There used to be a television show in the 70's that I remember called "Make Me Laugh" and if I am correct, Jay Leno appeared on it a lot as a young comic. It challenged the contestant to resist a comic's performance in a a set time of 30 seconds or a minute. And like the title tips you off, if you didn't laugh, you would win some prizes.
When I was teaching, and it was in high school, not jr. high, there were some things that could easily make us laugh in a classroom setting. I was usually able to hold out the best, but it was only because I was so used to a lot of the silliness that happens in a school setting. Nothing like jr. high humor in an adult setting to be a real ice breaker as shown in this video of a city council meeting - and it's not L.A. where you have a lot of windbags there in competition to give us all kinds of their gaseous offerings, but that's a different story. (From Dec. 2008; 1 min: 15 secs).
O.K., now you saw all that and the laughs that it prompted. And I can't really be sure what it is about these sounds that caused the reactions it did, but again, jr. high humor can be so basic and reach so many people to elicit a response.
The video clip below gives us an answer on the source but not on the reason for the humor being what it is. It seems that there's an iPhone app called "iFart." A "Today Show" segment presents this in a more academic setting to show us more about that. (1 min: 24 secs). I'm sorry but that just seems to take out a large part of the humor that you have happening with any live event generating the same audio inspiration.
And that's the break from some of the antics at City Hall that, unfortunately, although clownish, gives us more of the tragedy side than the comedy side of the arts.
Posts
