I will be analyzing a Saturday Night Live Digital Short titled, Threw it on the Ground alongside Tom Gunning’s Crazy Machines in the Garden of Forking Parts and his use of Crafton’s theories. Threw it on the Ground begins with the protagonist narrating his personal experiences of people handing him things, in sync with a distinct musical beat. Just like Gunning talks about gags having their origins in “acts of anarchy,” Threw it on the Ground can easily serve as a prank or mischief gag. The protagonist in Threw it on the Ground creates acts of disruption that are equivalent to an anarchical revolt against every individual’s kind gestures. Gunning writes, some film gags are structured through a “clear delineation of the stages of an action and its results,” what Crafton calls “comic strip logic.” In Threw it on the Ground, the “preparatory action” is short-lived as the protagonist repeatedly performs the same task of throwing things on the ground. The direct “result and effect” of this is palpable on the faces of the victims as well as in the slow-motion shots of of objects disintegrating. Finally, like some mischief gags, the “concluding action” exists in the form of punishment which is meted out to the protagonist in the end.
Fig 1 and 2. Slow Motion shots of objects falling apart
In my opinion, this digital short appears to follow a narrative structure given the protagonist’s retelling of the tale on a microphone. This is contrary to Crafton’s view that gags tend to “interrupt and subvert the progressive order of narrative.” Even though each act of dropping items ends quickly, it still results in a telling and progressing of the narrative. As a potential gag, Threw it on the Ground, does have a “stop and start rhythm” but it also serves the purpose of building a narrative, however short that may be. While mischief gags “make things fall apart” (literally in this context), according to Gunning, “narrative structures put things back together.” Nonetheless, the piecing together of the pranks in Threw it on the Ground creates some sort of minimalistic narrative despite the constant destruction and falling apart of objects.
Unlike most mischief gags Gunning talks about, my example does not create any audience anticipation as the audience does not see a plan being devised beforehand. Both the audience and characters have the same knowledge at least in the beginning of the short. It is only by virtue of the repeated action, that the audience can expect the same behavior of throwing things in every scenario. Hence, the knowledge of the audience is informed by the preceding repetitive action.
In Threw it on the Ground, the disruption of technology that Gunning talks about in his article is equated with the protagonist’s disruptive and disorderly behaviour in this example. Just like Keaton’s characters tend to become slaves to their technology (“inert objects” being “hauled by devices”), the protagonist in Threw it on the Ground, becomes a slave to his unruly behaviour. Psychoanalyzing the protagonist in Threw it on the Ground, would indicate that he has some sort of intrinsic anger issues or extreme personality traits. This gateway into the unconscious would highlight that just like technology can run out of function, so can the mind. The departure from standard norms of decency or “deviation from proper adult behavior” is what makes this short amusing and comedic, giving it the status of a mischief gag of sorts. The irony lies in the protagonist’s repeated statements of “I’m an adult” whilst performing such juvenile behaviour. Even though Threw it on the Ground deals with the repetition of the same action, the reactions of the victims provide comedic action in itself. In other words, the comedic aspect doesn’t just lie in the act but also in the reactions it renders both from the protagonist and the victims. The clear enunciations of words and extreme facial contortions of the protagonist render this clip even funnier, in a manner comparable with Edison’s Facial Expressions. Hence, in Threw it on the Ground the “explosive interruption” exists in the actions of the protagonist, his ringing voice which becomes loud at certain moments, and the continuous destruction of objects. Just like technology that backfires or becomes obsolete, the objects in this digital short lose their standard function or purpose.
Fig 3,4 and 5: Extreme facial contortions
I like the example you chose because I think that “I Threw It On The Ground”, in addition to displaying the ideas around gags and interruptions, is a great example of the dynamic nature of the Rascal-Victim relationship explored by Gunning on page 90. The protagonist cycles through his memories of defiantly throwing things on the ground and each time he sets up a story, be it his “favourite hot dog vendor” or his “so-called-girlfriend,” the audience knows that, regardless of the role of victim being occupied by different people, the protagonist will occupy the role of rascal and smash something on the ground. The protagonist’s nonsensical moral equivocations and personality (lining up to the 2013 trope of a self righteous Brooklyn hipster) keep him amusing but also contemptible in the eyes of the viewer leading up to the payoff of his electric assault at the hands of Ryan Reynolds and Elijah Wood.
I think this was a really interesting connection as I wouldn’t have made the link between Gunning and this SNL clip, but you explain it really well and convincingly. I particularly liked your analysis of how audience interaction plays a part in the comedic aspect, as I think this builds well from Gunning’s ideas. I think that the idea of repetitive action that you discuss and the way that the audience begins to expect what will happen raises interesting questions in relation to Gunning’s notion that mischief gags only really work once and that having several mischief gags in a series diminishes the effect – clearly this is not always the case, or at least, comedy has developed in a way that allows a series of repetitive gags without becoming boring or losing their humour. I think it would be interesting to explore this further.