Funny Unit Reflection
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What makes US laugh...and why.
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“Everyone has their own idea of funny. We all need laughter once in a while and it sure doesn't harm us. Starting from ancient time’s tills now, doctors prescribe patient’s “laughter” as a medicine. It’s great for the heart and for blood circulation throughout the body. It is said that if someone laughs for 2 hours in their entire day, they increase their life expectancy than someone who doesn’t. This was statement that I made when I wrote my DW entry on what makes me laugh. I still stick to this sentence 3 months later. Laughter eases the environment and it also unifies people. I particularly enjoy exaggeration, Irony and Sarcasm. This is because they are subtle and they can take place at any time. Sarcasm and irony usually takes place in normal conversations which I’m fond of. Comedy also comprises of many different types of genres which different people prefer.
Why some things are funny to different people?
“Funny”
is a very broad category and humor is different to every single person
If something is funny to one person, the same thing can leave someone
expressionless. As I have said before, there is no science to what is
funny to someone and what are not. Sometimes if there is a joke which
you can relate to, it automatically becomes funny. If there are jokes
about a certain place you visited before and or some food you ate and
had a good or bad experience with it, you’ll usually find it funny. When
jokes don’t relate to you in any way or doesn't relate to
anything you've done before it wouldn't make you laugh.Humor also
relates to personal experience. If you woke up late one morning and you
were late for school and if someone makes a joke about it relating to
them, you’d probably find it really funny, because it happened to you.
Personal experience is one of the key things to what makes something
funny. During class when we do stand up, improving or even theater sports
in front of people in which some things will be funny to a few students and some
won’t be.
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How “being funny” can offend people...personally, culturally...and sometimes unify people.
“Making
fun of things which are close to ones heart often does offend them and
cause unnecessary commotion. There also many people who would think
otherwise and say that it’s alright. In class we watched videos on
different types of comedy. There are some which made a few of us laugh
where other’s frowned and vice versa which proved that not everything is
funny to everyone. The comedian can’t please everyone in the room. If
the audience liked the performance and their type of humor they would go
back for more and the ones who frowned wouldn't consider doing that.”
This was the paragraph that I had written in my initial DW entry. Over
the past 3 months when we have covered our funny unit, my thought about
the statement that I had made changed a bit. I do think that people can
express their opinions while being funny but is it really worth it to
hurt someone in the process? Being funny to unify people is the best way
to go. Humor can offend people and it can also make them
self-conscious. Sometimes offending people lowers their self esteem and
makes them believe that they are smaller than someone else. Attacking
different groups of people through humor and stereotyping them is not
right. We as human beings should make sure that we aren't responsible
for someone else feeling low, be it one person or an entire group of
people. In some cases, attacking a certain group of people such as a
religion or even an ideology can bring others closer together; the one’s
which have the same mentality. It all depends on which end of the
string a person wants to stand on. I think it’s the funniest when I’m in
a room full of people who are watching the show, and the comedian is
funny in general. A comedian, who doesn't talk about cultures,
ideologies and religion. A comedian, who respects people’s ideas and
just wants his audience to have a good time.
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Whether or not we personally believe there should be “ethics” to comedy
Initially, I thought that comedy should not have
ethics and anything is good. But when the days had gone by, I realized
that ethics plays an extremely important role in comedy. There are many
things which we keep close to our hearts and if anything attacks it, we
feel hurt. We all have different views and different ideologies. I
remember when I was against something, and if people were against it too
and they made fun of it, I felt better about it and It did make me
laugh. When someone else made fun of something I believed in or I liked,
it wasn't funny to anymore. When this year began, I only thought of one
side of the string which was making fun of something which
I didn't personally like, but as the months went by, I experienced the other side which was when someone made fun of something I believe
in. Ethics is important when it comes it comedy. It’s not about keeping
opinions to oneself because people can voice their opinions but making
fun of it is another story. We shouldn't make fun of people’s ideas and
beliefs. More and more people should understand that so the world would
be a much more peaceful place to live on.
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There
are many different types of genres that comedians use to perform. My
favorite genres are sitcom, props as well as improvs. These are
my favorite because I feel comfortable working with these. Improvs and
sitcom/sketch comedy is complete opposites of each other since in improv
people just go with flow and get support from the other person to build
up the scene. In Sketch / Sitcoms, the scenes are planned and memorized.
Over the coarse of the funny unit, I never thought I would like it
since I love being funny but just during conversations. I like making
people laugh but this was the first time ever that I was told to make a
group of people laugh. It was really different for me but as the weeks
went by i got more comfortable with it. Some of the comedic devices that
I am fond of are pun and overstatement. I think they are both really
funny devices and puns are really subtle but they do the job.
Overstatement is also really funny to me and I usually do it when I'm
around my friends. I've gotten much more comfortable with the other
comedic devices over the course of this unit and it has really helped me
develop theater skills.
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There are a few basic improving rules which I had trouble with but I overcame after the unit.
1) Don't Deny
Denial is
the number one reason most scenes go bad. Any time you refuse
an offer made by your partner your scene will almost instantly come to a
end. This was the biggest problem I had when we just started doing
improv. This is because I used to always deny what my partner said which
would instantly end the scene. Afterwards I started accepting the scene
and working towards building it up. I realized that I had accomplished
this when we played ABC at the end. At first during ABC, i had a tough
time but afterwards I started
2) Don't ask open ended Questions
Open
ended questions (like "Who are you?") are scene killers because they
force your partner to stop whatever they are doing and come up with an
answer. This was another big problem that I faced. I used to always ask
my partner a question at first which would leave them thinking and
wasting time. Improvs are usually fast. After doing improvs a few times
and learning about it fully, I started to ask fast statement. I also
tried help building the scene and avoided making any blocks along the
story line.
Theater
sports are basically sports which are played based on improvisation. In
these games there are usually players playing against each other to
make the other person mess up. In some cases they are played to build a
story through improvisation. The hardest theatre sport for me was
definitely the ABC game as well. I always had trouble thinking on the
fly with that, remembering each letter of the alphabet was even harder.
But I knew that with practice and
commitment I could do the sport properly. I know at the end when Armin
and I performed the ABC game in front of everyone it wasn't as bad as I
expected. I guess I just needed a little bit of confidence to help me
overcome the disastrous performance those we had the week before.
Sketch Comedy and Stand-Up Comedy performance.
In class we had option to
choose between standup comedy or group sketches. I chose do a group sketch with
Ayat. The reason for my decision was because comedy is neither one of our
strong points. Throughout the unit, even though we both improved as comedians,
we thought it would be better for us to do a group sketch rather than a
standup. In a group sketch I think there is less pressure on us to make the
audience laugh and there are less awkward pauses if the audience is not
pleased.
There were a few methods
we used to come up with our group sketch. Initially we were looking at websites
for good comedy sketches. Those were of no use because they were too long and
most of them required more than two people. Thus we went on YouTube and looked
for funny sketches. A “Punny” sketch particularly interested us since Ayat and
I chuckled throughout the video, thus we planned on using it.
During the rehearsal
process we had a mixture of challenges and good segments as well. Firstly Ayat
and I enjoy working thus we were quite balanced when we operated. It was never
one sided and I never felt that I had to drag this work on. The challenges we
faced were the fact that the original sketch had two men with British
accents. After rehearsing many times we realized that neither of us were good
at it. Thus we looked at different accents, which was quite time consuming.
Plus memorizing the script was a little challenging since there are some twists
in the wording. Other than these challenges, everything worked well.
There were a few specific
personal performances choices that I chose which were not in the original
sketch. Firstly, I acted as an old man who had hearing problems. Thus I had to
make my physicality slow and act as if I was little annoyed at everything.
Also, we chose an Indian accent for this scene rather than a British accent
since it would make it funnier and also because neither of us could pull of a
British accent. I used some gestures in this sketch whilst I was talking about
the dongle. I had a quite understated facial expression since I was an old man
and it worked to build the scene up. I made these choices for my performance
since it would add up well together as a whole scene. An old Indian man with
hearing aid makes a good combination for a funny group sketch.
Rough Draft Performance
During our rough draft
performances, I honestly thought it was much better than I had anticipated. I
was nervous throughout the whole rehearsal stage and I thought I would
definitely fumble up. There were a few things which didn’t work well in our
performance for example, I had a hard time staying in character and keeping my
accent stable throughout the scene. Also, I think I mentioned the word “Dude”
while asking the shopkeeper a question .It may seem normal at first but then I
realized that Grandparents do not really say “Dude”. I remember during
the beginning of our sketch, Ayat had forgotten her lines so I tried to gesture
her a few things in sign language to help her out. After a few seconds she did
remember but that was a big fumble in the scene. Even though we did not have
real fruits for our rough draft, we would surely bring real fruits for the
final performance to have the proper sketch. Some of the good things in our
sketch were that we did tweak the original but it was for the better. I felt
that the Indian accent and the pronunciation of our words did have humor. I’m
glad we chose this sketch since the pun about technology used as fruits is
quite clever. The audience enjoyed it as well.
There are a few goals
that I can set for my final performance. I thought these of after getting
critical feedback from the audience as well as Ms. Kimi. Firstly there were a
lot of pauses in the middle since we didn’t have our lines memorized well
enough. Therefore to fix this problem we need to practice the script over and
over again to make sure that we know it by heart. Secondly, we were told that
we supported each other well thus we are going to continue doing so. Thirdly,
we need to keep composure during our scenes and not laugh or loose focus.
Fourthly we need to set up the scene better since last time my face could not
be seen properly as I faced slightly away from the audience view. Lastly I need
to act more like a grandfather and incorporate hearing problems and slow
physicality to make the scene more real. Also, Ayat and I need to keep our
accents constant throughout the whole scenes and not change it.
After our final
performances I felt that I was much more confidant and I had my lines memorized
properly. We brought the real fruits as planned and the performance went well.
Even thought we got a better response beforehand form the audience since we
were re-telling the same jokes. As I have mentioned in my rough draft
performances, the original script was tweaked and our accents changed to make
the scene better. Ayat and I were confidant this time and the performance went
quite well.
After getting the feedback from Ms. Kimi, we failed to improve on one aspect of our performance from the rough draft, which was facing the audience. This time Ayat and I had tried our best to face the audience but since we had to face each other in a conversation, it was quite hard for us to incorporate it. Also, we could have had more exaggerated facial expressions during some of the punch lines to make it funnier. Something Ayat and I practiced the most was keeping our accents constant throughout the whole sketch and I thought we did a good job. During our rough draft we gained feedback from the audience about being confused since the accents changed but we improved on it. Lastly, I was told to act more of a grandfather and show it in an obvious way, thus I chose to hold a walking stick and very slow gestures. Also, I incorporated hearing problems in the scene as given to us from the previous feedback. Lastly, as mentioned before, we used real fruits this time, which tied the whole performance together.
After getting the feedback from Ms. Kimi, we failed to improve on one aspect of our performance from the rough draft, which was facing the audience. This time Ayat and I had tried our best to face the audience but since we had to face each other in a conversation, it was quite hard for us to incorporate it. Also, we could have had more exaggerated facial expressions during some of the punch lines to make it funnier. Something Ayat and I practiced the most was keeping our accents constant throughout the whole sketch and I thought we did a good job. During our rough draft we gained feedback from the audience about being confused since the accents changed but we improved on it. Lastly, I was told to act more of a grandfather and show it in an obvious way, thus I chose to hold a walking stick and very slow gestures. Also, I incorporated hearing problems in the scene as given to us from the previous feedback. Lastly, as mentioned before, we used real fruits this time, which tied the whole performance together.
My overall feeling for
this performance was great. This specific performance has made me more
confident. I have become a better performer since the beginning of the year and
after gaining feedback I always want to improve on my skills. Overall, I
thoroughly enjoyed this performance and hopefully I will be much better next
time.
Final Performance
After our final
performances I felt that I was much more confidant and I had my lines memorized
properly. We brought the real fruits as planned and the performance went well.
Even thought we got a better response beforehand form the audience since we
were re-telling the same jokes. As I have mentioned in my rough draft
performances, the original script was tweaked and our accents changed to make
the scene better. Ayat and I were confidant this time and the performance went
quite well.
After getting the feedback from Ms. Kimi, we failed to improve on one aspect of our performance from the rough draft, which was facing the audience. This time Ayat and I had tried our best to face the audience but since we had to face each other in a conversation, it was quite hard for us to incorporate it. Also, we could have had more exaggerated facial expressions during some of the punch lines to make it funnier. Something Ayat and I practiced the most was keeping our accents constant throughout the whole sketch and I thought we did a good job. During our rough draft we gained feedback from the audience about being confused since the accents changed but we improved on it. Lastly, I was told to act more of a grandfather and show it in an obvious way, thus I chose to hold a walking stick and very slow gestures. Also, I incorporated hearing problems in the scene as given to us from the previous feedback. Lastly, as mentioned before, we used real fruits this time, which tied the whole performance together.
After getting the feedback from Ms. Kimi, we failed to improve on one aspect of our performance from the rough draft, which was facing the audience. This time Ayat and I had tried our best to face the audience but since we had to face each other in a conversation, it was quite hard for us to incorporate it. Also, we could have had more exaggerated facial expressions during some of the punch lines to make it funnier. Something Ayat and I practiced the most was keeping our accents constant throughout the whole sketch and I thought we did a good job. During our rough draft we gained feedback from the audience about being confused since the accents changed but we improved on it. Lastly, I was told to act more of a grandfather and show it in an obvious way, thus I chose to hold a walking stick and very slow gestures. Also, I incorporated hearing problems in the scene as given to us from the previous feedback. Lastly, as mentioned before, we used real fruits this time, which tied the whole performance together.
My overall feeling for
this performance was great. This specific performance has made me more
confident. I have become a better performer since the beginning of the year and
after gaining feedback I always want to improve on my skills. Overall, I
thoroughly enjoyed this performance and hopefully I will be much better next
time.
My growth as a comedian
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Comedy and being funny in front of people wasn’t really my
thing. When I got into drama and I found out that my first unit was Comedy, It
did make me cringe a little bit. I always had the fright in me that I wouldn’t
be able to make people laugh and I would make a fool out of myself. When we
started to play the theatre sports, I enjoyed playing it but I knew I had a long
way to go to improve in them fully. I could see slight improvement in myself
after I started getting the hang of the games and as we kept on playing them
over and over. There were challenges that I faced which I have mentioned above,
such as blocking offers during improvs or asking questions instead of
statements. I realized that in comedy, it’s best to not try too hard. If we try
hard to make people laugh, we often leave them more expressionless. I realized
when Shubham was acting as an old man during one of our theater sports, it was
really simple but everyone laughed at it. Whereas when I over exaggerated a
statement and made unnecessary movements, no one in the audience laughed. Also,
comedy and improvising has taught me a skill which would help me any other
subject, even in daily life which is: To think fast! Sometimes in comedy if we
don’t think fast then it completely ruins a scene. The scare of a scene being
ruined has forced me to always think fast during improvs and theater sports. I
know this will help me a lot in life. Over the course of this unit, I did have
a few quarrels with my class mates over work being done and our ideas didn’t
match but at the end it all worked out. I am looking forward to the next
unit in drama!
Work cited:
"Examples of Hyperboles." Examples of Hyperboles. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2014. <http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-hyperboles.html>.
"Examples of Irony." Examples of Irony. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. <http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-irony.html>.
"5 Basic Improv Rules." 5 Basic Improv Rules. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2014. <http://improvencyclopedia.org/references/5_Basic_Improv_Rules.html>.
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