Laughter 2: SB

In light of our recent spring break, I experienced many excessive laughter scenarios. During my break my, seven friends and I went to Crested Butte, Colorado for seven days. We experienced many times of laughter and happiness both while in our house and on the ski slopes.

For my second laughter situation I am going to focus on a certain conversation with all of my friends when we were talking about the hypothetical situation of a fight. A sticky situation of fight for a male is something that is not only undesirable but can also be nerve wracking especially when the opponent is bigger than yourself. We spoke about what we do if we were to come in contact with someone who is substantially bigger. At first we talked about the generic kicking and punching, but then we moved to more comical moves such as a swift kick to the happy place or a head butt.

As we walk down the main public road to our house, we continue on with the same conversation. Then all of a sudden one of the bigger guys of group, Addison, standing at 6’ 5” and weighing around three hundred pounds steps on some ice and slips. He lands straight on his back with his feet all the way up in the air. This was one of the funniest moments for me because that is probably the fastest I have seen him move in awhile. Lucky for us, we got the whole thing on tape.

The fact that we got the whole fall on tape makes the fall just that more memorable because now we can visit it whenever we wish. But this situation also highlights an example of the superiority theory of comedy; as we were specifically laughing at Addison because it was not happening to us. As we have studied, context also means a lot to comedy. In this situation, it was the most unexpected things that could have happened. What started out as a conversation surrounding fighting switched to complete laughter. The fact that he was so big, I believe, also had something to do with why it was so funny. In American culture, stereotypically, we seem to think that if the person is bigger, it may come off more funny. When looking at the global YouTube searches, “Fat Fails” receives almost twice the searches than that of regular “Fail” videos. It begs the question, why are we attracted to comedy with larger people incorporated in the joke? I believe this can also be an important aspect of the superiority theory. With most people surrounding me at TCU not being overweight, we seem to be laughing because we may not be as large as that specific person, which may make it more comical for us to watch. Overall, this situation that occurred on spring break is one that will forever be embedded in my memory, but it also offers insight into the superiority theory and what makes us truly burst out in laughter.

Conversation 3

Today I met with Brandon again for our third conversation. It’s interesting to see how we have begun to see each other more as friends rather than an assistant in an assignment that we are required to do. The conversations have started to be more casual and connected, as we now know the basic information of each other. We no longer need to ask one another where we are originally from or what year in school we are in. We actually are getting to know one another.

            This time in our conversation, we focused more on our travels and activities during the recently passed Spring Break. Brandon told me that he ended up returning to China because he wanted to see his family and friends. He said it was “nice to be around people again.” I asked him to clarify and he said that at TCU, he feels like it is a ghost town compared to the chaos he experiences on a daily basis. He touched on the fact that it was refreshing to get back to his Chinese roots and seeing some type of normality that doesn’t exist in Fort Worth. But this was not the highlight of his trip by any means. He stated that the most fun part was seeing his girlfriend of nine months. There was the biggest grin on his face, seemed like he really liked the girl. I then made the mistake of asking him when is the next time he will see his significant other. He said he won’t see her for another nine months, which is our next Christmas break... Even with this news that would tear most people in relationships to shreds, he still was optimistic and excited for the next time they see each other (DEDICATION EH?).

I was pretty over that relationship talk as soon as it started so I tried to change the subject quickly. We then started to tap into Brandon’s future plans within the Neeley Business School, as he is hoping to graduate IEP in August with the rest of his classmates, so he may move onto his degree at TCU. I commented saying he should be excited because now he can choose his schedule rather than having it set for him 9am-1pm. I expressed how he could take night classes or even classes that start as early as 8am. He kind of laughed it off and told me that he has always been in night classes in China, and that they are “pretty awful.” Brandon then went on to say he always had night classes in China everyday and they were exhausting. I agreed. They are pretty terrible if you ask me.

The funniest part of the conversation was the very end. After we finished talking about the monotony of school, we had an awkward silence. We kind of just sat there staring at our respective crumbs of the chick-fil-a meals, no words, just silence. What was funny about it was that Brandon broke the silence with a small burst of laughter than flashed the “awkward turtle.” Due to the overall awkwardness of the conversation and what just transpired, it was truly hilarious for both of us.

In conclusion, the conversation went very well and was fun for both of us. We were able to get to know each other more through humor rather than the bland questions we tend to ask when we meet with someone we don’t know well. Overall, it went very well.

Conversation 2

This past weekend, I had my second meeting with Brandon. We met in the library here at TCU on Friday afternoon. Spoiler alert: no cigarettes this time.

            At first I sat down next to him in the empty library because he said he had to finish up something for a class. On a Friday afternoon? I knew from last time Brandon was dedicated, but not this dedicated… I sat next to him for probably ten minutes kind of just letting my eyes wander around the library until he finished his work. During his assignment, I could tell how hard he was working though, he wasn’t relaxed in any sense of the word. It looked as if he was engaged in an intense video game, his hand clicking the mouse repeatedly, with his eyes bouncing around the screen, almost comical to watch.

            Finally, he abruptly stops. He finished his work all of a sudden and we got up and walked to the “café” section of the library and began actually talking about what has been happening the last week.

            We sat down and started talking about the past ten minutes and how intense he looked. He kind of laughed off what I said and pointed at the fact that, that was normal from where he was from. He highlighted the fact that everyone in his high school looked scary while doing his or her homework. We once again, like last conversation, talked about the education system and how much harder it was in China. He made it sounds so easy in comparison, like a walk in the park.

            Our education discussion was then taken off course as an image of the Ukraine flashed up on the televisions above the library snack bar. I brought it up, and wanted to know his thought surrounding it.

He was very knowledgeable of the situation in Ukraine as well as politics in general. He said dictatorships and uneasiness within society, among people and government officials, is common in other places of the World, “you Americans” aren’t accustomed to these violent uprisings, Brandon said.

In response, I asked him about what the relationship was like between the Chinese government and the civilian people. Right off the bat, he came out with saying that China was a communist state, which was already known by us both, but I didn’t realize the severity. One thing that surprised me the most was the hostile actions of the police and government when in towns and villages across China. Brandon believes China is striving to be the best, and to do that they must keep their people in order and well behaved.

I always hear the prisons in America are known to be like a “vacation” compared to the ones in neighboring countries and around the globe. But nothing sounds like what he described. It was a scary description and sounded like a place that actually was used as more of a scare tactic to deter wrong doings rather than the optimistic rehabilitation sentences we hand out to the criminals in the United States.

One thing that struck me was the fact that we continued to use the word freedom over and over again. With me not experiencing the social tendencies in China, Brandon was able to express just how free we are here as Americans and how we have the ability to do what we want and when we want to do it. This isn’t always the case, as Brandon expressed his feeling of true confinement while in China. He was just waiting to leave and experience what America and specifically TCU had to offer. All in all, the conversation was very interesting as well as eye opening. It showed me the unique comfort and confidence that we as Americans I have in our government that is not universal. It sheds light on our freedoms as citizens, the social success that we have made as a nation, and our optimistic future as the United States of America.