Comedy blog - Chelsea Southworth

By page two of "The Importance of Being Earnest", I was already snickering to myself. The following interaction between Algernon and Lane stuck out immediately:
"Algernon: (Languidly) I don't know that I am much interested in your family life, Lane.
Lane: No, sir; it is not a very interesting subject. I never think of it myself."
This exchange just oozes sass and sarcasm; you can easily imagine a snooty rich boy casually dismissing his servant's life, and said servant solemnly agreeing while inwardly thinking to himself what a prick his master is. Clearly, Wilde is calling out the wealthy upper class on their lack of regard for their servants outside of "what can this man do for me."

The first example, being satirical in nature, is "high" comedy (which I enjoy completely), but "low" humor makes me laugh as well. On page four, Jack reaches out to get a sandwich, but Algy immediately stops him, saying, "Please don't touch the cucumber sandwiches. They are ordered specially for Aunt Augusta." Algy then eats one. This immediate disregard for his own words is what makes this part so humorous.



My sense of humor depends on the moment, but there are basically two options: wry and sarcastic, or so absolutely dumb that there should be no reason for me to laugh, yet I do. The slam poem "Fuck You Old People" is snark personified. The societal aspect they critique is obvious: adults who villainize our generation for issues they created (screwed up economy, special snowflake syndrome, "a hard-on for college education so throbbing it's practically pornographic", etc.); as the poets said, adults who do this "are not even robbing Peter and blaming Paul; they're robbing Peter, and blaming Peter." Sass follows sass as they absolutely slam people who blame young adults for all of the world's problems (the ending is killer, but I won't spoil it), and as they mock the mannerisms of these people (the old man who walked uphill both ways; the woman who understands, she's been there). It's just the most delightful mix of blunt honesty, seething anger, and biting snark.


An example of the second one is "none pizza with left beef", which originated in the following post

I do not know what makes this so funny; it's literally a pizza with nothing on it but beef, but only on the left side. Yet the very mention of "none pizza with left beef" starts me laughing; I think about this meme at least once a day and chuckle to myself. This is certainly "low" comedy, but, like a lot of the things I chuckle at on tumblr, I think much of what makes it amusing is more context than anything else. 

Citations:

Geiger, Tayler, Ben Tolkin, Andie Berry, and Sam Lai. “Fuck You Old People.” Youtube. 22 March 2014. Web. 8 March 2015.

Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest. Austin: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 2000. Print.