Revenge on the prankster - Family guy

Have you ever this famous video called “Two Girls One Cup”? Well, Wezly and I have both seen it, unfortunately. It is a video that has been banned from pretty much every internet site now. It is a disgusting portrayal of two lesbians who defecate and play around with it and each other while being sexually explicit. In a family guy episode, Brian and Stewie portray the exact reaction that me as well as Wezly had when we were lured into watching the video. In this scene, Brian wants Stewie to help him do something, and Stewie will not do it because of an earlier event in which Brian talked him into watching the video, “Two Girls One Cup”. People who watch family guy know that Stewie sees himself as intelligent far beyond his years. He does not act like the typical infant. When he first sees the video, he reacts just like me and Wezly did our first time. He’s like ok, “there lesbians, clearly.” Then as he continues to watch the video he is horrified and reacts the same way the typical person would: by being disgusted. Brian, in the background is laughing because he knows what to expect. He knows that Stewie is going to react the way he does, and that he is going to get a good laugh out of it. It was the same way when our friends showed us this video. At first it didn’t seem like anything out of the ordinary, but then all of the sudden it became disgusting. They could laugh at our reaction because they had once been in our position. As the scene goes on, one of the hilarious quotes that absolutely kills us with laughter occurs when Stewie says “OHHHH I’m never going to be able to eat ice cream again.” This quote is so funny because if you have ever seen the video, the two women are rubbing feces’ all over each other and it looks like chocolate ice cream. Another funny thing that occurs in the video is when Stewie says “Could you imagine two dudes doing that? Oh my God, that’d be even worse. Would that even exist? Where would you even find that? Let’s type it in and see what comes up.” These lines are so funny because of the character Stewie is. He thinks he knows everything, and when he finds something that he does not know everything about, he wants to research it. This is funny to us because of how it can relate to us. We all know people who are like that and would actually go to the extent of researching anything even if it is extreme as this. This video is absolutely hilarious to both of us not only because of the way it is hillariously portrayed by Stewie and Brian, but also because of how the entire situation being portrayed relates to our life and past experiences.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASHLLZbue44

Everyday I'm Hustlin'

Wezly Barnard

Katt Williams opens his act with his favorite song as he walks out with his swagger. He takes off his coat and acknowledges the cheering audience. He refers to his song, “The Hustle,” as being “his shit!” This song makes him so excited that he has to ask the DJ to turn it off. He uses this unique technique throughout the show which makes it comical. He acts like he doesn’t want to hear it when he actually really enjoys when it is played. He is able to relate to the audience by explaining that when any person any where hears their own favorite song, it changes their mood for the better almost immediately. He does this by portraying real life situations that people experience every day by actually acting it out. This enables the audience to connect with Katt’s message causing them to find it comical. The first situation presented is an impression of a librarian at work. This job is known to be boring and quiet. Katt Williams pokes fun at this idea by playing his favorite song and pretends to grab books off the shelf and flip through books to the beat of the song. In the second situation Katt explains that “If you were to get to heaven” and hear this song, “you would know there was about to be a party up in heaven!” The humor in this example works because it breaks what we traditionally think of as heaven. The last three examples are the most funny because they are the easiest to relate to. Katt describes grocery shopping, having sex, and working to this hip hop song. These are things that most of us do on a regular basis, so watching Katt Williams portray these situations was extremely comical. Katt Williams is a successful comedian in this clip because he is expressive and can easily engage the audience.

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

Without a concience

Wezly Barnard

A conscience does help people to behave. Without a conscience people would do things that are seen as bad or wrong and not have to worry about the consequences. It’s the feeling of guilt that helps people realize right from wrong. If people never felt guilty about anything, then the world would be in more chaos that it is now. Mark Twain turns this message into a joke by portraying the image of his conscience. “Straight away the door opened, and a shriveled, shabby dwarf entered.” Twain continues to create a perfect picture of his conscience and describes the actions that take place when his conscience is in the house. “He was not more than two feet high.” “Every feature and inch of him was a trifle out of shape.” Tension builds up between Twain and his conscience. He starts to feel extremely frustrated with the actions of his conscience. “He stepped along with a chipper air, and flung himself into a dolls chair in a very free and easy way, without waiting to be asked. This is ironic as he realizes that this is similar to the way he acts around people, “it seemed to me that this whole performance was very like an exaggeration of conduct that I myself had sometimes been guilty in my intercourse with familiar friends.” Mark Twain continues to struggle with his conscience and wants with all his might to get rid it. The more he tries to kill his conscience the more his conscience reminds him of the things he has done wrong and should feel guilty about. “You turned the tramp away from your door this morning.” Twains conscience helps him realize how he lied to the tramp and he feels guilty about it. Twain does not like the feeling of guilt and how right his conscience is in all aspects of his life. The story continues back and forth between the two characters and the battle finally ends when Mark Twain gets hold of his conscience and get rid of him. Twain then continues to do things that are wrong and even kills people. This illustrates how important our conscience is in life and the bad things people would end up doing without feeling guilty.

Its ladies' night!

Wezly Barnard

I think the most obvious characters to compare are Roxane from Cyrano de Bergerac and Cecily from The Importance of Being Earnest. The obvious ways in which these two characters are similar is their beauty, intelligence, and their need for romance. Both ladies are chased by the opposite sex and thoroughly enjoy it. Both characters’ beauty becomes a constant means for stirring up drama. In Roxane’s place her beauty drives men to run over each other to get to her side. “Count de Guiche. Enamored of her. But wedded to the niece of Armand de Richelieu. Would fain marry Roxane to a certain sorry fellow, one Monsieur de Valvert, a viscount--and--accommodating!” Cecily’s beauty causes her love to try and change his name. “Our Christian names! Is that all? But we are going to be Christened this afternoon.” The women are also alike in the way that they both are involved in a sort of fantasy and romantic life. Roxane has many men interested in her and chasing her constantly, which could be considered a fantasy. Cecily has created a false and romantic idea of love through her own day dreams, journal entries, and pretend pen pal. The greatest difference between the two is definitely that Roxane never actually speaks or has dialogue during the play. She is only referred to by other characters, which ends up making her character even more intriguing. Cecily, however; plays a huge role when it comes to dialogue. In the beginning she is referenced by other characters similar to the way Roxane is in Rostand’s play, but when we meet Cecily she has a lot to say. In this way it easier to understand her character since I can get direct insight from her, whereas it is sometimes difficult to completely understand Roxane fully.

Upper Class vs Lower Class

Wezly barnard
Society today is broken up into different levels when it comes to the status of a persons finacial backround. People are classed into lower class, middle class, and upper class in order with how much money they have. Oscar Wilde illustrates his play The importance of being earnest how those people who are part of upper class society believe they can get away with anything. This is evident in the characters of Jack and Algy who try to be someone they are not in oder to be accepted at dinning tables and when traveling to town.
ALGERNON I believe it is customary in good society to take some slight refreshments at five o’ clock
This indicates how Algy feels about people who are part of the upper class as he refers to “good society.” Algy becomes what he refers to as a Bunburyist, which is a person who is pretending to be someone els.
ALGERNON I have invented an ivaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury.
Algy invents this character to be able to dine with those people of the upper class in oder to feel a part of them or be accepted amost fashionable people. Jack also creates a character by the name of Earnest, who he explains is his brother. Jack uses this character to try and win the heart of Gwendolen and believes the only way to win her is by being Earnest.
JACK If Gwendolen accepts me , I am going to kill my brother.
Gwendolen comes from a rich backround and is looked after by Lady Bracknel who most illustrates how rich people can be hypocritical. Lady Bracknel does not approve of Jack and Gwendolen because Jack is not a high class man.
LADY BRACKNEL I feel bound to tell you that you are not down on my list of eligible young men…., do you smoke?
JACK Well, yes, I admit I smoke
LADY BRACKNEL Im glad to hear it.
This part of the play shows how rich people class themselves as better than people of o lower class. Lady Bracknel is asking questions to see if she will approve of Jack and what he has or does, but does not worry about what type of person he might be. This can even be related to in society today. In reality people do see themselves as better than other if they have more financialy. If a person has a lot of money, they will have a better house, car, and socialise in places for higher class people. Rich people can even get away with more when it comes to breaking the law. These people then start to believe they are better than those who do not have money.The ending of the play is unexpected and everything falls into place after a lot of lying between characters. Jack wins Gwendolen and Algy wins Cecily and Jack finds out that Lady Bracknel is actualy his aunt. This illustrates the hypocritical character of Lady Bracknel as she also is part of the lying that goes on in the play.it proves that just because a person might have more than someone els, does not mean they are better or more powerful than that person.

Assumptions

Wezly Barnard

“Assumptions are things you don’t know you are making.” Douglas Adams, in his book Last Chance to see illustrates how making assumptions can be very disorientating. In the chapter Blind Panic, Adams uses a humorous technique to describe how certain things work differently in other countries, “the first time you take the plug out of a wash basin in Australia and see the water sprawling down the hole the other way round.” People who witness this for the first time would probably find it strange as it is something they are not used to. When a person sees something that is out of the norm, it tends to give a feeling that they are out of their comfort zone. “The very laws of physics are telling you how far you are from home.” Another example that Adams uses is how “in New Zealand even the telephone dials are numbered anticlockwise.” This will make it very difficult for people who are not from New Zealand to make a phone call. People are used to doing things in a way they are familiar with and almost feel lost when the same thing is done in a different way. “The shock is that it had never occurred to you that there was any other way of doing it.” It may even become humorous as it could feel like it’s the first time they are doing it even though in the past they have made many phone calls.“This has nothing to do with the law of physics – they just do it differently” It is interesting that the very same situation is done in a different way all over the world and things are not the way you expect it to be. “The ground slips” is a humorous way of describing being disorientated. Adams uses these words to create a feeling of being off balance. This is finding it difficult to stand which relates to how a person might feel when facing something different. “Try and do it quickly and you will inevitably misdial because your automatic habit jumps in and takes over before you have a chance to stop it.” The trip to China is going to be very different for Adams as all these assumptions will develop. In China most of what they do is different to what Adams is used to. “I had a kind of inkling that this would be the case from what little I knew of other people’s experiences in China.” Adams, through his words, gives the reader a feeling of what it might be like in a different country and what experiences a person could encounter.

There Is No Greatness in Eternity

Wezly Barnard

Eternity lasts forever. This is a difficult concept to wrap one’s mind around, especially when in reality nobody can experience eternity. It is inevitable that human life has an ending. Vonnegut is not overjoyed with Billy Pilgrim’s Tralfamadorian perspective that humans live forever; because he believes there is great power in death. Vonnegut brings this point home with the mentioning of a few deceased greats. “Robert Kennedy, whose summer home is eight miles from the home I live in all year round, was shot two nights ago. He died last night.” Robert Kennedy is the first name Vonnegut mentions to illustrate his point. This is directly followed by a reference of another influential man. “Martin Luther King was shot a month ago. He died, too.” The fact that Vonnegut brought these two instances up immediately before he introduces the Tralfamadorians’ worldview indirectly shows us why he does not linger on the idea. Vonnegut uses names that have been remembered many years after their death. Although Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King are not living in the physical life anymore their name still live on. This shows that Vonnegut finds peace in the fact that he will not live forever. He will not have to live with his own memories and experiences. “If what Billy Pilgrim learned from the Trafalmadorians is true, that we will all live forever, no matter how dead we may sometimes seem to be, I am not overjoyed.” Vonnegut second major argument against this idea is described when he discusses Charles Darwin. “who taught that those who die are meant to die, that corpses are improvements.” This is an example of how things can be accomplished through death. He does not linger and is not overjoyed by this worldview because he understands the importance of death.

Through a Hobo's Eyes

Wezly Barnard

Through a Hobo’s Eyes

Sometimes people find themselves in difficult places in life and feel there is nothing they can do about it. Others believe that their life is just a struggle and feel that they have been hard done by because they don’t have the “good things” in life. What they don’t understand is that they take some things for granted, small things like having food on the table every night, a bath with warm water, and a comfortable bed to sleep in. Vonnegut illustrates a situation in his book Slaughter house 5, how this situation is very different through the eyes of a hobo. Billy Pilgrim finds himself in a situation where nobody wants him around because everybody has a story about him. “Everybody told Billy to get the hell away.” Billy had done something to everybody in their sleep. It was arranged that Billy was put into another car on the train and found himself having “to sleep standing up, or not sleep at all.” In this car Billy met the hobo “and food stopped coming through the ventilator, and the days and nights were colder all the time.” People being in this situation gives people an idea of the life of a hobo. Hoboes go through life not knowing when they will have their next meal, or where they might rest their head for a night’s sleep. The hobo in Vonnegut’s book quotes, “This ain’t bad. I can be comfortable anywhere” helps people understand how hoboes have to adapt to life. Billy being in the car without food and feeling cold was something the hobo does not even think about anymore. The hobo makes the claim to help people understand that he has been through much worse situations. “You think this is bad? This ain’t bad” is repeated as the hobos last words which emphasizes how much the hobo believes that what Billy was going through was not as bad as the life of the hobo and the experiences the hobo has been through.
People, who think that their lives are difficult or they are going through hard times, should take a moment to think about those who don’t have the things in life that they might take for granted. Imagine going through a day or even a week without food and a home to go to. A person might think differently about how hard their life might be.

Taboo words and topics

Wezly Barnard

Taboo words and topics can be used in various ways to achieve different goals. In more cases than others, use of taboo words will offend people. A word can be said directly to a person and have the intent of meaning bad towards them, or offend them. In this case there might be a situation or argument between two or more people which would encourage either of them to use verbally harmful words. Another form of using taboo words or topics could be when a group of people or friends are comfortable around each other. Friends might use” slang” or “swear” a few times in order to feel “cool” or fit in with the group. However, offensive words can be overused in conversations and will become extremely boring for others. People lose interest in a topic if taboo words are used out of context. The topic may even sometimes not make sense.
Although taboo words and topics are frowned upon, they can be used in different forms to create humor and art. In the Trickster narrative the topic emphasized on is defecating. Even though the word “defecate” is not a very harsh taboo word, it still creates an image of Trickster eventually defecating and ending up being covered by it. “Then he could not help himself, but had to defecate.” Trickster was arrogant from the start and believed he could overcome the situation. Unfortunately he could not and defecated so much that he covered himself in it. This brings about a comical situation, but more so teaches a lesson through the story. Trickster was ignorant to the bulb making him defecate and later finding himself using nature to come to his aid. “Tree what kind are you, tell me about yourself, can you tell me where the nearest water is?”
A.R. Ammons’ poem however uses a more direct word that is repeated throughout the poem. The topic is the same but the word used is a lot stronger. It might be thought that the word being repeated makes the poem slightly boring, but Ammons uses a descriptive technique to create a comical poem that a person could find them laughing at; “blazing blast off, for the nice, total protein, and from the animal of alluvial dreams.”
In both pieces techniques have been used to achieve different goals. In one a lesson is achieve and the other a comical atmosphere. It is evident that taboo words and topics can be used to create something beautiful and/or powerful.

Laughing at imperfections of others

Wezly Barnard

Jane Austen illustrates in her book Emma, an event where two completely different characters clash in conversation. Chapter seven was difficult to understand when I read it and I battled to find the humor in the text. The opening is very dull and set a tone for the chapter. Austen however, does make the character of Emma stand out above the rest. Emma wants all the attention to be on her and did all she could to make that possible. I did not laugh at all at the situation of Emma putting Miss bates down about the dullness in her life, but rather felt bad at how Emma addressed the comment. It was very different when I watched the visual of the situation and actually saw how Emma put the comment across. At first I laughed at Emma’s remark towards Miss Bates as I thought it was done light heartedly, but it was more of a guilty laugh because I knew it was not a nice comment towards Miss Bates. Seeing the reaction of the other characters and Miss bates illustrated the tension after Emma said,” …yes, but you are only limited to three dull things.” Emma is depicted as an insecure person and puts Miss Bates down to make herself feel better and seem superior in front of the other characters. Thomas Hobbes helps us understand this in his quote, “by the apprehension of some deformed thing in another, by comparison whereof they suddenly applaud themselves.” Miss Bates is not a strong enough character to counter act the remark and just settles for agreeing with Emma. Hobbes helps others understand that it is inappropriate to laugh when a person is put down by another. Hobbes quotes that people should“…compare themselves only with the most able.” Laughing at a person because of their faults can sometimes be funny, but one should think about the impact it will have on the person being targeted.

Wezly Barnard
Title: Waves of laughter

“An attraction to laughter is its remarkable contagiousness, laughing and letting waves of laughter wash over you.” An experience of being around people or seeing them laughing often creates an interest of others around them. Society is extremely inquisitive when noticing others enjoying themselves and are always curious to find out the reason as to why they are not having the same enjoyment in their life. It’s as if people feel like they are missing out on something, or they feel like their life is lacking happiness in some parts, and always want to be part of a good situation.
“A pleasant experience-one of life’s best.” Robert Provine clearly understands how good it feels to laugh. Laughing is an experience that comes either from a joyful conversation, a funny joke being told, or watching something happen to an individual that is out of the norm. In these events, an individual is almost always brought to laughter and if there are others present they will find themselves joining in on the laughter. The laughter then becomes contagious as people that did not find the event funny or might not even have been present at the time of the event or joke will catch on and begin to laugh.
Being present in a group of people that are laughing creates an aura around them and those who are part of the group usually feel the aura and begin to feel the happiness inside them. The whole group eventually reaches the same point of happiness and their laughing becomes synchronized as they are all on the same level. The loudness of the laughter will reach the same pitch and the length of laughing sprees become identical. The experience becomes joyous for everyone.
It is enjoyable to be part of good moments with others, even if a person in the group is not on the level of happiness, laughing together is always pleasing.