process blog

This Sesame Street clip utilizes absurdity to teach a lesson through humor. The viewer is taught that they are a bad person if they make a promise and do not commit to it. The puppets that waited for Elmo were subjected to the trials of time, waiting endlessly on Elmo to appear for the sake of playing with them. Elmo did not only make them wait, he asked them to wait by a tree, which was sentient and moved because the waiting puppets bored it.

As I read “Why Women Aren’t Funny” by Christopher Hitchens, it opened my eyes to the way humor is lead by cultural values.

I simply do not agree with Hitchens’ argument that women are not as funny as men due to biological differences. It is such a heavily cisgendered view of humor. I believe we are conditioned from childhood to perceive men as funnier.

The argument that men are funny to impress women as some sort of mating ritual is interesting, but again, I do not find it to be true. There are many qualities that people search for in a lover, but being funny is not always the main reason why anyone would begin to date someone.