Intro
The humor project is a final assignment in our English class this semester, where we learn various humor techniques and then apply them to create a funny and entertaining piece. The purpose of this project is to help us incorporate humor naturally into our future artistic creations.
My reflection of this project is: I absolutely loved it—it’s definitely my favorite English project ever. I’ve loved humorous art forms since I was a child, and I really enjoy things like stand-up comedy. Now, I finally had the chance to try it myself.
Humor Proposal
Analysis of 2 humorists
The first work I want to analyze is Good Deal by Jimmy O. Yang. He is an Asian American with fluent language skills, able to switch effortlessly between English and Chinese. His upbringing is somewhat similar to mine, so I can deeply relate to the things he talks about. I’ve seen clips of his work on platforms like TikTok, and most of them revolve around his unique Asian identity. He expresses small details that we usually overlook in an exaggerated and humorous way, which not only resonates with people but also creates a comedic effect.
Take Good Deal as an example. Jimmy says:
“When you go shopping with middle-aged or elderly Asian people, they don’t care whether the product is actually good. They only care about whether the price is a good deal—even if the item is ugly or completely useless.”
I think the humor technique he uses here is Farce: a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations.
The comedian I chose to compare with Jimmy is a Chinese stand-up comedian named He Guangzhi. I’ve watched many of his performances, and I really enjoy his work. His comedic style comes from the perspective of someone who is poor and average-looking, using exaggeration to make fun of himself. At the same time, he satirizes the misguided values on the Chinese internet that look down on the poor or judge people based on their appearance. His performances are not only funny but also thought-provoking.
Reflection:
First of all, after watching both of their stand-up comedy performances, my reflection is this: since the audiences they face are different, the style and language used in their shows need to change accordingly. It’s clear that Jimmy’s performances are more open—he can use all kinds of profanity and make jokes about sex. He can mock people in power and even occasionally offend the audience. But He Guangzhi can’t do any of that. All of those things are off-limits for him. However, he has mastered the art of self-deprecating humor, using it to express his views on issues like poverty.
These differences have influenced me in the following ways:
First, since I’m in the U.S., I don’t have to be overly cautious about using profanity in my comedy, though I’m not used to it, so I’ll use it sparingly.
Second, like Jimmy, I want to focus on cultural differences—specifically, I want to dig into my school life in China. I think there are a lot of interesting stories to share, and since my audience will be my teachers and classmates at school, they’ll likely relate to it.
Description of Proposed Project
I will not collaborate with others on this piece. My work will take the form of stand‑up comedy. My theme is my past school life, and I will satirize the absurd, needlessly suffering existence in Chinese schools and the foolish relationships between teachers and students. I chose this topic because I have so many amusing and absurd experiences to share, and school life is something everyone can easily relate to.
Comedy technic:
Hyperbole, I would exaggerate the details of my campus life. For example,every time my teacher walked into the classroom, an angry expression instantly appeared on her face. The wrinkles on her face were so scrunched up, they looked like a crumpled dishcloth—tight enough to squash two mosquitoes.
I’m also going to use Verbal irony (such as sarcasm) a lot, to satirize the hypocritical people and situations I’ve encountered.
Anecdotes,I will mainly complete my performance by telling a few short stories.
Script
On the weekend before the performance, I practiced at home for several hours because I had never done stand-up comedy before. However, unfortunately, I didn’t record any videos or take any pictures while I was practicing.
Feature of your final Humor Project
I hope you enjoy my stand-up