How Humor Influence Their Reaction To The Mock Assassination

Humor impedes good writing in some instances. If the people reading or watching the piece are sensitive, the writer runs the risk of offending the audience. It entirely depends on an individual's

Humorists are often seen as insignificant contributors of society. People consider humorists no more than just “entertainers”, willing to make fun of anything in order to make a crowd laugh, however, has the audience ever contemplated why humorists are the some of the only people who are allowed to critique anything that crosses their mind without consequences? Alain de Botton, claims the vital role of humorist is, “to convey with impunity messages that might be dangerous or impossible to state directly.” I agree with Alain de Botton’s claims, that humorists do hold an important role in society, which is far more than to entertain. They break the ice on delicate topics, communicating the messages to society. Political cartoons and the Colbert

Modern society allows humorists to touch upon offensive topics without receiving much criticism. As Alain de Botton claimed in his 2004 book, Status Anxiety, humorists’ role is not merely to entertain but “to convey with impunity messages that might be dangerous or impossible to state directly.” De Botton’s argument proves legitimate. Many humorists, such as cartoonists and television hosts, decide to use their humor as a tool to prove an idea or express a belief that cannot be voiced candidly in public.

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.

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.

When the topic comes to presidential assassins, most people will not use the word amusing and assassins in the same sentence; however; Dan Danbom, a reporter for the Rocky Mountain News, proved otherwise and stated that Vowell has succeeded in creating a “humorous” historical context by writing “I can confidently say that Sarah Vowel’s Assassination Vacation is the most amusing book you’ll read this year about presidential assassinations” (Danbom). Sarah Vowel’s purpose of Assassination Vacation is to allow readers to have a look at both sides of history to shed light on the assassins, to reanimate moments lost to history, and to make her book more interesting by using her unique style of writing; although she fails miserably by adding in

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

Laughter is not an essential component of satire; in fact there are types of satire, which are not intended to be "fun" at all. Popular contemporary use of the term "satire" is often very imprecise. While satire often uses caricature and parody, by no means are all uses of these or other humorous devices.

Satire according to Professor Chaudhuri says that “it refers to cultural expression that uses humour for the purpose of making a critic of something (Chaudhuri, March 24, 15)” and that sometimes it uses parodies to make a statement. An example of this that we learned about in lecture would be the example of Dave Chappelle and Clayton Bigsby sketch. He was well known for his satires about racism and was perceived as controversial. The sketch was about a character that acted white even though he was black he did not know because he was blind. The idea behind the sketch was that he would act as a white supremacist even though the colour of his skin was black. This over the top and extravagant performance displayed satire that showed the counter hegemonic and irony behind a black man leading a white supremacy group without them knowing until one day they asked to see his face and they were turned off knowing that he was

American comedians and journalist are more tightly constrained by the boundaries of political correctness. Politically correct seems to be a popular phrase when critiquing news. Comedians are even expected to take special precautions when joking about anything sensitive such as topics surrounding race, religion or gender. Charlie Hebdo however is part of a French journalism tradition going back to the French Revolution. The target was the royal family back in the 18th Century. The muckrakers caused havoc with tales of sexual antics and corruption at the court at Versailles. There are more elevated topics to attack nowadays such as politicians, the police, bankers, race, sexual orientation, and religion. Satire is the weapon of choice in

Today, comedy news shows are becoming progressively more popular, and in so, becoming a new source of information – which may, or may not, be a positive consequence. Most comedians twist the truth in order to connect to people and make them laugh. The article “A Serious Business: What Can Comedy Do?” suggests some comedians “use logic to make painful things make sense” (O’Hara 108). Satirical comedy acts as a relief mechanism in that it comforts people that may be wary about a certain subject, especially in the realm of politics. Similarly, Peter McGraw and Joel Warner discuss how comedy can act as a coping mechanism. The authors conclude that “activists all over the world have been using comedy as a form of political protest” (McGraw & Warner 147). Iain Ellis writes about how political satirists do more than just deliver jokes, they use satire “to expose, ridicule, and–implicitly–call for action and change” (Ellis 152). Ellis contends that comedy can make a difference by its constant presence in our daily lives. Socrates, Plato, and even shows like South Park believe that humor is a way to persuade others. One of the most effective expressions of humor to affect social change has been the inclusion of satire. Although humor often provides people a welcome escape from the burdens of their daily lives, the satirical comedy deconstructs social issues in various ways as a means to persuade the

In ancient times, humor or comic was strictly censored. In places like Greece and Egypt, jokes were even forbidden in social situations. Considering the almost taboo nature of humor, it's hardly surprising that humor never received particular attention from ancient scholars. Plato was averse to humor as jokes and sarcasm were not encouraged and men and women were expected to be serious rather than frivolous about all issues. Some ancient scholars went to the extent to argue that humor could lead to sarcasm, disrespect, vulgar or volatile discourse and finally anger, resentment and even murder.

Humour and satire are two concepts that are both wide ranging and diverse, from dark, to light hearted, with each producing a different effect. Humour in the main, is something that is used to please the audience, its function is to invoke laughter amongst its audience. Satire is used to create a comical critical view of the subject at hand, this can range from a light hearted comical way, to a judgemental way, with each style giving the text a different meaning, however this does not mean that satire cannot be humorous, which can evident in the use of parody and irony within texts. Within literature both concepts play an important role to how the text is viewed, humour can include word play, grammatical jokes, to even inside jokes with the author and reader, and with satire, including that of irony and parody, with each style and type delivering humour in its own unique way. These differing styles of humour can be found in a variety of forms including Jasper Forde’s The Eyre Affair (2001), with its silly atmosphere, word play and grammar jokes, and the use of light hearted satire and parody to brighten up the text, and Julian Barnes A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters (1989), where there is a more serious atmosphere, with a more critical, satirical eye on history and characters, as well as using irony to achieve its comical effect, and the position of the world. Each text is humorous and satirical in its own right, and with each author using different techniques to

According to the Oxford dictionary “Humor,” is defined as: The quality of being amustic or comic, especially as expressed in literature or speech, but what truly makes something funny? Comedy has been around for hundreds of years; as it is being examined four concrete theories have been developed to understand the idea of comedy: Superiority, Relief, incongruity, and Benign Violation theory.

In J. Michael Waller’s, Ridicule: An Instrument in the War on Terrorism, the main idea presented is that ridicule should be used as a war strategy against terrorism. Ridicule can be used in several instances. These instances are as follows, “ridicule raises morale at home, ridicule strips the enemy/adversary of his mystique and prestige, ridicule erodes the enemy’s claim to justice, ridicule eliminates the enemy’s image of invincibility, and directed properly at an enemy, ridicule can be a fate worse than death.” Ridicule and humor play an important part in the way the government is run. Waller quotes John Cleese, “If I can get you to laugh with me, you like me better, which makes you more open to my ideas.” The more comfortable an individual or politician feels around the person trying to influence them, the more likely it will be that they will side with their opinion. The reason why ridicule is so effective is that it “leverages the emotions and implies the complicated and takes on the powerful, in politics, business, law, entertainment, literature, culture, sports, and romance.” The instances aforementioned are thoroughly explained by Waller by using lengthy factual and historical examples.