Link to Comedy Media Artefact: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/2024-beyond-a-joke-beyond-a-genre/operation-super-star/

Operation Superstar (2024) tells the story of two young men and their journey through Naarm nightlife and the underground world of DJing, grappling with the struggle to be seen and adored by others. The film integrates the theory of the comic frame; how context, symbolism and structure causes the audience to recognise the scenario as comedic and adjust their consumption of the content accordingly. This is achieved through the quirky, detail driven dialogue, the wacky appearance and behaviour of the side characters e.g. DJ Ozempic and The Ratman, and the bizarre nature of the plot. Whilst our film’s comedy lies in the incongruity, the colourful, the crafty and the downright absurd, space is still given for moments of tenderness and earnesty; hybridising with the genre of coming-of-age. The boys learn about being true to oneself, remaining humble and to live in the moment, as well as the importance of brotherhood and friendship. The characters of Harry and Fergus go through the narrative structure of the hero’s journey, often seen within coming-of-age films. They set forth with a call to adventure, receive help and learn from mentors, are challenged by temptations, experience a rebirth/transformation and then return to once they came. Our media artefact also experiments with the mode of satire. Caron defined satire as possessing the “rhetorical power lies in its potential to change minds, that is, to effect metanoia”; the changing of minds (Caron 2020). The film aims to dismantle and find humour in the self-destructive mindset of individualism and “standing out”, being hyper-aware of how you are perceived and believing you are the centre of the universe. Karikó defines conformity as thinking and doing what others are professing and doing, whilst non-conformity is taking an oppositional position as a response. He states that both are led by the opinion of others, not by one’s own conviction (Karikó 2020). By being non-conformist, you are still determining your interests, aesthetic and attitude based on what is popular. We attempted to highlight this paradoxical relationship through the character of Harry, who ironically wishes to conform amongst the trendy, unattainable “non-conformists”, later witnessing and then condemning the toxic, “douchey” culture that is tied to it.

If given the opportunity to re-approach the media artefact from the beginning, I would want to focus on some of the technical details; spending extra time prioritising the quality of sound and lighting in order to further elevate the film’s content. This could be things such as location scouting more quiet, well-lit spaces and better preparing for night time filming by bringing more lights. I also would want to finish the script earlier in the pre-production process so it could’ve been sent out to the actors and given them a good amount of time to learn their lines and feel comfortable in their role. The actor playing DJ Ozempic was unfamiliar with his lines, ultimately slowing down the overall production as we needed to do multiple re-takes as well as it resulting in a rather stiff performance that needed to be heavily edited in post. If we had more time during pre-production, it would’ve been fantastic to have been approved to film at an authentic club or to have sourced a convincing space to transform into a nightclub. However, we had to work with what was available and whilst it was very convenient to film in Alex’s house, the appearance of the club scenes is not particularly convincing. I could argue however, that in some ways, the hodge-podge nature of the club adds to the charm and message of the film. 

In the beginning of the course, I saw comedy as this elusive concept, something that couldn’t ever be succinctly described or fully understood, but rather felt. And whilst my opinion still stands that comedy is a complex and multi-layered idea, I believe I better understand the theories behind why certain things make people laugh. I was naive in thinking that you are either a “funny” or “unfunny” person, and found myself challenged as I worked in un-familiar forms of comedy, such as silent comedy and satire. I realised comedy is a spectrum, and we all possess strengths and weaknesses in different areas. I also became more aware of the multifaceted nature of comedy, with its ability to slot into any genre and somehow elevate it, bringing out the best of the genre it is hybridising or parodying.

I did find the challenge of creating content independently really valuable as it did help me to push myself and have faith in my own humour, however I do believe that my humor and the quality of the content made has been elevated by working collaboratively. I feel as though I am far more motivated and creative when working in a group and I’ve really enjoyed bouncing off ideas and getting feedback by those around me. It also made it much easier to source talent as we just played the characters ourselves. I will say that it was a lot harder to synthesise multiple people’s ideas into the sketch’s short timeframe, resulting in some tension around who pulls rank. Our week 1 reading touches on the variety of reasons in which people laugh, “because they hear something surprising…they hear something familiar or a funny sound, they’re uncomfortable, they’re frightened or they’re horny…” (Simons 2023). Humour is of course subjective and that can sometimes cause disagreements over what is funny, inappropriate or offensive. There was also some conflict around the divvying up of roles, specifically in the pos-production step of editing the sketch, something that is no problem when working individually, as you are responsible for the entire process and there is no risk of miscommunication or an unequal workload.

References 

Caron, J.E. (2020), “Satire and the problem of comic laughter”, Comedy Studies, 11(2), pp. 171–182.

Karikó, S. (2020). Conformist Mass Society or Non-Conformist Rebellion? What education can do to resolve the conformity – non-conformity dichotomy? International Dialogues on Education, 7(2), 9-.

Simons, S. (2023), “Six Small Essays About Comedy”, Humorism

Voth, B. (2014). Comic Frame. In Encyclopedia of Humor Studies (Vol. 1, pp. 148–150).