Julia's Comedic Blog

I've never seen Superbad, but there seems to be a quite obvious connection between it and what Zupancic was saying. It is a coming of age story with many references to sex and phalluses, which directly connects to our most recent reading by Zupancic. In that article, Zupotnic talked about how the phallus is a universal symbol of sex and what people are able to lose. Knowing this, Superbad's use of it as a part of a coming of age story is interesting and is possibly able to show the characters maturing through something as immature as a phallus. As well, it seems to draw into the incongruity theory of humor which is constant throughout the film. In the scene mentioned in the main blog post, one of the characters, who is very obviously underage, attempts to buy alcohol with a fake id and everything that could go wrong goes wrong. the whole scene is built upon the incongruity of this 15-year-old character who looks even younger thinking that he'll be able to get alcohol ...

"Tom and Jerry" was one of my favorite shows when I was growing up and it holds a special nostalgic place in my heart. For some reason, Tom, the cat, evil plans getting foiled by the smaller but more tactful mouse Jerry was always and remains entertaining. I think the concept of the mouse out-witting the cat, who is a natural predator of the mouse, is an incongruity the show rest upon because it is funny to think of a cat being defeated by a mouse. Having had multiple cats, I know that cats are natural hunters and are usually very good at catching what they want to. In the wild, that is normally how it works: the cat is able to catch the mouse. But Tom and Jerry takes that expectation and turns it on its head. In Tom and Jerry, the mouse ends up scoff free while the cat trying to get it is made to look silly and foolish. This incongruity between expectation, the cat getting the mouse, and the reality set up in the show, the mouse constantly getting away from the cat through...

Deadpool and its sequel are both great. Deadpool's very self-aware sense of humor and the constant breaking of the fourth wall makes it unique among other superhero movies as well as generally a hilarious movie. Through its use of breaking the fourth wall and general ridiculousness, the world of Deadpool is full on incongruities. The scene you mentioned in your lead blog post is a great example of Deadpool breaking the fourth wall to utilize the incongruity theory to hilarious effect. Deadpool wondering in the middle of an extremely violent fight whether or not he had turned off his oven is an example of incongruity because most people would not expect someone to be thinking about their oven in the middle of a fight. Another aspect of Deadpool that makes it funny is that it is a satire of itself. Deadpool is in the same universe as X-Men and is by the same company (ish... Marvel not Sony) as the MCU, and Deadpool is very aware of this and uses this awareness to comedic ...

"The Good Place" is one of my favorite television shows, well, ever! It's characters and constant twists and turns make it unique as well as give the show it's unique brand of humor. Most people would think that a show that's plot is about morality  and ethics would be a great comedy, but The Good Place really makes it work. The scenes chosen are great examples of this humor at it's finest. Jason Mendosa from the first scene you picked, is a great character who, as Elinor says, seems to only know about 20% of what is actually going on around him. His obsession with the Jacksonville Jaguars, and specifically their quarterback (BORTLES) as well as his general dumbness make him the butt of many jokes on the show. Jokes with him usually utilize superiority theory, since the audience is meant to feel superior to Jason because he is acting in a stupid was, as seen in the scene used here. Janet, the robot (but not a robot) girl (but not a girl) is also a unique cha...

Elf is one of my all time favorite Christmas movies. It has classic Will Ferrell being Will Ferrell humor and plenty of hilarity and Christmas cheer to go around. The two scenes you picked are classic scenes from the movie for a reason. The Santa scene is iconic because of Will Ferrell's brilliant acting and the overall ridiculousness of the situation. In this scene, the store manager announces that "santa"/ an actor playing Santa will be at the store tomorrow, but Buddy, having lived in the North Pole with the real Santa expects the santa to be the actual Santa and gets ridiculously happy to see his old boss, but the other adults, who know that this Santa will be an actor, are confused by his enthusiasm. This causes incongruity because hot would not expect a fully grown man to be so excited to "see Santa". The burping scene is also hilarious and a true classic. There are two main incongruities present here. The first is how long the burp lasts, which is much ...

Vines are one of my absolute favorite things on the planet earth. These short videos have made me laugh so many times and it's hard to get tired of them. Vines are great in that way because they are so short, you can watch them over and over and over again and the vine is still hilarious. There are so many great vines, from the classic "fre shava cado" to Judus bring Jesus myrrh, myrrh-dur. All theories of comedy can be found in these tiny videos that took over the internet. Incongruity theory can be found in a lot of vines with twist endings. For example, a vine starts with a teacher asking a kid names Jared to read a question, and he responds "No", which you would expect to be because he doesn't want to, but then in a voice-over, he says "Hi I'm Jared, I'm 19, and I never learned how to f****** read". This subverts the audience's expectations, thus creating a comedic effect. (In writing this, I realized I'm going to be ruining al...