Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Blog 1- My Personal/Intellectual Interests
Howdy Classmates,
The names George Burton and I'm finishing my last semester at UMBC majoring in Sociology and minor in American Studies. Sociology asks the question I wanted to explore- the implicit and explicit meanings of social constructs. My favorite part of sociology was determining the causality and impact of American symbols- or semiotics. Rather than using quantitative data to find correlations in hospitals or criminal courts, I was studying values such as the puritan work ethnic and seeing how it affects society’s beliefs and practices. American Studies compliments this by analyzing both high and common culture and put many of America’s time honored beliefs right under the microscope.
When I’m not racking my brain interpreting American Society I’m singing in my band called “The Rumble.” My favorite bands are “The Black Keys” and “The Hives.” I love punk and surf for its manic energy and I like blues for its dark mystical quality and grunge for its vulnerability. I’m also in UMBC’ Russian choir- the instructor is real hoot when he’s screaming Russian and broken English at you.
Speaking of old people screaming, I love studying comedians. Comedians are appealing because they are uncensored, unpredictable, and are just saying these twisted thoughts that wouldn't be tolerated on any other medium. I tend to connect to the ones that are hostile, angry, and dark. A few of my favorite stand-ups are George Carlin, Louis C.K., and Maria Bamford.
Finally, I’m a foodie. I love eating out because you can learn so much about a culture. By looking at culture’s popular dish you can possibly learn about their agriculture (the staple crop will be showcased), climate (tropical fruits or winter wheat?), Religion (are their dietary restrictions on the menu), even international trade (which spices are prominent).
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The correlation of the "outsider" image of popular American Comedians is the theme of my research proposal. My goal is to find which historical, behavioral, or cultural factors play into American's tastes in comedy. The evidence produced from this study could aid in future studies about other mediums such as punk rock or street art that start from counter/sub culture roots to becoming popular icons of American Culture. So my research question is:
My methodology would be literary and historical analysis of controversial comedians who have pushed the boundaries of obscenity as an act of dissidence. Since my argument is that Stand Up comedy is a powerful form of dissidence because the performers are not only allowed but expected to be uncensored, outrageous, and shameless, so virtually any comedian's work could be examined. But the comedians I've selected to examine lean towards certain anti-authoritative stances: religion, corporate marketing, and government, are males, have an extensive amount of material, and their careers occurred somewhere between the period of the 1960's - 1990's, since standup comedy today is saturated with shock comics. The comics I would like to analyze would be George Carlin, Bill Hicks, Lenny Bruce, and Richard Pryor. The problem would be that I am a fan of these performers and may hold a bias that would affect my objectivity. So I could also examine comedians that I don't like or were not successful- e.g. Michael "Kramer" Richards and the "N word" fiasco to counter it, but that's really trading one bias for another. To avoid making the study too broad, I will not go in depth about intersectionality or other social factors (gender, ethnicity, or class) to which would require me to address too many comedians. Books, course readings and journal articles I have attained will be used to define the general theory and structure of comedy and forming humor.