In Conclusion...

I have learned so much from this class. Through doing my project on Jerry Seinfeld, I saw a side to him that I would have never previously seen. Not necessarily in a bad way but, I do not think I will ever be able to look at him the same. I did learn some things about him that almost made me not like him--the fact that he has the world's largest porsche collection makes him come across as a jerk. If I were as rich as Jerry Seinfeld, I'm sure I would have my fair share of expensive things, but I would never go as far as to own the world's largest porsche collection. Also, with watching "Comedian," the documentary following Jerry Seinfeld around in his most vulnerable moments, and in my opinion, he came across as a jerk in that film as well. It was interesting to see his stand-up acts and apply the theories of comedy we studied in class to his routines, but it also revealed things about him that made me have a different point of view of him. This doesn't make his routine less funny by any means, it just gave me a different outlook on Jerry Seinfeld. I also realized how hard stand-up and comedy in general really is. In "Comedian," Jerry Seinfeld was talking about his upcoming acts and how he incoroporated new stuff vs old stuff and it showed how studious he was before he went on stage and even showed Jerry Seinfeld completely messing up his act and not being able play it off. Since he was so famous, however, he was not boo-ed off the stage. I also saw how hard it was with my own experience in our final exam stand-up routine. I sat for at least two hours beforehand studying my notes of what I was going to say. It will now be hard for me to watch any routine and not try to apply some sort of theory to it--but it is very interesting getting to see those theories play out in real life.

The Quintessential Post-Modern Movie?

After watching Idiocracy, the next day I had American Literature of the 1960's and we talked about Modernism and Post-Modernism. I was so shocked to see how Idiocracy fit every quality about Post-Modernism. Generally, Post-Modernists are anti-science/modern day Luddites. You could see this in the film because a theme of the movie was that our culture became so reliant on technology that it made humanity more and more dumb. For example, when the receptionist at the hospital was trying to categorize Luke Wilson's character into a specific "illness group" and could not even figure it out in her own mind so she had to pick a picture and let technology figure it out. Technology ruled everything to the point society did not have to think for themselves. Another part of Post-Modernism is that people are looked at as machines. This can be seen in the movie how everyone has a bar code. You can also see it how people's names even become advertisements and how people, like machines, are only motivated by money and sex and this movie. The last, and most dark portion of this movie that categorizes it into the quintessential Post-Modernist is that there is little to no hope for progress. In my opinion, the ending is not hopeful. Although Luke Wilson's character encourages reading, and becomes president providing a small light of hope, and supposedly "got the ball rolling," the fact that he only had three kids and Dax Shepard's character has 30+ kids, it cannot promote the idea that things are going to get better. How long before his 3 kids become adapt to the dystopian society? I would guess not long. The scary thing is, I can see some of these things happening. We brought up the calculator in class, and I am so horrible at math (hence I am an English and Philosophy major), and I rely on my calculator for EVERYTHING. I remember in taking various math classes when we would have tests that we couldn't use calculators (because the teacher assumed we could do basic math equations), fear consumed me. I also am so reliant on my phone it is ridiculous. Last year, I had my phone stolen and had it set up to get a replacement phone mailed to me. However, it would have taken 3-5 business days for my phone to arrive and I could not imagine going that long without a phone so I bought a really cheap phone, activated it, and then returned it when I got my new phone activated, so that way I would not have to go any longer without my phone. I do not think our society will ever even come close to the society depicted in Idiocracy, and in that way I do not fit in with the post-modernists, but it is scary to me to see how many things in the movie fit in with the dark view of the post-modernists.

Re-evaluation of Slapstick

Normally I would say I do not enjoy slapstick. When we watched the golfing clip on you tube, I honestly did not laugh once. I also even found it incredibly hard to keep watching the Buster Keaton DVD I got through Netflix. When I watch America's Funniest Home videos, the clips of people falling, getting hit with something, etc, just make me cringe. So I looked into it some and thought about it. I first did a little researching on the "Three Stooges," since, at least in my opinion, I look to them as the quintessential slap-stick humorists. It was not shocking to me to discover how popular they really are, I've always heard about them. If you look at the Three Stooges in popular culture, , (I know it's Wikipedia, but I just can't help myself), you can see the extent the Three Stooges reached still in today's culture. What got me thinking was looking at some of my favorite movies, especially "Tommy Boy." There is definitely some slapstick involved, yet I absolutely love every second of that movie plus several others that center around physical humor. I think a lot of it has to do with my involvement with the characters. I could not tell you the difference between Larry, Moe, and Curly (it actually took me a second to be able to name them). Yet I could tell you the whole story line of "Tommy Boy," or "Old School." It is when I learn and care about the characters that I care to laugh at their physical humor. If, in person, I saw someone fall down a flight of stairs, that I knew, I would die laughing (as long as they are okay!), yet if I watched a You Tube clip of some random person falling down the stairs, I would be more less apt to laugh. The people that find the Three Stooges hilarious seem to be familiar with the characters. I feel like I am the only one of my friends that watches South Park and I find it to be so funny, but when my friends come in my room and catch various clips that I am cracking up about, they don't even budge laughing. Another friend of mine loves "The Office," and I did not think it was funny at all when she had it on, but the more I started watching it and learning more about the characters, I started finding it more and more funny and now I'm addicted. So, I guess it is wrong of me to say I don't like slapstick, because the movies and television shows I watch and find funny prove otherwise. I think it definitely has something to do with the characters and being involved in their stories and their personalities that make slapstick funny to me.

Girth of a Nation

So there were several things that I agree with that were brought up in class about Girth of a Nation. I also noticed that Ralphie May joked about himself first. I felt like this was a good approach especially knowing his subject matter was race-- this way instead of just possibly offending someone in the audience, he made it look like, "hey, I'm making fun of myself, too!" I also noticed a lot of his audience was southern white people-- had he been making jokes about African-Americans in front of a purely African-American crowd, I think he would have had a much different outcome. It would be like me standing up in front of a crowd of men and telling "women-jokes" like the selections from Ann Stephens or Sarah Kemble Knight. But he made it much more universal by making fun of all types of people by poking fun at his weight before he introduced the racial jokes. He also tried to down-play it by saying, "it's just a joke," but I don't think he could have said whatever he wanted to and then make anyone think it was okay by saying, "it's just a joke," but he picked the right amount of "tame-ness" to be able to make the jokes he did.

Izzard's Stage Presence

As we were watching the latest Eddie Izzard video, I realized I was laughing just as much (if not more) when he put action and facial expressions into his jokes as his actual jokes. For example, when he was talking about Humperdink being dead and he kept going back and forth merely using his eyes and simple hand gestures, I was CRACKING up! (For a refresher, try this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o78MkSWe8Mw&feature=related) In this skit, he proves even the simplest things can be funny. I think this could be why I respond to visual humor as opposed to reading humor; to me, it is those funny hand gestures, facial expressions, acting out "fake" scenes (how he came up with the name Engelbert Humperdink, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckGmMO0zbJo&feature=related), etc, that make me laugh the hardest. I could read Izzard's whole skit in writing, and there is no doubt that I would laugh; but what he adds to the skit visually makes it so much more funny in my opinion.

Are we all Miss Gipsons?

At first, I found the Frances Miriam Berry Whitcher piece a little boring while reading and struggled getting through it. However, when we started going over it in class, I noticed a lot of true-to-life situations that I found funny when I started looking at the text more critically. For example, with Miss Gipson talking herself down all of the time, I can see that happening with myself and with my female friends and family all the time. I was going out to eat for my best friend's birthday with a group of close friends and anytime anyone complimented me on my outfit, makeup, hair, etc, I would immediately respond with an, "are you sure this looks okay? I don't know..." or I would point out something like, "...but I don't think it matches perfectly," or, "No, your hair looks so much better, mine is so flat." The funny thing is, I remember the same night my friends and I complimenting a girl on how she looked and all she replied back to us saying she looked "cute" was, "I know," and we could not believe she would be so presumptuous. Although it seemed foolish reading about how petty everything seemed about all of the odd things women do, I admit to being guilty of it too. It's funny how women are in someway "expected" to act a certain way when receiving compliments, even though it seems so trivial always talking down accomplishments... could it really be any other way, though? I know this post has probably put any male to sleep, but hopefully some females in the class know what I'm talking about. I see it happening all over from myself, to my friends, to my mom putting her baking down.

A Modest Proposal

I'm glad I had the chance to read "A Modest Proposal," finally. I read "Gulliver's Travels" for my novel class last semester and never realized how cleverly satirical Swift was and how people reading "Gulliver's Travels," could easily miss his meaning. I wrote a research paper on the book because I really enjoyed analyzing his work. Every little detail seemed to have been so cleverly crafted, for example, even the name Gulliver alludes to the nature of Swift's intentions. "Gull" is considered a dupe or fool and "ver" might signify veracity or truth. Therefore, "Gulliver" is the "dupe of truth." I found these same kind of crafty satirical aspects in "A Modest Proposal." To anyone that has not read "Gulliver's Travels," I would HIGHLY recommend it, especially to those that liked "A Modest Proposal." The whole idea of Swift's proposal, eating the poor children so they are beneficial to society, seems absolutely ridiculous but so keenly funny at the same time. Swift is so clever and I enjoy reading him very much because he appeals to my type of satirical/dry sarcastic humor; a type of humor less blatant like slapstick that requires thinking.