Ryan's FYW Blog

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...