Posts

Final Reflections

       One of the most exciting things I have learned throughout this class is the broad scale of healing and social action that can occur from humor and how the different types of humor weigh in to form a particular narrative around complex topics. Before taking this class, I had experienced people utilizing humor in their lives to talk about issues that might be weighing heavy on their minds or conflicts they need to get off of their chests, but I never did I imagine humor being associated with sexual assault; or racist stereotypes by individuals that have been victimized to heal their pain and move past their trauma. The articles we read for class regarding the role of humor in social change and sexual assault put the power of laughter into a new category for me where I had not yet recognized its purpose. The power of humor to heal should be shared by individuals who have been victimized to break down oppressive structures surrounding them.       The funniest thing I experienced in
Post a Comment
Read more

Hobbes

  Joshua Singh Dr. Ellis EN 346D Hobbes and Superiority Theory Hobbes’s theory of laughter and humor stem from what we know as Superiority theory. It is the theory that laughter is the human response to triumph over others as well as finding oneself superior to others when they find themselves in misfortune. He believes “men laugh at mischances and indecencies, wherein there lies no wit nor jest at all” in which “sudden glory, is the passion that which makes those grimaces called laughter” (19). Hobbes’s version of superiority theory describes laughter as merely a response to a feeling of victory that one feels from the imperfections of another or their mistakes. This idea serves to caution those who do use laughter to self-deprecate in order to relate to a broader audience or talk about a broader topic. For example, many comedians first tell a joke that is somewhat demeaning to themselves in order to get a crowd laughing and feeling comfortable. Although superiority theory is a st
Post a Comment
Read more

New Kid

    This graphic novel has really been impressing me with it's ability to gracefully play on the nuances of being a young teen and navigating a new school. Regardless of the situation, everyone has at one point or another had to transition from one school to another, and there is an exceptionally harrowing experience of transferring to a new school with peers that you are unfamiliar with. Craft perfectly encapsulates the embarrassment of childhood experiences and the mortification that came from small moments such as motherly affection and trying to navigate adolescent society with popularity and bullying and Jordan's interactions with casual racism.  Jordan discusses his unique situations in ways that become understandable or relatable through his use of popular culture references in the form of movies and famous figures. It has the ability to take anyone back to the mindset of an adolescent who sees life as though they are living a movie, or trying to construct their life a
Post a Comment
Read more

New Kid by Jerry Craft

Craft’s New Kid  is a comic book about the hardships Jordan faces with friends, school, and his parents. His hardships are primarily based on how he feels as a minority and the expectations put on him by his surrounding environment. Jordan starts attending a new school, RAD, and immediately begins to notice the microaggressions in this new environment. Jordan likes to draw, and every few pages of the book there is a comic strip and drawings by Jordan. His caricatures and dramatization of the people and ideas around him were what I believed was the funniest part of the book. But, I believe there is something much deeper to this humor, it is Jordan’s way of understanding and grappling with his place in this world and the expectations that people put on him.  The first of Jordan’s drawings that we see are a back to school poster of rulers, calculators, and textbooks with evil faces on them and kids running away. The history textbook is even holding some kids looking like it is about to ea
Post a Comment
Read more

New Kid

  Laura Latham  En 446D 01 April 17, 2023 New Kid Most of the humor in “New Kid” by Jerry Craft comes from the images used for the cartoons. The humor that comes from the cartoons is dramaticized so that the reader’s attention is focused on how Jordan is feeling. The graphic about Andy being scraped into the trash specifically is effectively humorous in that it grasps the reader’s attention so as to create a deeper understanding of Jordan’s struggles being a twelve year old boy.  On Jordan's first day of school, he is disheveled, and full of nerves not only from being black at a predominately white school, but because this is a new school where he is meeting everybody for the first time. At lunch, Jordan starts to feel more comfortable with a few of the boys, however he does not care for one of them, Andy. Andy is shown making racial remarks about one boy, then making fun of Jordan’s size. With words, it can be seen that Andy is an annoyance. However, the graphic at the bottom-
Post a Comment
Read more

New Kid Response

Image
 
Post a Comment
Read more

New Kid Response

            Jerry Craft’s New Kid has to be one of my favorite books we have read this semester—a descriptor I’ve handed out in the past, but this book runs away with the title due to its monumental achievement of making me laugh out loud, in real life, multiple times. Craft is able to convey so many nuances of the deeply problematic world of private school (speaking from experience) through the eyes of Jordan, whose narration is straight-to-the-point, funny, and true. The graphic novel medium offers so much opportunity for comedy, utilizing visual cues typically unavailable to a comedic novelist. For instance, early on in the story, as Jordan is just beginning to get a feel for his new school, he smiles at the sight of a Black man behind a steering wheel as he stands in a sea of white kids. This smile vanishes, accompanied by a cartoon frowny face, when the driver opens the car door to reveal a white student exiting the car, and Jordan’s character winces—the man is employed by a we
Post a Comment
Read more