Essay 1 Proposal

For my first essay I am going to write about the benefits of laughter that is talked about in the book Laughing Matters. The purpose of this is to let the reader know that there are actual physical benefits from laughter not just feeling good. They have even done studies that show that laughter raised peoples pain thresholds, it causes an endorphin rush and can even cause people to have healthier immune systems. The author hopes to get people to realize this and have laughter become part of their life every single day. The audience for this piece is everybody. It doesn't matter if your young or old, laughter can help to improve everybody's life. The writer seems trustworthy because he gives us stories of actual studies they have done and cases where laughter really has been a good medicine for some people. By seeing it work for other people it makes us trust the author and know that they are not making it up.

Response #2

The beginning of Chapter 2 in Comedy Writing Secrets really intrigued me. It talks about the reasons why we laugh. Psychologist Patricia Keith-Spiegel identified two specific reasons for why we laugh. They are that we laugh out of surprise and that we laugh when we feel superior. This really interested me because as much as I laugh everyday I never really stop to think about why I am laughing. When things surprise you and are funny it usually causes the most laughter. Surprise is one of the most widely accepted formulas for humor. For example, a joke is like a story and a surprise ending is like a finale. If you knew what was going to happen in the end of the story you would not enjoy it as much. I completely agree with this. In this section they refer to the construction of jokes in baseball terms, which I found very interesting since I play softball. They say, “A joke is a curve ball- a pitch that bends at the last instant and fools the batter. You throw a perfectly straight line at the audience and then, right at the end, you curve it. Good jokes do just that.” I can completely relate to this example that Burrrows gives. It can really help you to understand how surprise is a key element to why we laugh.
The second reason to why we laugh is the feeling of superiority. Many people use humor to make them feel better about themselves. If they are feeling insecure and make jokes about someone who they feel is superior to them, they feel better about themselves. Many jokes are made at someone else’s expense. Most people do not realize that some jokes can really harm others. Just because it is funny does not mean that it is right. I think some people cross the line with this kind of humor. While some are able to laugh it off, some people are not able to and humor should never make anybody feel bad. I believe that most of our society enjoys this kind of humor, including myself. Comedians are always making fun of stereotypes of certain races like Irish, German and Mexican and people find this very funny because a lot of times it is entirely true. There are two different ways to feel superior. The first is to accomplish fantastic work that receives public acclaim. This is very difficult and most people do not use this so they resort to the second way, which is to publicly criticize the accomplishments of others. This is the type that is much more commonly used by most comedians.
I believe that this is important because if you know the reasons why people laugh then you are more likely to e successful in being funny yourself. If you know what the people are looking for and how to make them laugh you will feel more accomplished with your jokes. There are some other additional reasons as to why people laugh and reading the rest of this book can really help you become a more humorous writer.
http://comedians.comedycentral.com/dane-cook/videos/dane-cook---peace-be-with-you
In this clip Dane Cook make fun of being in church. He uses the feeling of superiority to make people laugh by making jokes about what he went through when he used to go to mass. He makes fun of someone who is of higher authority then himself, namely the priest. I choose this clip because it relates to the authors reasons to why we laugh.

Reading 1-Chapter 1

Chapter One of Comedy Writing Secrets talks about how to become a better comedic writer. It is filled with tips and activities that you can do to become a better writer. There are also many quotes from comedians, some of which I know and some of which I do not. I learned that anybody can write with humor. Creativity is the key to humor and if you just put the work into it anybody can be funny. This made me feel a lot better because I am not one of the most outgoing funny people so knowing you don’t have to be that person to write comedy made me feel a lot more confident. They give you many tools to use to get your imagination going. One of the ones that I liked was the What If question. I am always thinking about random questions like what if my dog could talk? Even though not all of my thoughts are humorous, using this activity could get my imagination running and give me more ideas. I never thought about the benefits of humorous writing. I just thought it makes you feel good because you are making other people laugh. You can get more out of writing comedy then that. You can get respect, remembrance and rewards. I never really thought about all of the famous comedians and everything that they get and put in to their profession. They have to put in a lot of work to continuously come up with new material that the audience will enjoy, organize all of their ideas in a way people will understand and be able to perform their material in a funny way. I always thought it was so easy for them because that’s the way they make it look. This chapter made me think about all of the hard work that comedians have to do. Even though some of the material may come very easy to them it is not just about having funny jokes. You need to know who you are talking to because some people may take great offence to some jokes and will not find them funny.
In Laughing Matters they talk about how writing funny is a matter of perspective. This is very true. Something I find hilarious another person can find completely deranged and think it’s the most absurd thing in the world. There are so many different types of people in this world and it is not possible for everyone to think that a single one thing is funny. I think that this is a great thing. If everyone had similar thoughts and ideas it would be a very boring world. There are many different funny situations that happen in your life every single day and this is where many people get their material from. I believe that these real life situations are the funniest because most likely you have gone through a similar situation that you found hilarious as well. One of my favorite comedians is Dane Cook. He takes real life situations and makes them hilarious. You know exactly what he is talking about because most of it is entirely true. Many writers get their ideas from daydreaming. This is something all of us do and can use if we are trying to write humor. It may be something totally bizarre and a lot of people may not understand it but there will be someone out there who does and will crack up over it. At the end of this reading it gives us activities to do to help us to become better at writing humor. These activities will allow us to open up and get our thoughts on paper. I think these are very helpful.

Question: Are there any other benefits that come along with humor writing besides the ones mentioned in Comedy Writing Secrets?