Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Humor--Gabriel Molina

One scene from The Importance of Being Earnest that I found particularly funny was the conversation between Jack and Algernon, immediately following Lady Bracknell asking Jack to provide proof of his parents. Consider this witty exchange, for example:

Jack. I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever nowadays. You can’t go anywhere without meeting clever people. The thing has become an absolute public nuisance. I wish to goodness we had a few fools left.

Algernon. We have.

Jack. I should extremely like to meet them. What do they talk about?

Algernon. The fools? Oh! about the clever people, of course.

Jack. What fools!

I think what I find funny about this specific exchange is first of all how both characters entertain a short conversation from Jack's comment "I wish to goodness we had a few fools left," which the audience would interpret as rhetorical. The irony of Jack's final comment is also funny because it is ironic that he would exclaim "What fools!" after just wishing that there were more fools left.


One of my favorite examples of modern humor is the show The Office. Absolutely one of my favorites. https://youtu.be/kr-OXclAt60

The humor of this show almost entirely consists of farce humor, where situations are presented that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, and thus improbable. The setting being the office of a paper company, the writers are able to come up with countless situations like this. If interpreted as a societal critique, it probably is intended to comment on the behind-the-scenes of the relationships in a typical office job.

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