It seems like comedians have unlocked some sort of secret to connecting with the outside world that "normal" people have not. They can effortlessly share their lives and embarrassing topics with others, and we almost marvel at them for this skill.
Why can't WE do this with people? What holds us back from taking a stage, looking out to the masses, and discussing our lives and weird behaviors with the public.
1. Please, write no fewer than 10 sentences for your answer to this completely open-ended subject/to any of the questions above.
OR
2. Please, write no fewer than 10 sentences about something funny in your life or about some seemingly embarrassing subject that is actually very normal and funny. Simply put, be funny if possible, and do it like Jim Gaffigan.
Take this wherever you want. Like Gaffigan, no cussing allowed. Due before class on Thursday, April 12, 2012. Thank you.
1. I think that most people can't be professional comedians for two main reasons: lack of confidence and audience reactions. Any person could be able to talk about something completely mundane and make it funny if they had the confidence that other people would think that it is funny too. Most people are able to be funny around their close friends because they are comfortable and don't have a problem making a fool of themselves because they wont feel judged. The problem is feeling this amount of security. Some people have enough confidence, like professional comedians, that they will feel comfortable to go out on a limb and try to be funny. Others do not feel this same amount of comfort from large groups of people. Encouragement also has a lot to do with someone's ability to try to be funny. It just takes one person to laugh a joke, and the laughter spreads like wildfire. There have been psychological studies that prove that one person laughing can lead to many laughing. It truly does depend on both the audience and the comedian to determine if the comedian will be successful.
ReplyDeleteWe cannot do this because we either lack the natural talent or the desire to be a famous comedian. People who are naturally funny are the most likely to become comedians. Comedians also must have an unparalleled stage presence, voice, and sketch in order to separate himself from other comedians. It is easy to turn to profanity and squeamish subjects, but true comedians like Jim Gaffigan have the ability to be funny about anything they want to be funny about. Normally, it is something that they care the most about. For instance, Jim Gaffigan loves talking about bacon, TV, and being downright lazy. These everyday things are much funnier than making snide and racist comments. Also, they will be accepted by a wider array of audiences. Jim Gaffigan may talk about being lazy, but there is no way he does not have a work ethic. In order to be an accomplished comedian, one must be constantly writing new sketches to stay current. Also, they must practice, practice, practice their sketch to have the confidence to own their performance and win the crowd. Being a comedian comes with a lot of stress and difficulty, people come to their performances expecting to laugh and be entertained. If a comedian has one off night, word of mouth could kill their career faster than the blink of an eye. I could never be a comedian, but I certainly love to watch a great performance such as Jim Gaffigan.
ReplyDeleteDo you know what gets people's adrenaline going? Facebook notifications. Isn't that sad? That the sight of a red square on a blue globe is what gets people excited? Your favorite thing to do when you get home from a trip isn't to sleep in your own bed, or shower, or eat food from an oven. The best part of coming home is seeing all the notifications, built up over the seven days you were gone. 9 notifications! You're so incredibly popular! How are you going to handle it? And then you check every one of them: 4 are from the same picture that you're not even in, all from friends of your friend. Still, it's exciting. Then, the next one: someone wrote on your wall! Never mind, it's just your weird 49-year-old aunt who uses too many smiley faces and still hasn't realized that everything on her news feed wasn't posted just for her. She comments on your drunk pictures with "Looks like you had a good birthday!!! Hope you get the kitty card I sent you! It sings!! Love, Aunt Darla :-) :-)" The next one, you're tagged in a picture of two otters holding hands. Why are you in this? Now all of your friends have seen that you're in this. And you detag, and you either ignore it or have to deal with the embarrassment of being discovered. You can't go under the radar anymore. Otter-friend or Aunt Darla are always going to catch you. The next is are usually from that one kid you knew in elementary school that still plays Farmville and really wants to visit the pumpkin patch you don't yet. You always block the app but he keeps coming back like the plague. It makes you miss Oregon Trail. And the next two are from this girl you barely know, liking a picture your sister posted from her wedding in 2008. How did she get there? How long did she have to scroll down on your page to find that? Why did she spend that long anyway? You go to defriend her, and fifteen minutes later you get an inbox message. You're so excited! And it's that girl: "Did you defriend me????" The best thing for you do now is make up a Facebook glitch that deleted all your friends. AKA her. That will work...for now.
ReplyDeleteMost people cannot get up and successfully tell jokes to a large group of people because they do not have enough confidence. Comedians are so successful because they know that when they tell a joke, people will laugh at it. They learn what is funny and are not embarrassed to show that. They are able to have confidence in situations where most people would be overwhelmed with embarrassment. To them, it seems like they are just too relaxed to care what other people think about them. They like that people laugh at their lives, and would spend money to hear about a comedians failures. Comedians need to be very confident and sure of themselves. The truth is that most people do not possess the amount of confidence necessary to allow other people to openly laugh at their lives.
ReplyDeleteI think that alot of the reasons comedians like him are so successful is because they are comfortable on stage and with themselves. comedians need to have the confidence to make fun of themselves about simple things in their life to make other laugh. Also i big part of being a stand up comedian is stage presence. They cant have stage fright obviously, but they have to be comfortable enough so that those watching feel comfortable watching them so its not awkward. The reason why he is so funny is because he takes daily routines and makes fun of him self making the listeners connect and relate to the truth of his hilarious jokes. Everyone does and things what he says he is doing which makes the audience laugh because they think of themselves in those situations. Bottom line is that comedians need to have the confidence to get on stage and make fun of themselves in front of many strangers and for most people in the world that is one of the most difficult things to do.
ReplyDeleteIf there is one thing that frustrates me the most about texting it is this. I hate it when you send someone a text and they never respond. You know that they received the message, so there is only one conclusion, They are trying to avoid you. It drives me crazy. If someone were to do this in a normal face-to-face conversation they would come off as a complete jerk, but it seems that everyday jerks all over the world ignore text messages and get away with it. On another note, Laziness has seemed to become apart of our culture in America. Every day people are designing new technologies to allow people to be lazier. Soon people won't even have to drive anymore because their cars will be able to do it better than they can. A famous man once quoted that laziness is the worlds worst enemy, but Ill trump this statement with the insightful words of Gandhi, "we should learn to love our enemies". This is why I take pride in my laziness.
ReplyDeleteIts nearing the end of chapel. The student body all stands. One of the reverends dismisses everyone with a blessing or something, and then we have an announcement. We always applaud these announcements. I have pondered this for many an hour and I have never understood why. Some person representing an organization that always clogs up my email stands up to make a further attempt to capture our interest and money to put towards Invisible Children or a stationary drive. We applaud these everyday without fail. Why?! We sit in this dusty, old building, then when we are seconds from leaving we hold everyone up for what seems like an age while we applaud a twenty second announcement. Now, I know people will tell me that standing up in front of people is hard, and that it warrants sufficient support, but we hardly even applaud Beth Holden half the time when she speaks. Why is it different with this little spout of information? Is reciting statistics about a blanket drive somehow harder than performing a production of the water engine? The announcement concerning the pillow drive was better received than the fall play. The only thing worse are the announcement that class meetings will follow chapel. Funnily enough, no one every applauds that particular statement…
ReplyDeleteI honestly have no idea how he can do that. It seems like he must have a natural gift because when I tried to write something funny just now it came out like something that would be put in an angsty teen magazine if those actually exist, which I hope they don't. It's never easy to go up in front of people and talk about life and how it's funny because not everyone is going to appreciate your humor. Plus, there is also the problem of figuring out your comedic timing. If you said something completely odd at the wrong time people might just stare at you and thats when they cue the recording of crickets. The idea of failure in general is a scary one, so I give him a lot of credit for being able to do what he does because failing when trying to be funny is an easy thing to do. However, if you look at it this way we all have weird/funny things about us that we might not always be willing to share but if we did people would laugh and be able to relate. Therefore, you really can't fail when you're trying to connect with people through humor because everyone has embarrassing times. And if you do fail at getting these people to laugh at your comedy then at least you have their reactions of your failure to add to your next comedic performance.
ReplyDeleteThe reason comedians are so funny to me is that they can just ramble on about a simple subjects for minutes. I think they come up with things before time and just stretch it out which makes it funnier. Also when they use facial expressions and body motions it makes the act so much more alive and easier to connect with the audience. Things that comedians say are just normal sentences but things that most people wouldnt think to say. Specifically for him, he appears very comfortable in front of people. Most likely he has had a ton of experience with it. When he talks he just flows and each sentence that comes out of his mouth is funny. I dont understand how he makes it look so easy because for a normal person saying things funny isnt usually very easy. I think if anything comedy is probably one of the easiest and best ways to connect with audiences or even other people in a conversation.
ReplyDeleteI believe Jim Gaffigan can do what others can't because of his level of confidence and his strong ego. Unlike many people, I feel like Jim Gaffigan as well as the majority of comedians don't necessarily care about other peoples opinions on them. This allows them to go up on stage and make fools out of themselves in a care free manner. I also believe that comedians are born with excellent people skills that not all of us are born with. These people skills allow the comedian to connect with his or hers viewer through comedy, which is something that almost every human being enjoys. Humor is something that can bring people closer together which creates bonding experiences. I feel like when I am watching Jim Gaffigan on stage, I am watching him bond with his audience. People need to be like comedians such as Jim Gaffigan in the sense that people need to not worry so much about their appearance and presentation and worry more on connecting with other people through universal communication techniques such as humor.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I have never understood is earrings. I get all other types of jewlarey except for earrings. Who thought it would be a good idea to take a needle and stab it through their skin, and then put metal into that hole they have just created. It makes no sense. not to mention it kind of hurts. And what i totally do not understand are those people that have multiple face piercings, because really why do you need a metal bar through your nose. You arent a cow that someone needs to pull around. Also do you ever wonder what happens when the person with the bolt through their nose dose when they have a cold? Do they just polish their bolt after every sneeze cause that could get gross if they didnt. Maybe they just take it out during those days when they have a cold. BUt then they just have this massive hole connecting the two sides of their nose. This is just getting to complicated.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Jim Gaffigan has a gift. Each human being has different gifts. The gift that Jim Gaffigan was giving was the ability to stand up in front of a lot of people and make them laugh. Many obstacles hold people back from getting up on stage and preforming. One major obstacle in my opinion is that we are scared of doing it. Preforming on stage in front of hundreds or thousands of people is very nerve racking. What if we mess up? We fear that people will judge us if we stand up and fail. Many people fear public speaking more then death. It is very impressive that Jim can do what he does. Not many people can get up in front of a crowd and do what he does. He truly has a skill and is a very comedian.
ReplyDeleteIt's true that a large part of being a successful comedian is knowing what you're doing. I'm sure Jim Gaffigan rehearses his skits many times before actually going out and doing them. You have to have good stage presence and confidence in order to be well received. People have to know you are there and hear your voice, you can't just go out and stammer the whole time. There is also the issue of the content you cover and delivery of the punchlines. I don't think just anyone can be a good comedian if they want to. Simply put some people are born with a good sense of humor and others aren't. So if you have a good sense of humor, with the right amount of practice it's possible you could succeed in being a stand up comedian. If you lack a natural sense of humor you may as well not try.
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ReplyDeleteSo, what’s up with this airline food, just kidding. Attending school in 6th grade, I was a bit chubby, if you will. I don’t like to talk about it too much, but we comedians tend to share our most embarrassing life stories, ones about being so nervous they would urinate in their pants, with complete strangers. Now before I start, I must tell you one thing that pertains to the story. I’m not bulimic. So it’s 6th grade and I’m pretty chubby, clearly just because I was short. If I were taller, I would have been just like every other regular sized person. So I’m not feeling to well one day and I go to the nurse, my stomach contracting within me, to tell her I need to go home. My mom comes and gets me and we go home. We get home and I’m just sitting. Waiting, I knew how I felt and what was to come, and right as I thought about this, I said this “blleeuughhrueugh”. I think you all know what happened. I had thrown up. My mom, pity covering her face, told me I had a stomach virus, and that I just needed to wait until it passed. I waited. I waited about 4 days. I got up from my deathbed and went into the bathroom, and to my surprise I was skinny. The people at my school were astonished I had lost so much weight. And that’s my weight loss story, one filled with my agony. Take that weight watchers.
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