Bo Burnham and Self-Deprecation in Comedy Essay example

Throughout this story, David Sedaris uses a variety of strategies to show humor in a serious topic, such as, sarcasm, imagery, irony, statements and making fun of himself. The main one that I noticed was sarcasm. Sarcasm was mainly directed towards Sedaris by other adults or family members. An example of sarcasm is when he knocked on the door seven times with each elbow before opening it, “Why don’t you try the knob?”, his sister Lisa would say. “That’s what the rest of us do, and it seems to work for us.”

He develops a humorous tone with the use of diction by using made-up words, such as “tomatoeyness” and stating how “visible solids” are his favorite term. His tone is also notable in his speech because of the sarcasm he uses in his voice, which allows the audience to laugh and connect with him. This connection allows the audience to support his argument. Near the end of his argument he has a shift in tone from humorous to passionate/sentimental when he states his overarching theme. For example, he claims, “That is the final, and I think most beautiful lesson, of Howard Moskowitz: that in embracing the diversity of human beings, we will find a surer way to true happiness,” (Gladwell).

A satire is a piece of work that is designed to ridicule or tease a group or organization, generally for the purpose of being humorous. “The Importance of Being Earnest,” a play by Oscar Wilde, is a satire, ridiculing class, gender, and marriage. This essay will describe some points from each of these sections, as well as give a brief synopsis of the play these examples come from.

From the very beginning, Smith introduces her father’s favorite hobby; comedy. As it says, “my father had few enthusiasms, but he loved comedy” (1). She then goes on explaining the uniqueness of comedy, how it gave her father freedom and that their is no division of social status when it comes to comedy; comedy was and will always be true freedom. She informs the reader of several British comedians and comedy history, mentioning how they all had different styles. For example, one comedian would continuously make fun of himself, other would make fun of their culture, and social status. On the other hand, she also mentions that people do not have to be funny to go on stage. “In the world of comedy, if you are absolutely determined to stand on a stage for five minutes with a mike in your hand, someone in London will let you do it, if only once” (7).

Don't we all have something in common? Well that's just how comedians have an effect to communicate a universal truth with their audience. Whether if its confusion, sickness, frustration we all have something that we can relate to and that is how comedians use this effect because we can relate to that feeling or subject. That's how a comedian can communicate a universal truth to us by using humor.

Throughout time, humorists have been able to pull off a phenomenon, which allows for others to laugh about sensitive, stressful topics. With talent, humorists are able to captivate positive emotion from their audience and allow for society to see delicate issues in an unbiased view. Although humorists are commonly seen as people who only intend to entertain, humorists purposefully say things through their work that allow for hard issues to be spoken or illustrated.

Jimmy Buffet once said "If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane." When an

He uses humor to allow his audience to see just how ridiculous yet still amazing BCGs are. For example, Olson says, “ These talkers, are the guys we drove from the playgrounds into the libraries when we were young and now for twenty years or more now we have endured the revenge of the nerds”. (Paragraph four) Though this statement may not be completely accurate, Olson wrote it in a way that would seem humorous to most of his audience and, still have a hint of legitimacy behind it. Olson’s use of pathos wasn't as effective towards his overall goal of showing Americans how critical BCGs are. Though he still got his point across, he could have been more convincing if he used a more logical approach by simply stating the accomplishments that BCGs have done in comparison to white-collar guys would have been a more convincing argument than forming it into a humorous comment.

Dave Chappelle was the king of comedy. He had his own show on Comedy Central, did many stand ups and guest starred in many SNL skits. His works were filled heavily with racial satire with the intent to attack and expose racism throughout America in a non-threatening way. Dave Chappelle’s masterful delivery and extreme horatian satirical techniques allow for top-shelf entertainment with an underlying, thought provoking message.

“Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious” -Peter Ustinov. Comedy is used in everyday life. It is a way to slip in the truth while decreasing the blow. Comedy allows the hard things to hear, to be said in a way where it is not so hard. The truth can be hard to hear sometimes but comedy uses comedic tactics to slip in the truth that is hard to hear, but needs to be said, into the world. In the excerpt from Live right and Find Happiness (Although Beer is Much Faster) by Dave Barry, is a high comedy excerpt that uses the comedic tactics sarcasm and situational irony to express the truth about growing up and how to live right in a funny manner.

In this context, Weir uses this to show how Mark keeps the attitude light, preferably more than thinking of how many ways he can die on Mars. Another way Weir uses humor is to show really how long he was on Mars for.

In this passage Larson uses point of view to allow the readers bare the weight of Burnham’s stress on their shoulders, so they could comprehend how much pressure he was under. Larson put the readers in Burnham’s place by explaining that in order for the fair to make profit it would “have to sell $100,000 tickets a day for the rest of its run.” With the fair not being as successful as hoped selling enough tickets for a profit for the rest of the fair would be challenging. The readers could be worried because they know what a hassle selling such an amount will be; Burnham would not only have to advertise more but also keep the fair clean and running. Larson’s way of putting the readers into Burnham’s shoes gives the reader anxiety as to if the

Then host talked to the partner of Jonathan Ferrell. This uses pathos because this shows you Jonathan’s personal life. “Her nickname for him was sweets,” says Mcevers. I think this makes the listeners more inclined to see that Jonathan Ferrell is just a regular guy who had a life. I think talking to his partner makes

According to Alain de Botton in his book, Status Anxiety, he believes that humorists are very important in today’s society. This is very true. Comedians and forger entertainers joke about things that otherwise wouldn’t be said aloud. Jeff Dunham is a stand up comedian ventriloquist.

During the Age of Enlightenment, people began believing in and relying upon rational thought instead of religious dogma to explain the world. This newfound emphasis on rationality promoted a breadth of freedom in speech that was previously unknown, a fact which was utilized by philosophers such as John Locke, Rousseau, and Sir Isaac Newton. In addition, the Age of Enlightenment produced famous writers who didn’t agree with the irrational politics and old traditions of their respective countries, and instead relied upon wit and satire to expose the corruption and poor human condition existing around them. These Enlightenment writers use irony in their satires to get their interpretations regarding the human condition across.