Topic Proposal #1

   In the essay Stooping to Conquer: Why Candidates Need to Make Fun of Themselves by Elizabeth Kolbert the argument about whether a candidate making fun of themselves has a positive ornegative effect on their campaign is discussed. Many examples of presidential candidates using comedy to poke fun at mistakes they have made throughout their candidacy or in a previous office.

                The purpose of this argument is to try to explain to the population in America that actually cares about politics why it seems as if America is taking politics so lightly by putting candidates on comedy shows to make fun of themselves. This essay also presents the idea that the purpose of candidates doing this is to show that they are real people. If a candidate is elected they are going to get a lot more ridicule and criticism one they are in office and America needs to know that they have sense of humor and the criticism they receive will not affect their efficiency in the job.

                The target audience for this paper is the voters in America that do not understand why candidates do this or for what reason they think it is necessary to do these shows. Mainly this audience would consist of older people because a majority of young people watch these shows and find them to be funny. What the author is trying to make her audience understand is that news shows are not the only programs that can inform voters about the election and these comedy series are a large source of information to the younger voters.

                At the beginning of the essay the author gives many examples of candidates, both past and present, that have used humor to promote their campaign. She also gives of examples well known speech writers that make the candidates crack jokes during the speech to win over their audience.  One of his most famous works was a song he wrote for Mrs. Reagan that changed America’s view of her. Nearing the end of this essay there are a lot of quotes and statistics about how America’s 92 million television viewers learn about the presidential election, which is almost as high as the amount of viewers that get their information from news shows.

 

Short Writing Assignment #2

The first two chapter I Comedy Writing Secrets discuss why we use comedy and why we laugh. One reason that both of these have in common is the humor and laughing make a person feel superior. I agree with this idea because sometimes in uncomfortable situations I have witnessed people using jokes and making fun of others to make them more comfortable and to win over others.
In chapter one it talked about how big business executives are hiring speech writers to make their speeches more humorous and memorable. If these executives use humor it makes them feel superior if they are bashing on their competition and it also causes the audience to feel superior when they laugh. This results in the company getting more business than their competition and it gives the company more confidence by making their competition feel inferior.
I thought the chapter on why we laugh was most interesting because before reading this book I never thought there were reasons to why a joke is a funny and I did not think that why we laugh is a universal thing. I do agree with the book that superiority and shock are two major reasons why most people laugh but I do not think you can generalize humor and say that those are two things that make everyone laugh. There are people that would be repulsed by the ending of some jokes and others that just wouldn’t find the shocking ending funny. However, I do believe that a majority if not all people laugh to feel superior because in this day who doesn’t want to feel like they are superior to the people they are surrounded by?
In my opinion I do not think someone should try to analyze why everyone else laughs. Some reasons for laughter are universal but in most cases I think it is what each individual thinks is humorous. There is no way for one person to analyze why another laughs because they do not even know what part of the brain causes laughter.
Although I disagree that everyone laughs at certain things here is an example that shock is a way to make some people laugh. http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/74/the-landlord-from-will-ferrell-and-adam-ghost-panther-mckay

Reading Response 1

In Chapter One of Comedy Writing Secrets the idea that although some people are naturally funnier than others, writing humor is something that can be taught and acquired by the student. . Humor can be used for both entertainment and personal gains in the business and financial world. Throughout the chapter exercises for expanding my imagination and teaching one to be more creative.
Throughout the chapter it is stressed that one quality that prevents a person from being funny is when someone inhibits their ideas because they sound ridiculous. In most cases a ridiculous thought is where a joke originates or just the thought makes the audience laugh because it causes the audience to imagine something ridiculous. Although some of these exercises seemed ridiculous, writing all the ideas down without being inhibited really did help me to become more creative in the exercises.
In chapter one the benefits of humor writing were presented as the three Rs. The three Rs were respect, remembrance, and rewards. Although I’ve never experienced the first and third “Rs”, remembrance is something I have experienced. After watching many humorous movies and shows I have realized that the funniest lines in them are the ones I remember. In most movies I have seen that are not humorous I couldn’t tell you a direct quote from them even though I remember the basic plot of the show. In this section of the chapter it also talked about a study in which humor was used in a lecture class and those students had higher test scores than those in the lecture that did not use humor. I believe this is true because it is much easier to pay attention in a class that the professor is able to make jokes throughout the lecture related to the class material.
I also found “The Map to Being a Successful Humorist” very interesting because the targeted audience is the most important element to this triangle. The audience is very important to making a name for yourself but I was not aware that the material and appearance of the performer is determined by the audience. As cheesy as it might sound I always that the comedian made a name for themselves by using material based on the subjects they like to make jokes about and not conform to whatever the audience wants to hear or see.
At the end of the chapter I liked how they gave me a method to begin developing my own comedy-writing-foundation. I looked ahead in the book and I noticed that in the first few chapters have this “Showtime” section which I think will help to develop this foundation. I felt this chapter was a good introduction to the ideas that will me to become a better humor writer and it will enable me to analyze others’ humor writing because I will have a foundation of my own.