January 29 Blog

Ridicule is made for any one that wants to raise morale, strip an enemy of their mystique and prestige, bring truth to the enemy's claim to justice, or eliminate the enemy's image of invincibility. It is a powerful source of humor that has been used since the ancient Greek times and even religious prophets, such as Muhammad, used it as a weapon of war.

The purpose of the argument that is made by Waller, is to show the reader that humor can not only be used to make people laugh in comedies, plays, and arts, but it can also be used as a weapon of war. Dictator and tyrants especially dislike public ridicule because it can put a dent in their image / ego.

BLOG 1/27

One main idea that caught my attention, in the Laughing Matters text, is the information on political humor. The one type of political humor that intrigues me is the type that Parvin uses to give the nation a new view on a politician. Elizabeth Kolbert finds out from Parvin, that this type of humor is the “easiest thing in the world” for Parvin to use and the press picks it up with considerable ease. The purpose of even using political humor is not to aid politician in conveying his views, but to influence the nation to like him more. Many politicians use humor to make light of their mistakes or problems going on while they’re in office, but even Parvin knows that there is a place and a time to poke fun at mistakes or problems. In his mind, “sometimes [humor] helps, and sometimes the trouble is intractable.” It’s important to discuss because it shows how far politicians are willing to go to be better liked. They’ll make fun of themselves and even make fun of the mistakes they made, if the mistakes aren’t that serious. The thing that I think Elizabeth Kolbert misses throughout her writing is that sometimes things become funny in politics when a politician is trying to be completely serious.

An example of this is located at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6TeoNNXxpk

Blog for 1/20
In the first chapter of Comedy Writing Secrets written by Mel Helitzer describes what he believes to be humor and the effect humor has on people. He makes arguments that humor is an art form and that it can be taught. He believes that humor isn’t just a natural gift, but that it can be taught to people as well.
People can learn to read, write, speak new language, and learn countries and capitals, so people can learn to humorous as well. It’s a way to positive way to meet new people and can be applied to any type of person because a subject can be found that would make everyone laugh. However, not all audiences will laugh at the same joke because there are different subjects and different types that are liked by groups of people. For example, an old person will not laugh at the same jokes a teenager will laugh at and blue-collar men would rather hear “Dumb Blonde” jokes and women groups would rather hear jokes ridiculing “men’s habits and body parts”. So every group has a certain topic that is humorous to them.
The first chapter of Laughing Matters by Marvin Diogenes visits the reason for laughing and tries to explain why people laugh when they do. There are many reasons why a person laughs, and every person doesn’t laugh at the same thing because there are different aspects of humor that get to people. Some people like dry humor, while some of the younger kids laugh when some hurts themselves. Why do kids laugh when someone gets hurt? It’s because the person is doing the movement “involuntarily” and this “clumsiness” of falling to the ground while running hits the nail on the head. A person involuntarily trips and falls, and young onlookers laugh because it was an unexpected change in physical action.