Voices
-find what’s distinctive between authors voice and editors voice
Hamilton Piece
Original: focuses on secretaries/history
Edited: focuses on miranda
Original: Low-low humor (thick Jamaican accent) ,
Edited: High/low humor (raises register on language to get incongruity) (authentic patois)
Edited: More emphasis on parody (character writing it is a theater person writing reviews— addition of dates, “five performances”, etc)
Original: Explains joke more (“show took place 40 years before the space race…”)
Edited: Holds back explaining joke (“most found this a peculiar choice to dramatize the farm loan act of 1916”)
Original piece gives away the “game” at the beginning with the title, you have to figure out in the second
Which is better?
Original:
-People enjoy absurdity of descriptions more than parodying
Edited:
-High/low register — can laugh at the high register but low content
-Funny to figure out the game
Alexander Piece
Authors voice concise but dark
Original: favors absurd
Edited: favors structural issues/white privilege
“My agent..” makes it weird. Why would the kid have an agent?
Edited one: spells out the joke more: bank loan, run for office.
Original one: you have to figure out its about privilege
Revisions: Wasn’t clear what was intentional/what wasn’t clear. Shouldn’t get arrested at the end
Original: more clear
Revisions: stays to the same level
Original: more buildup, it goes higher at the end
Is the jump too big in the original to disemboweled?
TSA: an obvious place to go to discuss white privilege, original is more subtle
Edited: makes people laugh if they know that book
Would You Rather:
-Starts small, get longer and longer, but then ends on a short funny last line
-hard to laugh throughout the piece
-end the piece feeling crappy
-compelling takedown of society, not necessarily humorous?
-escalating of ending of paragraphs: “you filthy skank” to “you frumpy, melodramatic, PMS-ing, bossy, ball-busting bitch”
-nihilistic/cutting form of humor
-can convey lots of information and keep people engaged enough — thats why it is probably sent around a lot/ is popular
-escalating ends of paragraphs?
-smartly crafted
-funny form but content isn’t jokes/funny -> incongruity can be funny
-humor that you laugh at because it affirms our liberal values -> “snap humor”
-incongruity of official statistics and “you hormonal bimbo”
-contrasting “would you rather” informal tone/childhood game to serious content
-maybe would be funnier with multiple characters to contrast serious character with someone asking normal would you rather questions
–
Ah this woman has her mother’s trauma
-funny lines are “family goals!” And “twinning” cheery tone with serious content
Wow this bug is femme – short and absurd
Shon->meta
“Tapas monster” joke -> taking something very stupid very seriously
Grains:
Answering rhetorical questions as literally as possible can be funny a
“Which grain is waiting to take quinoas spot next”
“Rhett can’t wait to get its grubby paws on quinoas neck”
What qualities make something publishable?
-clearly describable game
-listy pieces where each sentence makes you laugh
-timeliness to something that just happened