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.
It's interesting that you found this clip funny precisely because you related to the tension he describes. Others have indicated they found it merely stressful to watch, so paradoxically it seems like comedy is often funnier when it hits closer to home. Otherwise, it just seems stressful. Interestingly enough, it seems that relief theory, not superiority theory, is more central to explaining why satire seems funny to us (we do feel superior to the Dabo whatever his name is, but we sneer at him rather than laughing at him it seems to me).
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, Oliver was on a call in program on public radio, and when a British caller phoned in, he was delighted, and kept praising "the proper pronunciation" of the language in contrast with the Americans he was talking to.