Starbucks Christmas and the Satan Sipper

   
       I agree with Noah on some aspects. I think that at points christians can be very condescending. Now I do come from a christian background, but not all christians are perfect, including me. One of the biggest moments that I have seen christians get upset is the Starbucks red cup. When Starbucks released their red cup in the beginning of November many christians where mad saying that Starbucks had taken away the symbols of Christmas from the cup and that Starbucks was a bunch of atheist.

        Here is a picture of the Starbucks cups from past years. Now to me a fellow christian I am not offended. I see nothing that should be offensive to christians with this new plain red cup. The old Starbucks cups had nothing that symbolized the birth of Jesus. With that being the true reason we celebrate this holiday I honestly find it ridiculous that people would be upset with Starbucks for going with a classy look for their cups. And I think that Ellen does a great job of making that point. Now she does this in a very humorous way, but she is also able to get the point across. She calls the cups "satan sippers" because that is how they are currently being viewed. These cups are just plain red and you would think these cups had something that showed Christmas in a negative way for all the backlash they are receiving. I do blame the age of information for this because I think that social media blew this out of proportion. I think that one person tweeted about this and then someone retweeted it which just fueled the fire. I just hope that people can look past this red cup satan sipper and see the real meaning of Christmas while they drink a nice cup of coffee. 

A-Aron

      Key and Peele have some of the funniest skits I have ever seen, my personal favorite is the substitute teacher sketch. The video up above is an interview that Key and Peele did with CBS this morning about tackling race through humor. They are asked questions about their skits and if they think it is easier for them to make them because they are biracial. I think that their comedy is special. It is not like Tosh. O because it is not out right racist. It makes the audience uncomfortable while still entertaining them. There is something so different about the humor in Key and Peele and Tosh. O. Maybe it is because Key and Peele pull at the stereotypical jokes instead of making jokes at people like Tosh. O. I do think that Key and Peele work to put together skits that bring only laughter and not to hurt people.
     I am not a huge fan of Tosh.O. My dad on the other hand loves it. I don't know if it is because of their ridiculous videos or because of Daniel Tosh and his terrible jokes. I just don't think that there is much to be said about Tosh. O. The show is always the same and it doesn't show much creativity. Key and Peele while it sometimes remains the same, it tends to show way more creativity. I think the time and effort they spend writing each sketch is really important and really pays off. Tosh. O tends to just use superiority theory as a way to make people laugh. It even uses the superiority theory when making racial jokes. That is when tension builds and I don't think it is appropriate then. I think Key and Peele tend to air more on the side of the incongruity theory. They use that and some superiority theory to make their sketches highly entertaining and my personal favorite.

Tis the season

 
  Nothing can compare to the feeling that my two favorite holidays are almost here. Alex posted her favorite vine so I thought I should share my favorite vines that depict the holiday season. Thanksgiving break is only 14 days away and I couldn't be happier for it to get here. Thanksgiving to many people means a full week of non stop eating, but to me this year it means seeing and hugging my sisters for the first time since August. I am beyond excited, but after that hug comes all the eating. My entire extended family will be in town this year to celebrate.
       The vine below depicts a family sitting around the table about to eat their Thanksgiving dinner when their son decides to run outside and smash it. You can hear their screams in the background as the turkey hits the ground. As I watch the vine I can only picture what would happen if one of my cousins or myself decided to do this. Not only would my family be furious, but they would probably never let me come home for Thanksgiving dinner again. My dad spends hours cooking the turkey and if I was to injure his art he would be crushed.

    After Thanksgiving comes the best time of year, Christmas!!! The vine below describes my life perfectly. I have started to bug my roommate already about decorating for Christmas, she finally gave in and let me start playing Christmas music. I have started to buy Christmas presents for family and friends. I love Christmas. You could call me Buddy the Elf. Whenever someone seems to hate Christmas I will send them this vine and it never fails to help them get in the spirit. I think it is because her facial expressions and tone.

    

       As Alex stated sound plays a huge part in humor. Both of these vines use sound to their advantage. The Thanksgiving one uses the family screaming to add to the feeling of the vine. It creates a sense of panic and makes the vine even more funny. While the Christmas vine uses different tones to get its point across. Without the different tones the vine wouldn't be funny. 

Hukuna Matata

      I completely agree with Elizabeth and her idea of comic relief. I think that Disney has mastered the technique of comic relief over the years. While my favorite Disney movies are Mulan and Frozen, I will forever be a huge fan of Timon and Pumbaa from The Lion King. Timon and Pumbaa taught me that Hukuna Matata means no worries and they also added the much needed comic relief to The Lion King. In the clip above they show their very own talent at making people laugh. This scene would be incredibly funny for children because of the two animals dancing and singing and then being chased, but as I watched it again and listened to the words I caught details that I hadn't heard when I was little. For example, Timon mentions dressing in drag which many young children would probably not understand but to an adult that idea could be very funny. Disney used this technique a lot and was able to hide many crude jokes within his movies. The Lion King is notorious for all the hidden crude humor within the movie. I do believe that not all movies need comic relief to be successful, but in most Disney movies comic relief is need. The reason behind this is because in most disney movies there is a death. In The Lion King Simba watches his father die, in Mulan Shane's father is killed in battle, and in Frozen Elsa and Ana lose their parents and are left orphans. To fill the void that these deaths have made Disney uses comic relief. Most of their relief is pointed towards the children, but the soon realized that since parents were watching these movies too they should add some hidden comedy in for them too. Disney will forever be a children favorite because of their use of the comic relief.

I am clumsy

    Keyu I really like what you you chose to blog about. It is something that is similar to what we watch currently, but at the same time it is completely different. There is a scene that reminds me of myself and manyAmerican movies that are shown today. It happens when Win tin-aau is trying to be a stunt double for the second time. He shows that he is able to work with Sister Cuckoo, but then he trips almost spilling coffee on her. From here forward things spiral out of control, ending with Sister Cuckoo flying out of a window. I found this part hysterical because it reminds me so much of myself. These things tend to happen to me all the time. I am completely accident prone as discussed before. It doesn't help that most of the time these accidents occur whenever I am trying to impress someone.
      I feel like this is a common occurence in many American movies. The guy is trying to impress the girl and trips and then hurts the girl or someone is trying to get a job and trips and hurts the person that is interviewing them. I think that this is found to be funny because it is something that could happen to any of us at any given time. It is almost a sense of superiority because we know that it could happen to us but instead it is happening to someone else. Whenever I trip and fall I know I bounce right back up and check to make sure no one saw what had happened. I remember when I was looking at High Schools I walked into a wall because I was to focused on the conversation I was having with someone and I landed on my butt. I quickly jumped back up and pretend nothing had happened even though I am pretty sure everyone had seen. Moments like these can happen to anyone and that is why they are so funny, at least to me.

P. S. Happy Halloween!!

We are in Africa

      KK, I agree. I love Vine and I also love animal videos. I was lucky enough to travel to Africa with my family a few years ago and above is a short clip from our trip. We absolutely loved it. We saw some amazing things on this trip, but I will never forget this video. The hippo didn't do anything funny, but for me the background noise makes the video. So a big shout out to my Uncle Greg. He has this uncanny knack for making everything he does hysterical. I don't remember a conversation I have had with him that I wasn't near tears because I was laughing so hard. When I think of my Uncle Greg I picture him with a huge smile on his face wearing his neon green glasses. My Uncle Greg has style, his favorite color is neon green and you can tell. Everything he wears is pretty much neon green. No matter what his hair will be on point and I mean sometimes there is a point. But by far the best thing about him is the way he can make you laugh at the little things. He use to be an actor in New York, so maybe he is trained to be comical but I think it is because he is just a comical person. The sounds he makes in the video adds so much to this video that without it it probably wouldn't be as funny. I know I wouldn't be laughing as hard if he wouldn't have given us that great reaction.

     I think sound has always played a huge role in movies and TV shows throughout the decades. For example, the music from Jaws tells us that a shark is coming and other shows use it today to tell us that something bad is about to happen. Another sound is the classic drum noises that are used after someone tells a joke. Everyone knows that sound and it adds emphasis to the joke. So Uncle Greg thank you for adding some laughter to my life.

Are we there yet?

As many of you probably know I come from Oklahoma, but what you may not know is I spend my summers in Michigan teaching kids how to sail. This means every summer my two sisters, two dogs, parents, and I get into the car and drive eighteen straight hours to Michigan. We have been making this drive since I was seven months old. My parents learned very quickly that the only way to keep my younger sisters and me entertained was to put a movie on. When we first started making these drives my dad took a TV and strapped it to the middle consul because cars didn’t have built in DVD players. The road trips were very long and we did not even have headphones at first, until my dad couldn’t stand the noise any longer so he pulled over and invested in the headphones you see pictured below.  

Now after making this drive every summer you get a little tired of the same movies! To make matters even more complicated all the Blockbusters went out of business and Netflix wasn’t around, so my parents had to figure out how to keep us entertained because watching the same movies over again wasn’t cutting it. That is when they had the idea to make us watch the “good stuff”, old TV shows like Gilligan's Island, Bewitched, The Brady Bunch, Little House on the Prairie and my favorite I Love Lucy. These TV shows were perfect because they provided us with endless entertainment and it was unlike anything we had ever seen before. As we watched these shows we would make little dances to the intro songs. Little things like this helped keep us entertained and for this my parents were grateful.

This is one of my favorite clips from I Love Lucy. No matter how many times I watch it I can never stop myself from laughing. I love the faces Lucy makes as the conveyor belt speeds up and she has to start eating  the chocolate. Whether I am laughing because of the superiority theory or the incongruity theory, I am not completely sure. I personally think that it deals with both theories. I find myself laughing because I feel superior to Lucy and her struggle to get all the chocolate wrapped and at the same time, and I am laughing because Lucy is so out of place. I Love Lucy is a show that could be watched with people of all ages, something so innocent that it brings laughter to everyone. There was never a show that used any form of foul language or crude humor. As my sisters and I watched I Love Lucy in the car sometimes my parents would want to hear what was happening in the background because it remind them of watching it with their siblings, when they were younger, and laughing with them.

While I Love Lucy is a show that is scripted it is also a show that remains timeless. It remains hysterical without getting too graphic. I Love Lucy first aired in 1951 and that was completely different time period than we are at today. Maybe that is why I Love Lucy has such innocent humor. I love that I Love Lucy has a humor that can be passed down through the ages. It will forever be my favorite.

Did you have a favorite TV oldie? Why do you think they are so funny? Is it because of its innocent humor? Or is it because of the memories it brings with it?

Laughing at a wedding

      This is a serious problem for me. Now usually I am not the one saying the vows, but I am known to start laughing at the worst possible moment. This has happened during my schools moment of silence, my great uncles funeral, and while speaking at my cousins wedding. Each time has been incredibly awkward. My favorite story was when I was speaking at my cousins wedding. I come from a huge family. I have tons of aunts and uncles, which means I have tons of cousins. My cousin was the first one to get married out of all of us. Like every wedding, it was a big deal and she chose me to speak in the wedding. She had been in my parents wedding and she found it fitting that I was to be in hers. She sent me the verses she wanted me to read and for weeks I practiced them. When the day finally came I was ready, I knew them by heart. I got to the podium to say the verses and looked at the sheet and then started to read the verses, I looked at the congregation and back down at the sheet and bursted into laughter. It wasn't just a small laugh. It was a full laugh, one that caused the whole congregation to start laughing with me. By the time I got it under control I had forgotten my place and just decided to start over. Afterwards I returned to my seat, bright red. After the ceremony my Aunt came up to me and I was terrified that she would be upset with me because I ruined the wedding, but instead she hugged me and thanked me for adding some fun into the wedding.

       I think we laugh at times like these because we are uncomfortable. It has to do with what is happening around us and it makes us feel out of place. When Bo Burnham makes references to things like the Holocaust and 9/11 we laugh because we are uncomfortable. We laugh out of a need for relief. It is a chance to laugh about something that is so awkward to think about making fun of. If we were to just laugh to make fun of it then it would be considered rude and terrible. 

Laughing at a Funeral

 
       I have always loved to laugh.  When I was little my parents would call my laugh contagious because once I started laughing there was no way of stopping me.My laugh would not only continue on forever, but it would make everyone around me start to laugh too. My laughing habits could sometimes get me in to trouble. My mother and I being very similar, are the types of people that would laugh out loud in a serious situation, like a moment of silence or a funeral. The clip above is just a short example of someone suffering from our same trouble. When present at a funeral, one of the characters has to leave because she can't handle the sadness and instead needs to laugh. This laughter then causes her and the rest of her friends to laugh and reminisce.
 
      Phebe asked if we thought laughter could cure anything, and I do believe that it does. In moments like funerals when your heart is broken and you don't know what to do, laughing is my only answer. That sounds absolutely terrible, but its true. I think the reason why I immediately jump to laughter in these situations is because it is my relief. Laughing causes me to look at the joy instead of the sadness. When Phebe stated that she would laugh after failing a test or failing to make a varsity team, that is another great example of the relief theory. Immediately she is forgetting the sadness and the pain, and she starts to think about the happiness that causes her to laugh out loud. Okay, so when I laugh at the moment of silence that was in my chapel last year that necessarily wasn't the relief theory. It was more because the whole situation was awkward and I didn't know what to do, but I did cause the whole rest of the chapel to start laughing. Little events like these in my life cause me to laugh often, if not daily.

Yes, I am accident prone...

   

   Not many people know this about me but I am accident prone, and I mean for my sixteenth birthday my dad gave me a first aid kit. Now let me give you a background story. I have a very small tolerance to pain and I faint at the sight of blood. I have fainted 21 times in my life and I have broken my left knee once, my left elbow twice, and all of my fingers. I have more scars than I can count and I have stories for every fall and accident that has ever happened.
      Every time I tell a story of one of my many accidents I can't help but laugh. They are hysterical because they happen at the most comical times. One of the most comical experiences I have had is when I broke my knee. I was in the middle of a tennis match. We were changing sides so we were allowed to go to the bathroom or grab water, but we had to be quick. I decided to run to the bathroom. As I am jogging to bathroom my knee suddenly pops. I don't fall, slip, or trip. It just pops, and I am suddenly unable to bend my knee. I'm like "well shit this isn't good," but I proceed to the bathroom. I go back to the court and try to play. After losing the next two games my coach comes onto the court very unhappy. This is where I figure out I should probably tell my coach, so low and behold I am forced to forfeit the match. Not only that, but when people ask me how did you break your knee? I now have to answer, "oh you know running to the bathroom."
      Incidents like this one are just simple everyday occurrences in my life. For example, two days ago I had to call my RA because I sliced my finger open with my razor when picking up my shower caddy and it was gushing blood, and I faint when I see blood. But these are simple examples of relief theory, because at the time the blood coming out of my finger was not funny, but now its hysterical. I mean who has to call their RA to put a bandaid on their finger for them. I think Funny Bone humor is one of the best humor, specially when you can look at yourself and laugh.

These Jokers

     I have never been on buzzfed before, so to me this is my "Try Guys." They are part of a show called the Impractical Jokers which airs on TruTV. The show features four best friends, that together do impractical jokes. The clip above is just a short look at Joe Gatto, who is to do everything his friends tell him to do or he loses this challenge. Joe starts off with the challenge of "laser nipples" and if you had seen the previous jokers complete their task you would understand that every joker was asked to complete the "laser nipples" task too. But my favorite part of the clip doesn't happen until Joe is told to get something from the aisle. From this point forward I am a laughing mess. After two challenges whoever has lost the most receives a comical punishment. Although these guys tend to be more crud than the Try Guys, they still add a sense of relief humor to their audience. They are just a group of guys having a good time. Most of their episodes include them messing with random bystanders that are oblivious to what is happening around them. What I find more hilarious than anything is their laughs. As they joke as a whole they start to laugh harder and harder and you can really see that through their jokes their friendship has really grown.
     As stated before, they are not the same as the Try Guy, but to me they are. They will do almost anything to avoid being punished because they never know what their friends will think of as a punishment. These jokers never fail to make me laugh. I admire their ability to be so outgoing and willingness to do almost anything to strangers.

(some punishments)

The Modern Greene Fam Bam

              I'll start off by apologizing because this gif is a little too heated for how I feel, but I think it portrays Mary's feelings towards Jimmy Fallon haters accurately. I on the other hand would have this same attitude towards Modern Family haters. Okay, Jimmy Fallon and Modern Family are not similar at all, but both of these shows brought families together. Like Mary and her Mom, my family and I would stay up watching Modern Family. 

             
       This clip is one of my favorites, it shows the Dunphy kid's surprising their parents on their anniversary. Little did they know what was behind the door. I think the reason my family finds Modern Family so funny is because it hits so close to home. If you walked into my house you would honestly believe you had walked in on to the set of Modern Family. Kiki would be the Haley in the family because she is always fashion forward, but secretly smart. Caitlyn would be Alex because she is super smart and sarcastic. My parents would play the role of Claire and Phil perfectly. And yours truly would play Luke because I am the one who is always making the stupid comments. 
       Now living in a household of all girls, beside my dad, causes our modern family to be a little different, but we are pretty similar to the Dunphys. As we sit on the couch together as a happy family once a week and laugh hysterically, some of us ending up on the ground, I can't imagine a more meaningful way to be brought together. I think that is the reason why shows like Jimmy Fallon and Modern Family are loved so much by others. Not because of the quality of the show or the acting, but because of the memories they give the viewers. Memories that will last a lifetime and that will make Thanksgiving break a Modern Family binge watching session. 
       

One step to far

   
       This is Scarlet. And as you can probably tell she is just enjoying her day singing until an unfortunate event happens. She miss judges her footing, steps to close to the edge of the table causing the table to flip and her to fall over backwards. At first I am worried for her safety and then I can't help but laugh. As I re-watch this video I cannot control the laughter. Scarlet is a good example of the superiority theory. I am laughing at her misfortune. Not only does she fall, but the editor of the video replays her falling in slow motion and adds sub titles for the viewers enjoyment. The editor of the video realizes that for his or hers video to get the most views it must apply to one of the three theories of humor; superiority, incongruity, or relief. The editor decides to use the superiority theory because it is the easiest and funniest of the three.

Do you think I can dance?

    When asked the question what is comedy this video immediately comes to mind. Now if you know me you would know that I love to dance. That doesn't mean that I am good at it. When stressed with homework and needing a break I always love to listen to some music and dance it out. Jimmy Kimmel and Guillermo Rodriguez in this video attempt to dance to Sia's popular song Chandelier. They both believe that they are good at dancing and as you can tell they are far from good, just like me. That doesn't stop them or me. That's what makes it comedy. This video is also one of the last things I watched with my family before leaving for Furman. Now imagine this, the video is playing on the TV and my parents are sitting on the couch as I imitate Kimmel and Rodriguez. I'm almost 100% sure that Rodriguez would beat me in a dance off. That still wouldn't stop me from dancing.