I love Key and Peele and this is by far one of their
funniest clips. I really enjoyed how you were able to coherently relate all three
of the theories to the clip! I definitely felt the presence of the incongruity
theory and the superiority theory right off the bat. The incongruity theory was
most prominent to me because of how absurdly wrong the substitute pronounces
the names. It really is shocking how a person can get a name like Blake so off.
I see the superiority theory for the substitute because I do feel slightly
superior to him. I feel like if I was given that attendance sheet, I could pronounce
98% percent of the names with no problem. It was harder for me to relate the relief
theory to the clip at first, but after reading your explanation of how it fits
in I can definitely see how it played in. My opinion is that this clip operates
around racial humor, specifically black humor. The substitute is talking with a
“ghetto” accent and is pronouncing generic white people names incorrectly. This
is making an indirect reference to how black people name their children with
unique and complex names. The whole clip is tied together by Timothy (tim-OH-thee)
who, when his name is called, answers with a hearty present (pree-SINT). I’m
not sure what theory that would fall under. Maybe superiority because it is
making fun of another culture? Or maybe it falls under incongruity because racial
humor always presents itself with a shock factor?
This and the pitch meeting for Gremlins 2 are my favorite sketches I think.
ReplyDeleteEthnic humor always presents an interesting case for superiority theory as it is usually not funny when it is done maliciously and by an outsider who is not part of the group. As always there are exceptions but it seems a good general rule.