The humor project gave us the freedom to study humorists we find effective and experiment with a form of comedy that’s right for us.
We were allowed to choose something more performance-based, such as a stand-up act, comedic commencement speech, or skit; or, or choose a less performance-based project like a series of satirical cartoons, Photoshop or Illustrator images, or a comedic advertisement. We were also allowed to choose if we were going to collaborate with others or work alone.
I chose to work with three others: Aya Iwata, Jessica Lohse, and Jackie Lara. I’d worked with Jess for previous projects before, and Aya and Jackie are friends of mine – from Film and Design, respectively. Since Jess and I are in animation, I thought that having at least one person from every elective was a fun idea – so we ran with it.
The original concept for the humor project was one given by Jackie – she had the idea of a kid who didn’t understand what was happening around him, and seeing everything around him in a positive light despite how bad the current situation might be. With this concept, we’d be able to employ the tactics of dramatic irony, absurd humor, as well as dark humor.
And, well – since our story eventually ended up as the diary of a boy who gets kidnapped walking home from school, I think we ended up leaning very deeply into the dark humor territory.
We decided that our ‘script’ would just be the kid’s diary entry, which you can read here!! (Though I recommend skipping over it for now, and maybe come back later once you’ve watched the finished product) :
Dear Diary,
I’m super duper happy!!! I’m gonna be the student of the week next week!! I get to make a poster so dad’s gonna take me to see mama because she’s super good at art and she’s gonna help me make the superest most amazing poster ever!!
It’s weird though… when I was walking home from school, this man with a black water gun came up to me and asked me to get in his van. He wasn’t very nice, but that’s okay!! I was super happy because I love water gun fights! He was so good at playing the bad guy!! He only had one water gun but I knew he would have another one in the van so I went inside. I’ll probably get home late but that’s okay it won’t take too long!
Oh yeah!! Sally’s mama is making a pool party next week. She’s going to have a lot of super cool stuff!! Cupcakes, candies, and cupcakes!!! Mama promised that she’s gonna take me!!
Going back to the guy’s van now tho
It was super cool!!! It was filled with spy gear like the movies! Then the man told me that I could be a spy, by being super duper quiet in the back!! So I was!! I pulled out my colorful sunglasses that mama made so that I could be extra super cool!!
Do you know that my mama is a supper amazing painter!!! 2 weeks ago I was over at mama’s house! She gave me cake for dinner, and that was when we made the supper cool sunglasses that I’m wearing right now!!! Isn’t that supper cool! They’re rainbow and glittery, and I love love love them.
Oh!
He drove us to a super cool building that was super empty and super dark. I think he called it a “ware-house”? Anyways, he told me that the spy game was going to continue here and that I had to wait. I’m waiting super patiently!! See, Mama and Dad? I can listen to adults!!
Since I have proof now, that I can listen to adults, maybe I won’t get in too much trouble when they find out it was me who ate all the chocolate chip cookies yesterday. Dad got mad last time, but he might not this time!!
The guy walked away and is doing something… Maybe writing a letter? He wrote a big number next to the dollar sign. I can tell because there were so many zeros!
I wonder when this game’s gonna end… I still wanna see mama! I wanna make that poster!! Oh!! Maybe I can start sketching it here!! 😀
Love, Timmy.
After we had our script finalized, it was time to assign roles. Aya did the voice, Jackie did the drawings/doodles, Jessica did the hand-writing, and I did the video editing!!
Because of plans I’d already had over the course of time we had to work on our humor project, I wasn’t able to really start editing the video and putting it together until 11pm of the night before it was due. Because of that, well… I ended up working on it until 5:40 am. And was quite exhausted. I was still recovering for a couple days after that too, actually – as even after getting 13 hours of sleep the next night, I still passed out on the couch of the Animation Room for an hour on Tuesday. Whoops!!
Still, I’m proud of what my group created, even if it is a bit silly – and while humor isn’t exactly my strong suit, this project has given me a lot to consider when thinking about adding humorous aspects to my own personal stories.