Funnys

Last night, we had our Divine Comedy tech show.  I made a short video about college.  Everybody hated it.  It was funny to me that there was no laughter.  

After a bit, I thought about what had happened.  Possibly the reason why it didn't go over so well was that it was very unexpected.  I wasn't really parodying anything that is overtly obvious to the audience.  I also mixed a different form of media in with a stage performance.  But I think the main thing was that the video was made to be funny to a different type of person than the traditional BYU Cougar that loves Divine Comedy.  We have a reputation for a certain type of humor that alienates some people from ever coming to a performance.  When I tried a different type of humor that could be enjoyed by that demographic we don't reach, it did not go over well with the traditional fan.  

Target audience is a very important thing to consider when analyzing media.  You wouldn't hold a Little Critter book up to the same standards as a Chuck Klosterman book.  They are for a different audience and they have different things that make them good.  It would be effective to teach this by going over different genres of film and saying what it is that makes them that particular type of film and what is good about them.  This makes students think about difference and how things should be judged accordingly.