For English, we had to analyze various comedic works and humorists we found inspiring and then create our own comedic project. We were challenged to produce either a stand-up set, sketch, comedic graduation speech, or satire piece. Before we created our actual projects however, we had to write a humor proposal where we explained two of our comedic influences and a reflection on how we would apply the techniques they used in our own pieces. Here is my humor proposal:<\/p>\n
The two humorists I chose to study are the comedy duo Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, and Ryan Higa, all of whom are sketch comics. The show Key and Peele, which mainly consists of the duo acting various roles in absurd skits, tends to start off with seemingly normal and familiar situations but end with strange twists. In their sketch, \u201cSchool Bully,\u201d it starts off with a familiar setting in which a school bully (Peele) is making fun of a kid who\u2019s reading (Key). But as the skit progresses, the bully starts to reveal his true intentions for bullying the kid and how his personal issues drive him to bully. Part of the humor comes from how honest he is but also the bullying tone in which he reveals his personal problems. At the end of the skit, the bully\u2019s dad pulls up in a truck and blatantly tells his son all of his personal issues that lead to him beating him. It gets a bit depressing at the end, but because comedy is truth and pain, the sketch is ultimately funny. Additionally, their sketches utilize slapstick humor. For example, one of their sketches, \u201cTurbulence,\u201d is about a man (Key) who wants to use the restroom on an airplane, which a flight attendant (Peele) will not allow, as the seatbelt sign is on. They argue about it intensely until the flight attendant finally lets him go to the restroom. Throughout their whole conversation, the plane was steady and could have easily been walked across, but as soon as the flight attendant sits down and the man stands up to go over the restroom, the plane starts shaking violently and he is thrown across the aisle and struggles to maintain his balance as he makes his way to the restroom. At one point, the plane even does a barrel roll and he is thrown into passengers, but he still continues to make strong eye contact with the flight attendant. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Ryan Higa\u2019s skits generally parody pop culture and Internet-related trends. In one of his skits, \u201cMy Morning Routine,\u201d he plays four different characters, and the fact that it\u2019s him playing all of them adds to the humor. In the skit, three of the characters are gathered around in a circle and it starts off with his normal Ryan character wondering out loud why another character (Regina) is late to their meeting, to which the thug character, R-Dizzle, snaps at him about how he doesn\u2019t know the answer to everything and they banter in a really dumb argument that escalates and deescalates very quickly. Afterwards, when Regina finally arrives, she explains her morning routine, the reason for her lateness. Her character is ditzy, and the way that Ryan portrays her is hilarious. For example, during her morning routine, she explains how she does her makeup, which consists of her using flour as foundations and Sharpies and crayons on her eyes instead of the \u201ccoloring sticks\u201d most other girls use. The vocal inflection he uses for her adds a lot to the humor as well and really sells the character. Additionally, Higa uses lots of puns in his skits as well, so when the fourth character, Hanate, explains his routine, it starts off with him accidentally shooting his father, realizing that, and running off into the world and ending up shooting and running over more people who all turn out to be his father as well. When Ryan interrupts his story to express that he doesn\u2019t believe Hanate does this every single morning, Hanate gets offended and all the characters side with him and turn on Ryan. Hanate then \u00a0reveals that he thought they were talking about their <\/span>mourning<\/span> routines, not their morning ones, and Regina and R-Dizzle agree that it was an easy mistake to make. Higa also uses some mild blue humor in his skits; for example, during Regina\u2019s routine, she explained how every morning she turns on the shower, brushes her hair, brushes her teeth, writes her name on the outside of shower once water has condensed outside of it, and \u201ctrims her little bush downstairs,\u201d and the video cuts to her cutting some of the leaves on a plant. Another example is during R-Dizzle\u2019s routine, he explains how he, \u201c…jumps on that CoC,\u201d and the video cuts to him playing the game Clash of Clans on his phone. The subtlety of some of Higa\u2019s humor techniques makes it really funny when you connect all the dots. Through the absurd stories told by his characters, Higa mocks the trend of creating and watching \u201cmorning routine\u201d videos.<\/span> <\/em><\/p>\n From these humorists\u2019 themes, I appreciate the lightheartedness of most of their topics as well as the slight edge. Many Key and Peele skits are in innocent situations but incorporate jokes and satire about race, and Higa\u2019s skits tend to stay silly while also mocking pop culture, which is something that I find inspiring and would like for my humor project to do. I also really enjoy the absurd banter in their skits, and find the parts of their skits where banter takes place to be the parts I laugh hardest at, and also something that pushes the story forward. Probably the most compelling part of their skits, though, are how well they sell the characters and really get into their roles. Because of their acting, I kind of forget that it\u2019s Key and Peele, or that it\u2019s Higa playing all of his characters and you can really get into the absurdity of the storyline.<\/span> <\/em><\/p>\n Similarly, my piece will be set in an innocent, everyday situation, in which a piano student is going to her first piano class. It\u2019ll start off fairly normal, but take a turn once we meet the piano teacher, whose absurdity is the driving force behind the humor. Her character will be overly exaggerated, just as how Key, Peele, and Higa exaggerate the ridiculousness of their roles. My idea for the skit came from real interactions I had with a substitute piano teacher (while my actual teacher was on maternity leave) who really did make me question my musical abilities, so I thought it would be interesting to take her personality and dial it all the way up for the character. The idea is that she\u2019ll be so unrealistically mean that it\u2019s funny, which will add to the absurd humor in this sketch. Higa\u2019s characters say some very cruel things to each other, which is evident in a number of his other skits, but I have noticed that when what they\u2019re saying is so mean that it would never happen in real life, it becomes funny. However, because only one of the characters in my skit will be exaggerated and the other is relatively normal, there probably won\u2019t be much room for banter, which is one of the funniest humor techniques in my opinion. The main reason Key and Peele are a comedy duo is so that they can banter and bounce off of each other, but that might not work for my skit, given the characters.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n After I wrote up my humorist study and proposal, I moved onto writing the script for the sketch:<\/p>\n STUDENT: Going to my first piano class so I can enrich my life with the gift of music!<\/span><\/p>\n (The student opens the door. The teacher has a dirty look on her face. The student smiles at her.)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n STUDENT: Hi, my name is–<\/span><\/p>\n TEACHER: You\u2019re thirty seconds late. <\/span>(The student looks confused as she goes to sit on the piano bench.)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n STUDENT: Oh, I\u2019m so sorry–<\/span><\/p>\n TEACHER: Shut your mouth.<\/span><\/p>\n (The student has a concerned look on her face as she closes her mouth.)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n TEACHER: Tell me. Why are you here?<\/span><\/p>\n STUDENT: Because\u2026 I wanna learn how to play piano?<\/span><\/p>\n TEACHER: Wrong! (<\/span>The student becomes increasingly uncomfortable.) <\/span><\/i>You are here because you are jealous of your older sister who plays piano and has more money and more friends and who you\u2019ve always been second best to at everything and you want to beat her at <\/span>something<\/span><\/i> so you can finally feel good about yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n STUDENT: <\/span>(short pause)<\/span><\/i> …I don\u2019t have a sister. <\/span><\/p>\n TEACHER: Ridiculous, that\u2019s why we all start learning. <\/span>(The teacher clears her throat awkwardly.) <\/span><\/i>Show me your hands. <\/span>(The student looks down at her hands and back up at the teacher, who is beckoning for her to bring her hands closer to her. She slowly gives them to her.) <\/span><\/i>Hmmm. Small, stubby, ugly, completely useless for piano. (<\/span>The student looks shocked and offended.)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n TEACHER: To make up for your\u2026 handicap, you\u2019re going to have to put in some hard work.<\/span><\/p>\n STUDENT: Of course, I\u2019m willing to–<\/span><\/p>\n TEACHER: If you want to get any good at the piano, you have to practice every. Day. <\/span>(Speaks faster as she gets further down the list.)<\/span><\/i> Scales and technique: two hours. Chopin and Liszt: one hour; classical sonatas: two hours; Scarlatti, Handel, and Bach fugues: three hours. <\/span>(The student looks horrified.)<\/span><\/i> Each.<\/span><\/p>\n STUDENT: <\/span>(counting on fingers) <\/span><\/i>Each?!<\/span><\/p>\n TEACHER: Of course! You kids these days are so lazy. Always on your phone, texting, Snapchatting, Instagrammering. When you should be spending your time studying dominant seventh chords instead of how to beat the next level of Angry Birds!<\/span><\/p>\n STUDENT: Absolutely, I–<\/span><\/p>\n TEACHER: You\u2019re wasting my time. Play something you already know, preferably before the sun sets.<\/span><\/p>\n STUDENT: <\/span>(Takes a deep breath, elegantly lifts hands, and plays one note.)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n TEACHER: Stop, that was absolute trash. Do you have ears? Do you have ears?<\/span><\/p>\n STUDENT: Yeah?<\/span><\/p>\n TEACHER: Do you have ears?<\/span><\/p>\n STUDENT: Yes, I have ears.<\/span><\/p>\n TEACHER: Show me your ears. Show me your ears. <\/span>(The student pushes her hair back behind her ear.) <\/span><\/i>Did you not just hear the mess you just played? I really don\u2019t think piano is a good fit for you. You should quit immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n STUDENT: I know I\u2019m not that good yet, but I really want to learn!<\/span><\/p>\n TEACHER: Oh really? Congratulations! Would you like a medal?<\/span><\/p>\n STUDENT: What? <\/span><\/p>\n TEACHER: <\/span>(The teacher pulls a medal from the side and pushes it towards the student) <\/span><\/i>Take it, take it! Go on, you\u2019ve earned it! For being the best person who can\u2019t play the piano but really wants to!<\/span><\/p>\n STUDENT: Why would you say that?<\/span><\/p>\n TEACHER: Because I have an inferiority complex and spent my whole life being insecure and second best to my sister and like to take my frustrations out on my students. I\u2019m probably going to die in about three days or hours or minutes anyways and wasted all my life being miserable and comparing myself to everyone and never feeling good enough. My sister got to play a whole concerto at Carnegie Hall and here I am teaching scales to gremlins like you!<\/span><\/p>\n STUDENT: \u2026I know a therapist that I can hook you up with.<\/span><\/p>\n TEACHER: That\u2019s probably what\u2019s best for me but I refuse to swallow my pride, so I will now direct my hate for myself and my sister out at you!<\/span><\/p>\n STUDENT: <\/span>(gets up) <\/span><\/i>I should probably go.<\/span><\/p>\n TEACHER: No, sit down! I never saved up for retirement because I was so busy chasing the dream of being a concert pianist like my sister and I need your money because I have driven away all of my other students with my horrible teaching!<\/span><\/p>\n STUDENT: <\/span>(The student hurries out the door.) <\/span><\/i>Thank you!<\/span><\/h6>\n Once I finished the script, I started filming. Because I was playing both of the characters, I had to film them separately. I filmed the piano teacher character first. Her costume consisted of one of my mom’s old dresses, my dad’s glasses, and a Marilyn Monroe wig that could pass as old lady hair. Playing her character was pretty fun, but it probably would have been more fun if I got to actually yell at someone instead of a random spot on the piano stand. Also, she was originally going to have a Russian accent, just like the substitute piano teacher who inspired this skit, but I couldn’t do one, so I changed it to a British accent. I filmed the student the next day around the same time so the lighting wouldn’t fluctuate too much and a lot of my footage consisted of me trying to make concerned and confused faces while staring at a chair. After I finished filming everything, I cut up the footage and put the clips in order. I then added a few effects in After Effects and some music and it was finished. Here is my humor project:<\/p>\n\t\t\t(Student skips down hallway.)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n