Plakias discusses how awkwardness ensues upon the failure of an infrastructure. In this post, I will look at two of the examples of failures of… Read More »That is a $200 Plasma Screen TV You Just Killed
Crane describes the idea of the ‘postmodern horror film’, which ‘drifts back and forth between scares and laughs without warning’. These films may include serious,… Read More »What a pain in the neck
Thomas Nagel questions ‘each of us lives his own life/lives with himself twenty-four hours a day. What else is he supposed to do – live… Read More »Being Thomas Nagel
In her definitions of Camp, Sontag states that ‘Camp sees everything in quotation marks. It’s not a lamp, but a “lamp”; not a woman, but… Read More »You’re a very famous actor. Or used to be. Now you do dog food commercials. (Susan Sontag and Paddington 2)
In ‘Rabelais and His World, Bakhtin describes the concepts of the ‘grotesque body’ and the ‘carnival spectacle’, which occurs when a typically serious ritual is… Read More »Bakhtin and Hot Dog Fingers
In ‘Chuckle, Chortle, Cackle: A Phenomenology of Cinematic Laughter’, Julian Hanich describes both ‘contagion laughter’ and ‘laughter-laughter’, both the reaction of one person’s laughter in… Read More »Agent Smith & The Joker face off against Julian Hanich
Submarine (2010) involves two different but interconnected romantic plotlines. Firstly, the story of the protagonist, Oliver, and his new girlfriend Jordana, and secondly, Oliver’s parents.… Read More »The ocean is six miles deep
In ‘Jokes’, Mary Douglas discusses the role of ‘The Joker’ and the way that ‘he lightens for everyone the oppressiveness of social reability, demonstrates its… Read More »Douglas’ ‘Joker’ and Heckling in Stand-Up
Henri Bergson’s first point in ‘Laughter’ focuses on how ‘the comic does not exist outside the pale of what is strictly human’. An animal is… Read More »Henri Bergson vs Li’l Sebastian
In Tom Gunning’s “Response to “Pie and Chase”” (1994), he states that ‘it is by seeming to resemble certain narrative situations that narrative anticipation is… Read More »Nathan for You and Gunning’s “Response to Pie and Chase” (Ameline KA)