Responce to lead blogger Alex "Friends"
Shockingly, I am one of the few who has not seen the beloved show Friends. In Alex's blog post she does an admirable job with not only describing the show but explaining how the humor in the show works. It seems as if certain characters possess different aspects of humor. The superiority theory, relief theory, and incongruity theory are all well explained in Alex's blog and she gives examples of each type and how they are portrayed by each character. I decided to take it upon myself and do some further research into the show. This gave me a better understanding of how different characters portrayed different styles of humor. In particular, I decided to look into the incongruity theory and the examples given along with the character Phoebe. I understand that the incongruity theory helps us to understand why we find bizarre connections and interactions among people humorous. While watching a Friends episode I came across a quote from Phoebe and Ross.
Ross “Okay I know what you two were going to say”
Phoebe “You two would have very hairy children”
This was an unexpected thing for Phoebe to say at this particular moment because the tone of the conversation was more serious. The incongruity theory applies here because one might have expected that Phoebe would be more sensitive to Ross, however instead she changes the whole tone of the conversation. She makes her bizarre comment which in return makes the viewer laugh.
Overall I think that Alex's example of the show successfully examines each type of humor in a way that makes it easy to understand. After reading this post I feel inspired to go and watch Friends for myself.
Does Alex's post help you see yourself liking the show? Why is it that you resisted it or just didn't get into it when many others were participating in the revival?
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to see if without watching the show, Alex's post helped you understand the general personality of the characters she described and whether or not you could relate to any of them.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting that after watching an episode of Friends you can already tell that Phoebe's character relates to the incongruity theory, which I would say is true after having watched numerous episodes of the show. Her comments are always random and very unrelated to what you would expect her to say, making it a perfect example of the incongruity theory.
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