Introduction
The humor project was our final assignment in English, and was meant to help us improve our communication skills by developing an aptitude for humor. We spent around a month in class reading Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse V and examining humor techniques, in order to develop a better understanding of what makes something funny. After analyzing two of our own humorists for comedic influence, we embarked on the challenging journey of creating a piece of content that effectively appeals to an audience’s sense of humor.
After a very emotionally taxing worldbuilding project, the humor unit was a very relaxing change of pace. Being able to partner with my three closest friends and create a project that we were all super passionate about was extremely exciting, and was definitely the most fun I’ve had in English all year. Since we are all such big fans of music, having the opportunity to produce our own song using Freestyle’s state-of-the-art studio was a super unique and valuable experience. Additionally, the time and energy we spent filming our music video, designing our props/costumes, and perfecting our lyrics all required hard work, but we enjoyed every step of the process. Humor is my language of love, so to me, this was the perfect way to wrap up our time in English with nothing but smiles and laughs.
Humorist Analysis
For my analysis of two humorists, I decided to study comedians Matthew Steven Rife (also known as Matt Rife), and Jordan Peele. The reason I chose them was that not only do they both have an immense aptitude for humor in their respective fields of standup comedy and short films, but the content they have produced has drastically influenced my individual sense of humor. Included below is my complete breakdown of both humorists, as well as how their unique comedic traits influenced the production of my humor project.
Although I questioned the relevance of this analysis to our own humor projects at first, I must say that, in retrospect, having the opportunity to do this assignment helped me better understand my own sense of humor. Identifying Matt Rife’s ability to engage in banter that playfully addresses black/blue humor, and addressing Jordan Peele’s versatility in comedic style, helped me realize the roots of my comedic preference. Picking up on these skills from these humorists helped inspire my verse for the song, and allowed me to interweave humor into the lyrics I wrote.
If it wasn’t already apparent, for our humor project, myself and Freestyle students Milo Rathbun, Nick Murray, and Tai Livnat, decided to write a song accompanied by a music video that we produced. The song aimed to make fun of bay area stereotypes that stem from privilege, by ironically acting like criminals/gangsters who claimed that their personalities are a product of their environment. Below is my original humor proposal for this concept.
The Script/production
After we received approval from Mr. Greco, we began writing our lyrics. Each of us structured our own unique personas and spent several classes writing our lines. Finding a balance between creating catchy lines and also incorporating humor techniques was somewhat challenging, but I think that with each others help, we were able to pull it off pretty effectively. It was also difficult to make sure that although we were trying to be funny, we weren’t crossing any lines and making content that is purely offensive. This meant that we had to limit some of the provocative languages in our lyrics and consult with Mr. Greco to make sure that this piece could still be used to represent Freestyle Academy. Milo’s decision to write his lyrics in Spanish and have a beat swap was what I think made our project perfect from the perspective of being humorous.
Final Humor Project Production
Overall, I have to say, I think that this was the perfect way to conclude an amazing two years of English at Freestyle. The reaction from the class to our project made all the hard work and time we put in worth it. I hope that future generations of Freestyle students are also able to experience this project and be unafraid to step out of their comfort zones in order to create something funny and lighthearted.