According to Caleb Warren and A.Peter McGraw, the Benign Violation Theory is built from the general bases that “positive emotions tend to occur in situations that feel safe or OK (i.e., benign), but laughter doesn’t occur in all benign circumstances.” (Warren 2015). Essentially this theory becomes present when humour is found within a circumstance that is both assessed as a violation and benign simultaneously (Warren 2015). An example of this would be seeing someone slipping on a wet ground. Whilst obviously not a humorous circumstance in hindsight, the essay suggests, “For a violation to produce humour, it also needs to seem OK safe, acceptable, or, in other words, benign”. (Warren 2015). Within this case, the act of slipping can be presumed as a minor inconvenience for the person, but if they are not seriously injured, it can be considered as somewhat comedic to both the person and the bystander. With that in mind, this week I wanted to base my sketch around facing a minor inconvenience, specifically getting your jumper caught in a doorway. I wanted to combine specific elements from the topics this week and pair it with a modern influence to create this week’s sketch. For example, I wanted to pay close attention to the framing. In Tony Zhou’s video essay on ‘The Art of the Gag’, he states that “visual gags generally work best from one particular angle” (Zhou 2016). In this case, I needed to have a wider shot to capture the gag of my jumper getting caught so that the audience can see what happened. I wanted to add the music not only as an element of incongruity, but I also wanted to take inspiration off some of the videos I have seen on the internet. I’m not sure if they officially fall under the comedic category, but I find joy in a niche thread of videos where someone would either post a random object/obscure text or image and pair with it with a dramatic song. Whilst these videos aren’t necessary in relation to the Benign Violation theory, from an audience perspective they can be seen as relatable content.
Link to sketch:
Inspiration (Some of these are not appropriate I’m sorry):
Warren, C. & McGraw, A.P. (2015), “Benign Violation Theory” in Attardo, S. (ed), Encyclopedia of Humor Studies, Los Angeles: SAGE Reference.
Zhou T, (2016), Buster Keaton – The Art of the Gag, Vimeo https://vimeo.com/146442912