Men & Women

Men and women have very different ideas about what is acceptable for them to do as a profession according to society. The difference in the two genders is an ongoing topic in the comedy world and it will be for a long time. The fact of the matter is that while in today’s society the two genders are considered equal, we are still not the same. This is a classic way to create a joke and almost every comedian out there has written a joke about the differences in the two genders.

Most notably for me was Bill Burr when he did the skit about how men can’t hit women but women can hit men. This was hilarious to me because to an extent it was so true. It brought up a funny childhood memory for me. I had a neighbor whose girl friend took a hammer to his car and all he could really think to do was watch her do it and then call the cops. This isn’t the only difference in the genders though. Another classic gender joke is the men who want to be nurses. Those guys just get laid into by all of their friends. Its not because there homosexual or anything either its just that society says that it is weird for a man to be a nurse, if they wanted to go into the medical field then they should go to medical school and become a doctor (according to society). It is the same way for women. It is strange to a lot of people to see a woman driving a garbage truck, or doing anything in the construction world. Society tells us that this is weird and that it is a good idea to make fun of people who go against societal norms, it has become acceptable to laugh at theses people.

In The Full Monty the men in the story become strippers after being put into a position of desperation. The town accepts this behavior from these men and encourages them on their journey. Aside from the town the movie itself is saying that it is acceptable for these men to do this. The fact of the matter is that it would be different if the characters were women and not men. Women would be looked at as whores or prostitutes and this would not be encouraged. Besides that the men in the movie were not models. A heavy woman would not have been able to pull this off. Men would not go to see a large woman dance on a pole. This could just be the difference in the brain chemistry of men and women but a woman would not get away with what the characters in the movie pulled off. This is once again society determining what is and isn’t acceptable for each gender to partake in, and for other members of society to accept.

Follow The Laughter

I have been wondering, do people laugh because they think that they are supposed to laugh? My personal answer to that is yes! When a group goes to see a stand up act, or even goes to see a movie, if the entire group is laughing and someone just does not fine the subject mater funny. The odd man out is going to laugh because he does not want to be different. He does not want to group to think that he isn’t smart enough, or well cultured enough to understand the jokes. This makes me ask then how can you tell if something is truly funny. I feel like I’m being too philosophical here but its true that people with laugh just because a group or society is telling them to. This is even true in class. When we watched Ralphie May in class students were looking around to see if it would be ok to laugh at what he was saying. We are at a very conservative catholic school, so most people were not going to find the stuff that he was sing about the pope funny at all. I wonder though if it would be different if we took the same class and watched the same act a say the University of Illinois. I think that while everyone may not be laughing, there also would not be crickets in the classroom like it was in our class. People do not want to be different from the group and this even applies to what people fine funny and not funny.

Another point is the comedian’s status. This can have a huge impact on what the audience perceives as funny. If the comedian is popular and well liked, then there is going to be a lot of group think that is going on during the act. It is expected that what ever comes out of this guys mouth is going to make the entire audience roll on the ground laughing. I feel this could go the other way as well. If the comedian is popular there could be a group of people who refuse to laugh or even watch the act. This is also true with music. You always have those people who refuse to go along with something that is mainstream, they seem to only be able to enjoy comedy if it is slightly secret or underground. Society and status of a comedian play a huge role in whether people laugh or not.

Drawing A Line

First off I want to say that I truly enjoy watching George Carlin do his stand up, but that’s not what this blog is about. I want to try and define the difference between doing a stand up bit and just going on a rant. George Carlin comes pretty close to that line during his stand up acts. We watched a piece of this latest HBO special in class, and he was truly just rattling off words that really to me had no rhyme or reason to them. I saw absolutely no humor in what he was doing. I was impressed with his ability to memorize and speak quickly, but I could just listen to a rap CD and get the same effect. I felt like he was just getting rid of a lot of hidden aggression about the world out by spewing these words at the audience. This is how a lot of his stand up is to me, just a spew of his hate for the world. We talked about how life can be funny, and I agree about that there is just a point where it becomes a sad sarcastic rant. I am playing the devils advocate here because I personally enjoy his stand up and do think that he is funny when he is actually speaking in coherent sentences. That being said there are always places in his acts where he just seems pissed off at the world and it takes away from the humor of what he is saying. There is a specific example where he is talking about what people say when a loved one dies. I feel like this may have happened to him and he is trying to get closure by going on this rant that has the intention of being funny but instead it just comes off as a rant. Maybe this is just me being too touchy but the fact of the matter is that he comes close to the line between funny and seriously demented. That brings up a whole new point. Maybe he wants people to think that he is demented and that is part of the whole character. After all that I suppose I still haven’t found a definition of where the line is. I would have the say that the line is different for each particular audience member and one person cannot define the line.

Laughing At Falling

At the beginning of the semester we talked about the difference between reading and watching slapstick. The class was quite divided on which was funnier, but more importantly the class had a hard time coming up with the reason why. When I watched the Charlie Chaplin film I felt lost and not at all in the mood to laugh. Now, I think that this is due to personally preference but I think that there is a huge difference between watching and reading slapstick comedy.

Slapstick comedy is usually comedy that involves someone getting hit, falling down or just getting hurt in general. When we watch these things happen to another person I feel that one of two basic human reactions will happen. The first of the two reactions is that the viewer will get enjoyment out of the person’s pain. Now I don’t think that this is because the viewer is a bad person or anything, this is just the natural reaction of the person. The second reaction would be to feel sorry for the person, in this case the viewer would most likely not find humor in the slapstick. I cannot say that either of these reactions is right our wrong, I am just proposing why exactly we will or will not laugh at slapstick. I also feel that a person can watch some slapstick and laugh and watch another bit and not be amused at all.

That all being said about watching slapstick, I feel that when a person reads slapstick like in the jumping frog the natural reaction of the pity or the enjoyment is taken away because the book makes the situation seem more fictional. When I read the jumping frog, I found myself laughing out loud at how silly the situation was. Whereas I think that if I were to watch that scene in like a movie I would just sit there a lot less amused. This may also be because my imagination is funnier to me than the image that a director can show me. I don’t think this theory is set in stone but there has to be a bit of truth to it. For me personally, when I watch a person get hurt, weather it be on America’s Funniest Home Videos or a Charlie Chaplin film I just don’t get as amused as I found myself after reading the slapstick scene.

A final thing that I want to say is that for us to truly compare reading and watching slapstick comedy, I feel that we would have to read the screen play of the Chaplin movie and then watch it. As of now the class and I were comparing apples and oranges with “The Jumping Frog” and “The Little Tramp”

What I Find Funny

To start of this whole blogging assignment for humor class I figured that I would be a good idea to let everyone know what exactly I find funny, what makes me tick, and how my brain works. I’m writing this first entry like this because I don’t want people to be offended by the things that I write on this. I am not the type of person who likes to go with the norms. If someone tells me that I should go left my first instinct is to right, I’m not sure why I do this but its worked well for me so far. I love shaking things up and I enjoy comics who do the same thing. As far as things that I find funny it is honestly the things that most people would snicker at and say that it was just stupid or rude.

Before I get too far into things that I do enjoy, it’s probably a good idea to talk about some of the things that I absolutely can’t stand when it comes to humor. There are not too many things that wont make me laugh in the right situation, but in general jokes that my parents would find funny and amusing are absolutely not funny to me. This might be due to the fact that I am 21 and there is a divide in the humor that different generations find funny. Actually that is probably a very accurate statement, but I don’t want to get off on a tangent. In general, things that are done tastefully are not going to get me rolling on the floor laughing. That’s not to say that in the right situation these things won’t make me laugh but in general, not my cup of tea.

Now that we know what I don’t find funny, now to talk about what I do enjoy. The best example of something that I enjoy is anything that Tom Green does. This man’s presence just makes me crack up. He is rude, politically incorrect, gross, shocking, and just all around awesome! This man is everything that I want to be and more. I enjoy watching the norms and boundaries of society pushed. If people are going to get mad about it, then I most likely will love it. I am probably a sick puppy but I’m just being honest. I hope this is a good start to a humorous and academic bog.

Attached is a website that is not for the faint of heart, but it is quite possibly the best example of what I find funny. 

http://www.walkinginla.com/Page2/deadthings.html