expressing difficult ideas or opinions which could be particularly effective…’. In the circumstances of the quotation Richard Bean effectively c...
Thoughtful laughter is a tool that is used in writing and is said to be the “true test of comedy.” There is no true definition of thoughtful laughter, but for the most part, it means how it sounds. A scene portrays that initially ensues laughter, but then gives an understanding of a larger concept. In Shakespeare's comedic plays he often ensues thoughtful laughter in his audience. One scene in which it shows comes from Taming of The Shrew, Act II, Scene 1. In this scene, Katherine and Petruchio engage in a verbal battle, showing Katherine’s true shrewdness and Petruchio’s cunningness, as well as setting the audience up for the rest of Petruchio’s antics.
“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
This episode illustrates a major conflict throughout the story. As Walter dreams bigger and bigger he seems to leave the 'smaller' things such as his family behind. This movement away from the family is against the furtherance of the values and morals of the family. While his father would have been happy simply working and caring for his family, Walter is more concerned with becoming a 'mover and shaker' without thinking about the resulting consequences for his family.
Walter introduces readers to his characters in such a way that it seems like a movie. He allows the characters personalities to grow as the novel progresses and they intersect with other characters. The main characters are Pasqual Tursi, Richard Burton, Debra “Dee” Moray, Alvis Bender, Michael Deane, Shane Wheeler, Claire Silver, and Pat Bender. These eight character’s stories provide the plot line to the book. Some stories are tragic and others hopeful, but all depend on one another at some point during the course of the novel. Walter shows how peoples lives can intersect...
funny parts of the play by creating confusion within characters and lowering the intensity of the
Language or the way in which words are used is one of the most important components of a comedy. Through an intelligent use of word play and the ability to add