For our Humor Project, we spent a couple of month learning about satire and different comedic techniques from books like The Importance of Being Earnest and Slaughterhouse-Five. Then we were given the opportunity for have fun and create anything we wanted with all the techniques we learned. Me and my friend Erin thought it would be a great idea to implement these techniques into a healthcare commercial.

Script

Influences

For our project we chose the two comedians John Mulaney and Ryan Higa. Ryan Higa is a youtuber that creates a variety of entertainment ranging from sketches to challenge videos. One of my favorite works from Ryan Higa is his Nintendoe Paper! video. In this video he creates a commercial which he uses to advertise the product nintendoe paper, the newest console for “nintendoe (with and e for copy right purposes)” He created this video to mock the nintendo labo, a literal piece of cardboard for being $69.99, referring to a previous video he created called The CARDBOARD! He uses stop motion and commentary to create a realistic and convincing advertisement for his paper. He tends to use a lot of parody and satire especially in his sketches and commercials. John Mulaney on the other hand does stand up acts which he derives from his own life experiences and those who are close to him. He uses a lot of dark humor by making self deprecating jokes. One of my favorite John Mulaney acts is called The Time John Mulaney Accidentally Got a Prostate Exam. In this stand up act he talks about his journey to get a xanax prescription. He goes for a doctor’s visit thinking that if he says he gets nervous on planes his doctor would prescribe him xanax. For his visit, he puts down having to urinate frequently causing the doctor to end up giving him a prostate exam. He then explains how horribly the experience goes and how he doesn’t even get his drugs at the end. He tells a story about his own experiences to convey situational humor and jokes. Ryan Higa makes youtube videos that are heavily edited to create his parody effect while John Mulaney’s performances are more one take material. In Ryan’s piece we see him make a parody of commercials in general using different techniques such as as seen on tv ads and using a central speaker while having words pop up on the screen. He also uses multiple actors unlike John Mulaney who usually performs by himself. John Mulaney also tends to wear suits contrary to the casual clothes and costumes that Ryan and his actors often wear. In John Mulaney’s piece he used blue humor which is not often used by Ryan Higa who does not use any profanities either. Both of these comedians take their personal experiences to create content that their audiences can relate to or at least find entertaining. They also put a lot of time and effort into their works.