Humor is one of the only form of expression that can hold so many different meanings to it. Happy, sad, angry, jealous, we can fit all that into a good laugh or joke.
What reminds me the most of having a good time, is me and my Freestyle friends. Just sitting around, talking. This is what inspired the short skit I made for this Humor project.
What also inspired me was the “circle” from that 70’s show.
SHUT UP, BRUH
Characters:
Bobby – calm, really conspiratorial
Tyler – really energetic, lowkey racist, disrespectful
Sony – clueless, whitewashed
Mike – just cuddled with a girl, contacts, most normal person in the group
The Script:
Everybody listening to Gin and Juice
Tyler: lay back
Bobby: with my mind on my money and my money on my mind. Rolling down the street, smokin indo, sippin on gin and juice
Tyler: Lay back
Bobby: With my mind on my money and my money on my mind
T: Ay bruh, where Mike at?
B: ion know, i think he was out with his girl tonight
T: Ohhh shit!
B: I knowwww you think tonights the night?
T: stares
B: stares
T: HAHAHAH YOU KNOW THAT BOY AINT GETTING NOTHING
B: HAHA I KNOW BRUH I WAS JUST KIDDING
S: laughing hard, silently
B: stares at S
T: stares at S
S: still laughing
B: stares
T: stares
S: laughing, and then stops when he sees the others staring, and stares back at both
T: Mann get yo goofy- I still don’t even know this kid’s name bruh whos mans-
B: It’s chill bro, it’s my lil cousin from Orange County.
T: What’s yo name?
S: Sony.
T: stares
S: What?
T: laughing This boy name is Sony HAHAHA
B: Bruh chill on him, Orange County is where the white folk be at, he ain’t used to hanging around Asians. Especially no Asian like you. Sony, this is Tyler.
T: What’s that supposed to mean?
B: You a whole dumbass, is what I’m trying to say.
T: Boyy. pauses You right.
A sound of someone changing the radio
S: fiddling around with the boombox
“Whisky Lullaby”
S: singing along
T: stares
B: stares
S: singing
T: snatches the boombox back Bruh what the fuck, what you listening to?
Changes it to “Motivators”
S: I don’t like this.
T: That’s cuz you white washed.
S: Not even, I just don’t like this music.
T: If you don’t like this music you a whole dummy.
B: Where the word dummy come from?
T: What?
B: Like. stays silent
T: stares
S: still laughing
T: Boy, what you laughing about-
B: Like who even made up words. Like why do the wind be blowing?
Suddenly someone comes in through the door
T: AY MIKE. WHAT UP MIKE
B: Ayyyy.
S: looks
M: What’s up y’all, what’s up. Who’s this?
S: I’m Sony,.
M: What’s up, I’m Mike.
T: boy, where you been??
M: sly smile
B: He’s aboutta lie, I already know.
M: It. Went. Down.
T: stares
B: stares
S: still laughing
T: Yo, Bobby, he look serious this time.
B: Yeah, he looks different… when t
M: Bro, it finally happened.
T: No fucking way. GOOD SHIT BRUH.
B: Good shit bro. It finally happened.
T: How’d it go down bro?
B: Did she have fun?
M: I mean, yeah she seemed like she had a fun time.
B: oooo that boy nasty!
T: laughing
S: Did she fall asleep?
Music stops
B: stares
T: stares
M: stares
Music resumes (put a curse on you plays)
T: What you mean fall asleep?
S: Like falls asleep with tongue out
B: stares
T: stares
M: stares
T: BOY WHAT THE FUCK WRONG WITH THIS PLAYSTATION -3 LOOKING ASS BOY BRUH
B: laughing
S: It’s a legitimate question!
T: What you mean bro, how does that question even make sense right now?
B: It’s not even applicable
S: Like, pants and then falls asleep with his tongue out
M: What the heck, I don’t even want to answer that.
T: For real tho, what she say after?
M: I mean, like the usual.
T: Like “you were good?”
B: “You’re the best I’ve ever had.”
S: “I fell asleep.”
B: stares
M: stares
T: Bruh why do you keep on talking about the sleeping that shit don’t even make sense.
M: Yeah like what the hell.
T: Aight, you can’t talk for the next minute.
S: Why??
T: Because yo name Sony, now shut yo PS -3 headass up.
S: laughing
T: oh my god.. (under his breath) Anyways, how long you last?
M: What you mean “last”?
T: stares What you think I mean.
M: Like, when I was hugging her.
B: stares
S: laughing
T: slowly like you was hugging her while doing it, or like… bro I’m confused
M: Yeah while we were doing it …. Wait there’s so many different meanings to doing it.
T: No. There’s only one. You either did it or you didn’t.
M: Oh, then. I guess we didn’t do it.
T: throws his hands up Bobby, what I tell you. This kids a whole caperoni.
B: I know, man. This guy the captain of the Caperoni ship. Caperoni. Caperoni. Caperoni. Man, that’s not even a word.
S: Caperoni is definitely a word. It’s that thing that goes on top of pizza.
B: No, dumbass. That’s pepperoni.
S: Oh. Right.
T: Damn, Mike, I knew you didn’t really do it. So what y’all do then?
M: We cuddled.
T: stares You just … cuddled.
M: Yeah, man. It was nuts! It was our first time too.
T: slowly So you’re telling me. That you were alone with a girl. And y’all just cuddled???
M: What’s wrong with that?!
B: What’s wrong is that there are people out there who really think ketchup belongs on hot dogs!
M: Ketchup DOES belong on hot dogs.
B: No, man. We’ve got it all wrong. Ketchup wasn’t even supposed to be a thing. The government just made that shit up so we wouldn’t realize that tomatoes are actually the cancer of vegetables.
S: Actually, tomatoes are fruits.
B: stares
T: Who said you could talk Playstation Boy?
S: It’s been more than a minute.
T: Eh.
B: Man, imagine this. A smoking hot girl comes up to you, and then starts talking to you. And then she pulls off her wig and it turns out she’s a guy. Laughs
M: stares Why are you acting like that’s impossible.
B: Because imagine that! Laughing A guy dressed up like a girl.
M: It’s not that funny, that’s a real life thing.
B: Eh, shut up, Ellen Degeneres.
M: scoffs in disbelief What?? That doesn’t even make sense…
S: laughing
M: CAN YOU STOP LAUGHING
T: laughing
Phone starts ringing
T: Yello? Uh huh. Aight fosholi. Aight. See you. Hangs up Aight that was D-Dog, he wants to go eat pizza.
B: Man, pizza.
M: staring
B: What?
M: I was just waiting for you to go on your pizza rant. That gluten is government poison. Tomatoes are big red paintballs manufactured by the government. The government is out to get us.
B: The government is out to get us.
S: laughing
T: I’m hungry.
M: Aight, let’s start going.
Behind the Scenes
Inspirations
A lot of inspirations came from movies like Friday and KIDS, and a lot of the hip hop artists I listen to, like Quasimoto, Snoop Dogg, and A Tribe Called Quest.
I first watched Eric Andre’s show, The Eric Andre Show, in 6th grade on Adult Swim, and I fell in love. And then it happened to be that the following year I listened to Kevin Hart’s comedy set, Seriously Funny. I know the original assignment was to show one piece from a humorist, but the show was just too crazy to even pin it down to one episode. The Eric Andre Show is a “late night talk show” that parodies the usual late night talk shows that saturate the daily television in this era. Eric Andre is joined by Hannibal Buress, the calmer side to Eric Andre’s hyperactive one. During the duration of the show running, he had a handful of celebrities such as Jimmy Kimmel, Wiz Khalifa, Tyler the Creator, and others get interviewed. The best way to describe the show or Eric Andre would be surreal and absurd. For example, when asking an adult film star, after a 10 second pause of him staring blankly at her: “Aren’t you worried about hurting yourself?”, as soon as she starts to respond, a body comes out from nowhere and slams onto the desk that Eric Andre sits on, while Hannibal Buress rips his shirt open while screaming an African tribal chant. This one scene alone represents the absurdity of Eric Andre, and the seemingly random moments that just pop out of nowhere. To contrast, Kevin Hart’s Seriously Funny, is a unique brand of humor, combining his personal problems with funny anecdotes. He constantly talks about his misfortunes as a short man who is a coward, and now has the overwhelming responsibility of being a father to a son and a daughter. He jokes about being worried about his son growing up and becoming gay, a comment that would usually a lot of controversy, but therein lies his charm: his delivery. He is a comedian that thrives on anecdotes, and providing the best story possible from them. Eric Andre and Kevin Hart’s act have a lot of differences, but one of the similarities is that they seem to pose themselves just as normal people in the beginning of their sets, just another dad, another “talk show host”. But as they get deeper and deeper into their episode or set, they showcase their wit with banter and epigrams. As Hannibal Buress famously said on a set with Seth Rogen, while Seth Rogen and Eric Andre’s chair rotated in infinite circles on an automated platform, “Y’all spinnin’ around like balllas….seething with jealousy I am.”
The themes that I love the most from the Eric Andre Show are the elements that seem to randomly show up with out any real provocation, for example, a man falling from the top of the set to crash on top of the tables, or random clapping sound effects after a seemingly normal response from the guest. I want to include a lot of these elements to disorient the audience, making it seem almost like a feverish dream. One element that I want to implement in some way is when Eric Andre randomly puts his head forward and seems to hit a glass wall, although the glass wall is basically invisible, and he seems just as confused as we are about that. From Kevin Hart’s Seriously Funny, I want to make instead of the guest providing the anecdotes, the host to start telling his own stupid anecdotes that seem really inappropriate in terms of when it’s being talked about. Kevin Hart always has perfect banter and punchlines in his act. A part that I particularly felt like showcased this was when he was talking about giving a cookie to his daughter, when his wife comes out of nowhere saying that “you ain’t giving my daughter no damn cookie!” And at this point the daughter looks at Kevin Hart and says, “Daddy, I thought you was the king of the house.” As Kevin Hart talks about this otherwise normal situation, he explains that he “shut the whole cookie operation down. I grabbed the cookies, got my ladder, put them on top of the refrigerator.” This was so funny to me because there was a lot of irony in this statement. He acts like the man of the house because he can control some things, but he still needs a stepladder to reach the top of a refrigerator. I want to have a lot of contradictions and irony like this included in mine, like maybe my host saying that he is a catch for any woman, but says that he emotionally can’t connect with women in any way at all. Coming back to the Eric Andre show, like I stated in the analysis above, just like Harold has Kumar, Eric Andre has Hannibal Buress. In terms of initial energy, Hannibal Buress is the calm element to Eric Andre’s eccentric, crazy energy. I want to include another host that provides some sort of contradicting personality to my main tv show host. Combining Kevin Hart’s use of banter and Eric Andre Show’s unconventional conversational tools, an example I can already think of is our host telling a sappy anecdote about him and his ex-girlfriend, and while he says, “Well, and then she said-” the other host would interrupt from behind our host with what “she said”. I wouldn’t want to take any more elements from either of their sets and try to use the creativity I have to try to make this as much as my own as possible.
Idea
the idea I fell in love with the most was just the simple act of conversation among friends. Especially during this time of quarantine where we are no longer allowed to be around people, this simple act is no longer viable. It was fun to even pretend that I had 3 other friends to talk to.