Comedy And Humor In The Hebrew Bible

Some argue that women’s roles are often tokenistic in dramatic comedy, since women often have smaller or less important roles than male characters. This may apply to the female characters in ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’ depending on how you interpret the word ‘tokenistic’. The tokenism of a character may be assessed in terms of the size and significance, or by analysing the stereotypes and complexity of their characters.

In the York Corpus Christi Plays, many of the characters are so over-top, so remarkably buffoonish that those characters are ultimately quite comedic in effect. To a modern audience, a comedic biblical character may seem blasphemous—it may seem morally wrong to laugh at Jesus’s executioners as they struggle to crucify Christianity’s most important figure. However, when examining exactly how those characters function in the play, the comedic nature of those characters may not be wholly blasphemous in effect. For example, do those comedic executioners only make the audience laugh at Jesus’s crucifixion, or do they emphasize Jesus’s calm and solemn nature? Similarly, plays about Noah’s ark and the great flood include comedic characters, yet those plays do not feel totally blasphemous. Instead, the inclusion of a variety of characters in these plays seems more nuanced. In the York Corpus Christi Play The Building of the Ark, Noah’s piety is established through his undying trust in God and his general

Within the usage of the intensified dialogue, the characters and the stage directions these attitudes are brought to life. While exploring both the male and female stereotypes we get a close look at society during this time and how people would be treated when challenging these stereotypes. By illustrating these beliefs and concerns that lie within each gender and society, Tennessee Williams effectively allows the readers to critically think if these expectations are accurate and still pursue in society today. It is clear that gender roles have played a major role in several societies and decades, but these strict expectations continue to put intense levels of burden on individuals, relationships and society

Humor’s foundations are made up of seeds of truth, from which comedy and laughter can grow from. Within these seeds different types of issues are found that cast a wide array of topics in which are discussed or given question to by humorists. As the evolution of humor continues to grow it can be seen that it will continue down a darker road, as history has

Humor is viewed by some people as an important part of life. Most people enjoy amusement, and some turn to humorists as a source for that amusement. Some further view humorists as holding an important position in society because society allows humorists to say things that others can and will not say. Due to their unique position in society, humorists serve a role that is certainly unique and can be important, but not vital. Furthermore, humor can very well have a dangerous side, whether intentional or unintentional, so humorists should try to be careful with their powerful position.

To truly comprehend a biblical passage, it is important to have knowledge of the ‘hermeneutics which enables an understanding of the locus of meaning and the principles of bible interpretation’ . The audience needs to have a clear interpretation of the biblical passage which includes ‘content and unity of the whole of Scripture if the meaning of the sacred texts is to be correctly worked out’ , this supports the argument that all worlds of the text are equally important. ‘Biblical passages are often taken out of context and interpreted to support a particular viewpoint of justify a particular action’ . It is imperative to note that ‘in order to discover the sacred authors' intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their

Cross-dressing comedies, according to Cressy, does not signal a sex-gender system in crisis but a system robust enough to be “played” with. Contrary to the anti-theatricalists’ views, Cressy argues that cross-dressed men appeared energized and proactive in the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage. In other words, Cressy suggests that cross-dressing was played for laugh in the early modern period, without suggestion of a gender system in trouble. In fact, Cressy makes a case that theaters treated costume playfully without the moral or religious weight. Drawing from historical cases of crossdressing, Cressy argues that the evidence points not to homoerotic ambivalence or subversive androgyny but to problems of social discipline.

In Bossypants Tina often talks about how males put down female comedians as not being funny, or being of lesser importance than male comedians. “’Rick Fenderman says women aren’t funny….Do you have something to say to that?’ Yes. We don’t ******* care if you like it.” (Page 144 Bossypants). Adeline abused by her step-mother at home, was unwanted because he was the youngest female child, seen as burden on the family. “If you board that train you’ll most likely be kidnapped and sold as a ya tou (girl slave).” (Page 73 Falling Leaves). Too threatened to run away from her abusive home Adeline was condemned to live a life full of regret, just because she was a girl. This theme of not belonging because of gender is recurrent throughout both memoirs and is an essential part of the perspective of the author.

Due to the resurgence of feminism in contemporary society, entertainment has evolved and comedies in particular have become more inclusive of women. There is a rise in television shows incorporating feminist ideology, and in those shows come new types of humor focused on female identities, experiences and values. Rather than laughing at women through the use of tired clichés, sitcom creators are inviting audiences to laugh with female characters. HBO’s comedy-drama Togetherness deviates from gendered comedic stereotypes and creates moments in which both men and women are funny. The show, created, written and produced by brothers Mark and Jay Duplass, explores humor through the unique relationship and complexities of the four main characters. At times, the main female characters, Michelle and Tina, may have stereotypical desires (for intimacy, motherhood etc.), but they themselves are far from stereotypical. Both Michelle and Tina reveal contradictions in their personalities that make them relatable and funny. Although the creators are men, Togetherness provides an honest portrayal of a modern female perspective— women can do whatever men do, but both are capable of failing. The flawed females of Togetherness navigate life in unconventional yet recognizable ways, providing audiences with laughter in the form of relief— unlike the female stereotypes found on the vast majority of other television shows.

A Humorous Galaxy Ever since the infancy of written language, man has been making jokes to humor one another. The first joke ever written, crafted by an ancient Sumerian dating all the way back to 1900 BC, shows that even the oldest ancestors of mankind thought that potty jokes were pretty neat. Douglas Adams, in his book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, uses his advanced sense of humor to create plenty of opportunities to appreciate humor in the written form. This fictional adventure follows Arthur Dent after he is saved by his alien friend, Ford Prefect, from the destruction of Earth. With the help of humor and sarcasm, Adams portrays his views of society and provides readers the opportunity to realize some of the small flaws that we

Abstract This article examines the gender and humor practices and strategies of female comedians, focusing on Tina Fey. Through a content analysis of the 11 most popular YouTube clips featuring Tina Fey, I argue that there are two apparent themes that occur in her work. Specifically, when Fey is communicating with men she uses the incongruent theory of humor, and when she is interacting with women the use of superiority/disparagement theory is apparent. These themes will help illustrate the difference in humor styles that women use when interacting with different genders.

It is not unseasonable to believe that because stereotypes are appearing so commonly in comedy, they will reinforce those stereotypes rather than help society rid itself from them. Extinguishing stereotypes is impossible. Researchers have determined that the creation of stereotypes is a natural function of the brain (Paul, par. 2). In attempt to make light of a problematic issues, comedians use stereotypes to denounce stereotypes. The first thing that we should understand is that comedy is comedy. This does not mean that it should not be taken seriously as frequently advised. Comedy should be embraced and takes seriously but not in the

Sandy, D. Brent, and Ronald L. Giese Jr. Cracking Old Testament Codes: A Guided to Interpreting the Literary Genres of the Old Testament is structure to make the authors debates available for those who are inspire teachers and preachers. This paper will summarize the literary fundamentals of the Bible that have parts of scripture that are in literary form. Sandy and Giese traces the scriptures of the context to be the creativity of the bible for the reader’s enjoyment. Sandy who taught at Grace Theological Seminary describes the implications of the basic biblical genres in a whole different light of the Old Testament. Ronald L. Giese Jr reveals that authors have a way of expressing scriptures to help readers not to misinterpret.

This piece analyzes the sitcom in comparison to stand-up comedy. In the chapter “What’s So Funny About America?” sitcoms are broken down into elements that contrast those of stand-up. Marc describes the two forms of comedy as very different. He states that sitcoms depend on “familiarity, identification, and redemption of popular beliefs” while stand-up normally relies on “the shocking violation of normative taboos.”

People think of the Bible as this super serious all-holy book with never an ounce of humor. Well, it is serious and holy. But there are a few sections of it that just make me laugh. An example is from the book of Acts: “God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out. But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, ‘I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.’ Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. And the evil spirit answered and said to them, ‘I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?’ And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.” (Acts 19:11-16)