ipl-logo

Saturday Night Live: The Benefits Of Improvisational Theatre

1531 Words7 Pages

In a world where daily stress and difficulty are commonplace, a convenient escape is in demand. To remedy this, people around the world have turned to comedic entertainment. A very popular field of this entertainment is improvisational theatre, often referred to as improv. Here, performers use quick wit, innovative thinking, and rapid response to draw out roaring laughter from the masses. It seems that this branch of comedic performance is only growing in popularity (Love 30). In fact, the long running television program, Saturday Night Live, boasts a cast that mostly all come from a background within improv. A surge in the popularity of improv comedy may also be attributed to the success of Whose Line Is It Anyway, an originally British television …show more content…

David Carbonell is one such psychologist who happens to specialize in anxiety studies. Chicago-based Carbonell runs a workshop specifically tailored to the needs of patients suffering with a fear of public speaking. Carbonell makes heavy use of improv techniques in this workshop. It helps that Carbonell is a member of a local improv troupe made up entirely of psychologists. Due to his studies, Carbonell believes that the strongest factor of this fear comes from the negative and self-critical thought of the speaker. To combat this, the workshop tasks one participant to give a speech while a second participant voices all of the negative criticisms they can muster spontaneously. Carbonell concludes that hearing this sometimes harsh critique from another person can subdue the power you give your own self-critical thoughts. Carbonell believes that he has seen great success with this method (Toohill). It combines both his passion and his profession into something beneficial for …show more content…

The games and exercises are further tailored to suit the analytical minds of the students (Hoffman, Utley, and Ciccarone 537). Good communication between doctors and patients naturally leads to a higher degree of satisfaction for both parties. Naturally, this would also decrease the chance of a malpractice lawsuit. Because of this, many medical school strive not only teach the science of medicine, but the art of communication. Just as in improv comedy, quick thinking is a valuable skill in the medical world. Applying the previously discussed abilities helps to promote

Show More
Related

South Park And The Carnivalesque Analysis

133 Words | 1 Pages

The article “South Park and the Carnivalesque” written by Alison Halsall delves into both parody and satire within the context of the program. South Park’s Carnivalesque humor, or carnival laughter “is a method by which popular culture in general, and South Park in particular, provides liberation from constraint” (Halsall 24). South Park makes it a point to use humor that provokes the inherent “dirtiness” that we contain, in an attempt to expose cultural aspects that generally go undiscussed (Halsall 34). Through profanity, South Park brings carnival humor down to the basic grotesque humor that serves to “critique linguistic sanitation” (Halsall 34).

Read More

How Does Mark Twain Use Satire In Saturday Night Live

901 Words | 4 Pages

Saturday Night Live. No doubt a familiar name, with 42 seasons, 817 episodes, and over 3.5 million people tuning in each week, SNL is one of the most successful television programs in American history. Mainly watched as a source of amusement, SNL lures viewers in with the witty, derisive, and sarcastic spirit of their script; however, under the jokes and comical skits lies latent commentary on issues that beset society. Satire, as seen in SNL, has been utilized numerous times throughout literature as a tool for the author to relay a certain notion in an entertaining fashion. American author Mark Twain commonly applied satire in his works to criticize the flaws he observed in humanity, while maintaining a sense of appeal.

Read More

Kliph Neesteroff The Comedian Analysis

50 Words | 1 Pages

Kliph Nesteroff’s The Comedians acts as a historical observation on the lineage of American stand-up comedy throughout the 20th century, and into the 21st. Using his knowledge of show-business, and his own perspective as a performing stand-up comedian, Nesteroff tracks down the what has made comedy what it is

Read More

Critical Thinking At The Bedside Summary

306 Words | 2 Pages

Teaching critical thinking to students is an essential tool to give the students a solid foundation when they are entering the workplace. Nurse educators are called upon to teach the student the fundamentals of nursing. Critical thinking by one definition is the ability to analyze and process the analysis in order make informed decisions while caring for the patient. The purpose of this paper is to review some of the literature in order to help decipher what critical thinking is all about and to take a look at the importance and potential ways in which to teach critical thinking to nursing students, Literature Review Critical Thinking at the Bedside

Read More

Satire In Chappelle's Show

637 Words | 3 Pages

Asians are good at math, Irish are alcoholics, African Americans are athletic, and Caucasians are privileged. These are just some of the well known stereotypes that are frequently used for humor. Stereotypes are certainly not always true and are often criticized for generalizing large groups of people, but they coincide meticulously with comedy because they can resonate with an audience instantly and receive a humorous reaction. In this essay, I will respond to the texts All in in the Family, Chappelle’s Show, and Family Guy by discussing the satire of bigotry and the importance of context when telling a controversial joke.

Read More

Duck Soup: A Comedy Analysis

2334 Words | 10 Pages

Comedy has been a form of entertainment since ancient Greece. Comedy often reflects society, so as technology became more advanced it also became more accessible to the public. Leaving the house to see a play transitioned to leaving the house to see a film, which transitioned to staying at home and watching television, and then transitioned to watching videos on an iPhone. Technological accessibility broadened comedy as genre and created notable characters, distinctive styles, and has influenced modern comedians.   Bo Burnham began to gain popularity through YouTube.

Read More

Rhetorical Analysis Of Will Ferrell Speech

557 Words | 3 Pages

On June 4, 2003, world-wide known comedian, Will Ferrell delivered a very influential and amusing speech to the Harvard graduating Class of 2003. Ferrell expressed this graduating speech with something new and unique. He doesn’t present his speech like any other class day speaker; he is very inspirational and wants the students to see how different their life is going to be once they leave this graduation ceremony. Ferrell compellingly employs a very lighthearted tone, which includes humor, and pathos to effectively gain the audience’s attention and successfully tell students about the “real world”. Ferrell’s usage of a lighthearted tone throughout his speech creates a connection between him and his audience which lasts from start to finish.

Read More

Satirical Humor In Family Guy

1369 Words | 6 Pages

Family Guy is an extremely controversial show due to its outrageous and harsh cartoon humor that seems to stay within no boundries of political correctness when it comes to the content. Although the show may seem ludicrous sometimes, it uses satirical humor as a tool that helps viewers reflect on and even question culturally sensitive aspects of our society. Family Guy initiates a dialogue about these sensitive yet relevant topics through critically sarcastic humor that makes viewers laugh and think at the same time. Since the material can be so sensitive, J. Jeremy Wisnewski, author of the book Family Guy and Philosophy questions if “Family Guy is encouraging us to laugh at things that we shouldn’t joke about” (Wisnewski, 14). Yes the show

Read More

My Shadowing Experience In Emergency Medicine

281 Words | 2 Pages

As an aspiring physician in Emergency Medicine, it is hard to describe typical physician workday activities. Every day is unique and filled with many opportunities to learn and develop clinical, interpersonal communication, leadership and critical thinking skills. Despite this, there are certain routine activities which I had the opportunity to observe through my shadowing experience in the Emergency and Operating rooms at California Hospital Medical Center, Los Angeles. One day, a two year old patient came into the ER after falling and cutting her head. The patient’s mother told the physician that her daughter is nervous and scared.

Read More

Vaudeville's Impact On The Evolutio Comedy

769 Words | 4 Pages

The stand-up routines today have evolved a lot from the structure used in vaudeville comedy acts. Stand-up routines are much more storytelling, something which was introduced during the vaudeville era. In addition, the jokes are spaced apart so there is rhythm and good timing which allows for the audience to have consistent amusement over the course of the show. Sarah Silverman’s stand-up is an example of how today’s comedy has evolved from vaudeville. Also, “crowd working” and improv have evolved exponentially from their origins in vaudeville.

Read More

Codes And Conventions Of A Comedy

1482 Words | 6 Pages

The best comedy is derived organically from characters and their quirks or flaws, as well as physical and visual comedy. Good, witty one-liners will also enhance the comedy. Avoid trying to force a joke about the “pimples,” as this isn’t naturally funny.

Read More

Monty Python Essay

1937 Words | 8 Pages

*1. Topic comedy 2. Academic paper Monty Python characteristics 1 Jolan Members 2 Louis setting 3 Seppe situations 4 Stef music 5 Kenny Hoe’s 2.1 Characteristics In the beginning, there was nothing.

Read More

Effective Communicative Behavior In Theatre

1819 Words | 8 Pages

The flow and rapport within a scene will be assessed through participant (actor) questionnaires and treated as the dependent variables. The frequency and extent to which actors adhere to the yes-and rule will constitute our independent variable. Previous research on improvised comedy has mainly used informal interview techniques for data collection (Magerko et al., 2010), yet our current research requires observational data. This research will be using a similar research design as Magerko et al. , (2010) of recording improvised scenes and then coding the communicative behavior amongst participants.

Read More

Freedom Of Speech In Comedy

817 Words | 4 Pages

Many audiences of stand up comedy enjoy hearing their favorite comedian entertain them. But what would one think when a comedian cracks a joke about a sensitive topic, for example, a tragedy that affected hundreds of people. Some may argue that, comedians are not supposed to overstep the boundary of controversial jokes. These controversial jokes are linked with political correctness—which is used to describe language, policies, and measures that are taken to avoid offense to certain groups of people. Comedians are not compelled to restrain from controversial topics due to the topic not being sugar-coated, the higher level of contemplation that the joke can reach, and the job of the comedian—to make the current issue manageable.

Read More

Fear Of Public Speaking Essay

1033 Words | 5 Pages

This might lead to them getting more nervous and increasing their fear of a chance of making a mistake. One-way to overcome such a fear is to envisage people as not all that important. This trick helps a person keep a clam attitude while presenting and shows the audience that the speaker is confident and at ease. Keeping a positive approach is also a method of overcoming the fear of public speaking. One could imagine that the crowd or audience they are speaking in front are caring, friendly people who want to hear what the speaker has to say.

Read More

More about Saturday Night Live: The Benefits Of Improvisational Theatre

Related Topics

Open Document