Walker's Lead Blog Post Response

In this week's blog, Walker used a compilation video of Anthony Jeselnik's jokes. Walker talked about how the incongruity theory fits into the types of jokes Anthony makes. I think his jokes could also fit into the relief theory because his jokes build up tensions and then released through nervous laughter from the audience. In general, I think the relief theory can be applied to dark humor because it makes people uncomfortable and builds up tensions wich are released through laughter. It is also hard to tell when someone is "just joking" too so instead we laugh in these situations to make them less uncomfortable because humor is meant to be funny and not to be taken as seriously. The most humorous part of the video was when Anthony made the joke about "my thoughts and prayers to the families in Boston," or wherever an event had occurred. He made a point to say this was meaningless to say because posting that on Instagram or social media does nothing for the families and people who are affected by the event but instead it's just attention-seeking. This part of the clip was the most humorous to me because I've experienced it. For example, when a sad event occurs like the bombing Boston marathon, everyone posted the same thing on their story and seeing the same post over and over again became annoying because these posts do nothing to help the people affected. I also agree that Anothony uses the superiority theory in this clip. His facial expressions and the way he words his jokes makes the audience feel inferior in the situation. Overall Anthony comes off as humorous to use because his jokes can be applied to numerous theories of humor we have discussed in class.

Rebecca's Lead Blog Post Response

In this week's blog, Rebecca analyzed a clip from Brooklyn Nine-Nine. She introduced a new theory called the pattern recognition theory which states that "humor occurs when the brain is surprised by the recognition of a pattern." It also states that the humor response encourages the brain to look for more patterns in the future. In my opinion, this theory can be applied to any type of humor. For example, the surprise came when the suspects start singing "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys. Another surprise is the behavior of the detective. He's not taking his job seriously like the girl whos looking for the man that murdered her brother. This can also be applied to the eight patterns of from the pattern recognition theory. The eight patterns are about the causes of all humor. The one that applied the most was opposition, which can be applied when a unit is shown in contrasting contexts. The detective had a lack of seriousness when trying to discover who was the possible murderer compared to a typical detective that wouldn't be joking around and making the suspects sing a song by the Backstreet Boys. This is why the scene is humorous to us. Going back to the theory, I think it covers the missing aspect that the other theories of humor we have discussed in class. Like the article said, all these theories talk about the cause of humor and not the why. The pattern recognition theory covers the why aspect of why we find things humorous and also covers the cause of this laughter. Rebecca also pointed out that this clip can be applied to the incongruity theory because of the manners of the detective. The pattern recognition theory can also be applied to the "why" in the incongruity theory because the action or situation is unexpectedness which may come as a surprise.

Mallory's Lead Blog Post Response

In this week's lead blog post, Mallory used Limmy's Show which is a Scottish show that went over the idea of water. It starts off with Limmy going to the store and pointing out the water bottles on the shelves, he then proceeds to leave the store and goes to turn on a sink and fill up a glass with water. After he fills up the glass with water, he presents it and the scene cuts. I thought the scene was over but the people behind the scenes came onto the scene and started asking about the glass of water. The incongruity theory can be applied to this scene. When the scene says cut you expect the cameras to stop rolling and the scene to be over. Instead, the cameras continue to roll and the people from behind the scenes come into the scene asking about the water and desperately try to get there own cups and bowls of water. The superiority theory can also be applied to this clip. Limmy gives facial expressions to the camera that says, isn't this obvious that we can access water for free through sinks and it tastes the exact same as a bottle of water? These facial expressions can be applied to the superiority theory because in this case, Limmys expressions are expressing that he feels superior to everyone else because he "discovered" that we can access water for free. Like Mallory said, the accents make this video more humorous because it's not normally what we hear every day unless we lived in another country. Another thing that Mallory points out is the angles of the camera. Without the camera following around Limmy like we are there in person would have made this video less humorous.