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”
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It sounds like your imagination suits you much better than being shown what's happening. Maybe watching the events unfold in slapstick is just too cut and dry to be funny; it's easier to create a loose translation of the events in your mind, according to what you personally find funny. Writers can create a fairly vivid scene, but it is true when they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Movies leave very little to the imagination, and if the particular actors/writers/directors don't suit your taste, you won't find it funny. Writing leaves a lot more wiggle room to adapt a situation to your own personal likes and dislikes.
ReplyDeleteIt may also be that we prefer (some of us) NOT to actually see it--when we do, it becomes "real" and that isn't something that our politically correct selves ought to laugh at. It is also possible that our imaginations give us a more personal picture--we can make that person look like anyone we want.
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