Final Essay

Thomas Hobbes' vision of the nature of comedy, that being one of Sudden Glory (to observe a deformation in another and applaud the self for being better by comparison), has transformed in the age of the internet into the vision of an Epic Fail. The internet is crowded with moments that are glimpses of other people's misfortunate, whether by a table suddenly collapsing beneath them as they dance or by their failure to deliver a news report without swearing or misspeaking in an embarrassing way. Fail Blog is universally recognized as a major source of internet comedy and the term "Epic Fail" has been introduced to the teen through twenties vernacular in North America. Hobbes' theory of comedy, at least in the world of the internet, seems to reign supreme in 2011.

Comedy has become largely about easy, fast access. This narrows down the types of programming and animation that people use-- it all has to be fast downloading and jump right into a moment of comedy, so as to catch the viewers interest. The shorter the clip, the more views it tends to get. This has effected comedy largely by making almost everything a punch-line. Of course, full episodes of shows such as is the case with Workaholics and 30 Rock or full-length albums by comedic actor/musicians such as The Lonely Boys, follow a story and have evolving plots. In the world of clips and photographs, however, it is all about being terse and easy to understand in an immediate way.

Moving from length to content, it is rather oddly cats and dogs that come to mind first (while babies, too, hold their own special place in the comedic hierarchy). LOL Cats and Dogs are simply the repeated anthropomorphizing of cats and dogs by caption and/or costume. In Simon Critchley's book On Humor, he devotes an entire section to such anthropomorphizing and why it is a cause for laughter. In opposition, Critchley notes that when this happens in reverse-- where man imitates animal-- we are struck with a feeling of disgust rather than amusement. Because we see animals as without the capacity to feel in the way we do as humans, it is amusing to see them feel self-conscious, morally superior to another animal, etc. because we link that to our own experience and feel it's absurd to witness such complexities in a cat or a dog. To see a pig act like a man amuses us while seeing a man 'act like a pig', on the other hand, is something quite frowned upon and even repulsive.

We are amused by LOL Cats and Dogs because it is funny to see their thoughts or what they would say if given the power of speech. In the case of dogs, the lines frequently revolve around a lust for hotdogs and repulsion to baths, while the cats are frequently acting superior and aloof. What we anticipate is confirmed and we are pleased.

The Most Viewed Comedic YouTube Video

303, 090, 409 views.
Charlie bit my finger-- again!

Most popular subjects on YouTube in comedy:
1. Babies
2. Parodies/ The Lonely Island Boys
3. "Absurd" humor... that I find really difficult to watch (i.e. Charlie the Unicorn and The Annoying Orange)
4. Cats
5. Other: embarrassing moments, the Evolution of Dance guy,

Expanding on Babies: babies saying swear words, breakdancing, laughing in an unusual/cute way,

Then there are the skit videos that are posted on YouTube and become astronomically famous, such as the directorial works of Liam Kyle Sullivan. The video "Shoes" jump-started Sullivan's journey as "Kelly," with a distinct voice, interest-set, vocabulary and look that would become immediately associated with these videos. I don't think there was a single girl in my middle school who wasn't singing "these shoes rule. these shoes suck," under the impression that the joke would get funnier the more she said it.
Sullivan went on to make, Muffins, Let Me Borrow that Top, among many others. All these videos amassed over ten million views each.