March 31, 2015 - 03:50
I was really drawn to Joseph Meeker's Comedy of Survival. I found it really interesting that Meeker described comedy as a way of demonstrating that "man is durable even though he may be weak, stupid, and undignified." I started to think about why I have had this weird feeling about comedy. It's gotten harder as I've gotten older to view typical "comedy" films and tv shows as "funny," I don't laugh as much as I used to. But, I found it interesting how in the excerpt of Meeker's book, I don't see him actually suggest that comedy has to be "funny." In his description of comedy as "muddling through" to achieve temporary success and as a way to "affirm man's capacity for survival," I couldn't help but relate these feelings to what I have many times throughout my education. Cramming for tests, skimming papers, forgetting to eat, getting the bare minimum amount of sleep to get through midterms/finals, crying, etc. just to only have it end. Then start again.
I think for this paper I'd want to write about the comedy of the college student and incorporate some type of visual that documents the life of a student: stop-motion, slideshow of students at differing states of emotion in varying times of day, if possible.