Different types of humor

I was thinking about the different types of humor and the ways they are expressed in movies and books and tv shows.

The most common way is the clueless person who is expected to be smart.  For example, a person in a position of authority who is actually a doofus, but must be taken seriously by everyone.  Kind of like Michael Scott.

Another is when two people are talking about different things, but are assuming they are both talking about the same thing.  I remember watching The Ladies Man and a Catholic Nun was talking about the Yalu River in China and he was talking about the Yellow River.

People taking trivial things seriously.  This happens a lot, basically actors being too serious for a given situation.

Often times it is a merging of the person watching the joke and his/her expectations with the expectations of the actors or characters in the show.  That mismatch can create humor.

Also, in LOTR a big theme is people making a decision about an issue or idea, and trying to act on it, only to find it is a moot point.  There are many examples of this.  Gandalf dies fighting the balrog, giving up his life to protect it, only to be granted another life by the Gods.  Aragorn, after taking Gondor, takes his army on a suicide mission to attack Mordor and draw out their forces, only to have Frodo destroy the ring at the last possible second, saving his life.  In Tolkien's book, it is often more important what people decided to do rather than what was actually done, as external forces conspire to change the reality of the situation after characters decide to act, but before they can actually do so.

How a Conversation Starts....

I have heard many stories about pro athletes who were spurned on Draft Day, or cut, or were simply drafted lower than projected. They felt insulted, let down, deceived, and mostly just hurt.

Then they put their heads down and that feeling stays with them, through the bus trips, the work outs, the failures, the let downs, and eventually they stop sliding down the hill and start climbing up.

And when they get going, boy do they really get going! Years pass and I've forgotten all about them; but one day I'm watching a highlight on ESPN or YouTube and there he is again, sprinting towards the goal, leading a pack and I just know they won't catch him. Could be a fast break, a fumble return, or simply a player stretching a single into a double and arriving just as the ball arrives. Tie goes to the runner.

He's not the top player or the face of the franchise, but he is the player who makes every hustle play and comes up with something when everyone else thought there was nothing there. In fact, he came up with something for his life, his definition of self, when the 'experts' evaluated him and found nothing there.

Too bad we don't have a word for that. There has to be a word in Spanish, Italian, French, or Swahili (spelling?), that sums up that feeling of determination brought on by how the conversation starts, by that initial rejection in the face of hope and perhaps a touch of expectation.

That is the mentality that is required to achieve one's potential.

When I think of LeBron, I think of the worlds best basketball player. But I also think of a person who has always, and I mean always, had success. With everything he does. He won three state championships in high school, was so far ahead of the pack in the draft that it wasn't even exciting watching the draft but more exciting watching the lottery to see which team won the draft and would draft him. The draft is supposed to be a day where the players see who picks them. LeBron watched a lottery between multi-millionaires to see would get him. He flipped it on his head.

In the NBA he has already won back-to-back MVP awards, been to the NBA finals, all-star game MVP, etc., etc., etc. Everything he has turned his mind to he has done simply by willing it to happen.

Except one thing.

You know what it is. I know what it is. And that thing, which I won't name, has not occurred despite having the best record in the entire league two seasons in a row. And LeBron has definitely willed himself to win it. He has tried and for the first time in his life had failure.

So it shouldn't be a surprise that he turns his attention to another team, with a proven leader that he can team with, to a team completely stacked so they can win the title by simply willing themselves to win, just like LeBron has done with everything else in his life.

Another writing topic

Doubt and hope are intertwined emotions. Hope is found in a dire situation because of the doubt. The situation may seem hopeless, the enemies plentiful, the options few, but there is hope because of the doubt inside each and every one of us. The doubt that the end will be as bad as we fear it may be; doubt gives us the irrational but necessary hope to push through bad days, dark times, and cloudy skies.

A healthy person has doubt and hope in equal measures.

Wow what a terrible piece of writing I just cranked out.

Writing

I've been reading this amazing book, "Writing to Change the World", by Mary Pipher, for about a week now. Its incredible. My fiancee was mad at me for underlining in pen last night, so I've switched to pencil, but that doesn't stop me from underlining!

Mary Pipher is a professional therapist and psychologist as well as a writer. Her writing topics have mostly been activist topics and she gives examples of her activism throughout her career. My desire would be to write more fiction topics than anything else. Whats amazing is reading her insight into human emotions and also some observations about linguistics.

I'm going to re-post all the underlined things and write a little about them.

"Whereas writers of propaganda encourage readers to accept certain answers, writers who want to transform their readers encourage the asking of questions". p 23.

That quote is great insight into the difference between the two.

"Once I articulated all these aspects about myself to myself, I tried to write as close to a unified conceptualization of myself as I could". p43.

What is my own tone and voice?

"Our lives are journeys toward a certain kind of wisdom, which is a love and appreciation for all living creatures". p58.

"We experience our lives as lived events, but also as material to be carefully examined later for richness and meaning. Just as meditation makes life more aware and joyous, so writing allows us to live more deeply and fully. Both involve the sanctification of time". P83.

I'm glad I've been writing for some time now and categorizing some things in my life. Must do them all!

"...that the way people enter into a conversation influences its outcome and that true change occurs only in the context of relationships". p 85.

this seems very true, and the first thing that popped into my mind was the Israeli/Palestinian negotiations.

"With our presence and attention, we suggest that honest exploration of issues is healing and that hiding from them is toxic...linguistic determinism that naming determines action and that which is unnamed is ignored". p86.

Some of my own experiences mirror this quote. Its better to figure out what you are feeling and why than keep plugging away at life without asking the questions.

"this nuanced use of words is evidence of a clear thinker" p90.

Perhaps my favorite quote so far.

"never underestimate the reader's intelligence or overestimate his information level" p90.

I should apply this to my classes.

"lets put this in the context of the larger patterns of your life" p91.

Hilarious quote, almost made me laugh out loud.

"Black and white thinking in others is unlikely to be changed if we employ the same thinking ourselves" 91.

George Bust.

"Churchill once defined fanatics as people who won't change their minds and can't change the subject" p91.

Who doesn't know a few fanatics??

"Unacknowledged emotions do not disappear; they fester. Ignoring dark emotions leads to addiction and violence." p95.

Addiction, the greatest of them all.

"Often, in the real world, people who behave badly or disagree with others are shamed or made to feel guilty. However, shame and guilt are poor motivating tools. They sap energy, and lead to rigid thinking. They may work short-term, but long-term they almost never sustain good behavior" p96.

Can I apply this to my teachings??

"appeal to clients' better selves" p96.

This to my teachings as well?

"Cynicism is a form of resistance, a walling off of the possibilities for transformation. At its core, it is a response to learned helplessness, a defensive strategy. Scratch every cynic and underneath you find a wounded idealist. For therapists and writers alike, the best treatment for cynicism is healing stories" p96.

First thought in my mind was I guy I knew once named Kevin C.

And finally...

"English does not include many words to describe mixed emotions--"poignant" and "bittersweet" are the only two that come to mind. German strings together adjectives to label complicated emotions; Japanese has many words to unsnarl such feelings" p105.

It would be delightful to read a book about the differences between the different languages of the world.

So where do I go from here? I want to start writing some sort of part time fiction stuff. Perhaps a modern day science fiction type novel, based in our society but with larger than life characters.
Thinking about these quotes and the larger context of the book, my first thought is about the moving starring Tom Cruise and his "pre-cog crime unit". The film, Minority Report, felt more like propaganda than a real movie trying to raise questions.

I'm sure Tom Cruise knew this, which raises more questions. Do most people prefer to be told what to think rather than do it themselves?

Contrast this to the success of the Matrix Trilogy, despite having one of the most boring and lame actors ever in Keanu Reeves. Perhaps it was his dead-panning of lines and general emotionlessness that allowed people to push past the human acting and superimpose themselves and their own questions on the movie.

Minority Report felt so contrived and the actors were very one-dimensional. Aside from the super cool graphics and cutting edge ideas, it was basically very limited and ended with a conclusion that felt forced. Most movies of that genre seem to feel forced with no real consideration and the villain always, always loses.

That is another major disappointment of mine with the Bond series. The bad guy always loses. For once I'd like to see a major movie where the bad guy wins, where people root for him despite his evilness, despite his flaws, and he emerges as a hero despite being bad at heart.

Perhaps a villain who at the most crucial part of the movie shows some sort of human side, makes a small concession, lives to fight another day, survives because of a scrap of goodness inside of him. Like Darth Vader versus the Emperor.

Blogging about Blogging

I've been doing much writing lately. Golf journaling, blogging, personal journaling, formal letters, etc., etc. It really makes me introspective and analytical, but simultaneously enjoy everything in my life and made me more self aware. That concept of mindfulness actually started in golfing, where I frequently realized that I would walk up to the ball, and next thing I know the ball is fifty yards away in the wrong direction. My mind would just blank out over the ball until I was done. With work I became better able to focus on my swing while I was setting up, practicing, and ultimately swinging.

This concept of focusing on what I'm doing while I'm doing it is intriguing and is certainly a great subject to explore.

Other Writing Tidbits

"Over-tired".

Creating artificial intelligence. Experimenting with molds and funguses. Growing molds and funguses. Fear, anxiety and paranoia. Advanced maths. Not knowing if an AI is real or just imagined. AI that is more god-like and understanding. Compare differences in perception between what people thought a computer would be like versus what it could actually do and translate that to current fears about AI.

People as "dragons" who keep growing until their deaths.

Literary Thoughts

I think a major part of an enjoyable movie, film, or book that is primarily a story telling venture is its desire to explore certain topics or simply show lots of awesome scenes and situations, one after another. To put forth crazy ideas and concepts, situations, people, constructions, and machines that are larger than life.

I like the term "random hero". I'd also want to explore the differences between "wild" animals and people vs. "domesticated" or "civilized" people. The concept of vengeance and terrible loss; then the process of trying to come back from that. There are many, many things that would be fun to explore. I also play out many of these concepts in my head in the form of movies. Its one thing to simply project images on a movie screen in my head. Its another to convey it through print to another person. Two totally different tasks.

The process of writing a book

I've just read two great articles about the process of writing multiple-discipline books. One was penned by Steven Johnson, a six-time author who writes books about multiple disciplines and traces patterns over many different topics. This seems a lot like the kind of book I would like to someday write.

He mentions a writing tool named Devonthink which sounds incredible. My blog has been a sort of extended memory for myself. It allows me to write down tidbits of information; small pieces of a larger puzzle. I hope to someday connect them into a cohesive form that pierces the darkness of confusion and ignorance that I confront when I look at the future.

Thats essentially what this is about: predicting the future with greater accuracy.

But I'm digressing; this article mentioned a great tool where the author can put any sort of text file or snippet from online and dump in into this program which keeps track of everything. Then he can sort it or let the program do it for him. Lastly, it can compile all the text into one giant document.

I thought that was really cool. Right now with my blog all I can do is write down ideas and categorize them. This takes it one step further. Or two or three. But it also gave me hope for someday writing a book or novel that brings together all sorts of different concepts in a fiction form.

One idea I was just exploring is the concept of obsession, how people can spiral out of control and focus on one thing to the exclusion of all others and how that manifests itself. Also how competition drives people.

The Emperor from the movie Gladiator is protrayed as a bad guy. He has pride, passion, etc., and is possibly malicious. I'd like to focus on a story from his perspective. How he starts out trying his harding and wanting to do his best to please people but is consistently villainized and placed lower and lower. He is belittled despite his best efforts and a favorite son who is sort of a James Bond/Hero type succeeds with little apparent effort.

And while JB is succeeding easily, the hero is working very, very hard. And when he still fails it twists him and embitters him to where he just wants to hurt those around him. And the whole focus is on how he wanted to do well but kept failing and placed so much pressure on himself that he self destructed and emerged a totally different person.