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.