Bergson / North
Upon first reading Bergson’s assertion that the comic’s “appeal is to intelligence, pure and simple,” I instinctively disagreed with the outright and rather sweeping dismissal… Read More »Isabel Burney – The Mechanization of Grief in Manchester by the Sea’s Humor
Bergman, in his essay on laughter, makes a particularly interesting claim that laughter could be seen as “a sort of social gesture” in supposed response… Read More »Francis Yamamoto – North, Bergmann and Societal Correction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40Wu2R6KHFw In the ‘Machine-age Comedy’ reading, Michael North points out the parallels that can be drawn between the repetitive nature of a machine and… Read More »Emily Moreland – Week 2 Blog Post
Pursuing the ‘basal element’ in the laughable, Henri Bergson proposes a ‘mechanical elasticity’ in place of typical human ‘adaptability’ and ‘living pliableness’.[1] The character of… Read More »Emily Taylor- The Comedy and Horror of Automatism
Henri Bergson’s initial rule about comedy, that it “doesn’t exist outside the pale of what is strictly human,” spoke to me (Bergson, 3). The idea… Read More »Caroline Vandis — Sympathy in Comedy
I was really intrigued by Bergson’s observation of laughter as a group activity – that laughter can only thrive in an environment in which it… Read More »Maddie Cornetta – Laughter as a Group Activity and Talk Show Audiences
The point from Henri Bergon’s Laughter Essay was the point of laughter having “social significance” (p. 8), where a feeling of isolation from others can diminish… Read More »Nicholas DiCorpo – Bergson and the Absence of the Laugh-Track in Sitcoms
The film Playtime has grown on me since I first watched it. While the critiques of modernity are apparent, I have grown to appreciate the… Read More »stan- Comedy: The Great Disruptor
In his essay, Bergson points out that comedy is essentially human. It cannot be associated with inhumane objects or creatures and is rooted in society… Read More »Hana El Hilaly- “Comic is strictly human” and Bojack Horseman
The concept I found most compelling this week was philosopher Henri Bergsson’s ideas regarding a comedians role in accentuating gestures and features, using their physicality… Read More »Kevin Landers–Bergson & Clark Griswold