Why is This Funny?

McKinney, Scott

Savannah, Georgia: Savannah College of Art and Design

2018-05

Thesis (M.A.) -- Film and Television

Savannah College of Art and Design -- Department of Film and Television

Bibliography: pages 26-27

"This thesis dissects comedic techniques to bridge the gap from screen to audience. While briefly touching on other theories, the main theory discussed is the Benign Violation Theory, which states that humor occurs when three things happen. 1. A situation is a violation. 2. The situation is benign. 3. Both perceptions occur simultaneously. As a viewer, no benign violation is happening to us physically. However, the use or lack of sympathy and empathy allows the audience to vicariously live through the characters on the screen. To study this, we will dissect such films as 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail', '50/50', and 'The Princess Bride' to gain a spectrum of violations to understand which ones read better on screen."

Includes the fantasy-comedy film "Heroes in our Minds" / created, produced, and directed by Scott McKinney.

Keywords: benign violation theory, comedy, humor, film, character alignment

CHAIR: Kocka, Lubomir

Brown, Paul (Bear)

Auer, Chris

English

Film and Television

Text, film

1 text file (thesis) : PDF, 27 pages, color illustrations + 1 film (10 min.) : WMV, sound, color

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