Comedy #2

3) http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=GVRL&userGroupName=mlin_m_brookhs&tabID=T003&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=2&contentSet=GALE%7CCX3490201960&&docId=GALE|CX3490201960&docType=GALE

One of the more entertaining things about Seinfeld, as I mentioned in the previous blog post and as Nicholaus Mills mentioned in this article, is that you could always count on the character's of the show to be consistently politically incorrect. George got in a fight with a "bubble boy" over a card game and Kramer got beat up because he stubbornly refused to wear a ribbon during an AIDS walk. The characters were so consistently unpleasant and grimy that the viewer couldn't help but find it downright hilarious. Larry David, a creator and executive producer of Seinfeld, created and stars in Curb Your Enthusiasm on HBO. Similarly, there isn't too much of a premise, but since it is on HBO, every bad thing characters did on Seinfeld pales in comparison to David's shenanigans on his new show, on which he plays himself.

4) http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=GVRL&userGroupName=mlin_m_brookhs&tabID=T003&searchId=R2&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=2&contentSet=GALE%7CCX3409002262&&docId=GALE|CX3409002262&docType=GALE

Sitcoms present an almost real-life television program that morphed into a comedy. For writers of them, they are outlets to poke fun at pressing social issues of the times, making amusing things that are often otherwise serious. Many of the situations posed to characters of sitcoms seem to paint characters as regular people who happen to be extremely quick and witty. Also, according to the "live studio audience," every viewer at home is an unnecessarily harsh judge of humor and should laugh as hard as the audience does at every subtle quip. I find it interesting that into the 1960's, as the US became more committed and heavily involved in a war in Vietnam, TV viewers "found solace in the hayseed humor of sitcoms," according to the article, as sitcoms dominated the ratings. On a different note, I'd be curious to watch those old sitcoms from as far back as the 50s as well as from slightly more recently (like Sanford and Son or MASH) to see if the humor is anything close to that of sitcoms today.

5) http://www.nerdist.com/2012/09/demetri-martin-the-man-the-myth-the-standup-comedian/

In this blog post/interview, Demetri Martin refers to each one-liner joke as a puzzle, and that is an idea that intrigues me. I like Demetri Martin's stand-up because he is really random and all over the place. His specials (that I have seen) are full of randomly witty one-liners that are subtly very funny. Everything I've seen him do is very blunt and frank, and Martin delivers those jokes with a weirdly straight face and without too much emotion or intonation. Something interesting about Martin's comedy is that he often uses drawings and/or large notepads of paper as props to his comedy, which is surprisingly not overdone and boring. In fact, Martin has a book coming out that is only drawings with short captions, called Point Your Face at This. I hope that, when it comes out, I'll have the opportunity to direction my face in its direction and read it.

6) http://www.indecisionforever.com/blog/2012/10/01/romneys-debate-strategy-plus-big-predictions

This blog post from Comedy Central's Indecision blog regarding the upcoming presidential election discusses things Mitt Romney will and will not say at the upcoming debate on Wednesday. All of them fall into a certain number of categories: 1) The downright absurd, 2) The would immediately ruin a campaign, or 3) Some combination of the first two. This blog is associated with the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which is one of my favorite TV shows to watch. Personally, I'm interested in politics and in the upcoming election and the idea of taking relevant political information and turning it into random humor is a very intriguing one. While he does have a liberal bias and therefore is more inclined to take digs at Romney than at Obama, I think that Jon Stewart does a good job calling Obama and his administration on their mistakes. While his show is definitely left-leaning, Stewart acknowledges that neither side is guilt free and (as a liberally-biased viewer) I appreciate that Stewart doesn't hold back.