Monday, December 16, 2013

Blog Post 26


Marc Ennis

Research project

Dr. Chandler

 

How are Traditional Moves in Stand-Up Comedy Adapted to fit a Different Medium?

 

Introduction

 

The  idea that humor is objective and what makes people laugh, or what makes something or somebody "funny," has been a debate almost as long as humor itself. But the fact is, there are people that have been successful with great careers who some would argue meet certain features that in fact, connect with and audience and elicits enjoyment.

In Jeannine Schwarz’s Dissertation on standup comedians, she focuses on established comedians Jerry Seinfeld and Stephen Write and what makes them funny. In the paper, she breaks it down by explaining the different moves made by standup comics. These include things like different techniques such as satire, ridicule, and what role the audience plays in the process.

While she makes many good points on the subject, she addresses the medium of comedians in a live act on a stage. I would like to see how a comedian uses the moves when he or she have the benefits from a taped show with the use of visual aids, other comedians to play off of, and the benefit of current events at their disposal.

Jon Stewart has successfully hosted “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central since 1999 as a hybrid talk show, parody of nightly news, relying heavily on political humor. Stewart himself being a former successful standup comic, uses all the moves that the two comedians do, but he is able to adapt them for not only making the people who are live in audience laugh, but also the people at home as well.

Most comedians who write for themselves on stage are usually hired to write for television such as “The Daily Show”, meaning that studying this question is important to show how such transitions can be achieved with success. This paper will examine how Jon Stewart adapts the conventions of standup comedy into a different medium and how it has made him successful.

 

Literature Review

In Linguistic Aspects of Verbal Humor in Stand-up Comedy, a dissertation by Jeannine Schwarz, she breaks down the history of standup comedy and the different ways it’s used. Where she focuses most of her data is when she talks about a certain language moves and inserts excerpts of comedian’s performances as examples.  For the sake of this paper, I have chosen out of the topics covered; Paralanguage, Ridicule, Hyperbole, and Satire.

 When she talks about Paralanguage she explains how it plays a central role in comedy in general, and how it represents a crucial characteristic in stand-up comedy. She sites nonverbal expressive movements, especially gestures that constitute an important element of the key of verbal humor and emphasizes those gestures are often “essential to convey the non-serious intent of the verbal message" and "can also be exaggerated more readily for visual impact". The revelation of "non-serious intent" by use of gestures can therefore reinforce the incongruity predominant in humor. She states that "gestures are important in humor that depends heavily on performance and acting" These statements reveal that the quality of the humorists' performance depends not only on the content of the jokes and the stories they reveal. It is far more than just the actual words which contribute to a successful performance, and she argues that intonation and body language are essential features of a successful performance (Schwarz from Rudder).

The example she uses to back this up is by describing Seinfeld’s character as an active, animated comic who imitates the gestures of the people involved in his stories.  She juxtaposes this by describing Write, as a monotone apathetic observer with no attempt at all to portray his characters in the way he observed them (Schwarz).

Ridicule and derision are another language move, and she explains them as features of the joke telling techniques that display impoliteness and aggressiveness. They are used to overtly reject another person's or group's identity. Speakers often use ridicule to make fun of someone else or even to insult or attack someone verbally. The ensuing laughter on the recipients' part stresses their agreement and therefore strengthens the intention of excluding a certain group. The author claims that this is a way for the speaker to show his superiority over a certain group (Schwarz from Wilson).

            To explain this, the author presents an excerpt of a Seinfeld performance connecting cab drivers and B.O. In order to be able to make his audience join him and share his attitude, he uses the strategy of presenting a situation everybody comprehends.

The Author describes Hyperbole as mainly serving to exaggerate familiar situations, to make the audience appreciate the joke telling, and to enhance its laughter. The stand-up comedian often starts relating a rather simple story and then makes it increasingly funny by telling of overstated situations and occurrences which always result in hearty laughter.

By using hyperbole, the stand-up comedians render the situation funnier because they claim more than they have evidence for and can objectively justify. In this context, overstatements should be semantically interpreted as claims that are higher (or lower) on some scale than warranted. Often the use of overstatements serves to top former punch lines in order to keep up and steadily increase the audience's laughter (Schwarz from Cuddon).

            The author goes on to present an example of the caricature as "one of the most fundamental techniques of humor, " and that the "caricaturist distorts by exaggerating features which he considers characteristic of his victim's appearance or personality" It is important to note that those caricatures can only be funny if the listener or the spectator knows the person ridiculed because "the unknown cannot be distorted or misrepresented" and can  emphasize that caricature  verbally, expressed through a change of on the part of the joke teller. By "capturing and grotesquely imitating his or her particular style of speaking or writing", the joke teller uses exaggeration into ridicule the person in question (Schwarz from Cuddon).

We can use caricature as a technique belonging to the superiority theory because, like ridicule and satire, it is used to express power and superiority over its inferior opponents. As the previous discussion has shown, caricature always contains exaggeration, which justifies treating it as a special case of hyperbole (Schwarz).

            On the move of satire, she presents theories that describe satire as a purpose of showing the absurdity of certain mannerisms, class privilege, professional pretensions, and institutional rules. They further note that "in face-to-face interactions poking fun at or ridiculing or putting down another person amounts to a refusal to accept the identity projected by the target and the meaning of the social situation that the identity implies." Satire can be considered a subcategory of ridicule and is thus a further humor technique that can be regularly found in stand-up comedy sessions (Schwarz from Koestler).

 

Methods

For my methods, I decided to look at the four points listed in my literature review, and find examples of comics using them on a stage in front of an audience with nothing else such as props, other comedians etc...  I then researched and found examples of Jon Stewart making the same moves on “The Daily Show” (TDS) and examined how he uses them differently.

Data

For this section I will break it down by each of the four moves separately.

A.Paralanguage

I examined for myself what makes Stephen Wright stage persona so distinguishable when he performs.


You can see in this performance that the way he takes on the role of schlep, or loveable loser which in turn, makes his punch lines funny. Some of the things he says are just random or normal observations on everyday life. So as you can see, his brand of humor totally depends on the way he says it, meaning his brand of humor is tied directly to his stage character.

When examining Jon Stewart's paralanguage we can see how he can change his character or persona to fit whatever jokes they might be focusing on that night or even in a certain segment.


Here, he goes from serious news anchor, sarcastic commentator, angry viewer incredulous observer, condescending wise guy, and imitating and mocking character, and back to serious news anchor. This is because Stewart, unlike Write, has the benefits of edited clips to play off, and as such, can change the direction of the humor as he sees fit.

B.Ridicule


I looked at the lit review’s view on ridicule and studied their example of Seinfeld’s bit on cab drivers and body odor. The author surmises, and I agree, that Seinfeld uses ridicule here to make a statement about cab drivers in general, not only certain cabs that he has been in, but all of them.

On the other hand, Stewart uses ridicule to call people out who he feels have mislead or deceive people. As TDS focuses on what’s in the news and current events, it is easier for him to direct ridicule as sort of a rebuttal to their views.


            In the clip above it is important to note that when Jon Stewart ridicules the people in the clips, he makes it a point to back it up with facts and figures.  He is not making assumptions about a single group, but shows you what these people think, and then shows you why he thinks they're wrong. He is still setting up a scenario where he is making himself and the audience feels superior, but with more context and specific target for the ridicule.

C.Hyperbole (Caricatures)

Standup comics often use hyperbole or caricatures to make a simple joke, or something that’s not even a joke, funnier. But as noted in the Lit review, it’s a fine line to take because you have to make sure the audience has a frame of reference for.


In the clip from “Americas Got Talent”, a comedian does impressions of many famous people with an air of over exaggeration. Though he gets laughs, he is walking the fine line of alienating his audience by quoting lines from the movies of some of the actors he is impersonating which many in the audience could not be familiar with, for example, Gary Busey. Buesy is one of the actors who the comedian imitates in the clip, and was most prominent during the eighties and early nineties, but has made less and less mainstream films by the time of the comic’s appearance. This could lead to less laughs or even confusion from a younger audience.

On TDS, Jon Stewart a system in place where before he does a caricature or an imitation, he can show the audience not only the person he is imitating, but a particular clip in which he can really exaggerate the finer points of.


As you can see in the clip, after we cut back to Jon Stewart, he immediately elicits laughs from the crowd without saying a word. By mimicking the appearance of the Senator by playing off the clip he just presented to the crowd, it allows him to be more free and is able to elevate the imitation., and do it more safely then he would if he was on a stage with no context for the audience to relate to. In many cases Stewart takes on public figures is more risky that the comedians, because most people are more aware of celebrities then politicians (Public Knowledge of…).

D.Satire

Satire has long been a way to use comedy to shame things like companies or individuals into improvement or to highlight how ridiculous something is like a certain subculture.


In this clip comedian George Carlin talks about “Dumb people” and he tells you why they are stupid. He cannot simply just say there dumb because he thinks so, he has to embarrass them by bringing forth the behavior to the audience. He talks about how people in America think its “just dandy” that they live between two shopping malls.

Out of all the things that John Stewart does on TDS that differs from the way a stand-up comedian would do this, in my opinion, this is the biggest difference.

For a stand-up to do successful satire they really have to work to get your point across to the audience on describing exactly why something is ridiculous and why you feel something’s deserving of the shaming.


In this clip, Stewart clearly thinks that CNN and other news programs are being ridiculous and or stupid; with the way they ask if news stories are a “good thing” or a “bad thing.” Unlike the George Carlin clip though, Stewart never tells you directly that these people are being absurd.   

In just under nine minutes, without much context, Jon Stewart is able to portray what he thinks about CNN’s choices by allowing his comments play of the clips he shows and vice-versa. In the first clip, Carlin has to constantly explain to the audience his feelings, while Stewart lets the subject he satirizing speak for themselves and thereby make them walk into a trap he has set for them.

While both take different approaches, they both achieve the same desired results of shaming certain groups, Carlin with America’s “stupid people”, and Stewart with cable news.

 

Conclusion

The way stand-up comedians use certain moves to achieve laughter can be broken down into certain categories like the ones listed above. But when a comedian moves to a different medium, they must find ways to adapt them and make them work in a way that fits. What makes John Stewart so successful is that he knows how to do this task seamlessly.

 

 

Work Cited

Public Knowledge of Current Affairs Little Changed by News and Information Revolutions. Pew

Research Center. 15 Apr. 2007. Web. 6 Dec. 2013

 

Schwarz, Jeannine. Linguistic Aspects of Verbal Humor in Stand-Up Comedy. Dissertation.

Saarland University, Saarbrücken, 25 Jan. 2010. Google Scholar. Web. 26 Sept. 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Blog Post 24

Methods
For my methods, I decided to look at the four points listed in my literature review, and find example of comics using them on a stage in front of an audience with nothing else such as props, other comedians etc.. Then, I researched and found examples of Jon Stewart making the same  moves on “The Daily Show” and examined how he uses them differently.

I want feedback on this section

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Blog Post 23

C.Hyperbole (Caricatures)
Standup comics often use Hyperbole or caricatures to make a simple joke, or something thats not even a joke, funnier. But as noted in the Lit review, its a fine line to take because you have to make sure the audience has a frame of reference for.
In the clip from Americas Got Talent and impressionist does impressions of many famous people with an air of over exaggeration. Though he gets laughs he is walking the fine line of alienating his audience by quoting lines from the movies of some of the actors he is impersonating which many in the audience could not be familiar with.
On TDS, Jon Stewart has a system in place where before he does a caricature or an imitation, he can show the audience not only the person he is imitating, but a particular clip in which he can really exaggerate the finer points of.
As  you can see in the clip, after we cut back to Jon Stewart, he immediately elicits laughs from the crowd without saying a word. By mimicking the appearance of the Senator by playing off the clip he just presented to the crowd, it allows him to be more free and is able to elevate the imitation., and do it more safely then he would if he was on a stage with no context for the audience to relate to.