Ryan's FYW Blog

It's crazy to think that in today's day and age, anything can be turned into a joke -- even a hurricane. I never came across the Hurricane Florence Twitter account while it was happening, but I wish I would have. Seeing a natural disaster turned into a joke would have given me just the laugh I needed when I was stuck on campus during Hurricane Florence. As Madelyn pointed out, this account does utilize relief, incongruity, and superiority theories. However, the fact that superiority theory is used makes this account more controversial. If someone who live somewhere directly in the hurricane's path saw this account, they might be offended by it. To put it into perspective, in 2016 I lived in Hurricane Michael's path and my family had to evacuate because of it. If I saw a Twitter feed joking around about Michael the same way the Florence account did, I would not be happy. This is why there is a gray area around the topic of when a joke becomes unfunny or offensive. What o...

I believe Will Ferrell is one of the funniest actors in recent comedy because of how he can bring any character to life and how he can accurately play any part he wants to. In Talladega Nights , Ricky Bobby is a failing NASCAR driver who is trying to get better at racing. Will Ferrell is able to take this somewhat boring role and turn Ricky Bobby into a hilarious and loveable character. On the other hand, in Anchorman  Ron Burgundy is a news reporter who is loved by all of San Diego. Will Ferrell is the perfect actor for this role. He plays Ron Burgundy's part so genuinely and also immaculately delivers the line "Stay classy, San Diego" at the end of every news report that no other actor could play this role better. Will Ferrell's roles also involve superiority theory and relief theory. There is superiority because when people see how dumb Ricky Bobby is in the beginning of the movie, they will laugh and some might even relate.

I remember the first times I watched Borat  and Bruno  and how hysterically funny they were. Both movies were similar not just because of the humor and real-life stunts, but they both featured the same actor as the main character. I did not know this actor's name, but I admired his ability to do voice impressions, keep a straight face while performing outrageous public stunts, and ultimately draw a genuine laugh out of everybody. It was not until I read this blog that I knew his name was Sacha Baron Cohen. Although I have not seen any of the examples Will mentioned in the post, I can totally see them coming from Sacha Baron Cohen. Will makes a good point in saying that his humor involves superiority theory and incongruity theory. An example of his incongruity can be seen in Borat  when he has to ask people for directions, and proceeds to call of the bystanders Michael Jackson. Nobody would expect a foreigner to call a stranger Michael Jackson, but  Sacha Ba...

It's not uncommon in this day and age when your friend shows you a funny video and you both laugh. Maybe it's a cat doing a backflip, maybe it's Pennywise the clown selling penis enlargement pills, maybe it's something else. I remember my friend coming to me one day in 8th grade begging me to watch a video . The video was titled "Substitute Teacher" and it showed a high school substitute teacher continuously pronouncing his students' names wrong. I found it hilarious. The next week, the same friend showed me a  different  video . This one was called "Fraternity Branding", and it was just as funny: two college guys try to brand each other with their fraternity's symbols, and one of them completely botches it. One small detail I noticed was that the two characters in the video were both in the "Substitute Teacher" video. I looked at Comedy Central's Youtube channel and I found these two videos as well as many others with the same ...

All 12 of these vines were popular 2 to 4 years ago, when Vine was in its prime. I remember downloading Vine for the first time back in 8th grade and laughing hysterically at the content I saw. Vine spread so fast because of how simple it was: anyone with a smartphone could record a 6-second video of themselves being as crazy or silly as they could. I even went as far as trying to record a few of my own, but my 8th grade self was far too camera-shy. I believe that the two elements that make Vines so funny is the comedic incongruity (art of surprise) coupled with the short length. Alyssa chose 12 vines that demonstrate this. For example, Vine #2 is funny because you don't expect the person on the phone to smash it on the ground, and in the last second, he stomps on his skateboard. This is funnier at the end of the video because it makes you guess what happened after that. Vine #1 combines both elements. Not only is it completely unexpected for Pennywise to ask if you want penis enla...