As more and more people have realized the importance of role that humor plays in changing the society, people start to use humor as a tool to express their opinions and it turns out to be a very effective method because the possibility of people being convinced is higher than regular speeches. In the clip A Totally Real, 100% Valid Theory | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Samantha Bee uses humor to convince the audience the fact that Donald Trump can’t read. The use of theory of incongruence that Simon Critchley introduces can be found in her jokes. Also, her jokes follow the “benign violation” theory raised by Peter McGraw and Joel Warner which is the main reason of why her jokes are funny. This clip is effective because although everyone
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For example, Bee speaks some of the dirty words in the clip. Normally, dirty words shouldn’t be spoken in public but since everyone knows that Bee is telling jokes, this violation becomes acceptable by the audience. Then, Bee shows the audience a clip of Jared Leto, an actor, not being able to read in one of his early television shows (1:54). She compares Trump to the character that Leto acted, and a recent character that Leto acted: The Joker. Although the Joker is a well-known villain, people still will laugh at this because they can accept this kind of offense. As Peter McGraw and Joel Warner state in “The Humor Code, Entry 1: What Exactly Makes Something Funny?,” humor “arises when something seems wrong or threatening, but is simultaneously OK or safe” (133). Such acceptable violations can make the joke much funnier while people will like it at the same …show more content…
Her excellent use of humor has effectively made the audience believe that Trump actually cannot read or lack of reading ability. Nowadays, there are many comedians trying to use jokes to alter people’s thoughts, but some of the jokes need specific background knowledge such as cultural and political knowledge in order to understand the jokes. But Bee’s examples are all easy to understand and the audience doesn’t need any background knowledge to understand the jokes. And this is why her jokes are so popular and she can affect more people through her
For example, Bee speaks some of the dirty words in the clip. Normally, dirty words shouldn’t be spoken in public but since everyone knows that Bee is telling jokes, this violation becomes acceptable by the audience. Then, Bee shows the audience a clip of Jared Leto, an actor, not being able to read in one of his early television shows (1:54). She compares Trump to the character that Leto acted, and a recent character that Leto acted: The Joker. Although the Joker is a well-known villain, people still will laugh at this because they can accept this kind of offense. As Peter McGraw and Joel Warner state in “The Humor Code, Entry 1: What Exactly Makes Something Funny?,” humor “arises when something seems wrong or threatening, but is simultaneously OK or safe” (133). Such acceptable violations can make the joke much funnier while people will like it at the same …show more content…
Her excellent use of humor has effectively made the audience believe that Trump actually cannot read or lack of reading ability. Nowadays, there are many comedians trying to use jokes to alter people’s thoughts, but some of the jokes need specific background knowledge such as cultural and political knowledge in order to understand the jokes. But Bee’s examples are all easy to understand and the audience doesn’t need any background knowledge to understand the jokes. And this is why her jokes are so popular and she can affect more people through her