Week 1:

Theories of Humour: The Comic Event / Surprise / Incongruity

Comedy as a form relies on feeding off of its audience. In the reading of the week, ‘Six Small Essays About Comedy’ (Simons, 2023) Simons claims that “[people laugh] because they hear something surprising… because they hear a funny sound,” which I took onboard when planning, filming and editing my sketch. I also didn’t use sound effects until the last 10 seconds of the sketch, aimed at adding another element of surprise at the end. Part of comedy as a genre is initiating a push and pull experience, as comedy relies so heavily on audience reaction.

My first experiment was inspired by in-class discussion about incongruity, as in creating and breaking expectations. I did this in my sketch by setting the expectation that two people are having a conversation, especially when I don’t cut to the shampoo bottle the first time that the second voice is heard. Once the audience is used to this, I suddenly cut to a shampoo bottle with stuck-on sunglasses and hair, revealing that the character is talking to herself. This makes the rest of the sketch seem even more absurd. I’d say it’s a lighthearted demonstration of a woman speaking back to the voices in her head, but the use of a shampoo bottle and outro is so unexpected that it’s comical.

Through learning about incongruity, I’ve found the concept of ‘surprise’ and breaking expectations to be very common within the comedy genre. One of the examples in class that I thought was really funny was the I Think You Should Leave ‘Zipline’ sketch. It sets up the expectation of a typical dating game show, but delves into absurdity by making the whole sketch about one of the contestant’s obsession with the pool and zipline instead of finding love. It’s so unexpected that you can’t help but laugh. I’ve also recently started watching the show PEN15, which sets up the expectation of being about two girls in middle school, but breaks expectations as the two main characters are played by women in their early 30s. It also fits under the genre of ‘Cringe Comedy,’ which inspired the style of acting I wanted to portray in my sketch, such as leaning into awkwardness and secondhand embarrassment.

Experiment #1: Sketch – International Women’s Day

Sound effects sourced from freesound.org

References:

Simons, S. (2023), “Six Small Essays About Comedy”, Humorism, <https://www.humorism.xyz/six-small-essays-about-comedy/Links to an external site.>.Simons, S. (2023), “Six Small Essays About Comedy”, Humorism, <https://www.humorism.xyz/six-small-essays-about-comedy/Links to an external site.>.