Humor Project
For this project, we were essentially given the freedom to create any type of humor we wanted. Whether it be a political cartoon, standup, a skit, or even a music video, you could do it. In preparation for this project we read Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
Following the book, we conducted a Humorist Study where we analyzed some of our top comedians, what we find effective in their work, and what we potentially wanted to draw into our own performance. For my study, I chose Cody Ko, I widely popular comedian on YouTube who utilizes a lot of blue humor and absurd humor in his videos. I also did a study on Jimmy O. Yang who is mostly known for his portrayal of Jian-Yang on the HBO series Silicon Valley. In Yang’s stand-up performances, I noticed he uses a lot of self-deprecating humor which I found effective, especially when you are in front of an audience. It softens the mood. Last but not least, I drew inspiration from Will Ferrell. He has the most absurd “out of pocket” humor to the point where it can really make you uncomfortable.
For my Humor Project, I teamed up with Behrj. We did a skit about a douche “bro” type of guy. Kind of hard to describe, but you’ll see it in the video. Essentially the douche walks into a store to buy condoms where he meets a foreign clerk who’s mannerisms are inspired by Borat. Our final video ended up being pretty much completely improvised which is another technique I know a lot of comedians use in films.
In honesty, I think this was a great “final” project to end off my English career at Freestyle. Sucks to even write that, but especially as a senior with everything going on, this project offered a nice bit of fun that I enjoyed a lot. To any current senior or future seniors at Freestyle, you’ll have a lot of fun with this project. It was certainly my favorite English one.