The Smart Humour of Dumb Deaths
In their writing ‘The Absurd’ and ‘On Humor’ Thomas Nagel and Sigmund Freud explore ideas of humour, dark comedy and absurdity. In 2012, Metro Trains… Read More »The Smart Humour of Dumb Deaths
Blog Post 8 (due 5 PM Wednesday 26th March)
Week 8 Black Humor, Absurdity and the Comedy of Death
Required Reading:
Thomas Nagel, “The Absurd,” The Journal of Philosophy 68:20 (1971), 716-727.
Sigmund Freud, “On Humor,” The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (London: Hogarth, 1955), 160-166.
Simon Critchley, “Why the Super-Ego is your Amigo,” On Humor (New York: Routledge, 2002), 93-112.
Flight of the Conkwards
Flight of the Conchords is a musical television show featuring two men who pose as a direct opposition to Alexandra Plakias’ assertion that people aren’t… Read More »Flight of the Conkwards
Nagel and Ready or Not
“If a sense of the absurd is a way of perceiving our true situation (even though the situation is not absurd until the perception arises),… Read More »Nagel and Ready or Not
Why a Free Churro is Funny
Freud makes the distinction between dark humour and dark jokes as follows: humour is what happens when the unconscious mind finds something funny, it is… Read More »Why a Free Churro is Funny
Truman’s Absurdity
The Truman Show is prefaced on the idea that Truman is living in the manufactured world of a reality TV show, yet he does not realise… Read More »Truman’s Absurdity
Absurdity in A Real Pain
A Real Pain depicts absurdity and the struggle against it in both main characters. Two cousins, Benji and David, embark on a guided trip to… Read More »Absurdity in A Real Pain
Oh, he Super-Ego’s in this?: Community and the absurd – Rebeca Ravara
Community is known for playing with dark and absurd themes in its episodes, such as when two characters find themselves in a hidden paradise. Essentially,… Read More »Oh, he Super-Ego’s in this?: Community and the absurd – Rebeca Ravara
Smiling Friends and a positive absurdism
Absurdity, for Nagel, comes from the human ability to take a “backward step”– to perform detached self-analysis, distanced self-critique and meta-cognition– yet our unrelenting pursuit… Read More »Smiling Friends and a positive absurdism
That’s Why Your Dad Died lol
The humourous attitude, according to Sigmund Freud, can either be directed towards the subject’s own self or towards other people, bringing a yield of pleasure… Read More »That’s Why Your Dad Died lol
Being Thomas Nagel
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