Comedy is an element that surrounds us in our everyday lives, and is a very powerful tool in the media today. There are certain characteristics that determine whether a joke is funny, one of them being how the joke is told. One question to consider is the impact of comedy in media, based on how it is shown through television. In a video clip called “The Curious Case of Flight 370”, John Stewart uses humor techniques to critique CNN’s coverage on the topic and tries convincing the audience how CNN tweaks events for a better rating (“The Curious Case of Flight 370”). Similarly, in Samantha Bee’s video, “Trump Can’t Read”, she uses humor to exaggerate how Donald Trump avoids reading at all costs, which implies that he is unable to read. Both of
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He showed how there was no information on how the Malaysia Airline 370 disappeared, but at the same time CNN tried to fill the news with information that was almost meaningless. In the video, Stewart states, “With everything in their bag of tricks; giant floor maps, big fake airplanes, little fake airplanes, holographic airplanes, and no airplane detail left unspoken” (“The Curious Case of Flight 370”). As a joke, Stewart stated that if the public wanted to know more details about an airplane, they could just simply go and look outside an airport window (“The Curious Case of Flight 370”). He creates humor out of CNN’s attempt cover the topic, and one strategy that he uses is the “benign violation theory”, introduced by Peter McGraw (McGraw 133). The “benign violation theory” explains how in order for a joke to be funny, it must fall in a sweet spot between “benign” and “violation” (McGraw 133). Stewart’s strategies support this theory because he doesn’t target CNN in very harmful or violating way, and instead uses the laughter to lighten it up. In one example Stewart mentions a theory that CNN proposed which suggests how they should use a psychic to determine what happened to the plane. Jokingly Stewart commented, “Because in order to catch a plane, you must become a plane” and provided a visual with a psychic with airplane wings as arms (“The Curious Case of Flight
He showed how there was no information on how the Malaysia Airline 370 disappeared, but at the same time CNN tried to fill the news with information that was almost meaningless. In the video, Stewart states, “With everything in their bag of tricks; giant floor maps, big fake airplanes, little fake airplanes, holographic airplanes, and no airplane detail left unspoken” (“The Curious Case of Flight 370”). As a joke, Stewart stated that if the public wanted to know more details about an airplane, they could just simply go and look outside an airport window (“The Curious Case of Flight 370”). He creates humor out of CNN’s attempt cover the topic, and one strategy that he uses is the “benign violation theory”, introduced by Peter McGraw (McGraw 133). The “benign violation theory” explains how in order for a joke to be funny, it must fall in a sweet spot between “benign” and “violation” (McGraw 133). Stewart’s strategies support this theory because he doesn’t target CNN in very harmful or violating way, and instead uses the laughter to lighten it up. In one example Stewart mentions a theory that CNN proposed which suggests how they should use a psychic to determine what happened to the plane. Jokingly Stewart commented, “Because in order to catch a plane, you must become a plane” and provided a visual with a psychic with airplane wings as arms (“The Curious Case of Flight