Humor as our topic and how it came to be!

Hello everyone! This is Jamie, Katelyn, and Danielle speaking to you!!! We hope you've been enjoying our unique sense of humor with the topics we have chosen to present. Humor is such an interesting topic because it's part content and part personal "flavor". Lets face it, there are some things we personally find funny and others well... not so much. We thought humor would be a great topic because yeah, it's funny... haha... but we also felt this would be a highly recognized topic. It's a good topic worth discussing because since communication has changed and evolved so much over the past decade it's almost harder to really establish when someone is being funny virtually. Stop and think about when someone says something like "Gosh, man you're dumb"... Ok is this is an insult, or someone joking, or whatever? You can't really tell unless you understand the tone of the conversation or if they add something like "lol" or "rofl". With humor in Social Media, the same kind of idea applies but it's a little bit easier to identify the "funny" in the topic, once again based on personal taste.

Here's an example we all thought you would appreciate:

Ok, so this is from the movie Moulin Rouge and it's not the PERFECT example, but it will do. As you watch the beginning of this clip you'll note that the two characters appear to be doing some humorous actions. Well first off, it's not what you think! They are on two totally different spectrums (as you'll see in the clip or if you watch the movie.) Now some people would find this as really funny because of the content and dialogue in this scene, others may view it as this is gross and down-right weird. Whatever your view is that's fine. You may find it funny on your own but to others.. it may be different. As Katelyn just said "THANKS TO YOUTUBE, YOU CAN LAUGH ON YOUR OWN!" It's true though. YouTube, as another form of Social Media, really brings us this quantity of content that allows us to adapt your own view of humor.

Well, that about does it for us for this round! Til the next... have fun!!!!

Here is some funny science pictures to make the nerds of the world smile a little today. There will be videos coming shortly. Enjoy and smile life is to short not too!

About Me

Hi! My name is Katelyn, I am a student at Ashland University. I am a biology major because science has always fascinated me. I enjoy snowboarding, playing soccer, and spending time with family. I am involved in the rec center on campus participating in many events that they host. This blog was created for a group project in my Global Perspective of Social Media course. I will be looking at the humor displayed through social media sites pertaining to science. Each person on a social media site will find different aspects funny. I know that some science jokes only us crazy science nerds will understand, but that is the beauty of social media and humor. There is always something out there for someone to laugh at. Hope you enjoy some of my science related humor!

As Promised! Enjoy the Parodies!

Hi Everyone!!! Hope you're all enjoying the humor of our group's blog so far. As I mentioned in the previous post, I'm going to be sharing with you the funny side of parodies in Social Media. Now, if you're like most people, when I say "parody" you probably think Weird Al, Cledus T. Judd, Family Guy, Spaceballs, etc. You would be correct! Parodies are ways of playing off common things we include in our everyday lives: music, movies, stores, products, just about anything really. Parodies found in Social Media are often as a result of what users find to be entertaining. Something I'm noticing a lot right now that's popular are things called "memes". I wouldn't exactly call them parodies, but it's going to help illustrate my point. The idea is taking something common and finding a way to manipulate it into an amusing format. Right now students at my college are taking common ideas such as our student dining, programs, Internet (or lack thereof), etc. and then adding pictures from various cultural references to depict jokes about these topics. That's essentially the concept of parodies! The awesome thing about parodies is that they can fall under a number of subject areas in humor such as political, entertainment, career-related humor, or even other parodies. I think you get idea.... Allow me to provide you with some examples of my favorite parodies:

This is my favorite Weird Al parody for two reasons: 1. It's to the tune of Gangster's Paradise by Coolio (you know, "been spending most our lives living in a gangster's paradise") and 2. It's the Amish!!!!! My college is an area where there's a strong Amish population so I can relate to the Amish references in this video. Weird Al does many parodies picking on just about anything popular that people are familiar with and based on what's "big" at the time. When this video was released, Coolio's song was one of the most popular songs at that time.

I just found this one on Google as I was typing this post and found it kind of funny. Naturally you can see this picture is a parody of Harry Potter and is playing off the characters plus using an association with Harry's last name. Side note, does anyone else think the "Harry" in this picture looks more like an adult Ron? Anyway, this is just another good example of parodies playing off of movies/books.

Yes, I'm a total Star Wars nut! I just had to share this though because I think it's a good comparison of showing what really happened in the movie and what Family Guy did to make it funny (or even funnier than it was). Shows like Family Guy, The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live, and MadTV are famous for doing these parodies as they draw a lot of audience attention to cultural references. Star Wars is obviously a well known Pop Culture icon globally and is easily recognized by people all over the world. Plus the clip is just freaking absolute funny!

Ok this is my last example, and you probably get the idea by now. But honestly I just could not resist this! Like the Harry Potter picture, I found this on Google and had... well.... multiple reactions to this! If anything this will give you a good laugh! Seriously though, the concept of parodies can be applied to just about anything (as long as it's done right)

Well thanks for laughing along with me everyone! Hope you enjoyed the post and please leave any comments to our blog's posts, as we encourage perspectives from others and value any points you'd like to make! Take care everyone and go get your funny on ;)

Danielle Slone- Parodies in Social Media

Hello everyone! I'm Danielle Slone a senior at Ashland University studying Electronic Media Production (aka Broadcasting) and minoring in Speech Communication. I'm Program Director for our campus radio station and I'm also involved in Greek Life at AU. This has been my second home for the past four years, but I'm looking forward to starting a new chapter in my life after Graduation in May! The class that this blog project is for is our new Global Impact on Social Media course. Since Social Media has become such a large part of our society's communication and culture, I thought it would be an interesting class and so far I've been correct! The other two authors of this blog and myself, are going to walk you through some of the different aspects of humor and social media. As my contribution to this, I'll be posting about parodies found in Social Media. Parodies are such a interesting little part of humor because while the comedy is in the material, part of it is also how people interpret it! Growing up I was always fond of Weird Al for doing parodies of artists or shows like The Simpsons who can make fun of almost anything they can find! (The Simpsons even did a episode recently making fun of Social Media called The D'Oh-ical Network look it up on Fox.com if you wanna see it!) Anyway, stay tuned for some fun and interesting stuff from me to come about the amusing world of parodies!!!!

Jamie Lynn Neal- Political Humor in Social Media

My name is Jamie Lynn Neal, and I am in my final semester at Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio. I am a Journalism major with minors in History, Applied Writing, and Digital Media Production. I am very involved in campus life including writing for the school newspaper, The Collegian, as well as very actively involved in Greek Life. This blog was created for a group project in my Global Perspective of Social Media course. Each of the members in the group will be creating a blog post about a more specific look into our broad topic of Humor in Social Media. I choose to look at Political Humor in Social Media because of my interest in History because it has a deeply rooted past involving Politics. Please take a look at my analysis of the topic and enjoy the included examples through images, videos, and website links.

Political Humor in Social Media

This post will explore the ever-changing forms and reach that Political Humor has taken through the years.

Political Cartoons have had a large part in American humor throughout the years, however in the recent years of the Internet and Social media their popularity has taken off. What was once limited to print in a newspaper or magazine is now readily available online. Not only is it cheaper, and faster it is now reaching more viewers, inside and outside of the country.
 

Political Cartoons have been an entertaining part of American culture since our infancy. "Join or Die" is one of if not the most popular political cartoon our nation has to offer. In a time of certain war for uncertain freedom, the colonist created the iconic image. This image thrust the nation into a unified brotherhood lighting a fire and making clear our goals were achievable, with and only with a unified front. This image, though an early form of a political cartoon, is not humorous. It was created to get a simple message across. Political cartoons today are more frequent, less well known, and marketed towards what our nation's people want, and that is humor.

The progression of political cartoons has developed from a necessity to present information in a simple and quick way to images that are infinitely more complex. Modern political cartoons require more than just a base knowledge in current political issues, candidates, and party stances. The Images themselves tend to me humorous, allowing the average American to get a chuckle and move on with their day. To those who know more about the issues at hand on that particular day, the cartoons offer more interpretation to the on-looker. This image is clearly labeled as a "Political Cartoon" in case you didn't get that from the other labels they offered. Similar to the first "Join or Die" image this one is simple, and easy for the average American to read, get a chuckle and move on with their day. For those who have more information on Bush and any "problems" he may or may not have caused while in office, this cartoon has the potential to spark a lengthy debate.

This next image is definitely more complex then the first two, but also more humorous. Even when this cartoon is looked at 20, 30, 50 years from now the viewer will understand that we were having trouble with illegal immigration, and that president Obama tried to handle the issue with enough effort as a Band-Aid on an issue that well exceeded the usefulness of a Band-Aid.

The Video above is an example of the humorous videos being made in replacement of Political Cartoons.

Political Cartoons have gained in popularity, and accessibly. However, with the new technology come new opportunities to have a laugh, and spread a message about the current political climate. Jib Jab Right and Left Wing Nuts is a series of popular YouTube videos that offer the flavor of a Political Cartoon, but with a more popular media: video. 

Political Cartoons both print and video are poplar forms of political humor. However, with Social Media comes a new breed of Political Humor. There are several conservative and liberal groups that operate through Facebook to present humorous material as well as important information. As a result of this new form of communication rises a problem with the Government Monitoring Facebook. More than just Facebook as a Social Media outlet and YouTube there are standard websites, advertising via Social Media, this Political Joke is from one such standard website.

Political Humor today is really growing, branching out and developing as a direct result of the popular and easy access to Social Media. What was once a popular Political Cartoon is today a short video clip, with the same look and feel as a Political Cartoon with more opportunity to include more ideas and themes. Alternatively, in the form of an interactive Social Media site or website.