{"id":50,"date":"2018-10-12T20:41:07","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T20:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.freestyleacademy.rocks\/~AveryT\/?page_id=50"},"modified":"2020-05-09T10:50:32","modified_gmt":"2020-05-09T10:50:32","slug":"humor","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~AveryT\/humor\/","title":{"rendered":"Humor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For the humor project, we learned how to use comedy (both verbal and written form) to deliver a message about a critical issue. After reading works such as Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five <\/em>and Eugene Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros”, we were tasked with creating a comedic act of our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humorist Study<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Colbert and Ronny Chieng are both well-known humorists \u2014 comedians, to be specific. Colbert\u2019s piece, Trump Indulges His Penchant For Chanting Mobs By Tweeting Encouragement To Lockdown Protesters<\/em>, and Chieng\u2019s piece, Everything Is Stupid – Desperate Ideas for a Warming Planet<\/em>, are both hilarious and work for different reasons. While Colbert\u2019s piece regards Trump\u2019s response to coronavirus and lockdown protestors, Chieng tackles potential climate change solutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stephen Colbert<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The two themes in Colbert\u2019s piece are that those protesting the lockdown are doing themselves a disservice, and that Trump\u2019s behavior during this crisis is not indicative of a competent leader. Through a recorded presentation with graphics and video-clip inserts, Colbert communicates these themes using jokes, black humor, blue humor, and satire. At the beginning of his presentation, the comedian effectively captures the audience\u2019s attention by joking, \u201cI hope you had a lovely weekend. Actually, I hope you had a weekend. \u2018Cause that means you can still differentiate the days of the week.\u201d Because of this joke, the audience can feel more connected to him because of his lighthearted reminder that other people are having similar difficulties during this time period. In response to a photograph of a lockdown protestor wielding a sign reading \u201cGive me Liberty or Give Me Covid-19,\u201d Colbert exclaims, \u201cbuddy, you\u2019re in a large crowd, you\u2019re not wearing a mask, you\u2019re not six feet away from people, you might not need to choose.\u201d This criticism of lockdown protestors is an example of black humor since the protestor may very well catch coronavirus from their exercise of \u201cliberty.\u201d Colbert goes on to comment on the Paycheck Protection Program\u2019s (PPP) failure to aid small businesses financially:  <\/strong>\u201cEvidently, the [PPP] to save small businesses\u2026 ran out of money on Thursday…that\u2019s like your condom catching chlamydia.\u201d His analogy, which utilizes blue humor, simultaneously points out the shortcomings of the PPP and highlights the inadequacy of the White House administration\u2019s response to Covid-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ronny Chieng<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

While Colbert discusses a sickness affecting humans, Chieng addresses how best to tackle a sickness affecting the earth: climate change. His presentation with graphic inserts showcases how outlandish and frankly unfeasible some proposed solutions to climate change are mainly through dramatic irony and absurd humor. Chieng begins his piece with the following: \u201cTo help cool the planet\u2026 I turned the air conditioning on.\u201d When questioned as to whether his actions were actually contributing to global warming, Chieng replied: \u201cNo, stupid, I left the window open, of course.\u201d This example of dramatic irony prompts audience members to examine areas of their own lives in which a practice meant to help them avoid the fallout of an outcome actually contributes to that outcome. In his review of a startup\u2019s idea to move ocean water into a desert to cool the earth, Chieng exclaims that one \u201ccan\u2019t buy three boxes of Papa John\u2019s and ask [one\u2019s] friends to move the Atlantic [into the desert].\u201d The absurdist humor in this statement emphasizes the ludicrousy of the startup\u2019s idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The similarities between the two pieces include the media and clever lines. The recorded presentations with graphics and video clip inserts mimics what one might see on a TV news channel; this media style is effective in delivering the comedians\u2019 messages since they are discussing current events or situations. Both Colbert and Chieng structured their lines such that people could laugh easily and then reflect on the deeper meaning behind what was just said. In that way, these two comedies were lovely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Colbert’s Piece: www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hIv7YJ0UrlM<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ronny Chieng’s Piece: www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QooQ1pszp6I<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comedic Sketch Script<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My family made the radical decision a few months ago to become vegetarians. Now, before you start congratulating me on my journey to being one with Mother Nature and all that, I\u2019mma let you know that this was done against my will and I resent the fact that I was born into a family that wants to do good for the earth. What?! You want me to give up my dino nuggies?! But I do have to admit that giving up meat is better for the environment, what with reducing carbon footprints so I just went along with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, if you think about it, I\u2019m not one of those good ol\u2019 Americans scarfing down beese churgers on the daily, I\u2019d be totally fine. On top of that I\u2019m Vietnamese, and if you know anything about Vietnamese people it\u2019s that we eat a truckload of vegetables. I\u2019m talking like at least a 5:1 ratio of veggies to every other aspect of the meal, no joke. You go to any pho place and they slap down that platter of herbs and bean sprouts that white people always have no clue what to do with, yeah, that\u2019s the good shit. Don\u2019t be wasteful. Don\u2019t just leave it there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking about being wasteful, part of being vegetarian is being eco-friendly and not wasting resources. So naturally when it came time for my family to clear the fridge of meat products, we didn\u2019t just throw the stuff out. We ate it. Reduce the trash you produce, amirite?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next we decided to get our protein through beans, lentils, tofu and tofu and\u2026 more tofu. Did you know that there\u2019s such a thing as meatless meat? Yeah that\u2019s a thing, like meatless patties and sausages and ground beef. Textured tofu is wild, man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alright so 1 month into this lifestyle the whole thing\u2019s becoming a mess. Everyone in the family\u2019s suffering from meat withdrawal. One moment we\u2019re sitting at the kitchen table discussing what we need to stock up on at the grocery store and in the next, someone will whip out the ten commandments of vegetarianism. Then things devolve into a \u201cwho\u2019s the better vegetarian\u201d contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo you can\u2019t get almond milk because it takes too much water to produce almonds\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo you can\u2019t buy meatless meat the whole point of becoming vegetarian was to give up meat\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo you can\u2019t\u2014\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ANYWAY it was inevitable but one of us cheated on the diet. That was me. Sorry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever tried fish sauce? Gotdamn crack cocaine. I\u2019m an addict, I know. I felt really guilty about it and talked about it with one of my friends and she was like \u201c…you know pescetarianism exists, right?\u201d I shared her insights with my family, which of course made them very happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s a slippery slope, and soon house rules changed from \u201cno eating meat whatsoever\u201d to \u201cno bringing meat home and no eating meat at home.\u201d So now we\u2019re flexitarians, which means that we\u2019re vegetarians with commitment issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funny thing is, we started eating less meat than when we were vegetarians. That\u2019s some real reverse psychology at work right there. Hey, whatever works, right? Go green babyyyyyy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My comedic influences were Stephen Colbert and Ronny Chieng. I really like how both comedians are able to transform instances of failure into laughing material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humor Video<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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