Shaun of the Dead

As the whole "zombie craze" has gone from slightly amusing (6 years ago) to incredibly annoying (the past 4 or 5 years), I usually limit my zombie intake.  However, Shaun of the Dead has always been good for a laugh.  The great thing about it is Shaun's complete and utter oblivion of the undead.  He goes about his life wondering around, not paying any attention to his surroundings.  This doesn't change once the outbreak occurs.  He even flips through the television channels and ignores the news channels completely.  Once he finally decides to pay attention, he's interrupted because a zombie is in his yard.  Even here, Shaun and Ed think she's drunk.  I think one of the funniest aspects of the movie is that juxtaposition between what the audience expects to happen and what actually happens (or doesn't happen, rather).  First, the audience expects zombies from the very beginning, and the movie fakes everyone out multiple times with slow, or bored looking people.  Then, once zombies start showing up, we expect our hero to notice and act immediately, but he fails to do so because he, too, is bored and jaded.  By the time the woman shows up in his yard, his world (and the audience) is screaming at him to notice that something is horribly wrong, and one more time, he fails.  It's hilarious because even when he is looking straight into the face of a zombie, he laughs and calls her drunk while the audience laughs at him and his blindness to the situation. 

Over the last semester, I've come to define British Comedy in that way: Blindness to the Situation.  I guess it goes back to our very first reading of Bergson, (I'm heavily paraphrasing) that the more oblivious a character is to his ridiculousness, the more comedic he or she is.  The second I read that, I got a blinding flash of Dwight from The Office (American).  I know that the British are not the only culture to use comedy in such a way, but I don't think they need to be.  In fact, I find that despite the minor differences between British and American comedy, the core is the same.  Really, its just the presentation that differs.  Now, I don't speak French, but one example of this is Eddie Izzard.  The special we watched for class was performed in both America and England AND he did a translation into French.  Now, some words or phrases may have been changed here and there, but I'm GUESSING the core of the show remained the same.  If each culture was defined by one or two certain types of comedy, the show would not translate.  I'm not saying that the content of comedy is not cultural, it is.  However, what makes something funny is much more universal. 

The Office/Holland

First of all, it wasn't specified which episode of The Office, so I just watched one or two from the first season of the British version.  Holland writes that, "the comic man admits he is only human, knowing that that admission 'is itself the condition of his life being tolerable'" (96).  Being a huge fan of the American version of The Office, in the few episodes of the British version that I've watched, I can see that Michael's character is very close to David's.  This quote is perfect for those characters.  David is so incredibly flawed that each episode is the realization that he is only human.  For example, one of my favorite parts of the first episode occurs in the first five minutes of the episode.  David calls his friend to fill a job in the warehouse and he asks if his friend's wife has left him yet.  She has.  He'd forgotten.  But what can you expect?  He's only human.

Holland also says that, "the subject matter of comedy is 'the abnormal' set against a social norm" and that the comic catharsis is "purely the keeping of social balance" (92).  The thing that makes The Office great is how absolutely inappropriate and ridiculous the boss is.  The "crack of Dawn" joke in the first episode and the sexual jokes about the new employee in the second episode are both perfect examples of this.  In an actual workplace, this would be horrible, disgusting, and probably earn a lawsuit or two.  However, because it's in a position to be laughed at, we laugh.  We laugh because it is out of the "social balance" and we wish to correct it.  We know the norm and the correct way to behave in the workplace, so when that is thwarted for comedic purposes, it is funny.

Finally, in the beginning of this section of Holland, he discusses humor in drama.  "When the audience knows something the characters don't know, they feel safe.  Hence, they can identify with the characters' fear, embarrassment, and anger for the catharsis of those feelings" (89-90).  A perfect example is the "talking heads" throughout the series.  Many times the Tim (Jim) character will give away a prank he is pulling on Gareth (Dwight) or another character will divulge some other type of secret.  In this way, the audience learns key facts that will make them feel "safe" or "in" on the joke and able to laugh.