Introduction – The humor project was created for seniors to end their time at freestyle with a lighthearted project for the end of the year. I valued that I could work with my best friends that I went to Freestyle with over the past 2 years, and end our last freestyle English project on a fun and funny note!
Humorist Proposal
Humorist Study
Analysis
For the two sources of inspiration for my humorist study, I chose Eric Andre and the cast from Impractical Jokers. Both the Eric Andre and Impractical Jokers show have been a major source of inspiration for my sense of humor, inspiring my love for absurdist and black humor. Both shows have similar premises, focusing on doing pranks in public and around people who do not know what is going on to get a fun reaction. Using hidden cameras, they record the reactions of the unknowing people witnessing the variety of wild events that happen. Although both shows share many similarities, both still feel distinct with the types of humor they use.
The Eric Andre show began airing on May 20th 2011 on cartoon network’s night time programming block; Adult Swim. Although they first started out as a parody of late night talk shows, inviting many unknowing celebrities from Wiz Khalifa to Jimmy Kimmel to their ridiculous interviews, often pushing the interviewees to their limits. For example, Lauren Conrad walked out of her interview entirely! But soon, Eric Andre expanded his show to include public skits and pranks. Some notable examples include accidentally destroying a fake modern art exhibit, running around naked in public, impersonating a wall street banker, and posing as a drunk police officer. Obviously there had been many wild reactions to his antics, sometimes even resulting in Eric Andre’s arrest! But despite much of the bad press he has gotten for what he has done, he never hurts anyone and only means to make people laugh. Eric Andre uses blue and absurdist humor the most, trying to get the most reaction out of his interviewees and those in public.
Impractical Jokers has been running since December 15th 2011 on Comedy Central. It is described as a reality, hidden camera, and black comedy TV show. Although I have not seen much of the show (although I intend to), from the little I have seen from friends, I have fallen in love with it. Like the Eric Andre show, the cast of impractical jokers go out into public to do pranks and skits, searching for a reaction from unsuspecting victims. Unlike Eric Andre, however, their sense of humor is a little more tame and less absolutely absurdist than Eric Andre can get. Another difference is the focus on the cast of Joe, James, Sal, and guest appearances, rather than just focusing on Eric Andre. The cast of impractical jokers make each other perform embarrassing pranks in public, such as giving a presentation on why it is okay to say your coworker has “nice boobies” to an audience of unknowing office workers. While some perform the skit, they also record the love reactions of the other cast members. Impractical Jokers was a hit, and has so far created 10 seasons in the past 12 years of its run.
Although both shows share many similarities and fans, both have their differences that make each show feel unique. The Eric Andre focuses on far out absurdism, parody, and outlandish blue humor, while Impractical Jokers leans more into horseplay and buffoonery. Because of how much of an audience they shared and fan demand, they even did a few collaborations, where Eric Andre was invited as the guest appearance on the Impractical Jokers show!
Reflection
Making jokes and having fun has always been such an important part of my life. Some of my best memories are from when I’m with friends and we can freely joke around with each other. Some of my friends have told me I have a very unique sense of humor, which I’d say mostly consists of my love for black humor. Although it can be problematic at times, sometimes thinking that you shouldn’t laugh at something makes it that much funnier. I believe that my sense of humor has been slowly evolving over the years, taking my favorite parts from the people I met in both California and Delaware.
Shows like the Eric Andre and Impractical Jokers shows make me feel happy to know that there are so many others with weird senses of humor, that many may find taboo. Although my sense of humor may offend people, I believe that it is a good lesson to grow a thicker skin so that words won’t hurt you as easily. That may be a controversial opinion and people may think I just don’t care about others and their feelings, but it is just a personal belief that I hold. As my good friend Alex put it, “You either love Sky’s sense of humor, or you hate it”.
I believe that since my generation has grown up in a digital world, much of our personalities (let alone our senses of humor) have been shaped by the internet. Whether it be being influenced by online friends, YouTubers, or even just memes, everyone in my generation has been influenced by the internet in one way or another. For me, I have been influenced much by Youtubers such as Pewdiepie. One of the best parts about the internet is that you can find communities that share similar interests and senses of humor to your own, all open and accepting of new members.
I am glad that I can freely share my sense of humor with my friends, and that so many people are accepting of many of my “problematic” words. I think that anything should be allowed to turn into a joke if one desires to do so. And when those try to stop many of the jokes, it only makes people want to make those kinds of jokes even more. A belief that I share with many of my Dutch family and friends is that people should take life less seriously, and not get binded over small things. All of the Dutch people I know like to live life like that, and share a laid back sense of humor that I enjoy as well, where anything and everything can be made fun of.
Humor Script
We will be writing down all of these challenges onto strips of paper and then having our members randomly pick out a strip. They are forced to do this challenge; random picking makes it more fun because some challenges are more embarrassing than others.
It is possible we may work with Uch, Harry, Nick, and Justin from AM Freestyle, as we have very similar projects. Since we are two different groups, we will pick a loser from each group(the loser is the one that fails to complete their challenge) to face off in a sort of “semi-finals”. The loser of this 1v1 bout will then go on to do the final challenge.
Loud Video
- In a public space, you must watch an embarrassing video on your laptop at max volume, thinking that your headphones are plugged in until someone tells you that your headphones aren’t plugged in.
Fake Email:
- The challenge is that we are in a cafe and need someone to help us with our email. The catch is that the other people wrote the email and we do not know what it is about. If we can’t get the stranger to help us, we lose.
Trying to sell ridiculous art
- The challenge is that we have to try to sell ridiculous art piece to people on the street (like a drawing of biden and obama kissing)
Fake Clubs:
- The Challenge is that we need to get someone to join our fake club
- Fake club ideas include the Cool Kids Club, Dumpster diving at a hospital(or abortion clinic) Club, Ban on occasional booty sex (BOOBS),
Stinky Library/ Operation Fart Storm
- The victim will be performing their prank in the library(school or public library, or both)
- A speaker will be secretly hidden near the victim’s rear area, and the victimizers control the speaker. They will be playing fart sounds and such randomly, and the victim has to walk around for several minutes and eventually pick out a book.
Haircut!
- One person has to walk up to random people and pretend to shave their hair off. They can do this by using Youtube audio of a barber razor and running their phones through someone’s hair. The point of this challenge is to scare people into thinking their hair was cut.
Final punishment Idea
- The victim has to play Bingo in a Bingo house filled with boomers. Their goal is to say Bingo for every single turn until they eventually get kicked out.
The Presentation:
- Operation Femboys
Petitions
- Try to convince people to sign a petition.