The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain

"Twain was so good with crowds that he became, in competition with singers and dancers and actors and acrobats, one of the most popular performers of his time.  It is so unusual, and so psychologically unlikely for a great writer to be a great performer, too, that I can think of only two similar cases -- Homer's perhaps, and Moliere's."  -Kurt Vonnegut

Among all of the quotes that I read on Mark Twain, this quote was most interesting to me.  It stood out for a variety of reasons.  First, having learned something this semester about Vonnegut, I was able to appreciate and perhaps think of influences and thought that would lead to Vonnegut making the comment on Twain.  Vonnegut's writing was not heavily praised and Dr. Williams commented that he would not necessarily praise the quality of writing of Vonnegut.  However, the thought of Vonnegut was dense and could be seen as a kind of art form.  The comparison he made to  singers and dancers and other artists I believe gives a great sense of the kind of talent Twain was.  

Tales of Juha and Dark Humor

The original title of this blog did not include black humor.  I intended to simply reflect on Tales of Juha and note the things that I found surprising or humorous.  I added Dark Humor into this post, because it was a very dark matter that prevented me from completing this blog prior to class on Monday, April 15th.  While writing my blog, my friend next door in the dorm swung open my door and yelled, "are you watching this?!" I had no idea what he was referrring to until he told me to turn on the news and I saw the terrible incident that caused his intense announcement.  There were two bombings at the finish line of the Boston Marathon than had killed at least three people and injured many more.  I could not take my eye off the TV and sat shocked at the horrific scene.  I decided to include Dark Humor in this blog and the terrible bombing incident in Boston. 

Later on Monday night, the same friend who directed my attention to the bombings told me about a tweet he had read regarding the event.  The tweet came from a user called TCUFacts which has been known to make questionable comments, that could be considered offensive, over twitter in the past. The tweet read: Heard the Boston Marathon was a real blast this year. #toosoon #dontevencare.  After some searching of my own I found out that the account was shut down after a lot of backfire regarding the tweet. 

Can the tweet be considered Dark Humor? Our discussions in class yielded that Dark Humor is a large part of the culmination of humor in our culture.  Characteristics that we attributed to Dark Humor included offensive, sadistic, coping mechanism, relief, and others.  Where can you draw the line between something that is utterly offensive and humor that is dark in essence but yields many laughs.  I believe that the tweet earlier today was far over the line and was an example of a truly uncaring person attempting to get a response. 

JUHA:

Throughout my reading experience of Tales of Juha I felt the variety of stories portraying different emotions, some more funny than others.  While some stories I did not think were laugh out loud funny, I felt that there was at least a slight bit of humor in each story. The more subtle forms of humor I thought were interesting, because the stories  made a commentary on some sort of social situation or interaction.  For example, the last story on page 102 (boastfulness and self pride) describes Juha selling at a loss simply to say he is a merchant.  While this really makes no sense, the story is a humorous way to describe the kinds of ways people act when they are overly motivated by pride.

The middle story on the same page 102 describes how Juha spoke of his wealth, but the thief found nothing to steal at Juha's house.  I thought this story was very humorous, because Juha, playing the trickster figure, fools the theif of his wrongdoing.  The thief is the butt of the joke which is, if anything, a small consequence for the theif's actions.  The paradox that occurs throughout the book provides numerous situations that I found hilarious. 

A particular story that I found interesting was on pg.45 (social satire) where Juha tells people he will fly, but does not do so and calls out the people for being naive.  For some reason, this reminded me of the story of the man in the flood.  A boat offers to save him multiple times as he moves higher up his house, eventually to the roof.  However, hen turns down the boat saying that "God will save him."  In the end, he dies and God tells him in heaven that he tried to save the man three times.  The man in the story appears very naive for turning down simple ways that would save his life.

Overall, I really enjoyed Tales of Juha for its different uses of  humor and social commentary.   

Meeting with Valmir

Just before Spring Break was my first time meeting with Valmir, from Sao Paulo, Brazil. after much anticipation.  Valmir Martins is his first and second name although his full birth name is much longer than that.  While many Brazilians have long full names, people are known mainly by a nickname which I found kind of ironic.  Valmir said that many Brazilians use the surnames from both parents rather than just the father in most American families.  Valmir is a Baptist priest and plans to go to seminary here in Fort Worth after he leaves the English program.  Valmir told me that all of his friends and family call him simply Valmir or "mi" for short.  He said that he doesn't normally go by "mi" here in the US, because it is commonly mistaken with the English word me.  --lost in translation, this could present a possibly confusing conversation:  "Hi, my name is Mi" "Me?" "No not you, Mi"--  Valmir described Brazilian culture as laid back, informal, not having a lot of stress, and very conversational.  It is common to make conversation with complete strangers.  Valmir showed how hospitable Brazilian culture is by saying that friends are welcome in people's homes any time.  He mentioned that friends of his from the US already have plans to stay with Valmir during the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics.  I told Valmir the topic of our class and he seemed pleasantly surprised.  I asked if he could help me understand a little bit about Brazilian types of humor.  He said that Brazilians were very happy people and that they have a high sense of humor.  He said that a lot of humor is through social interaction and conversation, and depending on the situation, people do not take things too seriously.  Additionally, there are kinds of humor on television that are similar to the US.  A hit show is "A Grande Familia," which Valmir said is similar to the American show, "Modern Family."  It is one of the most watched shows in Brazil and humorously describes a typical middle-class family in Rio de Janeiro.  Another popular TV show in Brazil is the "Jo Show," a late-night talk show hosted by an author, comedian, and musician Jo Soares.  The two shows both seemed similar to American forms of television comedy.  Overall, the meeting went by quickly and Valmir shared many interesting aspects of Brazilian culture.  He was open to answering all kinds of questions.  We left the library together where his wife and two kids were waiting.  His two sons were running around using the campus as a type of jungle-gym which reminded of how I was as a child.  I had the pleasure of meeting his family and we parted ways.

Observing Laughter

Walking into the hall of Scharbauer after leaving class today, I noticed quickly the rain coming down outside.     It was apparent that I was going to get very wet waiting for the bus.  I then got Nicks attention who had a ride waiting and asked if I could get a ride as well.  Nick said I could and we took off running through the rain.  Neither of us were prepared for rain, no rain jacket or umbrella.  Not wanting to wait it out, Nick starting walking quickly through the rain.  I waited a few seconds and started running toward the parking lot. Nick began running along with me and we were both getting drenched.  Toward the end of the jog we were both soaking wet and could see the waiting car.  Sitting in the driver seat, our ride was laughing wildly at us both.  Why was she laughing so hard? It seemed like an example of Superiority Theory, she was dry and comfortable in the driver seat of the car while we were soaking wet.  I didn't think it would be funny that we were going to make her car seats wet, but she might not have cared about that.  She said we were running in the exact same way, not a full sprint but fast enough that we clearly wanted to get out of the rain.  Our faces looked concentrated and not entirely helpless.  I wondered if she thought it was funny the way we just happened to be running the same or if it was funny that two unprepared people were getting soaked.  It seemed as though it was basically funny that we had been caught out in the rain, but our same faces only increased the humor in the situation.

Who's on first./?

We have previously had discussion in class about numerous types of humor from the past:  Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, The Three Stooges, The Little Rascals, and Abbott and Costello.  All of these names were acclaimed not only in their day, but even into modern times.  However, I thought it was interesting that Dr. Williams had a hard time watching the episode of the The Three Stooges recently.  An episode that he found hilarious when he was a child.  Again in class the other day, Dr. Williams mentioned that a previous student of his spoke about how The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock had such a little impact on him.  I thought of a question that many theorists and people alike have likely thought of, what makes a work (specifically a humorous work) survive the test of time?  Are people more funny today or is it easier to find humor in the time period in which you live in?  With that in mind, a few days ago while watching Sportscenter on ESPN, the last duo I mentioned (Abbott and Costello) came onto the TV.  Sportscenter was doing a tribute to a great sports related comedic act by the duo, "Who's on first?"  The tribute showed how the act has survived the test of time and many today still try and emulate it today, even Jimmy Fallon.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0Jg7pvVzKk)

Abbott and Costello fire back and forth so quickly that it enhances the intentional miscommunication between the two.  The language used is simple and yet the two cannot make sense of each other.  When Costello (right) uses other words than "who" such as "what" and "I dont know," Abbott quickly says that those men are on second and third base.  The way the skit makes use of a simple baseball question and spins it into dysfunction I found to be among the act's more funny qualities.  This act today has millions of YouTube views and I believe will continue to be enjoyed years into the future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sShMA85pv8M   

The Onion

While reading Clinton Deploys Vowels to Bosnia the other day, I was reminded of another satire produced by the Onion that I had seen in the past.  I believe satire to be among the funniest kinds of humor because of the extensive use of wit.  Witty remarks are often quick and show some sort of original or inventive humor.  The cognitive shift that takes place during witty remarks seems to involve making sophisticated human connections and therefore involve greater contrast between the two states than other forms of humor.  Additionally, satirical works make fun of something because of the way it is; remarking about a social or cultural aspect.  In the short story, Clinton Deploys Vowels to Bosnia, the satire makes fun of the differences in language, particularly the spelling of words.
 
The link below is a satire the Onion did about the New York Yankees baseball team around the time the team was building their new $1.5 billion dollar stadium in the Bronx.  The Onion pokes fun at the grandeur of the new stadium as well as the high dollar payroll the Yankees have year after year.  All the while, the Onion is a parody of news reports (particularly sports reports in this instance).  Hope y'all enjoy the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAmBrtQ59Ao