Humor

What is the Humor project?

The humor project is our chance to experiment and learn about different styles of comedy and how to use them. We researched and watched examples of comedic techniques, like satire and parody, and also look in to specific comedians and how they use humor. Based on what we learned, we also give our own comedic performances, wither live or pre-recorded. I chose to do a pre-recorded performance.

Humor Proposal

Our first assignment was a proposal of our project, along with a short essay about the comedians we studied and and analysis of their techniques analyzed the comedians Chris Fleming and Bo Burnham, and their use of parody and exaggeration. I decided for my project to do a short video in the style of a in the style of My Strange Addiction and other similar shows, about a girl who think she is a chicken.

Exert of the beginning of my essay:

The humorists that I studied were Chris Fleming and Bo Burham. Chris Fleming is a comedian known for his skits on Youtube and also stand-up comedy. He is most known for his comedy series Gayle, which he plays a caricature of a middle-aged mom. He takes a character that everyone knows very well and makes it as ridiculous and eccentric as possible. One of my favorite skits of his is “Episode 6: Granola”. The skit is basically two suburban mothers trying to one-up each others rescue dogs, getting more and more absurd as the argument goes on. One of my favorite lines is when when Gayle, referring to her dog, says, “she graduated Cum Laude from Groton Charter School, she was the student speaker”. This line really highlights the absurdity of the whole skit and Flemings work in general. It’s absurd that the dog would be able to be a student speaker because dogs can’t talk, but even that is overshadowed by the absurdity the conversation as a whole. However, despite its ridiculousness, the skit is really an accurate caricature of suburban moms. He expertly portrays certain personalities while also bringing a craziness that really heights the comedy. Some my other favorite caricatures of his include grad students, theatre kids, and adventure dads. The comedic techniques he utilizes most in his work is absurdity, caricature and exaggerism.

 

Chris Fleming, a comedian I studied

Project Script

OPENING SHOT: Emily holding a chicken and kissing its head. Cut to a shot of Emily running after a chicken, pretending to pet the ground. Cut to a shot of Emily in the chicken coop.

Emily: SQUAWK

TITLE: FREAKY CHICKEN PEOPLE

EMILY

Emily (squawking): My name is Emily “I am a chicken” Cocking. This is my story.

Subtitle: Emily has been living as a chicken for 4 years now. Her family and friends are devastated

INSERT: PICTURE OF FAMILY

MUSIC: IN THE ARM OF THE ANGELS

Emily (looking sad): I am so sad… zoom in… I just want to be accepted for who I am… zoom out

Cut to chicken coop

Emily getting into her role

Final Project

I edited the video in Premier Pro

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I also presented in front of our english class, and talked about my comedic influences.

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