4 Bad Cups
In Grace's lead blog post, she explored strangeness and absurdity in humor. The video clip, 4 Bad Cups, a man seemingly drinks water and three other unusual substances in a taste test. There is a definite lack of context to the video, which contributes to its absurdity. The viewer cannot tell where he is or why he is drinking four unknown drinks. If he does not know what's in the cups who poured them? How did they get there? Who knows. All of these factors contribute to any humor that may be perceived past bewilderment.
As Grace pointed out, superiority fits this clip well. As children we are all taught not to put just anything in our mouths. So this man drinking a mystery substance for little to no perceivable reason would be an obvious bad idea to most people. Therefore, superiority can be found in this situation. Additionally when he drinks the third cup of "hot water" (which is probably coffee) he gags before announcing it "tastes good". Superiority theory can be used here as well because we know not to drink a hot beverage, because it is going to hurt.
Because of the repetitiveness of the video, the viewer comes to expect by the third and fourth cups that the reaction is going to be gagging and an unpleasant feeling. Superiority can be seen again in the fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me mentality. The man in the video doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes.
This video has a large amount of incongruities. Unlike any usual Youtube blind taste-test you never find out what the substances are, never see the person's face, and have no context for the situation. All of this begs the question: was this clip odd on purpose for laughs and views, or was this clip sincere? I lean toward the video being a very odd attempt at comedy. Because you never see the man's face, it is possible that he does not actually drink glue or the other substances and instead pours some on the table and makes gagging sounds.
As Grace pointed out, superiority fits this clip well. As children we are all taught not to put just anything in our mouths. So this man drinking a mystery substance for little to no perceivable reason would be an obvious bad idea to most people. Therefore, superiority can be found in this situation. Additionally when he drinks the third cup of "hot water" (which is probably coffee) he gags before announcing it "tastes good". Superiority theory can be used here as well because we know not to drink a hot beverage, because it is going to hurt.
Because of the repetitiveness of the video, the viewer comes to expect by the third and fourth cups that the reaction is going to be gagging and an unpleasant feeling. Superiority can be seen again in the fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me mentality. The man in the video doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes.
This video has a large amount of incongruities. Unlike any usual Youtube blind taste-test you never find out what the substances are, never see the person's face, and have no context for the situation. All of this begs the question: was this clip odd on purpose for laughs and views, or was this clip sincere? I lean toward the video being a very odd attempt at comedy. Because you never see the man's face, it is possible that he does not actually drink glue or the other substances and instead pours some on the table and makes gagging sounds.
I agree that the man in this video probably did this as a form of bizarre humor. As you mentioned, people are taught not to do stuff like this at a young age so why would someone do this. I also agree that the fact that he did not show his face indicates that he did not actually drink the liquids.
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