Lead Blog Post: Buddy the Elf

Okay, So I know it's not Christmas yet but that doesn't matter. I am writing this post on the beloved movie, Elf. This movie isn't just a Christmas movie and in my opinion, it holds relevance year round. If you've never seen the movie elf before then I will provide you with a little background information. The main character in Elf is named Buddy and he is raised in the north pole by Santa's elves. One night Buddy successfully sneaks into Santa's bag when he is delivering presents and he ends up at the North Pole. The movie is based around Buddy traveling to New York to find his long lost Dad. Through buddy's endeavors, he experiences many obstacles that are hysterical and you can't help but to just feel a little sorry for him. I have linked a scene that I think give the best idea of what Buddy’s personality is like.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-C0Av5ICYw

This movie can be described best using the superiority theory, which we all the meaning of by now. In the particular scenes, I linked above Buddy is traveling through the forest when he comes across an angry raccoon. He decides to approach the raccoon and says,

“Hey what's your name?”

“My names Buddy”

The raccoon then fiercely hisses at Buddy and it startles him. Buddy then says “Does someone need a hug?”. As he bends down to give the raccoon a hug Buddy gets attacked. The superiority relates to this because most of us would know not to approach a wild animal in the manner that Buddy did. Therefore, this gives us a sense of superiority over Buddy’s naive actions.

In another example, Buddy goes to work with his Dad and he answers the phone saying, “Buddy the Elf what's your favorite color?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL9ReZ91Y8g

This is funny because most of us would not answer the phone in this way, however, because of Buddy's childish personality we think this is funny. One thing I would like to address in the superiority theory is that Hobbes puts too much emphasis on the eminence that one feels over someone. He does not account for the fact that a joke can just be funny without these negative feelings attached. Yes, we do feel superior over Buddy in this situation, however, I would compare it to a mom laughing at a little kid. We are laughing because Buddy is naive enough to approach a wild animal and answer the phone in a childish way, not because we feel we are trying to achieve of quality of being better than him.

Overall I think that this movie gives good examples of how the superiority theory works and at the same time can also explain that we don't always laugh to obtain a feeling of hatred or guilt over someone. A joke can be funny for the mere pleasure of laughing. Elf is a classic and if you have never seen it before you should definitely add it to your must-watch Christmas movies for the upcoming month.