Humor

Humor Proposal

Using the comedy toolbox and from my studies on Spike Jones and Rowan Atkinson, I have learned more about slapstick humor, exaggerism, shifting point of view, and also blunder. Exaggerism is an exaggerated witticism that overstates the features, defects, or the strangeness of someone or something. Shifting point of view is humor derived from unique, maybe absurd perspectives. Blunder is defined as wit based on a person who makes a mistake, which makes them appear foolish. Slapstick humor is a type of comedy involving exaggerated extreme physical violence or activities which exceed the boundaries of common sense, such as a character being hit in the face with a heavy frying pan or running into a brick wall. These are all comedy tools that I plan to use in my humor project, while mainly focusing on physical comedy like slapstick humor, and also sound as comedy like Spike did using exaggerism. I plan to use a combination of both Spike Jones comedy and Rowan Atkinson because I like the physical comedy Rowan uses like running into things or falling down and making it funny. I also like Spike Jones how he uses different sound effects and music in a scene that comes off as wacky or weird because normally it wouldn’t fit there or the sound is exaggerated so that is what makes the scene funnier. With a combination of both sound and physical humor I will have my humor project. Spike Jones uses exaggerism by having the wacky sounds and music in his stage shows, so it is strange and exaggerates the features of the show because they aren’t the normal or natural sounds that would happen. He uses shifting point of view because having wacky sounds in weird places that don’t fit is unique and absurd and it doesn’t work together well so it is weird to other people. Rowan Atkinson uses physical comedy which is a form of comedy focused on manipulation of the body for a humorous effect. It can include slapstick, clowning, mime, physical stunts, or making funny faces. Rowan Atkinson uses physical comedy by running into things like physical stunts which people find funny when others get hurt and he uses that. Physical comedy is based largely on action and movement. Body language is a core form of communication and expression and physical comics are masters of using their bodies to sell an idea or bit of humor. Rowan also uses blunder by making his characters seem dumb by always running into things or sounding foolish because of his speech impediment. Atkinson suffers from a stammer, and the over-articulation is a technique to overcome problematic consonants. These two comedians Rowan Atkinson and Spike Jones are the influences I am planning on using in my humor project because I like the use of physical comedy and also sound comedy and sound effects and music.

Spike Jones is a comedian from the nineteen hundreds who was known for his synthesis of comedy and music. He was a musician but also a comedian so he incorporated music and different sounds into his comedy. He was in a band but also he had stage shows. He started his career out fairly seriously, but switched and turned the corner with his 1942 hit “Der Fuehrer’s Face”. This opened gates for hundreds of humorous arrangements of well known songs employing wacky instruments and sound effects, and a stage show that relied on slapstick, including the services of a little person well known to show biz buffs: Billy Barty The anarchy of Jones’ stage shows and record albums calls to mind that of the Marx Brothers and the Olsen and Johnson of Hellzapoppin. Using the comedy toolbox, the terms which he used in his humor were exaggerism, which is an exaggerated witticism that overstates the features, defects, or the strangeness of someone or something. He uses this by having the wacky sounds and music in his stage shows, so it is strange and exaggerates the features of the show because they aren’t the normal or natural sounds that would happen. Also he uses shifting point of view which is Humor derived from unique, maybe absurd perspectives. He uses this because having wacky sounds in weird places that don’t fit is unique and absurd and it doesn’t work together well so it is weird to other people. Rowan Atkinson is another comedian and he is an English actor, comedian and screenwriter best known for his work on the sitcome Blackadder and Mr. Bean. His comedic style is physical comedy which is a form of comedy focused on manipulation of the body for a humorous effect. It can include slapstick, clowning, mime, physical stunts, or making funny faces. Rowan Atkinson uses physical comedy by running into things like physical stunts which people find funny when others get hurt and he uses that. Physical comedy is based largely on action and movement. Body language is a core form of communication and expression and physical comics are masters of using their bodies to sell an idea or bit of humor. This action also portrays a degree of suffering in a humorous aspect which taps into the idea of schadenfreude, the psychological idea that we derive secret pleasure from the misfortune of others. He also has another comedic device which is over-articulation of the “B” sound, such as his pronunciation of “Bob in the Blackadder ll episode “Bells”. Atkinson suffers from a stammer, and the over-articulation is a technique to overcome problematic consonants. Using the comedy toolbox, some of the comedic tools he uses are slapstick humor, which is a type of comedy involving exaggerated extreme physical violence or activities which exceed the boundaries of common sense, such as a character being hit in the face with a heavy frying pan or running into a brick wall. He uses this in many of his characters and performances by falling down or running into things and using his body or pain as comedy. He also uses blunder, which is defined as wit based on a person who makes a mistake, which makes them appear foolish. He uses this by making his characters seem dumb by always running into things or sounding foolish because of his speech impediment. Rowan Atkinson is similar to Spike Jones in the way that they do things that appear or sound wacky like Rowan uses his body to appear foolish or be funny and Spike uses sound to make it seem wacky and be funny. Also they both use sounds like Spike uses music or sound effects to be funny and Rowan has his speech impediment which he can’t pronounce ‘B’ correctly which comes off as comedy or funny. They are different because Rowan is mainly an actor who does physical stunts and it’s his characters that he performs that is funny, while Spike is mainly a musician but in his shows he uses music and sound effects to make the scene funny.

My Project:

Pre recorded performance and the form of humor will be a combination of slapstick and physical humor as well as sound humor. The subject is going to be people surfing and them falling and using different sound effects to make it funny and I chose this subject because it’s using slapstick humor and I have a lot of film of surfers falling off of their boards. I think this is the right humor project for me because I have already filmed it and it includes film which I enjoy and also I like music and I can make it funny by adding in sound effects. I’m excited because when I’m filming surfing I find it funny when people fall off their boards so I’m excited to put it all together. Some potential pitfalls I wish to avoid are not having enough film or putting in the wrong sound effects.


This is my final project


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