Age Of Information: Not Intelligence

We live in an age of information, but not intelligence; where speed means more than diligence. Do this, get that, eat this, get fat. We wonder why the world is the way that it is and it's because our obsession with doing things faster and "better" has stolen the meaning of dedication and we have replaced honor with fame. We care more if people remember our name than if they live or die. The idea of independence is covered with the idea of security and freedom is valued under safety.
This forces us to think like fake people. Real people struggle with reality and the crushing pain that reality brings. Real people struggle with knowing that there is no way to know everything. Real people, well real people struggle with themselves. Society will say one thing, someone will say something else; then people are left to struggle with discerning what is true.

In this video CollegeHumor shows an intellectual interrogation of religion and portrays it using humor. I feel like if more people were to watch this it would help them to see that it’s not about what you say so much as it is how you say it. I wish there were videos like this for all things in life. What do you think about living in an age of information but not intelligence? How do you feel about real people? What do you think of this video?

Mocking Racism

The idea of mocking racism is one that makes me personally chuckle. In Chad’s post he poses the questions: “Do you think that mocking racism is appropriate? How much do you hate Tosh.O?” To answer the first question I first have to interrogate the word appropriate. I think that when it comes to deciding what is appropriate a person has to look at venue, audience, and timing. If a person is in a setting in which some kind of race humor would be looked down upon then it is probably not appropriate. For example, if at a church that has a body of mixed races it would probably not be the kind of location where dropping a joke of any kind is acceptable let alone jokes that mock racism. However, if you are just chilling at home and you have some people over that is an acceptable venue but you have to be mindful of who your house guests are. Given the perfect situation with the perfect audience, timing is still really important. In fact, it is important in two ways, when telling a joke the timing of the story or joke is really important but when making jokes that mock racism you have to keep in mind current events and make sure that you are not guilty of making a joke “too soon.” To answer Chad's second question: not very much, I don't exactly care about him either way.

Response to Alex's Blog

Alex's blog caused me to think about my childhood and how humorous parts of it were. She said that humor comes in all shapes and sizes and the story I want to share with the world is from when I weighed less than 60 pounds and first demonstrated leadership qualities. I was probably about six years old and I found myself hanging out with my two best friends at the time. The three of us were just boys being boys when I found myself in an unexpected situation. My mother had heard me say a naughty word that I was explicitly not allowed to say and I was to be punished.
I was obviously not correcting my behavior enough in response to spankings so she decided to be innovative and use a different punishment on me and make me be an example for my friends. She dragged me to the bathroom at the end of the hall with our audience keeping a close eye on what was going on and she grinned in victory as she took the bar of soap from the sink and handed it to me. She instructed me to put it in my mouth in order to wash the filth from it. Unfortunately for her parenting strategy, I was an attention-loving child with an audience. I took a bite of the soap. Not only did I take a bite of the soap but I proceeded to chew it up and blow bubbles. I apparently made it look so fun that my friends felt left out and so they tried to get their turn with the bar of soap. It was at that moment that my mom realized that she was going to have to strategize her punishments better for such a formidable opponent.

Comic Relief

When I was a little kid my parents would tell my big sister and I stories before we went to sleep. My dad would generally either read us a book or make up a story for us generally including us in the story whereas my mom would usually just tell us stories about life. One of my most vivid memories of a story that my mom told me was the story of her grandmother's funeral. It was hilarious.
I know that hilarity is rarely associated with death unless someone is talking about Weekend at Bernie’s but this story had something about it that really tickled me pink. That thing that really made me laugh is called comic relief, but at the time I didn’t know it. In the story my mom described the setting and told us all about this backwoods church and all of her relatives and her grandmother’s friends who were there; all dressed in black. She then went on to explain that her father, my grandfather, was one of the people who was expected to go up and speak. As he walked up onto the stage he discovered one of the fundamental laws of physics, Amontons' First Law: The force of friction is directly proportional to the applied load. To clarify, my grandfather slipped and fell on his ass. My mom said that this caused the room to enter an uproarious state of laughter and really helped to ease the mood.
In Elizabeth’s post she asked if I thought comic relief is necessary, which I have to say that I do think that, and she also asked if I think that all movies need it in order to be successful, which I have to say that I don’t. Life without comic relief would be life without peace, without calm, but a movie that lacks comic relief can easily still be successful. One has to keep in mind that comic relief implies that there is something to be relieved from so all of the successful slapstick style comedies don’t use comic relief they use other kinds of comedy. Dramas often abstain from using comic relief because it can lessen the serious tone of the film but that doesn’t mean it can’t still be successful. At the end of the day, comic relief is just like anything else; it has a time and a place.

In Response To Keyu

Racial stereotypes have the potential to be either fairly accurate to the race as a whole or only based on a minority of the population. A common Chinese racial stereotype is that they are very smart people who are driven and academically gifted. This stereotype really shows its head in Chinese comedy. I would describe this kind of comedy as dry and intellectual; the kind of humor that you have to think about to laugh at. While I think that I personally have a dry sense of humor at times I really don’t think that my personal sense of humor holds a candle to some of the Chinese comedy I have been exposed to.

The movie King of Comedy by Stephen Chow is a fairly complex example for all the reason’s Keyu explained in her blog. Based on her representation of Mr. Chow and his involvement with this film I agree with her assessment and even though I don’t find this film all that humorous I did think that it was a work of art. It did a good job showing me another culture and another life. Without doing a lot more research I cannot comment on much more than that where these things are concerned. What I can say is that American comedians and creators of comedies could learn a lot from this film, its creator, and the culture surrounding it. 

Vine

I procrastinated a lot when it came to writing this blog post due to the fact that I wasn't sure quite what to say. I think that vines can be funny but I think that the vast majority of them are a swing and a miss. Some people like to look at other people looking stupid but when it is in such an awkward way (at times) it makes it very hard for me to stay tuned. I myself have some such vines on my account wherein I look very awkwardly stupid and I leave them up there to remind myself not to get to prideful. Back to the point, Vine is an underdeveloped art form that usually misses the mark. When I want to waste hours of my time I have better things to do. In order to help illustrate my point I am going to share six things that are better for wasting hours than Vine.

1. Facebook - It helps me to see what my friends and family (those that use Facebook) are up to and it helps me to keep in touch with them. I can also use it to see what is going on in the world, find obscure things that people I know have recently found, and of course entertain myself by passive aggressively friending and un-friending people. Plus, it is a place I can go to complain.
2. Twitter - See Facebook*. (*replace friending with following and emphasize the complaining)
3. Television - Channel surfing and watching TV is a great way to waste a few hours. 
4. Netflix - In the modern era one of the best ways to consume visual media is to see if it is on Netflix. The appropriate response to finding things on Netflix that you would like to watch is to start binge watching those things.
5. Read a book - Although an antiquated activity that few people in my generation seem to do reading a book is an enjoyable pastime that might actually be good for you. If you choose the right book you can be not only entertained, but enthralled, for hours at a time. 
6. Poke someone - This might sound like it is an annoying thing to do but it isn't annoying to the person doing it. If you can keep at it for hours then that is impressive but if not, at least you are being social. 

My Favorite TV Oldie

Asking me if I have a favorite TV oldie is like asking me if I have a favorite book. There are simply too many for me to pick a favorite. Some of the older shows I really like are Three's Company, Home Improvement, and Married.. With Children. I know they are oldies because my parents enjoyed them but, that being said, they're not super innocent. Three's Company is about three young adults who live together and there are constant references to sex, tons of implied sexuality, and a load of physical humor. Even though this is very different than Home Improvement they share a couple of things. One of the main things that they share is references to sex. There is a good balance in Home Improvement between family values and adult references so that it is a good show for the whole family. Married.. With Children is not a good show for the whole family. It paints humanity in a terrible light as it shows the life of Al Bundy, women's shoe salesman, his kind of whorish wife with her cheetah print, and the two kids they had together. It is raunchy and cheap and hilarious to me and many other fans. So it is nothing other than the fact that I like the shows that I like that makes me enjoy these classic TV oldies.