Video Exercise ^^

As Jerry Palmer (1988:54) demonstrates to his example, similar principles of gag analyzation, Peripeteia and a pair of Syllogisms, are applicable to this silent sketch itself. ‘Peripeteia’ is characterized by the shock or surprise that creates the initial scenario, the tension or the hook, I.E, Jack Ryan guy drops a banana peel. The pair of ‘Syllogisms’ refer to the two ways the punchline can be constructed and interpreted, one being plausible in a logical sense, and the other being implausible, the absurd part of the joke; I.E, Dwight Office U.S. guy slips on banana peel (directly related to setup, plausible), and shits his pants (unrelated to setup, implausible). These can be found in such two moments of my gag;

Peripeteia: The absurdity of playing poker with a Lizard, of which knows only a steely gaze, makes a player with an exceedingly challenging ‘poker face’.
Syllogisms: A) A Lizard is incapable of masterminding such an incredulous play as to outwit a human, especially one who has a pretty solid hand himself! Not to mention, the winning hand that is revealed (A Giga-Royal Flush!) directly contradicts the previous shots in which two cards are displayed. This makes this conclusion is implausible. B) Despite having a strong hand and a boastful confidence in his card reveal, the human is flabbergasted by the Lizard’s hand. With an immediate and pronounced reaction, not questioning the absurdity of the Lizard’s overly large hand, he treats the loss as one would if they lost fair and square. By his reaction, this conclusion is plausible.

To cover some thoughts regarding the production of the sketch itself, I realize only as I’m writing this, that I don’t think I’m playing the game right. However, the gradual reveal of each card does elevate the tension in a more concise way than it would if playing normally, and clearer to those unfamiliar with Poker. I don’t think a three pair is possible. Not to mention one shot is portrait while the rest in panoramic, and I couldn’t find a regular deck of cards, all I had was my novelty Japanese deck so it’s a bit hard to read. Still, I think it carries its punchline pretty well and comfortably fits in a dead-on one minute. An exercise that I think I’ve abstracted some good experience from.

Citations:
Palmer, J. (1988/2018), “Logic of the Absurd”, The Comedy Studies Reader, <https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rmit/detail.action?docID=5398043> website. Accessed 15 March 2024, RMIT Library.