(a) Looking over my blog posts, I cannot say how much any changes in my writing have been reflected in them. I do not, in fact, feel that I have successfully changed a great deal about how I write. I have, however, become more aware of the problems inherent in my style. I am working to minimize comma use and shorten my sentences. As far as my writing about humor goes, I feel I have become far more concious of the structure and components of humor. I am more intelectually aware of what goes into a joke and of how the things poeple find funny differ. I will admit, going into this, I was skeptical about being instructed to analyze humor and disect it in a scholarly manner. However, as I have learned from this class, doing so is not only possible, it is interesting and reveals a great deal about the humorist and the audience. About my own writing I learned, perhaps most surprisingly was that my humor tended to be more in line with the women in the class rather than the men. Though I don't relish sex in the city, or other such "female" shows, I found that in terms of the non 'gendered' instances of humor that we encountered, my humro was more in line with the womens' than the mens'.
(b) One of my favorite readings from this semester was the Mark Twain story about the frog leaping. Not so much because I found it terribly funny, but because it was really illuminating in terms of seeing how a) subtle humor could be and B) how much the perception of what was funny has changed. I will always remember, and can't help but call to mind whenever I watch a comedy now, the theories of comedy. I am refering to incongruity, superiority, and release.
(c) Creating the blog was a really cool and interesting exercise. Remembering to post was not something that I was always good at, but even the fact that I had to do it on a regular basis was good for my organization. While I realize this wasn't the point, It was a cool fringe benefit. Writing also helped me keep my mind active and working and thinking about things from a critical standpoint. I found myself examining more deeply the readings and discussions we had in class. Reading other people's blogs taught me a lot about how other people though about humor. I also was exposed to a number of different and interesting styles of writing and voices. It got me thinking and reacting in my own blog posts, which often derived inspiration, directly or indirectly, from stuff I had read or we had discussed in class.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Quiz
Kung Fu Hustle
Kung-Fu Hustle is A martial Arts Comedy from China Which Stars and was directed by Stephen Chow. The film is an example of a particular genre of slapstick zany comedy (along the lines of blazing saddles) that is popular in China. I ended up watching the film on the recommendation of a friend of mine and decided it was worth writing about. The film’s story is not overly involved and is, in fact, simplistic and quite whimsical. It opens in Shanghai in the 1930s. The opening scene shows the clash between several gangs and the police. This rather grave event is depicted with humor and in and absurdist amounts of melodrama. In the film, the most feared of these gangs, despite their penchant for synchronized dance routines, is the Axe Gang. The Axe gang, lead by Brother Sum, terrorizes Shanghai and kills policemen without a thought. The Pig Sty Alley, A crowded tenement compound/slum, is largely unaffected by the Axe gang’s predations, likely due to the fact that there is nothing worth stealing in Pig Sty. A lecherous, but goofy and laughable, landlord and his domineering wife own the tenement.
Early in the film, two hapless rogues, the incompetent con-men Sing and Bone, come to town posing as members of the Axe Gang. They try to channel the Ax Gang’s fearsome reputation in order to extort things from the town. Their attempts fail when they are discovered as frauds and confronted by the members of the town who are all rather comically capable fighters (or so it would seem.) Bone and Sing, do accidentally draw the attention of real Ax Gang, when their firework inadvertently destroys one of the lieutenant gang member’s hat. A massive brawl ensues between three tradesmen (one is a Coolie, one a Tailor and the last is a baker named Donut.) in the town who are secret martial artists and the gangsters which ends in the, the gangsters are fleeing.
Sing and Bone are captured and nearly executed by the gang, who offer to instead grant him membership if they kill someone from the slums. Because she was rather stern in the past Sing decides to target the Landlady. His attempt to kill her with knives quite literally backfires when the knives rebound and strike him instead. During the scene that follows, he is subject to several snakebites and chased, road-runner style, down a stretch of road. While recuperating from his injuries in a water tower, Sing demonstrates a preternatural level of strength, bending the walls of the metal structure as he strikes out in pain.
Meanwhile, frustrated by the upsetting defeat the Ax Gang suffered, the debonair Brother Sum hires a duo of Martial Artists who play the harp with deadly skill. These two martial artist manage to kill the three martial artists in the Pig sty, but are then defeated by the landlord and his wife. It turns out they were also puissant practitioners of the supernatural martial arts.
In a final Gambit aimed at killing the Landlord and Landlady, Brother Sum gets Sing to free an incarcerated Martial Artist ominously named “The Beast.” Sing does so and the beast is convinced to fight two defenders of the Pig Sty. The battle doesn’t go overly well, but in the process Sing is swayed to the side of good, but incapacitated, shortly thereafter, by The Beast.
The films climax is an all out, over the top, martial arts bout between Sing, the Tenement Owners and The Beast. The whole movie, particularly the final scene, is an absurdist romp that draws inspiration in equal parts from the cinematic history of China, particularly of Kung fu movies, and from elements of American popular culture, specifically famous films such as “The Shining” and from classic Cartoons such as bugs bunny and the Road Runner.
At heart the film is a loving parody of all things and genres. It includes a numbe of references (most of which I didn't get) to older, kung fu movies and tropes. It was directed in a style that visually chronicles the evolution of Martial Arts films by drawing stylistic cues from various periods in that genre's history. In addition to odd, often incongruous characters, and absurd antics, the film draws from a lot of old slapstick traditions. Indeed a great deal of the pratfalls and physical comedy takes serious inspiration from some of Charlie Chaplin films. On the whole I really liked this film and enjoyied its strange comedic blend. Which is unusual because I don't normally like physical comedy.
Kung-Fu Hustle is A martial Arts Comedy from China Which Stars and was directed by Stephen Chow. The film is an example of a particular genre of slapstick zany comedy (along the lines of blazing saddles) that is popular in China. I ended up watching the film on the recommendation of a friend of mine and decided it was worth writing about. The film’s story is not overly involved and is, in fact, simplistic and quite whimsical. It opens in Shanghai in the 1930s. The opening scene shows the clash between several gangs and the police. This rather grave event is depicted with humor and in and absurdist amounts of melodrama. In the film, the most feared of these gangs, despite their penchant for synchronized dance routines, is the Axe Gang. The Axe gang, lead by Brother Sum, terrorizes Shanghai and kills policemen without a thought. The Pig Sty Alley, A crowded tenement compound/slum, is largely unaffected by the Axe gang’s predations, likely due to the fact that there is nothing worth stealing in Pig Sty. A lecherous, but goofy and laughable, landlord and his domineering wife own the tenement.
Early in the film, two hapless rogues, the incompetent con-men Sing and Bone, come to town posing as members of the Axe Gang. They try to channel the Ax Gang’s fearsome reputation in order to extort things from the town. Their attempts fail when they are discovered as frauds and confronted by the members of the town who are all rather comically capable fighters (or so it would seem.) Bone and Sing, do accidentally draw the attention of real Ax Gang, when their firework inadvertently destroys one of the lieutenant gang member’s hat. A massive brawl ensues between three tradesmen (one is a Coolie, one a Tailor and the last is a baker named Donut.) in the town who are secret martial artists and the gangsters which ends in the, the gangsters are fleeing.
Sing and Bone are captured and nearly executed by the gang, who offer to instead grant him membership if they kill someone from the slums. Because she was rather stern in the past Sing decides to target the Landlady. His attempt to kill her with knives quite literally backfires when the knives rebound and strike him instead. During the scene that follows, he is subject to several snakebites and chased, road-runner style, down a stretch of road. While recuperating from his injuries in a water tower, Sing demonstrates a preternatural level of strength, bending the walls of the metal structure as he strikes out in pain.
Meanwhile, frustrated by the upsetting defeat the Ax Gang suffered, the debonair Brother Sum hires a duo of Martial Artists who play the harp with deadly skill. These two martial artist manage to kill the three martial artists in the Pig sty, but are then defeated by the landlord and his wife. It turns out they were also puissant practitioners of the supernatural martial arts.
In a final Gambit aimed at killing the Landlord and Landlady, Brother Sum gets Sing to free an incarcerated Martial Artist ominously named “The Beast.” Sing does so and the beast is convinced to fight two defenders of the Pig Sty. The battle doesn’t go overly well, but in the process Sing is swayed to the side of good, but incapacitated, shortly thereafter, by The Beast.
The films climax is an all out, over the top, martial arts bout between Sing, the Tenement Owners and The Beast. The whole movie, particularly the final scene, is an absurdist romp that draws inspiration in equal parts from the cinematic history of China, particularly of Kung fu movies, and from elements of American popular culture, specifically famous films such as “The Shining” and from classic Cartoons such as bugs bunny and the Road Runner.
At heart the film is a loving parody of all things and genres. It includes a numbe of references (most of which I didn't get) to older, kung fu movies and tropes. It was directed in a style that visually chronicles the evolution of Martial Arts films by drawing stylistic cues from various periods in that genre's history. In addition to odd, often incongruous characters, and absurd antics, the film draws from a lot of old slapstick traditions. Indeed a great deal of the pratfalls and physical comedy takes serious inspiration from some of Charlie Chaplin films. On the whole I really liked this film and enjoyied its strange comedic blend. Which is unusual because I don't normally like physical comedy.
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