On the spirit of the time’s humor.
So is it just me, or did Angel Beats take a level in HIGH-larity?
The humor this episode introduced was, as far as I know, well received by the sub-viewing masses. Mind you, the scope of my knowing is limited within the meager amount of blogs I can keep updated with and the fans around me, but I liked it. And that’s what counts, right?
Recall though, that back in episode one, Angel Beats’ slapstick was condemned. Exaggeratingly huge objects smashing into characters and sending them flying, Wily Coyote-style – The masses were more sophisticated than that, and deemed them inadequate. I mean, who actually laughed at that? They even rehashed it a second time in the same episode (okay, maybe a chuckle, but still)!
And now they’ve suddenly taken a one-eighty, delivering to us a hefty blend of drama and hilarity. But is that all they’ve taken?
Made most apparent is the physical comedy, in the form of the various Manji holds Hinata exhibits. I was immediately reminded of Baka to Test’s Shimada Minami’s antics. Here we’ve transitioned between violence inflicted upon a person by an object to violence inflicted by another person – and that’s made the difference between stale slapstick and comedic gold.
I actually do not have a screencap of Minami with Akihisa in a scissor-hold for some reason. Oh the shame.
Violence and slapstick go hand-in-hand; the most effective physical comedy is when people come to bodily harm. In anime though it’s evolved quite a bit from people perpetually tripping over one another a la To Love Ru or getting whapped over the head by paper fans. No, these are wrestling submission moves, designed to win matches and look absolutely painful. A Japanese Manji hold almost sounds orientally mystical, but turned on its side and labeled with its Lucha Libre name, the Swastika, it becomes a bit more sinister.
Why are we so comfortable with seeing this done, then? Why are many of us finding it humorous? Because it’s animated? Because it’s done between a female and a male? Never would we see a man do this to a woman in any other medium, even in actual wrestling. Perhaps even the sheer exoticness of it; most of us aren’t even in the knowledge of how to hold someone like that. If this last offbeat guess of mine were to be true, this humor would be on the same vein as laughing at a Native Tribesman’s feathered headwear.
It’d be psychoanalysis for me to decide why today’s viewers find it funny; I’m pretty unqualified to make judgments on that accord. Neither can I go five years back and say “series back then don’t feature this humor at all”, though I don’t recall wrestling being prevalent in such series as To Love Ru or even Code Geass’ gag episodes – the latter of which had homoeroticism in healthy doses, but not in comical context. I don’t recall such back-breaking extremes in Haruhi S1’s baseball episode either, and that was one of my favorites. It’s only been recently that such intricate physical attacks have become prominent to me.
It could be that it has nothing to do with an evolving sense of cultural humor at all. Before humanity became capable of the advanced feat of cognition that is telling jokes, before culture, before we were even able to talk, humans had movement. Being our very first vehicle of expression, maybe it’s hardcoded into our DNA to be delighted by slapstick.
Of course, that doesn’t mean a Neanderthal would find the Swastika all that funny, or that a sixteenth century gentleman wouldn’t find it absolutely abhorrent. What my guess is trying to say is, these wrestling holds are slapstick scaled to entertain our unamused subculture. Rapidly evolving culture causes us to become desensitized to past extremes, to a point where they fall comfortably in a space between ‘mundane’ and ‘out of this world’; in other words, humor.
Oh, and if you’re wondering what’s up with all the comparisons to To Love Ru:
It saddens me that the Youtube copyright purge has eliminated all proper uploads of the OP, leaving only subbed versions.
Grab it while it hasn’t been purged yet.
I absolutely love both OPs. Me being the only one to mention this is an utter impossibility, as even the Youtube comments put two and two together. Need to lurk more. Anyhow.
Somewhere along the line, deviant sexuality became comedic material as well. This is an older trend (how many gay jokes have we Persona 4 fans chuckled at, right), and perhaps closely related to the gag depiction of fabulous pink-draped men with waist length hair and roses between their lips – and apparently that’s not funny anymore, either.
Nobody laughed.
Homoeroticism was dealt with heavily in Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu too, as I’m sure we all vividly remember.
I find the comedic value of homosexuality even more suspect. When did hotly debated societal taboo become our subject of comedy? It’s because it’s hotly debated societal taboo that it’s become our subject of comedy, hasn’t it?
But the coincidences don’t stop there. Recurring objects that characters were attached to, spiritually or physically, were used to great effect by both – done first by Baka to Test.
The same applies to exaggerated phallic imagery.
I’m sure you’re just forcing it now, Ningyo.
It’s almost as if Baka to Test set some sort of new standard for contemporary humor. But that would be impossible; it and Angel Beats’ productions were probably chronologically close between one another. A fluke? That can’t be possible either. What’s the story behind the comedy they share?
Even Daimaou could not resist. I expected more from it.
Do these styles of humor appeal to the native Japanese viewers in the same way they appeal to us? Or do ages of hardcoded cultural identity cause us to enjoy them for totally different reasons? Why do we even find it funny? Nature, nurture, both? Do they even appeal to you? What do you find humorous in anime comedy? What are your thoughts?
Ningyo
Notice how I completely evade the theme of death, agony and suffering in Angel Beats. The elephant in the room should be left to people who know what they’re doing.
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April 27th, 2010 at 9:50 pm
Damnnit Ningyo, you just wouldn’t let me drop this show, would you? Downloading the fourth episode now for the sole sake of staying in the loop.
April 27th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
I somehow find the gay jokes to be more amusing than the male to female violence (I blame Baka to test for that). And I never noticed how most of the series I watched had so much man to woman action. I guess I eventually got use to the humor in Angel Beats after watching so much of Baka to test.
And that wrestling picture of yours is going to give me nightmares tonight. *sends it to the hikariman*
April 27th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
Humor is a natural, personalized expression. Trying to explain it in detail is more time-wasting than Western Social Philosophy.
I certainly liked Angel Beats! slapstick comedy (LOVED the giant hammer) and I aint afraid to claim it. It annoys me how quickly half the blogosphere can jump onto the bashing bandwagon.
April 28th, 2010 at 1:01 am
I actually didn’t find the manji holds to be very funny. The only funny parts I remember from that episode was when Yui accidently strangled herself, ninja girl balancing the broom, and Hinata getting tackled right before he’s about to catch the ball.
As for the homosexuality thing, I’m pretty sure that has been around for a long time. It might not have been so blatantly obvious, but I think that’s just because the subject was so taboo in the past.
April 28th, 2010 at 2:21 am
Hmmm… how can I phrase my expressed interest in this without sounding like I enjoy homoeroticism, yet also sound sarcastic…
“… delicious!”
The whole wrestling theme has actually been in Japanese anime culture for a while now, even in the late 80′s and early 90′s. (City Hunter, Video Girl, and Ranma immediately come to mind)
I think it’s supposed to represent a more exciting/humorously exaggerated dramatization of an otherwise mundane argument between two people. You’ll notice the person who is making the point is usually the one placing a hold on the other person.
It’s humorous because it’s a contrast to what is actually at hand. It’s very similar to Australian humor; they call opposites on things for effect, like calling a Great White Shark a “guppy”, or a piece of parsley on a 10 ounce fire-grilled steak “salad”.
When one exaggerates something while remaining within context, it becomes absolutely ridiculous and unfathomable, and that’s where human behavior kicks in and deems it funny.
It only becomes “unfunny” when societal constraints jump in and deem it taboo. (in other words, it’s funny if it’s in good taste).
This is where the humor splits among cultures – when it becomes socially unacceptable. Fortunately, the wrestling humor is a bit more universal, so even among North American culture, it’s understood (though a little weird at first).
This brings me to the point of the swastika. In the days before the Germans ran rampant with their little symbol, the swastika was actually a holy symbol, and still is among many cultures and religions. Obviously not so for those that have been indoctrinated that swastika = bad. So you have actually provided a perfect example for me to state my point! :D
April 28th, 2010 at 2:24 am
Oh and by the way, Manji is actually Japanese for Swastika.
April 28th, 2010 at 5:35 am
Uh, and the only enjoyable thing in the scenes above was definitely humour :P
Homoeroticism and I didn’t see Baka to Test coming, I think my brain is broken.
P4 was lol in that matter indeed.
April 28th, 2010 at 6:33 am
Wrestling was fairly prominent in Video Girl Ai. She puts Youta in a Boston Crab the very first episode… But of course I’d be the one to point that out, right? :)
I’ve noticed that Japanese humor works differently, somehow. But I can’t explain, really, other than to say that I rarely find it very funny.
April 28th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
@Chag
Chaaaaaaag… No comments on the humor? Don’t do it for the sole sake of that, we shan’t jump on any bandwagons :p
@imouto
Yeah, I think I do too. I’m not quite sure about man to woman for physical violence, as I’ve yet to see as much of it as everyone else seems to have, but that definitely stands for women falling over men. That falls into fanservice territory though, and that’s always far from funny in my book. Besides maybe Redibato’s slip n’ slide scene with Akiharu and Sanae; that got a few chuckles for being utterly stupid. Great, send it right to him. I didn’t find it very disturbing though. Maybe it’s because of all the TNA exposure from Spoony >.>
@Aorii
Which can be said for countless other things we people end up studying. Tomino’s Freudian allusions with Kamille penetrating people comes to mind.
I think I’ve been guilty of bandwagoning unconsciously at some point. At least, I was genuine when I complained about the giant hammer back in the episode one post – because I never read anybody’s reactions before vomiting out my own.
@Nopy
Coming to think of it, I never really chuckled at it at all, but I suppose my mind registers any anime comedy that doesn’t offend as good comedy. That kind of undermines my entire post, so I’ll say I slightly enjoyed it. Shiina with the broom was a good one – and it immediately reminded me of Akihisa’s desk. Remember a time when they actually had desks? Man.
Right. ‘Rapidly evolving culture causes us to become desensitized to past extremes, to a point where they fall comfortably in a space between ‘mundane’ and ‘out of this world’; in other words, humor.’ Connects largely with the point on homoeroticism as well.
@radiant
Yes, yes, I know man, I’m the unwitting religion student right now, remember? I’ve heard enough of Siddhartha Gautama to last a lifetime. I suppose it is a good idea for you to tell the other readers, though. All that to say gj.
So, instead of a mechanical appeal to our most primal form of expression, it’s to augment the dialogue? That may be so; makes a lot of sense when you consider how the dominating one is the one making the point, mm. Basically, humor in irony. Never knew Australian humor worked like that :o
Your telling me that this theme was present even in the 80s feels like reassertion for my timeless, primal mechanical appeal idea; even wrestling humor being universal to East and West is support! But I suppose that as with all things in history, it is never that simple, or derived from any single thing or reason. It’s probably a mix of everything one can come up with.
You lead me to a point as well, with the swastika. Strangely, with this post-baby boomer indoctrination of swastika = bad, it’s become used to comedic effect by we youths as well. When a kid carves a dozen swastikas into another’s desk for the fun of it, and then tells everybody, I imagine him garnering a lot of laughs. Maybe this goes into the territory of youths using taboo to express themselves.
@Velore
Hmm, there probably is something up if you didn’t see that coming. Perhaps one too many perception altering beverages?
Makes me wonder if we really saved Kanji, with him ending up making dolls for kids and whatnot. Oh well, he did get along with Rise and the detective prince. Maybe next time we’ll have him as a possible route.
@2DT
Hoho, could you actually be a wrestling connoisseur in secret as well? Though I highly doubt that, and it’s probably just another tidbit from the vaults of your knowledge.
Really though, you can’t explain it? That’s unfortunate. I would’ve thought you’d at least find it charming though, given how you don’t much show your displeasure for anime slapstick.
April 28th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
>Rapidly evolving culture causes us to become desensitized to past extremes, to a point where they fall comfortably in a space between ‘mundane’ and ‘out of this world’; in other words, humor.
Evolution is certainly an appropriate word here. As we become used to the the practices and customs of today, I see two branching outcomes. The first of these is exaggeration — pushing contemporary borders of existing things. Show a little more skin, get away with a little more cuss words, crank up level of violence allowed to be aired on TV — all of these can be viewed as examples of exaggeration. The fancy wrestling holds probably belong in this category, as they are just an exaggerated version of the tried-and-true Manzai humour that’s been around for ages.
The other route is innovation, in which case the new norms and practices are created to combat the desensitizing populace. The only firm example I have off the top of my head is the rise of Bauhaus and Dada during the fall of imperial Germany in the early 20th century. New artistic movements mediums and genres fall under the category of innovation. I’m not sure whether Homoeroticism as a form of humour can fit into this category, though… The transition from strict taboo to accepted subject of jokes is probably an example of innovation, but I have no clue when that first started.
…Bah, I’m kind of lost right now. I’m pretty sure I’m just spouting common sense at this point. Truth be told, I’m not digging the use of humour in Angel Beats. It feels like a very disjointed experience with narrative twitching between crude humour, serious drama and world-building like an epileptic fit. It’s not like these elements cannot co-exist in a series, as Maeda himself blended humour and thick drama the Key games/anime. But the difference between that and Angel Beats is this: while Maeda knew better than to throw in Sunohara shenanigans in, say, the darker parts of After Story, Angel beats hops right from drug abuse to loli abuse. Bah, it’s just not working for me. At the end of the episode, neither the humour nor the drama sticks because how jumbled the episode feels.
April 28th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
I meant more in the sense that Video Girl Ai is my favorite anime, and I’ll take any opportunity I can to have it remembered. :) But yes, I used to watch wrestling for a little while. I was rather fascinated by “wrestling families,” like the kind that Eddie Guerrero came from, and the whole luchador scene as well.
Slapstick is fine, but I feel the whole basis of their verbal comedy (boke/tsukkomi) evolved in a very different direction than the western funny man/straight man. Even in physical humor, that relationship manifests, and so it’s a bit hard for me to get.
April 29th, 2010 at 3:14 am
The more I read about Angel Beats, the less I want to watch it. Seems as if it’s now blending drama with slapstick… Doesn’t sound all that good. :(
Anyways, about the swastika. Interestingly, I wrote something about it for a class just two days ago. What a nice coincidence.
I’m sure you know though that the swastika is a symbol that far predates Nazi Germany and has had a strong presence in Buddhism and Asia before WWII. I don’t think it is as stigmatized as it is in Europe or N. America.
“Rapidly evolving culture causes us to become desensitized to past extremes, to a point where they fall comfortably in a space between ‘mundane’ and ‘out of this world’; in other words, humor.”
Very good point!
April 29th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
ahahah man that reminds me the time when we talked about how people have gotten used to violence that it seems common in actual society; and the part about how i laugh when people die or blood is everywhere in a movie.
back on to topic, i guess its the flow of the media in society. In western society like here in Canada and in the states, actual gun violence and explosions and lots of racist jokes are more acceptible. And i guess Japan is also trying to go with the trend to generate more viewers. If its good for laughs sure why not? But if it goes way over board to the point of offending someone typically it isn’t great. 2ndly violence in cartoons are always bound to happen, just if its age appropriate and whether the kid that watches it will do the same. Its like comparing how kids play violent video games then they do the same out in the streets.
maybe cause we’ve experienced more of these types of new “comedy” for Japan already in our communities that we tend to not have the same feeling as they do. Since every single culture is different am i right? Different cultures have different ways of speaking thus their humor also tends to be different then others.
But for me, as long as its somewhat stupid and simple and its not totally over retarded, its a laugh for me:D!
April 30th, 2010 at 12:57 am
@Chag
Whoa man, I wasn’t actually expecting you to heed me like that. Thanks.
Innovation would be the suitable combat for it, if that’s how it works. I’m about as lost as you are; for the nature-nurture debate I can find no starting point. Does primal mechanical humor indeed stand as the reason why this is working? Or is it indeed cultural evolution? I’m inclined to believe its parts of both, but then this is no chemical compound; the inclusion of both only makes it all the more confusing.
I think your idea of the two paths is sound though, mostly because I can’t for the life of me think of a possible third route. Who knows when societal taboo gets phased out like that, though? As with all sensitive cultural matters, it probably had multiple causes.
Ahaha, ever the critic, eh? But that’s a very valid point; I did find that jarring, if not as much as you did. I think it didn’t bother me as much precisely because it’s not in Maeda’s usual style of proper humor and drama sequencing; the character backstories are somewhat reminisce of him, but otherwise it’s too different for a Maeda series, in terms of characters and plot. I don’t see his previous works in it at all, and thus go in without any expectations.
@2DT
Yes, I understood what you meant – I hadn’t guessed that you would’ve actually watched it at some point at all o.o
I only watch standup, so I can’t really take in comparison at all. Especially when you make out the difference as so abstract ^^;… From my memory, boke/tsukkomi is more dependent on punchlines, while the Western equivalent has jokes that are more drawn out and lengthy – I should actually look into it before saying anything, though.
@Yi
That’s exactly what it’s doing. I wasn’t really bothered by it until people brought it up; I suppose the entire time I was watching it in ‘accept everything’ mode. Well, it’s still Maeda Jun’s latest concoction – one of those things I feel obliged to sit through, because of my past with the guy. If you’re not immediately captured though, I suggest you go ahead and watch Giant Killing or Arakawa. Those may arguably be easier to digest.
I do know about it, thanks to my awesomely convoluted religion classes. The amount of religious brainwashing that gets pumped out of that class is astounding. I’m less talking about the faith; everyone has their own say in that, but this class shows these impressionable kids documentaries that were proven to be outright falsified.
Thanks, I was fishing for that compliment :p
@mat
Ehehe, I wouldn’t be able to explain that tendency of yours at all. That’s some out-of-this-world psychology entirely.
So again, rapidly globalizing culture spreading from the trigger-happy States to Japan? Possible; in fact, probably highly likely. We’ll have to add it to our list of factors affecting this intricate nature nurture debate I’m trying to settle.
But right, in terms of linguistic relativity that would be exactly the case for language based humor. Different languages simple lead to a fundamentally different understanding of jokes.
In the end it’s all good, as you say. Looking into humor like this might just be over analysis – but really, what else could I write about, right :p?