Comedy Central

When it comes to comedy movies, what names pop to your head? Jim Carrey in Liar Liar (1997), Leslie Nielsen in The Naked Gun (1988), Will Ferrell in Anchorman (2004)? Or maybe if you have a more "sophisticated" taste, Woody Allen's Annie Hall (1977) or Coen Brothers' The Big Lebowski (1998)? All of these Hollywood films are fun and memorable in their own way, but there is a younger lad coming from the moores of England who has altered the understanding of comedy in cinema. In this paper, I am…

Just for fun, Nassim Nicholas Taleb enjoys making fun of those who take themselves, better yet, their levels of know-how, too seriously. Hinting that his habit of poking fun at scholars is a possible coping mechanism for his intellectual insecurity. In his book, “Fooled by Randomness,” he attempts to equate one’s success to mere chance or randomness. Making a case that moderate success can be influenced by hard-work, and the level of skills one possesses, but that success to higher degree is the…

Introduction Many films are loved because they are “good”, their aesthetic merits fulfill a specific role for the audience. The Room, directed by Tommy Wiseau, is a different story. The Room is often called “the Citizen Kane of bad movies”- it features wooden acting, cheap production values and a completely nonsensical script. It seemed as though this film would disappear, but soon after its release, The Room developed a strong cult following. Theaters would show the film at midnight to excited…

Taylor Levant FMS 508 Defying the Odds: The Defiant Ones and Interracial Buddy Films Audiences have long been fascinated with interracial buddy films. From comedy to sci-fi, moviegoers love the opposites attract chemistry that these on screen homosocial relationships spark, as well as the stories they tell about men and the times in which they live. Though interracial films are commonplace today, the genre didn’t even exist until The Defiant Ones was released in 1958. Directed by Stanley…

Throughout his passage, “Just Walk on By”, Brent Staples sends the message that discrimination has affected the lives of many in several negative ways. He particularly uses irony and satire as tools to prove his point, using them almost like a verbal blade to cut through public image and stereotypes, as well as his proficient use of powerful diction and syntax to strike rememberable points into the reader’s mind. Staple’s use of irony is very simple yet effective. His message is that he is not…

adds a comical element to her stories, which in turn establishes a more personal and engaging environment for the audience. She often talks about motherhood and her career as a comedian in her stories, which in turn gives her the audience of mothers, comedy lovers, and people who are looking for informal or light-hearted…

“But hardly had he succeeded in regaining a straight face than he glanced again, as if involuntarily, at Razumikhin, and broke down once more: the smothered laughter burst out all the more uncontrollably for the powerful restraint he had put on it before” (Dostoevsky 210). In an attempt to maintain his facade of an innocent man, Raskolnikov intentionally laughs at Razumikhin as they approach Porfiry’s door. Fearful that Porfiry will deceive him, Raskolnikov presents himself as a carefree man to…

1. How would you describe the humor in Singer's stories? What adjectives would you use? This is a short answer that need not take 6 sentences. The humor in Singer’s stories I would describe as wordplay. As I read Singer’s stories I found many words that were used to amuse a reader. In the story “The Elders of Chelm & Genendel’s Key” the names that have dopey, fool, and donkey aren’t common names, but gives a sort of a chuckle when reading them. The adjectives that I would use for Singer’s…

Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show, written by Sir Phillip Sidney in 1582 is more of the comical dramatics of the period of the 16th century. That in itself is very interesting to me sense a good joke is always good material in writing, for me at the very least, and I find it fun to read. In this poem Sidney is trying very hard to write and just can’t find the words and at the end of his struggle the woman he is trying to write about gives him the answer. “Fool,’ my Muse said to…

INTRODUCTION Humour, comedy and laughter occupy a large space in the accounts of the Victorian literature and culture. On the one hand, comic representations were everywhere, and attained a high cultural prominence (Rosenthal, 2015). Many of the Victorian novelists recognized as masters in using humour such as Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray being the most prominent in the use of comic techniques (Ibid.). Meanwhile, it was a comic periodical, it was the time that became the…