My Major Project focused on how
Phoebe Robinson uses her comedic platform to discuss ideological issues such as
race. She highlights the issues and offsets it with a joke, includes her
personal experiences, deconstructs stereotypes/oppression, and countless other
aspects of racism. She uses her platform to talk about racial issues and tell
jokes: You Can't Touch My Hair and Two Dope Queens. I
thought about how I wanted to remix this project. Then, I started thinking
about the other female comedians we have learned about and how they use their platform
in similar ways. Of course, they each address differentiating political
issues.
Hannah Gadsby:
She uses her comedy platform to
cover a variety of political issues. Gadsby talks about identity with gender
and sexuality, and mental illness. Similarly to Robinson, she uses her personal
experience to make a connection to these issues. She states the issue and
cushions it with a joke. The joke may immediately follow after the tension or
sometimes she postpones the joke.
Cameron Esposito:
Esposito uses her platform to address rape joke culture and sexual assault. Although rape jokes are common, they just aren't funny. Like the other previous comedians, she also shares her personal experience with sexual assault. She also offsets her jokes with playfully mocking her Catholic upbringing.
Azie Dungey:
In
her "Ask a Slave" web series although her setting takes place during
slavery days, she still highlights modern racial issues. Her character Lizzie
Mae answers people's question from present-day, but a lot of their questions
are racial. Some questions are more bluntly racist/prejudice than others.
However, she uses her web series as a platform to address racial issues from
past and present time.
Tina
Fey:
Tina
Fey has used her platform to spotlight numerous issues in regard to women. She
talks about how ridiculous and damaging beauty standards are and that women are
not apologizing for being funny. She talks about how women don't need approval
or confirmation from males in order to be considered funny. We. Just. Are.
That's all the confirmation we need. And of course, Fey also throws in
her witty humor!
These female
comedians all discuss touchy topics that people aren't openly talking about.
They all utilize their platforms to address political/controversial issues and
cushion the blow with a joke. Many of them include their personal experiences
to show a connection to the issue. I'm really glad that these comedians were
taught during this course. More than likely, I wouldn't have known who they
were. It was great to be able to center my Major Project on Phoebe Robinson and
carefully articulate the points she was making in her book.
Side
note: Comedians such as Amy Poehler, Amy Wong, Tig Notaro, Barreca, and Fern
are also rockstars! They all use their platform to convey more than just jokes.
Whether that's talking about societal norms, gender roles, domestic life,
female tropes, or restricted women's rights. Happy we were able to talk about
all of these women!
I loved that your remix was sort of a mini-recap of the material covered in class! I also was exposed to a lot of new and great comedians this semester. While I was familiar with Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling, Fanny Fern and Amy Poehler, Tig Notaro, Cameron Esposito, Hannah Gadsby and Phoebe Robinson were all new to me. I am a huge fan of "texts" from all eras, but sometimes I do feel that college students desire more contemporary material, as much of the traditional canon for English majors is amazing but dated. I thought that this course did such a great job of responding to this desire. I also thought it was great that this class had such a broad range of themes - conversations about gender, race, sexuality, body image, violence against women, and so much more. It was great that this course functioned a bit like Robinson's book - it was very political, but the comedy aspect kept it enjoyable, and not too heavy.
ReplyDeleteI was honestly shocked and a little ashamed by how many I didn't know. I only knew Fey, Poehler, and Kaling. Everyone else was completely new. I understand what you mean about college students being exposed to contemporary material. While it's nice to look at older texts, contemporary is almost like a breath of fresh air. So I really enjoyed the diverse topics covered in this class and all the laughs that came with it!
DeleteAll of these comedians use comedy the same way; to talk about current issues going on in the world. Like Fiona said, I like how you summed up many of the comedians this class talked about. It is a nice way to incorporate all of the comedians in your remix blog. You could easily write a paper on any of these comedians!
ReplyDeleteOh yes you could without a doubt write a paper about any of the comedians discussed in this class! For my blog, I actually was only going to talk about a couple of them but once I started going I thought might as well throw some more amazing comedians in there!
ReplyDeleteThis was a really interesting way to remix your paper. Essentially all of the comedians you discuss in your blog were new to me (I'd heard of Tina Fey, but never watched much of her comedy), and what surprised me the most about them was how political their comedy was. After taking this course, I do think that all comedy is going to have some kind of ideological bias, but I don't think it's always intentional—all content we produce is informed by our biases, even in cases where the comedians try to claim they're impartial. What's significant is that these women recognize their bias and actively pursue the message of their pieces. I imagine it's a lot more difficult to produce comedy with progressive goals in mind, but these women do it anyway, because it's just that important.
ReplyDeleteI loved the way you broke down what every comedian did. It was like reading the back of a book. Azie Dungey’s podcast sounds very interesting. What kind of questions does she answer through? Is she always in character? I have so many questions. “We. Just. Are.” says it all. Beauty standards are wrong and male approval isn’t needed or should be heeded when appraising how funny someone is. Funny isn’t approved or dependent on beauty. These outlying misguided and detached ways of controlling what funny is need to go!
ReplyDelete