Wednesday, December 4, 2013

But wait isn't all comedy funny by definit-! *chloroform'd*

Yooooo, how's it going you... Colo... Coloradans? Coloradanians? Coloradishes? I like that last one. Anyways, as you should probably know, our class has also been reading The Importance of Being Earnest. When thinking about humor in the context of this play, I have arrived at the conclusion that there are basically three different types of humor. For lack of better terms, I shall label them American Humor, British Humor, and Trippin' Balls Humor. To clarify, American humor is the big guffaw, the slapstick, the underhanded racist joke. British humor is snide jabs, biting satire, and the situational comedy. And then you have Trippin' Balls humor, most commonly found on the Internet, which consists of terrifyingly inhuman gifs, weed jokes, and Tumblr text posts made at 4 am.

Now then, it's obvious that Oscar Wilde's play relies almost exclusively on what I have dubbed "British Humor." The whole play is overflowing with satire and subtle farce, jabbing at both the upper class and British society as a whole. Moments I especially enjoy are when characters get just plain sassy, which is especially amusing in the context of the late 1800s. For example, when Lady Bracknell suggests that the orphaned Jack "produce at any rate one parent" (which is an amusing request in it's own rights), Jack replies "I can produce the hand-bag at any moment. It is in my dressing-room at home." Like, wow. Sass attack. I just thought that response was hilarious, even if it is a bit brash for the decidedly-British humor of the play. And since the play is, in essence, a satire, it is of course full of satirical elements and humorous comments on society. Very enjoyable, in moderation.

As for the humor I prefer? Well... I honestly enjoy a sprinkling of humor from across all three of my personally-defined [vain hairflip] categories. While sitcom-style American humor gets on my nerves sometimes, I do enjoy the intentionally-terrible humor in old classic comedies like Airplane! and Blazing Saddles. As for British Humor, I think the most classic, and most British, example that I adore would be the dry, witty sketches of Monty Python. And as for the last category... well, it really depends on how late at night it is. I have attached samples of each type.

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)