Thursday, April 4, 2013

Woman In Comedy (laughing for the right reasons)

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     The other day in class we watched a couple different skits from the TV show Saturday Night Live.  The main focus of comedic attention was focused on Melissa Mccarthy.  Melissa Mccarthy is one of the newer up and coming comedic females who can bring people to tears with the hilarious characters she portrays.  There is no doubt that Melissa Mccarthy is a truly funny person, but the point was brought up that we might be laughing at her for the wrong reasons.
     The point was brought up that maybe we were laughing at her body image and not her ridiculous acting style.  Is it possible the audience could subconsciously be finding it funny because she is a larger woman?  If it had been a more stereotypically attractive woman acting in the same fashion would it hold the same comedic weight? 
     After taking both sides into consideration and analyzing what about the skits I found to be funny, I firmly believe her body image has nothing to do with the amount of humor.  I thought about the skit where Melissa Mccarthy is throwing herself at another coworker and tried to think of similar examples.  In the movie Horrible Bosses, Jennifer Aniston plays a dentist who is obsessed with her coworker.  Jennifer Aniston is skinny and would be considered attractive by modern day society standards.  The fact of the matter is that both Melissa Mccarthy & Jennifer Aniston play crazy woman who are obsessed with a co-worker and they are both absolutely hilarious.  For me the body type these actresses bares no weight on how funny they are.   

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