Comments on Chad's blog

If mocking racism means the humor that is racism, then I think mocking racism is not appropriate. Racism is viewed as evil thing in today's society, so mocking racism which is racism must be bad as well. Furthermore, I think mocking racism is inappropriate despite the race of the maker of the mocking racism. To be specific, I think the behavior of Key and Peele which is considered as mocking racism is inappropriate even though Key and Peele are African American. They indeed hurt people of certain race even though they just want to make people laugh instead of attacking people by racism. Their behavior is a kind of showing no respect to the victim of the mocking racism. So I think the mocking racism of Key and Peele is inappropriate in terms of respect. However, to me, the mocking racism of Tosh. O is more inappropriate than that of Key and Peele because he standing on the side of the white makes fun on people by their race.

Comments on Madeline's blog

I do laugh at serious and sad time and my point of view towards this phenomena is that laugh is a cure. Life is full of reality, which is so painful that the only way to deal with it is to laugh. There are many examples that use this concept of 'shock humor'.

In Moliere's drama Le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid), he chose to mock at the dark side of human beings in the form of comedy. He brought the audiences with laughter with mockery. The protagonist Argan, believes that he could not survive without a doctor, which leads him making a decision that he would spend his whole property on the doctor. In order to reduce the cost of the bill on the pharmacist, he commands his daughter to marry with the doctor's nephew. The exaggeration of the sound of the cash falling on the ground and the endless running of Argan amused the viewers. Later, when the drama reaches its climax, Argan pretended to be death and the rest of the characters show various reactions, exposing the ugliness of human nature. His wife Beline becomes overjoyed and feverishly takes off all her clothes. The audiences are amused by her exaggerated facial expression and behavior and at the same time being surprised when they find out that Beline is actually a male after taking off the clothes. This ridicule scene makes viewers burst out laughing; however, beyond the laughter, is the betrayal and emptiness. There is no other better way to present the dark side of human nature. Moliere created this comedy as a cure.

Comments on Noah's blog

I quite agree with Noah 's point of view that we now live in an age of information rather than intelligence. The world develops so rapidly that people are facing with more and more information. For example, with the purpose of boosting the economy, companies come up with numerous brands just for one product in order to compete with each other and earn the highest profit. In this situation, consumers who want to buy milk could face with Borden, Organic Valley, Horizon, etc. How could they figure out which brand is the best for them; if they find out that, for instance, Horizon, is the best one, which specific type of milk should they purchase when there are even more types of milk.

The above example is just one small thing that is needed to be considered in people's daily lives; the perfect way to face it is to try every single type of milk in every single brand and make records on the taste of each one. In this way, people could keep in mind that which one is more nutritional or tasty while doing the purchase. However, people deal with issues from their study, work and families. If they need to figure out each thing they face in the way as they buy the milk, life would be so difficult and time consuming. Therefore, what people need is information rather than intelligence.

I read an interesting story that a business man wants to sell his emerald during the traveling season. However, even the price is cheap enough, nobody intends to buy his emerald. He feels so disappointed that he decides to cut the price of his emerald by half and sells other products from then on. His employee makes a serious error that he looks at the price wrongly and thinks the business man wants to double the price. However, miracles happen and the emerald is sold out in one day. How could this be possible? This is due to the fact that people live in an age of information, not intelligence. Generally, not many people have great information about whether an emerald is good or bad, therefore, in order to save their time, they automatically connect the price of the emerald with its quality. Before the business man raises the price, people think the emerald is cheap. After the employee accidentally raises the price, people drops into a trap that high price means high quality.

Comments on Jessica's blog

My favorite oldie television show is Mr.Bean. Mr.Bean was first aired in 1990 and it was so popular through all ages at all time. Even people nowadays still watched this show with passion no matter how many times they have watched. 

The episode below is my favorite episode, in which Mr.Bean made his lunch by himself while seeing others eating sandwich. 

When I was young, I watched Mr.Bean and laughed because this character was so dumb and funny.  His facial expressions, weird behaviors and embarrassed situations made me burst out laughing. For example, in this episode, he pulls out everything he needs for making a sandwich from his magical coat. The way he made his lunch made me laugh the most. He slices the bread using scissors; covers the bread with butter by using his credit card; dries the cabbage by putting it in his sock and waving it in a circular motion, etc. Mr.Bean keeps the audience being curious about what he would do next; no one could possibly do anything that he does in this show. I laughed because of the incongruity theory as his sudden behaviors of something weird and his small misfortune.

However, I watched Mr.Bean when I grew older, I had an understanding different to that of my childhood. In each episode of Mr.Bean, he is faced with an embarrassed situation and he spends all his time dealing with this awkward situation. The thing that interested me the most is the way that he deals with his misfortune. Normally, when people do not have lunch, they could just go to a shop and buy themselves something to eat rather than behave like Mr.Bean. Every time when Mr.Bean is facing misfortune, he chooses to challenge it rather than just walk away. Of course, it would not be such funny if he just walks away. What I understood and learned from this show is the positive mind when facing with embarrassed situations.

Comic Relief in The Minions

Just as what Elizabeth said, comic relief always occur in the protagonists' sidekick. In The Minions, one of the negative characters, Scarlet, plays a significant role in this movie. Without Scarlet, the film would be less interesting and funny as she serves as the foundation of the promotion of plots. The ending would be totally different without Scarlet; it could be either the minions keep exploring their master or they stop exploring and disappoint to death.

Initially, Kevin, the protagonist, regards Scarlet as the most despicable person and therefore he makes the decision to follow her. They are chosen to follow Scarlet as they expect and Scarlet provide them with training and tools to help her achieve her dream. In a word, Scarlet is the one who provide support and help for the minions.

However, as the story continues, the minions finally do get the crown from the queen and one of them become the king. Scarlet is angry as she thinks she is betrayed and she plans to get her crown back. And here comes to the climax of this movie. Scarlet then acts as a negative character in her best to wipe out the minions.

She creates comical effects when she utilizes all her resources to chase for the minions. Audience stay engaged because they worry about whether the minions would be caught. Comic relief occurs especially at the end, Kevin accidentally cuts off the rope of the pendant lamp above Scarlet and falls on her head. At the time when everyone thinks the story ends and Scarlet is dead, she suddenly jumps out and becomes no longer elegant. At the very end of this film, Scarlet almost success in beating the giant Kevin and starts to laugh furiously, a bomb is thrown to her and that is the real ending. Scarlet dies in a way that is so funny that audience would burst out laughing and feel exciting for the winning of the minions rather than focus on the death of a character.

King of Comedy

Stephen Chow, a Chinese comedian, devoted nearly thirty years to his career of acting. It is a controversial topic when people are talking about Stephen; some people enjoy his performance while others discern him by claiming that he is over-acted. I had been obsessed with Stephen since I was in junior school. One day I was attracted and entertained by a clamorous, amusing hoody with a loose black suite. That was the first time I encountered with Stephen in the movie All for the Winner. 

From my memory, Stephen is the one with undisputed acting. He could be a schizophrenic patient, a hoody and a spy; no matter he acts, he is so talented that he is able to be the new character. People fail to imitate Stephen as he has his unique accuracy in analyzing the character, the exquisiteness in expressing his emotion and the rhythmic sensation in changing his moods. 

The movie King of Comedy above is my favorite work from Stephen. The poster of this film attracted my attention as all the people were smiling with tears in their eyes; I wonder what would happen in this movie. It depicts the process of the protagonist, Wan Tin-aau, striving to become an actor. At the moment when he is given an opportunity to act, the director changes his mind. There is a love story behind the main plot when Wan Tin-auu meets one of the club girls, Lau piu-piu, to teach her how to act.

King of Comedy was marked as the transition work of Stephen from an actor to a director. He put great effort in this movie; it was said that every single supporting role was well selected by Stephen. Stephen vitalized these roles with his own experience from his early career. For instance, you may notice that one scene that when a person was acting a corpse as a minor role during the film and a cockroach stayed on his face and he kept still until the director interrupted. Stephen represented a mediocre man who strive to achieve his dream but faced with challenges and never changed his passion to acting. He showed off his talent in acting to his audiences that one could smile with tears.

There were not many evident details that deliberately made people laugh. I laughed because I was moved and understood what Stephen wanted to convey. King of Comedy was more like a biography of Stephen rather than simply a comedy; many lines in this film conveyed Stephen's voice. Compare to his other work, this movie may not be the funniest one, but it is the one that Stephen truly acted with sincere and effort. 

What do you think of Chinese comedy and what do you think of Stephen chow? Do you agree with me?

Comments on KK's blog

People are exposed to too much information nowadays and therefore, social media becomes an important role in people gathering information efficiently. Posts on social media, such as facebook and vine, are short and direct, which means that people do not spend much of their time reading information as what they would spend on television or newspaper. It could be said that social medias trivialize people's time. Furthermore, in order to capture more people's attention, issues that posted by social medias often associated with videos and imagines, which create convenience for people to collect information in a efficient way. I agree with KK's point that social media is one of the good ways to find motivation and entertainment.

So, what are things posted on social media? Take facebook as an example, people post selfies of themselves to record their daily lives as well as interesting things that they see or happen on them. Just as what KK said, she loved to watch animals doing silly things. I am obsessed with collecting funny animal pictures and videos as well. 

The video above is a compilation of funny moments of cats and I burst out laughing with my friends when we watched it. I am curious about why animals make people laugh easily. Comparing to people watching funny videos of human beings, they would only laugh at certain points. However, when people are watching videos of animals, they generally start to giggle as soon as they see the animals. So, what is the exact reason behind this phenomenon?

On one hand, people laugh at animals because of their appearance. There is no doubt that we look different from animals. Especially dogs and cats, they are born with fluffy body and bright eyes. In this way, laughter are created due to the adorability from people to those animals. Therefore, it is easy for people to laugh when these animals creating some interesting facial expression, even if they are simply staring at you. About 40% of funny animal videos consist of their unique facial expression.

On the other hand, people create laughter as animals do what they are not supposed to do and do not do what they are expected. For example, when a dog is wearing a costume and glasses, people find it extremely hilarious because how could a dog dress like a human. Another example is that animals are expected to be very happy when their masters feed them. It would make people chuckle if at this moment, a cat reluctantly looks at its food and slams it away. 

Comments on Funny Bone Humor

Seeing others being awkward or stupid does make people laugh. Just like what Kirby said, the most basic reason, explaining the comical effects of people falling and the America's Funniest home Videos, is that people laugh at the goofiness or foolishness of others. This Funny Bone Humor reminds me of my own experience from my childhood.

When I was young, I could not control myself and I always fall on the ground. Any obstacles, for example, pebbles, paper and even a pen could cause me to fall. There was a partial reason due to my body, but the majority was that I did not pay attention to my surroundings. My peers would burst out laughing if they saw me slip. At the beginning I was quite upset that my friends laughed at me. However, one day I found out that if I laughed immediately after my small misfortune, most children would look at me curiously rather than think that I was funny. Later on, every time I felt embarrassed, I made fun of myself before others and this action largely reduced the chance that people would laugh at me. 

Although my story differs from that of Kirby, we both laugh to transfer a signal that we are good rather than we are feeling awkward. It could be said that this is my funny bone humor. In this situation, children may feel superior at the beginning as they saw me suffered from small misfortune. Superiority theory could explain why they laughed. However, when I started to laugh at myself, they gradually reduced their laughter and became curious about why I laughed. It was interesting to remember that some kids mimicked what I did and laughed together with me. In that way, they laughed because they found a companion.

Comments on The Try Guys!

The Try Guys did attract my attention at the moment when I watched the clip and I laughed a lot throughout this video. People are never failed to be entertained when they see others behave in a foolish way; people even gain entertainment from being foolish themselves. Both of these actions result in people have the sense of relieve from doing so, just like what Sarah suggested in her blog.

In today's world, people encounter with pressures from study, work, relationship and sometimes their sense of self-respect and pursuit of life. Whatever it is, they all provide with people stress and accomplishment at the same time. It is true that people gain something and in return they sacrifice something. Therefore, it is necessary for people to have opportunities to relieve from their stress and this is how comedies and TV shows coming up.

The Try Guys wearing wedding dress reminded me one of the episode from a Korean TV Show Running Man; in this episode, the Running Man team was asked to dress in females' clothes and mimic any songs from a girl's band.

The tallest person who stood in the middle of the stage (Lee Kwang soo) entertains me the most. He totally acted like a girl and he enjoyed doing that. Other people during the performance were also enjoy being foolish. Although their daily work is to behave in a funny way and make people laugh, they relieve from acting in a dumb way. For me, laughter is simple and it brings us immediate pleasure other than other things. A person may fail to entertain others if he or she has something in mind other than just relieve and be relaxed.

Comments on Jimmy Fallon

I have to state at the beginning that I did not know who is Jimmy Fallon until I read Mary's blog and I just did some basic research on this person and wrote down how I interpret his humor in my point of view.

According to some main materials, Jimmy Fallon is said to be one of the most popular television hosts in America. He won a number of awards like Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album and it is reported that he achieves quite decent ratings hosting the late night show The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. However, there are some negative comments on Jimmy Fallon, for example, an audience states nine things that she hates Jimmy. After watching a few of his talk show, I have to say that he is very talented in mocking people in a way that could mostly be accepted by people. His imitation of celebrity in the past as well as celebrity at present and revise lyrics do attract people's attention. I could not say how much I like or hate Jimmy Fallon so far but I appreciate what he did in order to pursue his dream when he was young. I was quite impressed when I knew that Jimmy and his sister reenact famous shows and he persistently put effort into those television shows.

Another thing interests me is that there is a connection between Jimmy Fallon and another Chinese comedian ZuLan Wang, which both of them imitate celebrity and revise the lyrics of their famous songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K80OU3gCBSk

The video below is Zulan imitating a well-known Chinese singer G.E.M. and people laugh a lot when seeing it. Nowadays, people are exposed to more and more celebrities with perfect appearance. They are no longer interested or obsessed with how perfect they are; instead, audiences are eager to see that those celebrities are actually at the same level with them, which means, they are just 'human beings'.

Chinese comedy makes me laugh

I recently watched a Chinese comedy called Forever Young; it describes a group of students experiencing dream, endeavor and youth in their college lives. I laughed throughout the entire movie.

People become lack of courage to pursue their dream as they grow older; therefore, people generally are most passionate about what they want to do during colleges. It is also quite common that young people do all the silly things in order to achieve their so-called dreams, regardless of how others would think of them. 

In this movie, the main character Yanxi loses her best friends forever on her 22nd birthday. Yanxi and her best friends used to be ballerinas and their dream is to attend the Paris Opera Ballet together. However, she cannot afford the tragedy happened on her and get her leg injured while practicing ballet alone. Her boyfriend, in order to help Yanxi achieve her dream, decides to learn how to dance ballet with his roomates and it is the beginning of the comedy.

It is comical to watch four boys dressing in ballet skirts and keep spinning around in a totally funny way while they think they are doing the right thing to dance. One of the funniest scenes is that they are found dancing accidentally by their classmates and the four boys have to take off their skirts immediately and become almost naked.

Both the superiority and incongruity theories are applied in this comedy.  Most of the audience burst into laughing because they feel the "sudden glory"; in other words, they derive superiority from the actors as they witness the characters suffering misfortune. People also laugh at the mistakes that actors made as well as their awkwardness of dancing. The second reason that makes people laugh is that the main characters who appeared to be intelligent and good-looking suddenly start to dance ballet in a funny way. It is "the sudden transformation of a strained expectation into nothing" that makes actors comical.

There are other things that need to be considered after laughing. We are living in one of our brightest years and only when we endeavor and persist in pursuing our dreams and overcome obstacles could we experience a meaningful youth.

The funniest Korea TV show I have ever seen!

I am a big fan in korean pop music therefore I frequently watch many Korean TV shows including running man, infinite challenge, etc. Today I would like to share one of my favorite episode of the Infinite challenge.

In every episode, the group of people who wear the comical red and white suits would receive instructions to complete various challenges, which is the reason this show calls Infinite Challenge. For this section, people need to make up while playing the roller coaster. It seems impossible as people cannot multitask when experiencing the frightened feeling brought by the roller coaster and make up, especially for men, at the same time. This video gives me so much entertainment that whenever I watch it, regardless of how many times I have seen it, I would burst into laughing.

Before reading the 'Theories of Humor', it is hard for me to explain specifically why I laugh about this video. I quite agree with the superiority theories that "we laugh at people because they have some failing to defect, or small misfortune." As an audience, I am experiencing superiority when I consciously think that I am not the one who is doing this. I laughed the most when the challenger smashed the lipstick on his face.