Skip to main content

Laughing at a Wallaby Song


             Laughter is a curious thing. Even more curious is the ability to make a person laugh. Somehow, saying the right words in the correct order is refreshing, new, and funny to the ears it falls upon. I sometimes make people laugh, because I am a member of Senseless Acts of Comedy (that is the improv comedy troupe at Texas Christian University), and we have performances every Thursday and people often laugh. It is a weird feeling when someone laughs at your joke. You feel a sense of pride because you thought of something that could be funny and then nervously sent out into the world and hope that people like it. You are either met with laughter or silence and there are few things in this world as incredible as hearing the laughs, and few things as discouraging as the response of silence. One such time that I cause the audience to howl with uncontrollable laughter is while playing an improv game called “poems”. The premise of the game is simple: you create a character, get a topic from the audience, and then create a poem based on that topic. The topic given at the show was wallaby and the character that I decided to play a small child. Then I improvised the poem:
Wallaby, Wallaby your so cool
You’re my favorite marsupial
I am unsure why, but these first two lines resulted in an audience uproar of laughter. I had to pause the poem for over a minute in order to allow the hysterics to stop. People were laughing and I was surprised at how easy it was to obtain the laugh but more importantly over a hundred people were happy for a moment.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Tyranny of the Gates

            In my time as a college student I have learned many things from many classes, but the most important thing that I have learned is: Bill Gates hates me! Well, at least Microsoft Word does, but I’m pretty sure Bill Gates had something to do with that. The reasons I believe this start when I first open the Microsoft Word program and what do I behold? A default setting of Calibri font and the size is set to 11 ! Why? This is absurdity of the highest order and I refuse to continue to tolerate the madness. I have only used Times New Roman with size 12 font and every person I know uses this setting and every teacher/professor/instructor I have ever had has demanded I use this font set-up. However, Bill Gates has yet to rectify this gross injustice and therefore I can only conclude that he must hate me.             This is not the only grievance forced upon me by the...

Laughing in a Void

            I don’t know if you have seen it or if you even care, but Saturday Night Live has recently been airing “at home” episodes. It has been an interesting couple of episodes. They do their sketches by either recording themselves alone or recording zoom calls/facetimes and using that to adapt to the new environment.             The intriguing part of these episodes is the lack of audience. There is something strange about performing comedy to an audience that does not exist. The sketches do okay because they the sketch format is not that dependent on the audience, the comedic music videos do the best, but the Weekend Update portion of the show is where the show loses some of its comedic sensibilities. This is because Weekend Update is essentially stand-up comedy and thus thrives the best in the presence of a live audience. A live audience adds a lot of things to comedy...

5 Tips to Being Funny

1.       A little self-deprecation never hurt anyone…else This type of joke may not be for everyone, but it is effective. It makes you the butt of the joke, but it also usually gets a laugh. This type of joke’s main purpose is to show a little of your flaws in order to make you relatable; it is not meant to insult yourself or for self-hate. 2.       Take on a character This tip is best used when telling a funny story. Instead of saying “she said ‘…’”. Act it out. Embody that person, exaggerate their vocalizations and mannerisms, and make them a comedic character. This will keep the audience engaged and be funnier than just repeating what a person said. 3.       Yes and… This is a tip that is straight out of improv comedy. When you are talking to someone always think “yes and”. This means that you should build on what others are saying for comedic effect. Never negate a person’s idea because that w...