Response to lead blogger - Charlotte

The questoin 'if marriage didn’t exist' has never actually crossed my mind. However, this is a huge milestone and new chapter in one's life, yet it dawned on me that I have never thought twice about if it didnt exist. This short clip led me to many questions such as, why do we have marriage, who invented it and why are so many people willing to commit to a lifelong agreement to be with one person. Marriage is such an obvious thing that no one thinks twice about the actual reality of it. It is interesting to think about it from a darker or crepier veiw point as opposed to the stereotypical fantasy of marriage. I am a big fan of most stand up comedy but it is nice to see a different twist on it. Although this was interesting I did not neccesserily find it 'laugh out loud' funny.

Response to lead blog week 1 - Parker

I have never seen any of the office, so I can truly say that even without knowing any of the characters it was still extremely humorous. The fact that they are fully grown adults in a working environment you would expect them to have intelligence and common sense, yet they are all still so naive which is laughable. I laughed at this because of the situation and how stupid the workers in the office were. Also, the randomness of the outburst into the song was one of the funniest moments and what added to this was how I could relate to the song because I knew it. Furthermore the fact that it was a serious situation because they were practicing CPR in a life or death situation and how they all just burst into a song and dance along with the idiocrasy of Michael starting the song from the beginning even know we all know that the woman meant that the song should be sung from the chorus. This links to superiority theory how we are laughing at the foolishness of not just Michael but all the characters. The song is also on point which makes this funny because they are tying to keep someone alive whilst singing the classic song ‘staying alive’ by the BeeGee’s. I think that there is also a hint of relief theory as it is meant to be a businesslike situation but they are all fooling around. I found this clip of the office rather ironic and how when someone does something comical they a take it so seriously because the characters think they are being cool and smart but really they are being ridiculous. At the end it is funny because the man is telling Dwright off in a condescending way and treating him like a little child even though he is a middle aged man. Lastly, what subtly highlights all these comical moments is the camera techniques. The camera will suddenly zoom into a certain person and then flick to someone else when they say something idiotic.

Response to the lead blog by Nick

This is the first time that I have ever seen anything by John Oliver, but I was pleasantly surprised when he opened his mouth to hear that he was British! I thoroughly enjoyed this episode of ‘Last Week Tonight’, especially being a D1 college athlete I could relate to a lot of the points Oliver mentioned. He refuted a strong argument that athletes should be paid which was highly convincing. Although this is a serious and controversial hot topic, he managed to portray it in a light humored way whilst still bringing the point home. Oliver used several anecdotes which I liked as they made us feel more sympathetic towards the athletes. I probably found this more funny than most people because I can remember what a long and grueling process the NCAA put me through with their millions of rules and regulations. If I had to pick one theory of comedy I think this relates to, it would be relief theory as Nick also stated. This is because I have a lot of frustration about how the NCAA treats athletes and I completely understand the arduous life of an athlete; when we train for 4 hours a day and don’t even have time to eat lunch. When Oliver mentioned all these points I kept relating them to myself and it gave me comfort to know that all the other athletes out there are enduring the same struggle as myself. This overwhelming sense of relief made me happy and therefore it made me laugh and made the whole situation humorous. Furthermore, there were a few funny parts that I found because they were so contrasting. For example, an athlete who barely has time to sleep is taking a Swahili class. This amused me because you would think, surely if they have limited time, they would choose something more useful rather than wasting their precious hours taking Swahili. Finally, I loved the whole conclusion how Oliver put everything he previously mentioned all together in a video game. This was a very clever and witty ending.