Humor
The humor project was one of our lighter units. Our final project involved creating our own humor video. I found this unit to be one of the more challenging units. Humor is very complicated especially when you are trying to create your own. I valued learning something new and leaving my comfort zone during this project.
I looked into Kevin Hart and Bert Kreisher. Both perform stand up comedy. Kevin Hart and Bert Kreisher both use anecdotes in their comedy. They love to exaggerate to the extent of a hyperbole or use real-life experience and re-tell stories to the audience. However, Kevin Hart uses, shorter and several experiences, while Kert Kreisher’s show is normally one long prolonged story. Each anecdote is tolled from an exaggerated perspective and characters in the story are normally caricatured. For example in Kert Kreisher’s, show called “the machine”, he exaggerates how the Russian mafia and his teacher spoke. Kevin Hart does this similarly when describing how Shaq O’Neil falls during a basketball game. Exaggeration helps the audience envision the stories they tell.
Kevin Hart and Bert Kreisher also impersonate other people. Kevin Hart is always making funny noises or being obnoxiously loud and absurd to get the audience to laugh. Bert Kreisher will mimic accents. Both comedians also use large obvious facial expressions.
Another technique both comedians use is self-deprecating humor. Self-deprecating humor is effective because they can be as many as they want to themselves. Using deprecating humor on someone else can be seen as cruel and some might be as inclined to laugh. Kevin Hart constantly presents situations where people can laugh at his height. Bert Kreisher makes fun of his lazy behavior and poor decisions.
Kevin Hart and Bert Kreisher also find comedy in truth. There are a lot of things people have similar opinions on but never voice them. Kevin Hart and Bret Kreeishere bring these opinions out and find humor in being overly truthful. For example when Kevin Hart spoke about how he hates animals.
Both comedians also take risks in what subject matter they decide to discuss. I’ve noticed they have safer and less offensive jokes earlier on in their show, and after they got more laughs they start to implement their riskier jokes.
Some critics believe Kevin Hart and Bert Kriesher can be too offensive. Ken Eisner, a writer of Georgia Straight, argues lots of poor language Kevin Hart uses takes away from the joke and the comedic value. This can also be seen with Bert Kriesher’s jokes and subject matter. For example when Bert Kreisher creates comedy around gender or race. However, overall I think they do an effective job of balancing their riskier jokes and language with an overall funny stand up routine.
I found inspiration in the storytelling abilities of both comedians. They are excellent in captivating the audience with an anecdote. Their comedic stories have jokes spread out through them, however just like a normal story structure they have a beginning, middle, end and a climax. I would try using a similar approach by retelling one of my past experiences.
I also want to talk about a subject that is self-deprecating. I would rather have people laugh at me than try to make people laugh at someone else. I never feel super comfortable making jokes about someone else. It can also make it harder for the audience to laugh because they might view the joke as cruel.
I would also try to use a funny voice or accent. I found Kert Kreshers Russian accent in his show “The Machine” funny. I could do something similar. I think its a surprise to some people that I can speak German, so I think I could make that funny. I would try to use a super heavy accent.
Lastly, I want to implement good timing for my jokes. Kevin Hart and Bert Kreisher, deliver jokes at perfect times. Sometimes taking a second and pausing before a joke can add comedic value.
Bert Kreisher: https://youtu.be/paG1-lPtIXA
Kevin Hart: https://youtu.be/NBO3vF8p0J0
I chose to do a video voice over. I animated still images and text in Adobe aftereffects.