Alain De Botton

The power of comedy is that it takes contemporary issues and stretches them to the extreme and then puts the exaggerated picture of who we are as a society back in our faces. Back a while ago, comedian great Mike Myers played Pitka in the movie flop "The Love Guru". During a number of scenes, Pitka would make comments, realize that they were catchy, and then quickly tack on and little "TM" to his statement. The idea was that he was trademarking everything clever that he said. Ridiculous? That's why it's comedy.

In Alain de Botton’s book, Status Anxiety, he claims that a humorist’s purpose is “not merely to entertain, but to convey with impunity messages that might be dangerous or impossible to state directly.” Humorists have more leeway when discussing controversial topics, thus they serve a vital function in society; however, humorists also have other intentions such as entertaining their audiences and earning revenue.

In Status Anxiety, author de Botton correctly claims that humorists are expected to not only entertain their audience, but to make statements about controversial events that may be too sensitive to say directly and causally present them in a way that is easy for the public to understand. This is demonstrated through various forms of media such as television shows and political cartoons.

First of all, an author must define and identify their audience in regard to their jokes. The essay, "Made You Laugh" by Marc Tyler Nobleman explains in thorough detail the analogy and concept of humor itself. For example, the article states, "Young children prefer slapstick, or silly physical humor" while adults enjoy satirical

In the event of the cartoon, President Roosevelt sent American Naval so that the Europeans can calm and negotiate and back away. President Roosevelt goal was to protect the “relations between the Western Hemisphere and Europe, but it did serve as justification for U.S. intervention in Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic” (Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, 1904, n.d.). After the incident, United States was appreciated and looked up to

It justifies the difference in what we got and what we expected and analyzes our innate tendency to be amused by scenes that are clearly absurd or contradictory. Incongruity is the foundation for all the other theories and ends up overlapping with them when analyzing. I think for me certain jokes just fly over my head if I am not concentrating and really trying to get the meaning, which is known as the cognitive theory. Like it said in the reading after stating the Moses and Mount Sinai joke, “In order to get the point, you would have to know who Moses was, what the Ten Commandments were about, the meaning of adultery, and the fact that one of the Commandments forbids it (Rappoport 18).

America is a culture that enjoys having some time away from the reality of political issues within society. Comedic entertainment has found ways to also inform its audience about important political statements that is used to “refer to any act or nonverbal form of communication that is intended to influence a decision to be made for or by a political party”( Wikipedia), or ideas through a comedic point of view. Comical news is what brings our attention with ease because listening to straight political debates can lead a person to not want to sit and become informed on latest political topics. The culture that society has developed into became accustomed to finding it better to have a laugh about serious news because through humor an audience

Every day there is news that gets pumped out into the faces of the people, to inform what’s going on in the world. In the recent years, late shows that are meant to be purely for entertainment has now somewhat started to incorporate big news into the monologue given at the beginning of the show. Late Night with Seth Meyers “Team Trump's Absurd Defenses for Don Jr.'s Emails: A Closer Look” and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert “Donald Trump Jr. Is His Own 'Deepthroat'” both use satire to deliver the information on the Donald Trump Jr. -Russian emails controversy to the audience. The use of selective information on Donald Trump Jr. interviews, the bias tone the host has as he presents information, and the use of jokes to point out the information so the audience can see the irony within the topic.

In Jenny Allen's essay "The Trouble With Nature" humor is utilized in order to entertain the reader and inform them, and let them know that in nature no matter what you try to dodge and ignore there is always going to be something else. This is because nature goes as it pleases and there really is no boudaries or rules that it has to go by.

The question we all ask is how do we know we will marry the right person or the wrong and why. Well in the Article Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person by Alain DeBotton he brings up the things that people do wrong that lead to marring the wrong person. He puts together all these different reasons and lists them all off he then he says “It doesn’t matter if we find we have married the wrong person” (Botton). We may have married the wrong person but it’s possible nobody will be that perfect person because they really truly do not exist.

Humor can be very powerful, even when it comes to an everyday circumstance. Humor is a person's way of expressing themselves, and everybody has a different way to express it. When trying to express yourself using humor it is very easy to upset another person. One little detail can make a person contemplate on the issue you are referring to or it can make another person sway the other way. In the article it talks about artists mocking assassinations to make a point, however, those mock assassinations offended some. The humor of the audience influenced their reaction to the mock assassination. If they were a serious person they would have taken the mocks as a true threat and thought the situation was taboo. However, if the audience had a dark

The controversy in question is simply a series of cartoons which were first published in a Danish newspaper (Jyllands-Posten) in 2006. This controversy has recently been stirred by a reprinting of the article in many European newspapers in a stand of solidarity for freedom of speech. The original (and subsequent) publication(s) led to a public outcry, and sparked violent protests in the Islamic world. Danish Muslim organizations staged protests, while the cartoons were being reprinted in more than 50 other countries. Critics of the cartoons call them “culturally insulting,” “xenophobic,” and even so far as “blasphemous.” Supporters claim that the cartoons simply illustrate an issue important to current events, and the publications of such

The balance between humour and offensiveness creates an idea called “the line”. Humour and tastelessness share a linear progression when places on a graph. When the value of one increases the potential value of the other increases as well. The goal of the comedian then is to keep the joke above “the line”(Sabourin & DiCostanzo, 2013). The tastelessness of a joke increases as the number of people potentially offended by it increases. Very few people will be offended by airline food, and jokes about are not very funny. When continued on jokes about groups of people, such as lawyers, may not be exceptionally offensive, as with the exception of some lawyers, not very many people will be offended. Then when moving onto specific people jokes become increasingly funny. The person makes a different make and is funnier depending on your crowd. Jokes about Jesus, Muhammad, or Obama can elicit a good amount of laughter, but can also elicit boos by some crowds. This trend continues on and a comedy show becomes more of a game of chance for the comedian. At the higher ends the comedian must weigh the risks of offended people to get the largest laughs. At the

Celebrities are everywhere in the news, the latest gossip appears in the weekly magazines without fail. Whether they be an actor, athlete, dancer, designer, model, singer or just rich; there is someone out there who is watching that person like a hawk, not letting a single breath go unnoticed. Such is the life of the rich and famous, under the incessant gaze of journalists and the paparazzi. Lives that many people take a great interest in and admire to the point where others would liken this great interest and admiration to a cult-like worship of celebrities. This is a brief description of what I think to be celebrity culture.

During the first five years of the July Monarchy, fines and the chance of incarceration plagued the press, however, according to Gabriel Weisberg in the article, The Coded Image: Agitation in Caricature, the government reached its breaking point in 1935. He stated that “they reacted by restricting the freedom on the press, which had been bitterly won in the Revolution of 1830, through the institution of censorship control invoked by the September Laws” . These laws regulated the press and banned all criticism of King Louis-Phillipe and constitutional monarchy. Although Charles Philipon and Honoré Daumier were not the sole components of the censorship, for hundreds of talented satirists flooded France with political commentary, Philipon and Daumier’s work was exponentially influential to kindling ideas of discontent that were potent to the monarchy. Despite the artist’s initial disregard of imposed fines and police confiscation, the implication of significant punishment, “artists were forced to be extremely careful about their themes” . As a result, satire began to move away from its traditional political nature and began lampooning issues regarding social classes. With the help of Philipon’s Soap Bubbles, The Replastering, and Les Poires and Daumier’s Gargantua, the reception and distribution of the political satire and caricature during the July Monarchy was blacklisted from popular culture. Fast-forward less than two centuries, although Louis-Phillipe and the July Monarchy attempted to distinguish political satire and caricatures for good, cartoonists throughout the world continue to rival against their government to comment on their leader’s appearance, failed promises, and