Hill Douglas FYW

Saturday Night Live is a staple when it comes to late night comedy. As far as I know, it is one of the longest running shows to still have such a large and devout audience. I didn’t get into Saturday Night Live until fairly recently, when I found myself watching Youtube clips of some of the skits. It is amazing how many famous actors and comedians have been on the show, and that doesn’t seem to be changing either. Some of my favorite skits have been E-Meth and Jail Cellmate. The E-Meth skit is basically an advertisement for an alternative  way of doing meth, and they go on to advertise an electronic cigarette equivalent for meth. The Jail Cellmate skit shows someone getting put in a jail cell and their cellmate ends up being Bill Cosby, who is so old and crazy that they have to request a change. My all time favorite SNL skit though, is the one called Buying Beer, where a group of underage guys go to elaborate lengths trying to convince a gas station worker to sell them beer. Now af...

The Home Alone movies are classics that remind me of my childhood as well, and I still keep watching them whenever I see them on TV. Kevin McCallister is probably one of my favorite movie characters of all time because his shenanigans never seem to get old. Home Alone is also one of those movies that I feel like just about everyone has seen, making them quotable and referenceable films. The scenes when Marv and Harry are going through the traps are priceless as well, not to mention Kevin’s impeccable innovation in constructing such traps. The description of Kevin as “a skilled assassin, executing his crimes perfectly” is a funny way to think about an eight year old, but in this case, it could not be more true. I find the relationship between Harry and Marv to be one of the funniest concepts of the movie, because Marv is always saying or doing something extremely stupid and Harry is constantly degrading him for it. One of my favorite quotes involving them is after Harry goes through t...

I agree that this concept of turning something serious, like a hurricane, into a joke can be really funny. Personally, I am a huge fan of Twitter, as it is a platform for everything from news to humor. The social media site is a great source for humor because I feel like people are always creating crazy accounts to do things just like this. While I never saw this Hurricane Florence account, I have seen many similar Twitter pages in the past that are funny as well. This particular Twitter account is a textbook example of the relief theory, as the tension was building with a serious issue like this hurricane that got almost everyone on the east coast out of school for days. This person then turned it into a comedic topic, releasing the tension that was built. At Furman we can relate to this though, as the tension built for us to be hit hard and classes were cancelled for two days, yet we didn’t get a single drop of rain during that span. The incongruity theory is definitely relevant as w...

Will Ferrell is without a doubt a comedic genius, and although I don’t agree that Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is his best, it is still a hilarious movie. My favorite quote from the prayer scene is when Cal Naughton Jr. says, “I like to think of Jesus with like giant eagles wings and singin' lead vocals for Lynyrd Skynyrd with like an angel band, and I'm in the front row, and I'm hammered drunk.” This is just such an absurd and incongruous image of Jesus Christ, fitting perfectly with the incongruity theory, and it also falls in perfectly with the stereotypes of the rednecks in the movie. I also fits with the relief theory because it takes a serious subject and makes a funny joke of it. Also the image Cal makes of Jesus in a tuxedo t-shirt because he likes to party is hilarious as well. In my opinion, Will Ferrell is the king of incongruity, with Movies like Old School. The duo of Will Ferrell and John Reilly, who plays Cal Naughton, just amplifies the incong...

Sacha Baron Cohen’s unique sense of humor and approach to comedy is probably what makes him so appealing to his fans. While Ali G is hilarious, my favorite work of Baron Cohen’s is Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan . Borat was the first work of Baron Cohen’s I had ever seen, and all these years later, it is still by far my favorite. If you haven’t seen it, Baron Cohen pretends to be a reporter named Borat from Kazakhstan, and he comes to America to film a documentary about America. The film follows him taking on American culture throughout the whole country, in many awkward and hilarious situations and interactions with unsuspecting Americans. I have heard Baron Cohen’s work referred to as a “mockumentary,” which I think is a great name for the concept.  I agree that overall Baron Cohen’s humor falls under both the incongruity theory and the superiority theory. Most of his characters are often ignorant amidst other people who are n...