Although I do not keep up with sports that often, I was able to enjoy the skit because of the multiple forms of humor and use of the three theories. I agree with Trace that incongruity theory is most prominently displayed in D.C.'s responses to the questions asked by the interviewer and his comments to the other sports players. The part that I found to be most entertaining was when D.C., portrayed by Kenan Thompson, began to refer to every other character as "Greg" despite the fact that no one in the room goes by Greg. This utilizes incongruity theory as the audience is not expecting D.C. to, in addition to getting phrases wrong, address everyone by this name. While it does become apparent that D.C. has suffered sever brain damage from his football career, this addition of having him call the other men by the name Greg is so random and incongruous that the audience laughs. D.C. then beings to discuss all his injuries from previous games and discusses the mentality that surrounds injuries within the sport. The most apparent damage that has been done to D.C. over the years is to his brain, as he continues to make no sense with the utmost confidence. This stab at the sport and the injuries it cause brings in superiority theory as audience members laugh at the characters ignorance from the damage but also the danger of the sport. It is no secret that football can cause numerous injuries to the head, some with fatal potential. SNL pokes fun at this aspect of the sport through their portrayal of the character as he is unable to make any sense during the interview. As they are wrapping up the interview, the host of the show states that all the injuries D.C. has had, came from the nine games he has played in seven seasons. This part of the skit made me laugh even more, because of how few games D.C. actually participated in. D.C. then says that this was due to injuries and death in the family - his death (he died but was resuscitated). This utilizes incongruity as the audience is not expecting the "death in the family" to be D.C.'s death himself. Overall, the skit is able to make the audience laugh because of the way SNL is portraying football through his character.
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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