Guten tag, mein freunde!
If any of you are wondering why I
put the entry number in my titles, it’s so I can remember how many entries I’ve
made aside from my introduction. I’m bad with numbers.
Also, my titles are funny. LAUGH.
Anyway, hopefully this entry won’t be as weak
as my last one. Admittedly, I sort of did that one to do it. But, this one
actually has a point, so hang tight.
It’s
just like me that only after we talk about comedy, I think of something to
write about comedy. When Stephen Colbert (pronounced Coal-bear for anyone not
familiar with him) and John Stewart were mentioned as “the voice of the news”,
that seemed to stew in my head for the majority of the class. So much so that I
wrote it down with four question marks.
Now,
I’m a huge fan of The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight (with John Oliver), The
Colbert Report, and other shows like it. I would much rather watch them than
the actual news. But, lately I’ve been wondering why I’d rather listen to news
as a joke than news as news.
I’ve
met people who chalk that up to immaturity on my part and that I’m not *~*grown up*~* enough to understand the
news, and they might be right there. But, I really think I’m not the only one
who receives information better when it’s entertaining.
I’m very easily distracted by the
smallest of things. I mean, right now I have the “Goodbye Moonmen” song from Rick and Morty stuck in my head while I’m
trying to write. Stephen Colbert and the rest explain things in ways I can
understand, and I like to listen to them talk because I know that under the
jokes and prods they are very smart individuals. Just because they joke around
about Ferguson and police brutality doesn’t mean they’re taking it for granted.
In fact, in their jokes they’re trying to communicate how disgusting the reality
of police brutality is.
Colbert, Stewart, Oliver and others
are comedians. Their job doesn’t depend on stepping on as little toes as
possible. They are free to say what they think and feel because being a
comedian gives you that freedom. Other news outlets are driven by focus groups
and viewership numbers. Fox News talks about the right side of issues ‘cause that’s
who their viewership is made of; same with CNN and the left.
Comedy news shows also comment on
news outlets after they’ve broadcasted, and hindsight is 20/20. That’s why they
wait until the evening to pick apart MSNBC and CNN and the like. Comedy is usually
derived from hindsight, and that’s why it’s so easy to make fun of Alex Jones. Jones’s
show is often live, and the stuff he says without a script is freaking insane
sometimes. It’s so easy to find comedy in the news, and Colbert is just tearing
it out and showing it to us.
I don’t think we give comedians enough
credit. They are very smart people who choose to show their intelligence by way
of making us laugh. They have been given a platform to say what they truly
think, and we listen. Comedy is a force to be dealt with when it comes to
informing the public, and Colbert and others have seized that force by the
horns and used it to create awareness. Even if you don’t like them, you’re
still listening to them and they’re still making an impact on you.
Selāh.
With that, I’ll wrap this up. I
really suggest you watch The Daily Show or the Colbert Report, or Last Week
Tonight. On top of being really informative, it’s hilarious!
Until then, I leave you with a
bunch of Stephen Colbert gifs:
ReplyDeleteShelby, you wrote the phrase "Just because they joke around about Ferguson and police brutality doesn’t mean they’re taking it for granted. In fact, in their jokes they’re trying to communicate how disgusting the reality of police brutality is."
At first I didn't think much of it, but I was reading Heretics Chapter 16 On Mr McCade and Divine Frivolity (I've literally been trying to finish the book all summer) and the one thing G. K. Chesterton begins the chapter with really coincides with what you said. He starts by quoting someone who asked him to quit joking on very serious matters, to which he replies "About what other subjects can one make jokes except serious subjects?".
Chesterton noted that people talk more seriously about "-golf, tobacco, and waistcoats" but that the oldest jokes in the books are dreadful things such as "-being married, being Hanged."
When we watch the news and see something horrific, we tend to gasp but then later kinda "eh, bummer" it. When I see Colbert making jokes of serious things, my first thought isn't that he shouldn't, but that he really should. Somehow, through a joke, he manages to make the ordeal more serious, and more sincere. I realize he is making a joke out of it, but he's given humor to it, he's put humanity in it. Colbert addresses every side because he has to to make the joke work. A joke can't work unless you understand every side to the story, otherwise it'll fall right through.
The last paragraph of G.K Chestertons chapter has a quote that I think sums it up nicely.
"He ought himself to be importing humor into every controversy: for unless a man is in part a humorist, he is only in part a man."
I don't know if you think this has any relevancy to your post, but its what I thought of when I read it :)
Ah, cool! I didn't make that connection. :3
DeleteI really liked how you mentioned that comedians are very intelligent people.(well these comedians anyway) Comedy is one of the most difficult shows to pull off, and to make world news and events funny, has got to be quite the process.
ReplyDelete