This week we formed our groups for our Major Media project, I have experience working with most of my group members Sam, Harper, and Trang from previous group projects and had some understanding of their comedic preference. I haven’t worked with Amy and Matylda before, but I recognized pieces of media included in their mood boards group and was able to better understand what each group member found funny.
While deciding on the form of our project we discussed ideas of a sitcom-style piece, with a focus on understated comedy; we shared funny experiences we had recently, to which I told a story of a housemate having an extremely loud glass of water. I had an idea of a series of sketches of people doing annoying things, presented in the style of The Twilight Zone; with an overarching moral (or none at all). Whilst this idea went unused, the familiarity of student share house life, sensory issues surrounding Misophonia, and the idea of having a strange pairing of characters to focus on resonated with the group.
MoodBoard
My mood board was very scattered because I began listing things I found funny, rather than direct inspirations for our piece, I included several different films and television shows, including the Irish sitcom Father Ted which was played constantly growing up. It was one of the first programs to criticize the Catholic Church as an institution in Ireland through its satire of Priests in the society of remote coastal Irish villages. Having grown up outside of Ireland and religion as an institution, Father Ted framed community figures who are often beloved in Irish villages, as gambling addicts, alcoholics, control freaks, and dimwits.
Similarly, I included video games such as Fallout: New Vegas, and the Metal Gear Solid Franchise which take familiar settings, historical events, and human problems and warp them to comment on larger societal issues surrounding data surveillance, nuclear war, and government oversight. I have included books such as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas which blends reality and fiction to a mind-boggling degree.
I’d like to mention Viagra Boys specifically. An absurdist punk band Viagra Boy’s album Cave World dissects online right-wing masculinity, through a deeply funny album that critiques paleo-conservative internet users that thrive in conspiracy and misinformation. This album was one of the first times I’d heard such accurate and funny observations on a niche section of the internet. I want to extend this feeling of niche observational comedy on experiences that living in Melbourne is comprised of.
Finally, this was another unused sketch of a plot we could adapt a story around that went unused. Inspired by Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness, this was an understandably niche reference that did not resonate well with the group, but I was proud of it nonetheless.
Apocalypse Now