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Recommended: The influence of comedy
Throughout this Survey of Literary humor class I have learned a great amount concerning different types of comedy. Some types are satire, parody, stand-up, and African-American (race related) comedy. The most preeminent comedians use their personal pain and struggles to generate laughter from an audience. Eugene Bertin stated, “There is a purifying power in laughter. It is truth in palatable form. It is instant vacation. Seeing the comical side of many situations makes life a greater deal easier. It’s like riding through life on sensitive springs that ease every jolt.” Comedy is intended to take you to your “happy place”, and give you the utmost joy. All of your worries should fade when you are watching a comedy show/movie, or when you are …show more content…
Stand-up comedians are able to stand in front of an audience and use personal stories and jokes to create laughter throughout the audience. Dave Chappelle once told this story “Stand-up comedy is usually performed in an auditorium, comedy club, theater, or a bar. One of the most essential things to know before performing is whom you are performing for. An audience can alter what jokes you perform, and how successful your performance is. In stand-up comedy most comedians will ease their audience into the more racy jokes; in other words the comedian will “warm them up.” Lisa Lampanelli’s jokes tend to come close to crossing the line, but she had perfect execution. For example, “You’ve put up more worthless hotels than an autistic kid playing Monopoly.” which was pertaining to Donald Trump. Making people laugh while being offensive is difficult and it takes real talent to be a stand-up …show more content…
You made our class interesting, fun, and informative. Satire and parody will continue to be portrayed in Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, and The Colbert Report, just to name a few. These shows continue to bring laughter to viewers while also bringing light to present day controversies. Stand-up comedy is a work of art; comedians are able to make people laugh at themselves, their own race, gender, and sexual identity. Bill Cosby said, “Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it.” Laughter helps us deal with our everyday struggles in life. Laughter keeps us going and makes us look at the bright side of life. The trick to comedy is being honest is funny…and reality is better than
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.
For example, the comedy shows The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon expresses satirical humor concerning politics. His show also demonstrates political satire by telling jokes and even impersonating political figures for the audience. He creates humor through sarcasm that focuses on real issues. His sarcastic humor causes others to feel more confident in their criticism toward politicians. For example, “Jimmy Fallon expresses his humor about Donald Trump, impersonating his appearance and imitating his voice while talking about politics. He uses his humor by impersonating Donald Trump and his sweeping generalizations with Madea (Rogo).” Jimmy Fallon shows people his views through humor and it creates a sense of community to express their agreeable and disagreeable views. As we discussed some ideas about satirical humor that affects political changes, it was important to reveal their feelings about changes in life and drove them to look upon their society or government more
Humour was an antiseptic that cleaned the deepest of personal wounds.” Jimmy said (208). Throughout Alexie story many jokes were achieved as an effective humor since it brought laughter “Well, I told her the doctor showed me my X-rays and my favoruite tumour was just about the size of a baseball…” (204) Jimmy said joking about the tragedy of his illness and his imminent death. Dr. Gill Greengross an evolutionary psychologist and anthropologist from the University of New Mexico said “humor can help people deal with tragedies.” So humor is effective and a very good way to cope with
Richard Pryor once said, “There’s a thin line between to laugh with and to laugh at” (A-Z Quotes). Leon Rappoport, a professor at Kansas State University, believed in the same thin line as Pryor. Rappoport received his BA and MS at New York University, and completed his PhD in 1963 at the University of Colorado (Kansas State University). He studied psychological sciences, and concentrated his studies in decision making and human judgment, even writing a book called Punchlines: The Case for Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Humor (Kansas State University). In another book, The Sword and Shield Metaphor and Other Perspectives, Rappoport claims that humor depends on how the audience receives humor because humor depends on the individual and the experiences the audience has had. The audience can either be on the side of the audience that is getting laughed at, or they can be on the side of the audience that is laughing with other people.
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
The sketch comedy in SNL has been poking fun at ethnic and racial stereotypes, as well as presidents or other high-profile political figures. SNL continuously pokes fun at common stereotypes and government officials – just watch some of their skits on Italian stereotypes, like “Corksoakers” or “Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton Town Hall Debate.” In a way, these sources are here to teach people, even though the skits may be slanted a certain way. Iain Ellis brings up other comedy-news shows, like The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, in his article “Political Humor and Its Diss Contents.” These shows sparked in popularity due to their ability to spread news in the form of entertainment and the fact that the anchors “offer a more open-minded and informed alternative, one which takes pride in digging for truths and in providing additional perspectives and points-of-view” (Ellis, 151). News/Comedy shows use their prevalence in today’s society to an advantage in that they know people watch and listen to them. They can sway people in ways to cause social change. If someone watches their show and agrees with them, then their audience is eager to look for a way to change something – whether it be to protest or even joke about the topic at
According to Everything’s an Argument by Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz, “Humor has always played an important role in argument…” (38). Humor itself is something that activates amusement or laughter. Moreover, in popular culture satire is a tool that is used to point out things in our society. Satire opens the minds of people to philosophies they might completely deny, using humor. There are many elements of satire that identify flaws within our society. A couple of satire elements that will be discussed are irony and exaggeration. In addition, a parody is used in popular culture as a way to mock or mimic situation or person.
Throughout his whole career, Williams was always performing standup comedy. While many stand up comedians were using the same routine for almost every show they performed, Williams was performing a different show every night. He would improvise most of his material based on his audiences reaction instead of going into the show with all of his jokes thought out. This material helped change what stand up comedy was (Lombardi). Late comedian Joan Rivers says: “My favorite is Robin Williams. There's nobody like him. His mind is just wonderful. I respect him because he does what I do. I've seen him get up at The Comedy Store, work out a whole Carson shot and then come on Carson and make it look like it's easy. He takes nothing for granted. He knows exactly what he's doing. Robin Williams is one of those people
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.
Many politically based talk shows focus on controversial topics. Their shows aim to cause discussion over many politically controversial topics. The shows cause people from both sides of politics to argue over topics that usually both sides strongly believe in their opinion. The shows begin to turn into a screaming fest, where one side, of the argument, tries to talk over the other side, while the other does the same thing. It shows that without humor or something else being there to lighten the mood a small debate can turn into a fully heated argument. This shows the power of context and diction. Through the use of a humorful tone, when used in the right time and place, people are able to calmly talk about topics that without it would be a full on argument. Through a comedian’s humorful word choice, he is able to make his points usually without completely enraging his audience. Those who don’t use humor or something else to lighten the mood, end up creating an argument that just grows and grows until both sides are screaming at and denying everything the other side says. However, eventually something is said that lightens the mood. This is usually something somewhat comical that both sides can relate to. Whatever it was that was said becomes the thing that both sides can agrees on, and as a result makes the argument
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.
James Conroy argues that laughter in serious topics has been regarded through the ages as dangerous, deviant, and subversive; yet equally as refreshing, challenging, and constructive. Political humor is extensively used in almost all countries, but political satire is perceived differently from one country to another. The research question is as follows: what factors make political satire an effective tool that affects politics and policy? I argue that humor is more influential when blended with serious topics, such as international relations or politics. Laughter is a great means to put serious topics under the lenses of critical thinking. The use of humor, and political satire specifically can bring about serious political change. Humor can play all sorts of roles in the political process through being informative, educational and influential while keeping its captive entertaining
Never forget to laugh. "If you can laugh at it, you can survive it" (Cosby). Life is difficult for everyone. It is how people deal with these strives and struggle is what matters. Sometimes, the best way to get a break from the hardships of life is to simply laugh with friends and family. It’s a Balance process. Some people can be caught up in life’s problems and forget to laugh. Laughter is the mental medicine for life. Laughter supports the health of the body. Laughter can break up the quietness in a room. Laughter can change the room from black and white to a rainbow of colors. Laughter is a result of looking at something in a positive light. Is the glass half empty or half full? Whatever the circumstance, never underestimate the power of a good giggle. Never forget to laugh.
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
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.