Theories of humour: Benign Violation / Relief
In this sketch I wanted to play with black and white to conceal the truth and transition to colour to reveal a twist, creating a comedic scenario. It emphasises the stupidity of the character in not realising sooner and for leaving such a ghastly thing out in the open and in a typical glass. While potty humour is notoriously childish and often deemed as lazy humour, I often enjoy it in moderation and thought it could be a fun way to avoid a language-based comedy, by going back to basics (bodily functions)
“Peripeteia is the moment when the fortunes of the principal character are reversed” (Palmer 1988/2018). This can absolutely be seen in my character, who seemed to innocently be enjoying a crisp glass of water, only to realise far too late that it is straight from the toilet. I wanted to call back to the classic use of the banana peel seen in classic silent films such as The “High” Sign (Buster Keaton, 1921). In my clip, the character is seen eating a banana in the beginning, hinting at a potential slip later on. With the intense absurdity occurring within the clip, the audience will hopefully forget about the initial banana, only for the character to abruptly slip on the peel in the final scene, and delightfully surprise the viewer, inciting laughter.
In the Week 2 reading the “Benign Violation Theory” Warren builds on the idea humour is evoked when the circumstance occurring is breaking social norms whilst also being good-hearted in nature (Warren 2015). There are numerous factors that make something feel benign, the factors that I utilised were “a playful motivational state, cues that a situation should not be taken seriously or a low commitment to the person or norm threatened by the violation.” (Warren 2015).
I attempted to utilise this theory by:
- Creating a violation e.g. The character drinks poop water.
- Making it benign by having the character be “playful” and silly in their facial expressions and body language and creating a low commitment as the character only exists within the 1 minute sketch.
This week’s experiment certainly challenged me and helped me realise how much I lean on and value bouncing off other people and how I struggle to create silent comedy, despite myself enjoying it as a spectator.
Link to video: https://youtu.be/BUUNdPatHP4
References
Palmer, J. (1988/2018), “The Logic of the Absurd” in Marx, N. & Sienkiewicz, M. (eds), The Comedy Studies Reader. Austin: University of Texas Press, pp. 51–54.
Warren, C. & McGraw, A.P. (2015), “Benign Violation Theory” in Attardo, S. (ed), Encyclopedia of Humor Studies, Los Angeles: SAGE Reference.