Hamster outbreak phonograph

Why is randomness funny?

BEN POGGEMILLER STAFF

It looks as if unpredictability has become cool. Lately it seems that an increasing amount of movies, television shows and commercials have opted for a cheaper form of entertainment: surprise. The most obvious example is Fox’s Family Guy. While the show is funny, it is based on unpredictability and surprise. While the formula worked well for its first few seasons, the principle has begun to wear thin. By shocking the audience, Family Guy’s writers have no choice but to up the ante until the result is an incoherent mess, such is the case right now. Sadly, The Simpsons, once TV’s sharpest satire, has followed suit. Story and character have become secondary. Now, the story only serves as a vessel for the jokes. This onedimensional attitude serves up only cheap laughs and hinders rewatchability.

Such has not always been the case. Playwrights Oscar Wilde and William Shakespeare relied on their sharp wit and use of dramatic irony to create humorous situations. While not always laugh-out-loud funny, their comedic works are amusing in a more lasting way and have stood the test of time. Can the same be said for the episode of The Simpsons where Homer performs same-sex marriages out of his garage? Not likely. However, not all comedy must be intellectual.

Many shows have successfully combined smart and stupid humour in a way that doesn’t detriment either one. For example, the Monty Python troupe has managed to base an entire sketch around a deceased Norwegian blue parrot who may be “pining for the fjords.” Another example is Seinfeld, the only show that proudly claims that it is about nothing. In the fourth season, there were even a series of episodes in which Jerry and George try to write a show about nothing. The Simpsons once used it in moderation, especially with that purple-monkey dishwasher remark. More recently,

the writing team of actor Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay have come up with a unique writing style that uses stupidity in a clever way (Anchorman, Talladega Nights and the upcoming Step Brothers). Their formula works so well because it allows room for improvisation, so the audience has no idea what to expect, but in a good way. Christopher Guest has also managed to harness the power of improvisation with his brilliant series of mockumentaries, including Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind. This type of comedy prevails because the actors create an entire persona to work from, allowing the jokes to evolve naturally, making the dialogue feel like a real conversation. Shows like Family Guy and the new version of The Simpsons are, as John Madden would say, “trying to force the play.” It’s difficult to meticulously write something that is supposed to come off as spontaneous.

It seems the future of comedy rests on finding a healthy balance between intellectual and slob humour. I love both and besides, who am I to deny the human torch a bank loan?