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Many of these suggestions were given by comedians, but because they’re comedians, they might just be joking as well (ba-dum-tishhh!)

For this week, I attempted to watch the comedy special Biswa Mast Aadmi on amazon prime. Biswa and Kanan Gill would do Pretentious Movie Reviews of Bollywood Movies on youtube together, but now they seem to work more independently. They were both very humorous in their short youtube videos, pointing out all the absurd aspects in Indian movies (like the impossible fight scenes where people are flying). However, watching Biswa’s own comedy act was not as enjoyable as expected. Biswa is this lean man that did IT (I think) and has thin, black glasses. Clothes hang loosely off him. In the future, he looks like he could be the CEO of a tech company if he wanted to:

Instead, he’s a comedian. He talks about bugs bursting into God, and speaks in a dialect of Hindi that’s known for the roughhousers, or gangsters of the village. Tapori, it’s called. And he frequently starts laughing at his own jokes. 

There were some funny insights and joke in his piece. He talks about how he doesn’t trust ants because, like in the old stories of Indian times, if you murder someone or treat someone badly, poof! they will burst into God and God will tell them: This is a test and you failed. He talks about forging his father’s signature because it was cool to have a good signature in school, and getting beat up for it. He talks about being introduced to weed by a rock band, and finally understanding Hotel California because he could see the Hotel. 

But he wasn’t as funny as I'd expected, and there are a few reasons that I think this is the case. First, he is a very thin man that looks a little nerdy--you wouldn’t expect him to speak in Tapori, a language for roughhousers and gangster. It’s a very overconfident language.  Secondly, my cousin suggested that it’s weird that he laughs so much at his own jokes. I suggested he was stoned. Third--it just wasn’t super funny! I don’t know what it was about it--it was amusing, but it wasn’t always funny. 

I think his style of language didn’t match how he physically looked, and that was a bit offputting. I know that comedy is an act, or staged, but it can’t be inauthentic. We talked about matching what you say to your image--like if John Mulaney cursed a lot, it wouldn’t seem right. That’s what it felt like here.

Note 1: I like watching videos in class because we’re actually interacting with comedy, instead of just reading articles about it. When I think of comedy, I usually think of something visual (though good literature can make me laugh too!) I’m glad we could find the History of Comedy videos!

Note 2: It would be fun to be assigned to watch a humorous TV show, or a humorous text for the course. One of my friends actually brought up The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which is something you shared in class too.

Note #3: I am already mentally planning on what to say for if I do stand-up comedy. I’m excited about it! 

Note #4: Writing humor is hard. Do people have to have a knack for it--do people have to be naturally funny, or do you think it can be an acquired skill? We might have touched on this a bit. 

Note #5: Greeting card humor is fun. Check it out: 

https://www.hallmark.com/cards/greeting-cards/swim-cap-ladies-funny-birthday-card-299HBD2411.html

https://www.hallmark.com/cards/greeting-cards/holding-it-funny-birthday-card-from-us-369ZZB8154.html

https://www.hallmark.com/cards/greeting-cards/full-of-surprises-appreciation-card-for-brother-369ZZB8237.html

Note #6: Let’s find a way to get connected to comedy in Lawrence, or even KC!

I like humor, especially when it’s threaded into something else. Jane the Virgin, for example, has the thread of humor involved in it, along with some heart-stopping moments in it. I mean, the premise of the show is that Jane was accidentally artificially inseminated by the sister of the guy who’s sperm she was given--and he happened to be her boss. How could it not be funny?

Originally, I was going to pick Vir Das for my second paper, but the pieces I was thinking about referencing don’t have a necessarily argumentative stance like the paper asks for. Trevor Noah would have been a good fit here, but so can Hasan Minhaj.

Check out Michael Chabon’s The Lost World. I can’t remember if his work is humorous, but it’s good. I honestly enjoy it. https://courseware.ku.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-7004062-dt-content-rid-25615015_1/courses/4189-24010/4182-58920_ImportedContent_20180116091540/Chabon_The%20Lost%20World.pdf