The skit known as, “The Great Flydini” from the late night talk show Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, can provide many examples of the types of humor. The skit starts off with the magician, Flydini, walking onstage and immediately pulling his zipper down. After pulling his zipper down, objects start to pop out of his pants such as flowers, rags, a puppet and much more. At one point, he has a phone come out and ring for a woman who is standing next to him. Once he walks offstage, the way that his left hand had been fake the entire time, and his real left hand was taking care of all the antics, was revealed. Then, he comes back onstage to bow and end his show. The primary humor style that is evident throughout the skit is low humor. Low humor is a humor style that involves giving ‘inappropriate’ subjects, such as body parts or bodily fluids, a lighthearted and humorous aspect. Since the magician, Flyidini, has things that could be confused with his sexual ‘parts’ coming out of his pants, it puts the label of low humor on it. This is also the main aspect of the skit and what creates most of the humor in it. This applies to the skit because throughout, …show more content…
the objects that come from his pants are coming from where one of his anatomic ‘parts’ is. Ways that writers or actors can apply low humor is to reference bodily fluids or body parts, mostly the sexual/reproductive parts of the body. Also, low humor can joke about the appearance or how something feels. Another example could be twisting somebody’s words to imply that they meant something inappropriate. Another humor style that can be identified in the skit is absurdity.
It’s unrealistic to see miscellaneous objects like rags, puppets, telephones, and flowers to come out of somebody’s pants on a regular basis. The situation would be unique for the person who falls victim to this or anyone nearby. In the skit, there’s no shock or surprise at the objects coming out of Flydini’s pants, it’s just considered normal. Also, physical humor is involved in the skit. There’s no monologue for Flydini or dialogue between him and the woman who appears in the middle of the skit. Therefore, this leaves only physical actions to explain the situation. It’s obvious that physical humor is a big aspect of the skit because all the objects wouldn’t be humorous on their own but put in the context of the skit, it creates a humorous
effect.
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.
There are countless funny opportunities to get up on stage or laughed at a friend, as the crowd goes in an uproar.
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.
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:
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
performances. Jerry used a form of comedy that no one had ever seen before. He
adds to the comedy of the rest of play. It is obvious to the audience
... immensity of its horror finally makes him drop the pretense of knowing detachment he has held for so long. As he drunkenly sobs, “What’s funny? What’s so goddamned funny? I don’t get it” (Ch. 2, 23) his lurking humanity becomes evident. The subtly of interplay between The Comedian’s persona, his humanity, and even his hypocrisy strongly support his status as a living person alongside Dr. Manhattan.
Vaudeville was a premier source of entertainment for many Americans in the late 19th and early 20th century. Vaudeville theaters around the United States consisted of a variety of acts from singers and comedians to animal trainers and human marvels. In this paper I will take a look at some of the most intriguing acts I could find. Such acts include celebrities, humans performing incredible feats like surviving being shot by a cannon multiple times or spewing flames, and the so called missing link between man and ape.
Comedy differs in the mood it approaches and addresses life. It presents situations which deal with common ground of man’s social experience rather than limits of his behaviour – it is not life in the tragic mode, lived at the difficult and perilous limits of the human condition.
funny parts of the play by creating confusion within characters and lowering the intensity of the
Performed by the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Jon Haplin’s 39 steps follows the espionage comedy of Richard Hannay. Chuck jones, a cartoonist for ‘Looney Tunes’ described comedy as “unusual people in real situations; farce [as] real people in unusual situations”. Comedy effectively emphasized the monotonous cycle of everyday life, with a protagonist like Hannay to represent an average person. The dramatic elements mood, farce and slapstick were essential to accentuate the comedic atmosphere. Comedy is found in the extravagant and outrageous situations, which brought Richard Hannay to develop through unpredictable times. With overused clichés or exaggerated characters, comedy highlighted humanity’s need to dexify oneself, lack of emotion
For example, in the beginning, he sets up the joke by stating that he feels perfectly safe in New York City. He elaborates his claim by stating three reasons why (1:14-1:24). The first item he lists is “murders” which we subconsciously associate with criminals. This assumption is reinforced when he states the next item as “child molesters”. Immediately, a pattern of criminals is created in our brains. However, when we find out that the next word is “Jews” the pattern is broken creating surprise and shock, and for some maybe even offense, thus resulting in the punchline of the joke. In the same manner when Louis CK sees the bat and describes his reaction, he also uses the rule of three. First he “crawls into a closet”, then he “closes the door”, and then “he calls 911” (3:22-3:28). Again the pattern is broken as you would not expect a person to call 911 just because of a bat in their
One of the most famous types of television comedy is the sketch comedy style. Greg M. Smith, in his article “Red Skelton, The Crack-up, and the Quick- change” explains how the move of vaudeville acts to television created the template for all sketch comedies. A small number of performers, often only one or two, “depended on interchangeable acts that could be juggled into different configurations for a show, the sketch necessarily is narratively compartmentalized. Plot elements from one sketch do not carry over to the next, necessitating that the performer slip from one role to another as he/she moves from sketch to sketch.” (n pag) Today’s sketch comedies continue to run independent multiple short sketches per episode. Although they may now have recurring characters, frequently still, only a single-time character is played. Just as there is a prevalence of one actor playing multiple roles per episode, so also are the situations, locations, and interactions often differentiated completely from one scene or show to the next. Some or all of these elements can be found in such shows as Monty Python's Flying Circus, Saturday Night Live, The Whi...
You can find wide varieties of these crude pieces on the internet, and it is not uncommon to hear them in the hallways of schools, or whispered among students and followed by unjustified giggles. Attempting to lighten the seriousness of things such as sexual assault or terrorism is not comedy, no matter what people may say. Comedy is about laughing with the people being mocked, not lessening the seriousness of their situations. When we try to make ‘jokes’, we must keep one thing in mind: comedy is about laughter and joy. A joke is only funny when it is not blinding us to the reality of cruel