I Want It That Way
For her lead blog post, Rebecca analyzed a video from the show Brooklyn Nine-Nine. This clip is one of the funniest cold opens of the show. In the clip, the main character Jake is going through a line-up with a witness, who recalls hearing the suspect singing "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys. This clip gets its humor when Jake has all the suspects sing the song together, rather than continue the investigation in a more professional manner. As the video progresses, it becomes even more ridiculous as both Jake and the suspects get into it. When the fifth one gets has moment, the witness, who has been forgotten by the audience at that point, states "Number 5 killed my brother." This adds the final laugh for the audience as a metaphorical bucket of water is dumped on the sing along.
This clip heavily uses incongruity. Suspect line-ups and police investigations are very serious matters, so the audience does not expect such a quirky fun plot. Additionally, detectives and criminals are portrayed as being hard and serious on countless television cop shows, so it is unexpected to see a police detective and a line-up having fun with the song. As Rebecca pointed out, incongruity also arises from the mannerisms of Jake compared to the witness. While she stands somber in the face of her brother's killer, Jake is conducting a sing-along.
It is very interesting how Rebecca introduced a new multilayered theory of humor. It is true that the humor in making references cannot really be described with our previously discussed humor theories. I wonder how common making humorous entertainment references would have been a few centuries ago, when books were the number one way of telling these kinds of stories.
This clip heavily uses incongruity. Suspect line-ups and police investigations are very serious matters, so the audience does not expect such a quirky fun plot. Additionally, detectives and criminals are portrayed as being hard and serious on countless television cop shows, so it is unexpected to see a police detective and a line-up having fun with the song. As Rebecca pointed out, incongruity also arises from the mannerisms of Jake compared to the witness. While she stands somber in the face of her brother's killer, Jake is conducting a sing-along.
It is very interesting how Rebecca introduced a new multilayered theory of humor. It is true that the humor in making references cannot really be described with our previously discussed humor theories. I wonder how common making humorous entertainment references would have been a few centuries ago, when books were the number one way of telling these kinds of stories.
Do you think the theory that Rebecca introduced is similar to the incongruity theory? If so, in what ways is it similar and different? Is this new theory better than the incongruity theory?
ReplyDeleteI do not know if this exactly falls in line with humor, but maybe the use of allusions was how people made these kinds of references q couple of centuries ago. There are always so many allusions in older books that you read and when those books were published the people who read them probably understood the references.
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