Comedians are allowed to speak their mind while regular people who work in their professions such as doctors, teachers, or police officers are not allowed to voice their opinions as freely because it’s inappropriate to do so. Maybe this is why people enjoy comedy, for a good laugh but also whatever the comedian jokes about you can relate to due to the fact that you have certain thoughts on the subject. An example would be in one of Kevin Hart’s stand-up comedy acts, he talks about how his father use to be a crack head and stole a police dog while it was on duty because Kevin wanted a dog. He also mentions that his father gets kicked out of the house due to the his mother not liking him on drugs, so every time he came to visit Kevin and his brother the father couldn’t go past the second step on the stoop which he never did, his feet always stayed on the second step. He gets into an argument with the mother about not passing the second step and during the argument the father does the dance that Kevin Hart says all crack heads do which is called the hula-hoop. Throughout maybe fifteen minutes of the stand-up comedy, Kevin Hart talks about his father being a crack head.
Another example is Jon Stewart of The Daily Show which is a politically, satire TV show that uses satirical comedy towards actual news channels and political discussions. Jon plays as a mock political analyst who turn the news of the more serious and informational news stations such as Fox News and turn them into comedy as a means of making the news easier to understand. As an example, Jon Stewart represents the average “liberal-minded” progressive political analyst who mainly makes criticism and parodies of certain material shown in the news as a way of conveying how absolutely insane they sound. The comical productions of this satirist brings out the irrationality of most material being showed in the news by converting it into humor that we, ordinary people, can easily understand. The humor shown in the examples shows that the humorists try to spur and inspire us to think for ourselves which often shows that humor is powerful to us as we become aware of unknown things that were explained in their comedies.
Humorists do have a vital role in society. They have to role to make us laugh, but to also to relate the material back to our thoughts, which allows to freely express ourselves through laughter. De Botton’s opinion of how important humorist are to the society is necessary because it helps entertain people, but also sends a message to the audience to be informed.
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