Introduction:
The Humor unit is a study of where we cover and study different forms of comedy, from absurd humor found in books like Slaughterhouse-Five, to satirical, exaggerated, and black humor that are used by modern humorists. My goal in this unit to make a satire, explain the process behind the piece and to state who were my influences for this piece. What I value about this project is that I got to revisit my favorite humorists for my piece, and decide to explore my creative self for what I want to produce.
Humor Proposal:
For my humour analysis I decided to make a comparison between Bill Burr and Pawel Kuczynski. They are similar because their topics are mostly about modern social issues and they make people laugh at first but there is actually a deeper message behind it. The difference is that they use different mediums and convey their messages in a different way. Bill Burr is a loud standup comedian who has published series on Netflix. I watched his video called “Breaking Bad”. Pawel Kuczynski is an artist who paints to convey his messages but never shouts his messages.
Bill Burr comes across as an insensitive white guy with anger issues. He is often yelling, swearing profanity every third word and looks always triggered. He uses exaggerism often by shouting and portraying loud characters. His materials are black humor – jokes may be offensive to many and he does not care about political correctness. For example, he jokes that due to the heightened attention on pedophilia, people are scared of being alone with children in case they get accused of molesting children. Pedophilia is a serious issue but you can’t help but laugh when he exaggerates how he will act around children. His skit about racism was equally funny. His portrayed racist character was like a caricature. He acted out a white guy from a movie who shouts at the black swim team to “Get out of the pool!”. He says that there is no such guy who shouts racist remarks to the face of black kids. He says that racism is usually quiet. Bill Burr’s other skit was about neutering pets. He asked the audience why they don’t see dogs with balls anymore. This is an example of blue humor. He makes fun of seeing dogs with big balls hanging. His behavior on stage is outrageous but if you listen carefully, he makes many valid points. Now everyone is scared to be alone with children without other witnesses. His point that racism is happening more subtly and quietly is also very true. It helps that he acts those characters exaggeratedly on the stage so that it is easier to imagine the scenario and the audience can see themselves in the scene. He voices questions that many people have, but afraid to ask, because they don’t want to be seen as someone against the social movement.
Pawel Kuczynski is a painter and a visual satirist from Poland. First his paintings are interesting and almost beautiful to look at. Some of his work is very funny. He paints topics depicting modern social issues, especially people’s obsession with cell phones and social media. For example one of the pieces was a child playing in a sandbox whose frame was actually a tablet, and a cat is seen pooping in that sandbox, meaning that the internet is full of crap. Another example of his creative, yet crazy art is his painting of a teenager glued to their phone with a Pikachu riding on their back. It shows that a fictional character Pikachu from the Pokemon Go game is controlling the kid’s behavior. The amount of caricature, exaggeration and satire used in Pawel’s artwork makes the artwork more enjoyable. He uses his illustrations to convey his messages and ideas about the problems of modern society. He deals with a wide range of issues, such as poverty, greed, politics and mortality, war and environmental damage, which are the most serious problems humanity is facing. However the ones with social media spoke to me the most because I can see many teenagers hooked on their devices. He makes a point that everyone is “connected” on social media but in reality they are all sitting alone on their cell phone island.
My Reflection
For my project I plan to make a visual satirical art piece about the level of craziness social distancing has become. I plan to use humor such as exaggerism, black humor and satire from the Comedy Toolbox to represent my visual satire. It will be presented on Adobe Photoshop using many different ink pen techniques. I plan to use a lot of colors like black and purple, to represent the feeling of fear and isolation with how crazy social distancing has become.
The humorists Bill Burr and Pawl Kuczynski inspired me to create a visual satire also addressing modern social issues that is funny or outrageous to look at, but with a deeper meaning behind it. I plan to make one illustration that depicts the social issue and I plan to do the work myself. The topic I chose is COVID-19 and social distancing with personal protective equipment.
In my visual satire, I intend to draw a couple going out on a date, but with an extensive amount of protection during their date for dinner. I plan to make both people wear gas masks so that you’ll sense an intensive feeling that they’re in the middle of the world war. I also will include a clear plexiglass barrier between their tables to represent the exaggeration of protection for social distancing. Around them, I intend to add that both people are constantly hand santizing themselves in prevention of getting the virus.
I would say that the theme for this project will be an exaggeration of people’s fear but also a sense of humor because while it’s scary to get infected by a virus, it’s also hilarious by how over the top people are acting during the pandemic. While I do hope to make a laugh out of people I do think it’s also important to note how big of a problem the pandemic is for everyone. I think that the theme I chose for this project is a good idea as it something that anyone in the world can relate to. Both humorists definitely helped me with the idea of targeting something that has to do with modern day social issues. It gave me an idea that I can illustrate a topic that is serious and could be sensitive to some, but hopefully most people will find it funny because it is exaggerated.
