Sunday, March 16, 2014

TOW 21 - Lip Sync Battles (Jimmy Fallon)

When you’re asked what you do for fun, you realize that the ways we entertain ourselves are so strange. Humor is the most entertaining way to take your mind of real world issues and complications, and while it may seem trivial, it can be critical to maintaining our mental health. One way I regulate my cerebral well-being is by watching Jimmy Fallon Lip Syncing Battles. In the lip sync battle with Joseph Gordon Levitt and Stephen Merchant, Jimmy Fallon and his guests use stylistic choices and serious tones to give their viewers a break from reality with entertainment. 
The way you define stylistic choices in writing is not be entirely the same as what you would call it in video, but nevertheless it is still effective. In this case, the three comedians choice of songs says a lot about their goal for the viewer. The songs chosen were tremendously popular at some point within the past thirty years, targeting a wide audience that will immediately connect with and enjoy the show. As they go onto lip sync, they are rousing nostalgia within the audience while poking fun at what we used to enjoy in a lighthearted fashion. With every inevitable laugh provoked, as heard in the studio audience, there is proof that these three are doing their job of entertaining.
These humorists use a mockingly serious tone which makes their work even more sidesplittingly hilarious. The fact that they chose their songs, they knew how ridiculous they would seem performing them, and they treated it as if they were serious musicians makes the performances infinitely better. How they perform their songs is almost ironic: seeing a tall, lanky man like Stephen Merchant swinging his hips to a fierce song by BeyoncĂ© seems like the epitome of unexpected. Almost startling, the commitment Merchant displays is so unanticipated that it adds to the performance’s humor overall.

A person’s sense of humor is specific to him or her as an individual, but judging by the studio audience’s reaction, I can’t be the only person to crack up. Humor is the perfect way to fix a bad day or forget your problems, and in this sense entertainment is the best form of procrastination.

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