What is the Humor project?
The humor project is our chance to experiment and learn about different styles of comedy and how to use them. We researched and watched examples of comedic techniques, like satire and parody, and also look in to specific comedians and how they use humor. Based on what we learned, we also give our own comedic performances, wither live or pre-recorded. I chose to do a pre-recorded performance.
Humor Proposal
Our first assignment was a proposal of our project, along with a short essay about the comedians we studied and and analysis of their techniques analyzed the comedians Chris Fleming and Bo Burnham, and their use of parody and exaggeration. I decided for my project to do a short video in the style of a in the style of My Strange Addiction and other similar shows, about a girl who think she is a chicken.
Exert of the beginning of my essay:
The humorists that I studied were Chris Fleming and Bo Burham. Chris Fleming is a comedian known for his skits on Youtube and also stand-up comedy. He is most known for his comedy series Gayle, which he plays a caricature of a middle-aged mom. He takes a character that everyone knows very well and makes it as ridiculous and eccentric as possible. One of my favorite skits of his is “Episode 6: Granola”. The skit is basically two suburban mothers trying to one-up each others rescue dogs, getting more and more absurd as the argument goes on. One of my favorite lines is when when Gayle, referring to her dog, says, “she graduated Cum Laude from Groton Charter School, she was the student speaker”. This line really highlights the absurdity of the whole skit and Flemings work in general. It’s absurd that the dog would be able to be a student speaker because dogs can’t talk, but even that is overshadowed by the absurdity the conversation as a whole. However, despite its ridiculousness, the skit is really an accurate caricature of suburban moms. He expertly portrays certain personalities while also bringing a craziness that really heights the comedy. Some my other favorite caricatures of his include grad students, theatre kids, and adventure dads. The comedic techniques he utilizes most in his work is absurdity, caricature and exaggerism.
Project Script
OPENING SHOT: Emily holding a chicken and kissing its head. Cut to a shot of Emily running after a chicken, pretending to pet the ground. Cut to a shot of Emily in the chicken coop.
Emily: SQUAWK
TITLE: FREAKY CHICKEN PEOPLE
EMILY
Emily (squawking): My name is Emily “I am a chicken” Cocking. This is my story.
Subtitle: Emily has been living as a chicken for 4 years now. Her family and friends are devastated
INSERT: PICTURE OF FAMILY
MUSIC: IN THE ARM OF THE ANGELS
Emily (looking sad): I am so sad… zoom in… I just want to be accepted for who I am… zoom out…
Cut to chicken coop
Final Project
I edited the video in Premier Pro
ARVE Error: Mode: lazyload not available (ARVE Pro not active?), switching to normal modeI also presented in front of our english class, and talked about my comedic influences.
ARVE Error: Mode: lazyload not available (ARVE Pro not active?), switching to normal mode