Beyond a Joke, Beyond a Genre – Week 1
1.What is your understanding of the comic form and theories of humour explored this week, with reference to the reading(s), in-class discussion, and/or your own research?
‘Theories of humour, with a focus on Incongruity/Surprise’
For the first week, we have been discussing and exploring our own perceptions of what “comedy” is. It was quite interesting to hear the similar responses from the whole class. Overall, everyone agreed that comedy is both something that we engage with because of familiarities and/or surprise. For example, people can be amused by watching someone struggle with gym equipment because they too have had those struggles, and they can also be amused by aspects of surprise, like all the gym eqipment being items of food?… a strange idea but that could be funny? As well, our reading, ‘Six Small Essays about Comedy’ (2023), by Seth Simons highlights how comedy can be absorbed for different reason…’Why People Laugh…Because they hear something surprising. Because they hear something familiar’.
I am already starting to realise that comedy has many layers and can be taking in so many different ways depending on the person. I am very excited to explore this subject and I know that there will be many obstacles of truely understanding how comedy works.
I have linked a TikTok clip which reflects my point of how people will laugh because they can relate to a message/meaning, yet also be surprised due to surprise or in this case, absurdity…
2. How does your media artefact respond to these constraints and concepts?
My sketch for this week is something that has been done before, making use of the “fart” sound effect. I felt childish making this work and quite doubtful; is this something I should even be producing at university? I will say, after watching a few of Tim Robinson’s sketches in class, I feel as though a lot of comedy has a solid base of childish mannerisms. In the clip below, Ronnie is being rejected from the show because of his obsession with the zipline. As he is being asked to leave, he groans and cries like a child thats had its toys taken away… very funny stuff.
I have watched my sketch back a few times and the amusement has defiantly mellowed. The surprise of the long, passionate fart is what is funny about the clip. Once you know the fart is there, it is not so funny. If my performance was more detailed, more facial expressions, more movement, the clip could have had more comical depth to it.