FYW- Why Are You Laughing?

When I think of comedy, a musical is not what comes to mind if I am being completely honest; however, as I watched the two videos from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend , I could not keep myself from laughing. The songs themselves are very well done with their clever lyrics, and the characters also do a very good job of acting out the scenes while singing along. In the first song, “Face Your Fears”, it begins with the lead singer discussing how she used to be so scared, but she eventually learned to never back down. It starts as being very relatable because anyone has gone through an experience where they want to run and hide instead of facing their problem; however, it takes a very unexpected turn as she continues on the song. She begins to say ridiculous comments like, stay in a burning building or attempt to fly out of a window, and she eventually brings in children to be her back-up singers. As you continue to watch the scene, it becomes more and more comical as she gives her ludicrous advice. ...

When I first heard the title and realized the movie  that Matthew discussed  was about vampires, I honestly did not know what to expect. In my head I was imagining  The Vampire Diaries , the one and only show I have watched about  these creatures ,  but  What We Do in the Shadows  could not be more opposite from that. It was remarkably fresh with great humor and a different spin on a vampire movie that I have never seen before. I t reminded me a lot of  The Office   because they had a film crew following them around, and the dry humor was very similar. I  unfortunately was not able to watch the entire movie ; however,  from the clips and trailers that I was able to see, I found there to be many themes in the movie that we have talked about in class, including the incongruity theory and relief theory.    In one  scene in particular, the  vampires get the police called on them because  the neighbo...

As Chris stated,  The Office   is a prime example of the superiority and incongruity theories; therefore, it is found to be used in many people’s blogposts,  myself  included. With its very distinguished characters and hilarious plots, one can see many examples of how these theories are represented. Chris does a great job of deciphering through the scenes, and choosing ones that  really showcase how certain characters, like Michael, Dwight and Jim, use the superiority theory, as well as instances where one can see the incongruity theory. He exemplifies how these theories can be seen in  The Office  through the episode, "Stress Relief". That episode  in particular was  also used in my earlier blogpost, which I found interesting because we both recognized the theories in that specific scene. I think that shows how strong The  Office uses those theories of humor because we both noticed it at separate times. He  describes the episode...

There are three central theories, the  superiority  theory, the incongruity theory, and the relief theory that help describe humor and explain why we laugh. Each are very different, but all resort back to the same central idea: comedy. One theory in  specific , the incongruity theory, has several different accounts to it that help explain this idea. One account in specific, Kant’s account, stuck out to me because it sums up the incongruity  theory very well. He states that  “something absurd must be present in whatever is to raise a hearty convulsive laugh” ( Lippit ). People find something to be funny because they expect a certain outcome to happen;  however,  something very unexpected and unusual happens instead. This can be seen in many  comedy  shows, like The Office for instance. Many  times  throughout the show you expect something to happen, but instead  Michael will react a certain way that no one ever expected, resul...