Humor At It's Philosophical Finest!

This week's theme was Humor and it was a rather different topic because you wouldn't think a philosopher would have a sense of humor nor there would be anything philosophical about humor but there actually is. Critchley's article on Humor does highlight an interesting perspective on the different forms of humor and their inner workings. I chose to watch the movie South Park: Bigger Longer, Uncut and I must say it was just a bit much for me. It was shocking to a lot of the class that I had never seen the Hangover but what will floor you all is that I've never watched south park till now and I will dive into that. From the displaced anger in South Park to off the wall drunken mishaps in Hangover we can see the different ways we process and perceive humor; in the forms of Relief , Superiority, or Incongruity.

Watching Hangover was an experience I would have wanted to watch in a more personal setting because of how outrageous it was. I know that crazy things happen, from experience, but the degree in which they took that having a crazy getting wasted night was taken to the extreme. I didn't trust the socially awkward guy, I had a feeling he "Roofied" the alcohol. That could be the only explanation that would be to not remember such an insane night. I saw examples of Reactionary Humor, from Critchley's piece; like the humor made from the cool guy in the group about the socially awkward brother of the bride. The other guys didn't want to make a mockery of him but it was so funny in which he laughed at himself. Everything from the Asian man in the trunk of the car, the random baby in the closet, and to the robbery of Mike Tyson's tiger was plays on different forms of humor like Dark humor, laughing at an eerie gloomy situation and isn't socially acceptable.

In viewing South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, that was quite a watch. I wasn't allowed to watch cartoons like South Park because I came from a strong christian background where they are heavily indoctrinated. Watching things like South Park would corrupt youth and create evil in the world, the children's innocence should be kept and exposure to negativity kept at a low. When I sat down to watch it and began to realize it had the same inappropriate, provocative, and obscene things I was warned about however I could view it because I'm an adult now. Knowing back in 1999, so many children were watching this and their parents were just okay with it.

 It was extremely hilarious from the crazy sing-a-longs, the MAC instigated war on Canada, and the coming back of Satan. I finally get the "Who killed Kenny" reference! There were so many references to the Common and Uncommon Sense  part of Crichley's piece. The bases of the angry parents motivation for war on Canada came from a racist and misplaced place. They should have been parenting their children instead of taking out adult content that wasn't rated for children in the first place. From there the silly adult cartoon got turned upside down on its head when Kenny came back with Satan and Saddam.

The funny thing in particular about this week's theme was the Sunday before class I had a humorous conversation with someone about my major because they felt as if it s useless. I felt obliged to show him otherwise. I, from a combination of Philosophy classes, showed how a Philosopher is the best person for the job and have all the necessary skills to tackle the problem of thinking outside the box. I also reduced him down to an contingent and unnecessary in the big grand scheme of things and laughed at him out of Superiority because he left like existence was pointless after that. I didn't mean to belittle him so but who says a philosopher can't be funny.