1/29
Topic Proposal
For my topic, I am choosing the essay “Light Bulb Jokes: Charting an Era” by Daniel Harris. In the essay about light bulb jokes, Daniel Harris is trying to point out to the reader how important these jokes are to society. Since the light bulb has been invented, jokes have been created over time about it. But what makes these jokes so different is that they are not about the light bulb but about a certain group of people or a certain time period. The jokes normally portray what has been happening in a certain situation. This essay hopes to show the reader how important these jokes are to people today because they help show the humor that was happening at a certain time.
These light bulb jokes appeal to all types of people. A light bulb can be created at any time to show something about something whether it be people or a certain time period. These jokes rely on certain things to happen to certain people at certain times. If nothing were to happen, these jokes would not be possible.
This argument contains all the contexts. A light bulb joke can be about something social, political, historical, or cultural. The author gives many examples on the type of light bulb jokes that have been created over the years. Each joke shown has to do with at least one of these topics and the writer doesn’t even show very many of these types of jokes. What is so great about light bulb jokes is that they can be created about anything and that is why they are so funny.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
1/27
Sam Braver
1/27/09
The idea that interests me the most is the section on why we laugh. It interests me because most people go through life trying to figure out why certain people laugh at certain things. You can make a very successful living if you have the ability to go up on stage and make a large group of people for a short period of time. Although this may sound easy if you know why people laugh, the point that the book doesn’t show is that you may have the jokes, but you still have to execute them in the proper way. That possible chance of failure is what causes us to become nervous when trying to perform in front of a group of people. We may know why they laugh but we can’t make them laugh. With all of the information that the book gives us, they make it sound so easy to do but the audience is always the unknown variable.
This topic is an important one to discuss because I think everyone should try and understand why people laugh. We may not be able to make them laugh but it’s very valuable information to know why they do laugh at certain times. When a person has the ability to make a group of people laugh, that person is generally like by his audience because they feel he is interesting to listen to. The writer of the book forgot to mention that we can not force people to laugh which is something I have mentioned earlier. This is so important because a comedian needs to go farther than his jokes. He needs to be able to interact with his audience and really know what they want to hear. If the audience gets what they want, then the performance will be a success.
The book gives many different reasons why people laugh, which is so true to today’s culture. There are a lot of different types of comedians around the world today telling so many different types of jokes. An example from modern culture would be the amount of comedians telling so many different types of jokes. Today, there are comedians who broadcast TV shows that venture out to anyone who wants to watch. There are comedians who strictly do shows at comedy clubs and then there are the ones who only write. All of these comedians do all different types of comedy to branch out to everyone. This way they can all make a certain number of people laugh at their jokes. With the knowledge they create from all of their shows, they are able to narrow down which jokes they should tell to certain people. With all of this information, they can try and become perfect in their profession.
1/27/09
The idea that interests me the most is the section on why we laugh. It interests me because most people go through life trying to figure out why certain people laugh at certain things. You can make a very successful living if you have the ability to go up on stage and make a large group of people for a short period of time. Although this may sound easy if you know why people laugh, the point that the book doesn’t show is that you may have the jokes, but you still have to execute them in the proper way. That possible chance of failure is what causes us to become nervous when trying to perform in front of a group of people. We may know why they laugh but we can’t make them laugh. With all of the information that the book gives us, they make it sound so easy to do but the audience is always the unknown variable.
This topic is an important one to discuss because I think everyone should try and understand why people laugh. We may not be able to make them laugh but it’s very valuable information to know why they do laugh at certain times. When a person has the ability to make a group of people laugh, that person is generally like by his audience because they feel he is interesting to listen to. The writer of the book forgot to mention that we can not force people to laugh which is something I have mentioned earlier. This is so important because a comedian needs to go farther than his jokes. He needs to be able to interact with his audience and really know what they want to hear. If the audience gets what they want, then the performance will be a success.
The book gives many different reasons why people laugh, which is so true to today’s culture. There are a lot of different types of comedians around the world today telling so many different types of jokes. An example from modern culture would be the amount of comedians telling so many different types of jokes. Today, there are comedians who broadcast TV shows that venture out to anyone who wants to watch. There are comedians who strictly do shows at comedy clubs and then there are the ones who only write. All of these comedians do all different types of comedy to branch out to everyone. This way they can all make a certain number of people laugh at their jokes. With the knowledge they create from all of their shows, they are able to narrow down which jokes they should tell to certain people. With all of this information, they can try and become perfect in their profession.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Blog 1/20/09
Sam Braver
1/20/2009
In the Comedy Writing Secrets book, chapter one gave me a good introduction on what this book is all about. It was able to show me that this book was going to be very helpful in the near future with my comedic writing. I also appreciate all of the quotes that are included in the reading from famous comedians because the quotes can relate to the reading so well. The readings from this book will help our class in a huge way with our comedic writings because most of us have probably never been involved with this kind of writing. From the reading, I felt that the writers of Comedy Writing Secrets were disappointed that humorist writings are not as popular today because people want to tell the jokes, not write them. I can definitely understand where the writers are coming from because everyone wants to take credit for their own work. But what these writers don’t realize is that most great comedians today did this work early on in their careers and eventually they got enough credit for their writings to become big stars. By just reading this first chapter, I can start to tell that this book will be very important in helping us all become better comedic writers.
In the Laughing Matters Book, the essay by Henri Bergson was a very interesting one. Bergson uses this essay to mainly talk about why certain things to the average person are so funny. He gives certain scenarios throughout everyday life such as a man falling while walking and tells us why they are so appealing to us. Bergson is right though because most every human being would laugh at a scenario such as this. It is natural for us to laugh at things that seem funny to us whereas they aren’t so funny to the people that these things happen to. Personally, I did not like this reading though because it was tough to follow. The reading itself was not humor, because the writer was just talking about it as if it were something normal.
The essay Relaxing the Rules of Reading by Robin Hemley is about comedic stories Hemley has experienced in his years. I really like how every story he wrote about, he was able to break it down for us so that we could understand so easily. My favorite story is the one about the girl that told her professor she was a Vandal. It’s such a clever thing for someone to write about because I would never think about writing something like that. Hemley hits all of the different scenarios and types of stories that you can think of writing in his essay. It’s good for our class to see all of these different types of stories because it will help us figure out certain ideas for us to write about. I know that most of the time, my greatest trouble is not finding something to write about. If I have a certain scenario, I am generally pretty good at being able to write a great deal about it. Hemley shows me that it is easy to find scenarios because all you have to do is think of things that happen in your everyday life.
1/20/2009
In the Comedy Writing Secrets book, chapter one gave me a good introduction on what this book is all about. It was able to show me that this book was going to be very helpful in the near future with my comedic writing. I also appreciate all of the quotes that are included in the reading from famous comedians because the quotes can relate to the reading so well. The readings from this book will help our class in a huge way with our comedic writings because most of us have probably never been involved with this kind of writing. From the reading, I felt that the writers of Comedy Writing Secrets were disappointed that humorist writings are not as popular today because people want to tell the jokes, not write them. I can definitely understand where the writers are coming from because everyone wants to take credit for their own work. But what these writers don’t realize is that most great comedians today did this work early on in their careers and eventually they got enough credit for their writings to become big stars. By just reading this first chapter, I can start to tell that this book will be very important in helping us all become better comedic writers.
In the Laughing Matters Book, the essay by Henri Bergson was a very interesting one. Bergson uses this essay to mainly talk about why certain things to the average person are so funny. He gives certain scenarios throughout everyday life such as a man falling while walking and tells us why they are so appealing to us. Bergson is right though because most every human being would laugh at a scenario such as this. It is natural for us to laugh at things that seem funny to us whereas they aren’t so funny to the people that these things happen to. Personally, I did not like this reading though because it was tough to follow. The reading itself was not humor, because the writer was just talking about it as if it were something normal.
The essay Relaxing the Rules of Reading by Robin Hemley is about comedic stories Hemley has experienced in his years. I really like how every story he wrote about, he was able to break it down for us so that we could understand so easily. My favorite story is the one about the girl that told her professor she was a Vandal. It’s such a clever thing for someone to write about because I would never think about writing something like that. Hemley hits all of the different scenarios and types of stories that you can think of writing in his essay. It’s good for our class to see all of these different types of stories because it will help us figure out certain ideas for us to write about. I know that most of the time, my greatest trouble is not finding something to write about. If I have a certain scenario, I am generally pretty good at being able to write a great deal about it. Hemley shows me that it is easy to find scenarios because all you have to do is think of things that happen in your everyday life.
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