I agree that this scene within Talladega Nights is extremely hilarious because of incongruity and superiority theory. When the scene opens, Rick Bobby's wife calls everyone to the dinner table and exclaims that she has been slaving over the meal for ours, however, the next shot depicts that the meal is comprised entirely of fast food, which the audience knows takes no effort. After panning over the unhealthy meal, the movie then proceeds with Ricky's grace. While saying grace normally consists of a short prayer that thanks a higher power for the most significant aspects of one's life and the meal they are about to eat, Ricky Bobby's grace thanks baby Jesus, not the grown man, for various inappropriate things. This appeals to audience members because of the incongruous items he gives thanks for and the overall idea of prayer. This prayer also brings in superiority theory because the audience finds humor within the language the family utilizes throughout the grace. Ricky gives thanks for his two sons, who have extremely southern names that poke fun at southern stereotypes. He then gives thanks for his wife, who he describes as "red-hot smoking" in front of her father and their children, and his best friend, Cal. Cal and Ricky then fist bump in the middle of the prayer, again adding incongruity to the scene and overall grace. Ricky continues the grace by asking that baby Jesus uses his "super powers" to heal his father in law's leg, which apparently gives off an unpleasant oder and is often picked on by their dogs. While most would find this offensive, Cal and Ricky's wife simply agree with the statement and allow the prayer to continue. Ricky's wife stops the prayer and addresses the fact that Ricky does not need to refer to Jesus as a baby everytime he uses his name. Ricky justifies this use with the fact that "Christmas Jesus" is his favorite and that is how he prefers to imagine him. This then causes a whole new conversation (still during the grace) between Cal, Ricky, Texas Ranger, and Walker, who all begin to discuss what they like to imagine Jesus as. This causes laughter as their images are ridiculous and disrespect the religious figure, adding incongruity and superiority theory to the scene. Overall the dinner scene is extremely humorous because the audience sees the family dynamic, morals, and thought process.
I agree the most with Marie Collins Swabey's idea that incongruity is found humorous because the two aspects are irrelevant to one another in a acceptable scenario. Often the humor is found within the topic of discussion because the two concepts are dissimilar. Swabey distinguishes that there are two forms of incongruity, logical and factual, and that the context in which incongruity is utilized may differ. Logical, which infringe on the laws of logic, are usually entertaining because the person utilizing the logical incongruity makes a false statement, which overlaps with the idea of superiority theory. Logical incongruity appeals to our sense of rational form where as factual appeals more to the incompatibility of certain topics. This form of incongruity is demonstrated when the association of said topics are viewed as incompatible or abnormal to the audience. Although Roger Scruton disagrees with the theory that the abnormality of the incongruent pairing of two ideas in not wha...
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