Response to "Lead Blog Post"

I found Caroline's topic choice absolutely hilarious. I had never heard of John Mulaney before now, although his face did seem very familiar; however, I watched with with amusement the three clips attached to Caroline's post, and I fully intend to procrastinate on other homework through the use of Mulaney's hour-long Netflix specials. His anecdote about his bad driving was hilarious, and although I would agree that his self-deprecation in indeed a form of reverse-superiority theory, I believe that this specific example implements more of the relief theory - he makes light of what can be, in reality, a very frustrating encounter with a bad driver. Instead of getting mad ad Mulaney or people who lack the same skills he does, he encourages them to laugh at the ridiculousness of a full-grown, relatively successful man who doesn't realize he's in the wrong lane. His skit reminded me of a scene from the hit sitcom Family Guy, in which Peter swears to a future of abstinence, emphasizing his resolution with the analogy that he'll be "as untouched as the turn signal in an Asian woman's car." Rather than the relief theory, this scene utilizes the superiority theory and benign-violation theory of humor. Firstly, those who laugh likely view themselves as superior drivers to Asians (based on the perpetuated stereotype of Asian people being bad drivers), and find humor in the perceived inability of Asian people, but specifically Asian women, to be good drivers. Secondly, as this episode of Family Guy aired in 2006, this clip was received as less racially offensive and demeaning as it is today, and therefore would have been just enough of a violation to be funny without being too offensive or too benign. Although race and gender-based punchlines are less popular today due to their reinforcement of false stereotypes (they're no longer benign), they provide very interesting examples of the effectiveness of the superiority and benign-violation theories of humor in days past.

Watch the Family Guy clip here.

Comments

  1. Shane HerronOctober 12, 2018 at 10:24 AM

    It's so interesting to hear you say "back in 2006" this humor would play. it seems to me of course that we already had evolved a good deal, but it's certainly true that even since then norms have shifted a good deal. It's interesting that Mulaney's humor probably will age better since self-deprecation is always a safer bet than racial humor.

    I'm glad that the class is helping to provide some good procrastination material (that still allows you to sort of do your work at the same time).

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  2. Caroline BassOctober 12, 2018 at 10:53 AM

    I'm glad you found him funny! :) I really liked how you also talked about the way relief theory could be used in this situation. We laugh at the unexpected comparison of the 100-year-old blind dog because of the absurdity of the contrast.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hannah ThomasOctober 12, 2018 at 3:19 PM

    I loved your analysis! The way you explained the benign-violation and superiority theory made perfect sense and I found it so interesting! It is crazy to think about how much simple social constructs can change what we view as humorous. This concept has been touched on in many of the articles we've read, but it's cool to see a real life example that pertains to our generation.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownOctober 12, 2018 at 4:12 PM

    I like how you related Mulaney's joke about driving to an episode of Family Guy, since the joke seems to have somewhat of a similar setup while using a different theory of humor. Your reasoning behind Mulaney's joke being an example of relief theory could definitely work along with superiority theory.

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