Hey 4U1--Have you ever seen the Seinfeld parking lot episode? Here's a link to a short clip from it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcq2Otabd50. One might suggest that Seinfeld is offering a parody of Waiting for Godot in this episode for the four friends walk endlessly around a parking garage looking for Kramer's car, babble on to each other about insignificant things, watch a gold fish die, and even get arrested (note the box that Kramer is carrying around in the clip; it's comparable to the basket that Lucky carries in Waiting For Godot). They always end up back in the parking garage, though, and never manage to get out of it at the end (their car, once they finally locate it, stalls). The final episode of Seinfeld also has Absurdist elements for it finds the friends locked in a jail cell, and, once again, babbling on to one another about trivial things (when this episode aired, audiences hated it, because there was no traditional "closure" offered). Can you think of any other TV shows, movies, or video games with Absurdist, Waiting for Godot-like elements (i.e., nonsense, awkward silliness, nothingness, unmotivated emotion, madness, moments of existential panic)? In a short paragraph of 5-7 sentences, identify the show, movie, or game, describe the Absurdist elements and propose how/why they are significant to the text in which they appear.
Hint: many of these elements can be found in farce-based comedies, from Bugs Bunny cartoons to The Family Guy, and in quirky dramas like Fargo.
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The Office is a weekly primetime show that is filmed in a typical office environment. The show features the employees of the office conducting business in an absurdist fashion. The main character and boss, played by Steve Carrel, conducts daily business operations in a manner where his immaturity and absurdist qualities rise. The entire case speaks in sexist jokes, acts immaturely and an entire episode can be dedicated to something trivial. For example, an entire episode was once dedicated in which the cast was debating whether or not a Hollywood actress was “hot” or not. Absurdist plays and shows rarely receive large audiences, yet The Office is a very successful example of an absurdist form of media bringing in ten million viewers a week.
ReplyDeleteThe Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask has absurdist qualities. In the game you have three days to save Clock Town and Termina from a looming disaster. In this new world you have traveled to there are four separate areas whose guardians can be summoned to prevent the moon from falling onto Termina. This game has a mechanic that is especially absurd, time travelling. The mechanic is not absurd because it is impossible, but in that time limit (three days) you cannot save everyone. Whenever you restore a certain area of the game there is little time left over. You then have to travel back in time and restart to the first day when the disaster still looms. It is humanely impossible for you to save every single person and this makes your role as a "protagonist" absurd and futile. But it's one of my favourite games though it can be melancholic at times.
ReplyDeleteA movie series that has the most blatant absurdist elements is the Scary Movie series, with Scary Movie 3 being the most absurd. The movie included absolutely unnecessary aliens that kick groins as a way of saying hello, random accidental injuries to a child, unneeded gang violence, a rap and many other scenes that had no significance to any substancial plotline. Scary Movie 3 was really a collection of unrelated spoofs of a variety of films. What made the movie so absurd was that the combination of spoofs involved a variety of different genres too. It was not simply a spoof of one horror movie mixed with another, but rather a spoof of an autobiographical film (8 Mile) with a horror film (The Grudge) and many others. Scary Movie 3 really is a hilarious movie that overexaggerates certain elements of the other modern films, and so the absurdity of the movie, and the unrealistic connection between spoofs is what makes the movie so humorous.
ReplyDeleteThe movie Moulin Rouge, directed by Baz Luhrman has many absurdist qualities. Firstly as it is a Baz Lurhman movie there are many shifts in speed in the movie, some parts are fast forwarded and then slowed down as the director attempts to focus your attention on certain elements. Also there are many non-essential discussions that either have to do with subject matter that are not relevant to the story line or make no sense. When the main character Christian is introduced to Toulouse and his bohemian comrades they attempt to write a play called Spectacular Spectacular, which, before Christian begins to edit it, has no real substance and has an absurd story line. All of the bohemians are depicted as drunk or drug addled to the point where they appear somewhat mad. Many discussions between the bohemians and Christian end up leading to nothing. There is also a strong element of death to the film as Satine (a main character) is dying from consumption and Christian considers killing himself several times. There are also many absurd misunderstandings within the storyline such as the introduction between Satine and Christian which ends up in them attmepting to delay everything in order to satisfy their own needs. This is all combined with the direction of Baz Luhrman which is highly absurd in itself and not to everyone's taste but the Australian director proves to be a favorite of mine again and again.
ReplyDeleteThe Movie series of Monty Python has some very absurdist elements to it. Whether it's trying to find the Holy Grail, or learning how to defend yourself against someone who is attacking you with a fruit, there's always absurdist and ridiculous elements present in these films. For example, when will someone try and attack you with a fruit? Lets just say someone does, though. Say someone attacks you with a banana. The Monty Python way to stop them would be to unleash a hungry tiger against them. Or if someone attacks you with a grape (oh no..), you are simply to pull a lever that will drop a 1600 lb block on them. That's all there is to it. Obviously this is a very absurdist way of dealing with such attacks. These are just some examples of the absurdism of the Monty Python movie series.
ReplyDeleteHorold and Kumar Go to White Castle is a movie that revolves around two characters, – John Cho and Kal Penn – who get the munchies for White Castle (a fast food restaurant). They try to convince their friends Rosenberg and Goldstein to join along, but refuse as they were watching The Gift to see Katie Holmes. Both these characters decide to take a trip to New Jersey, Cherry Hill where White Castle remains open for 24 hours. Throughout their trip both Harold and Kumar undertake a series of comical misadventures. In my opinion, this movie has various absurd elements. For instance, the names of Rosenberg and Goldstein resemble the characters of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Hamlet, a Shakespearian play that contradicts Harold and Kumar. As well, an event such as riding a cheetah to reach their destination is evident in the film. This can be an example of a scenario that is absurd and insignificant to the text in which it appears in.
ReplyDeleteI recently saw a play called "The Waiting Room" in which 7 characters sit in a waiting room for a doctor's office. The play is absurdist because they realize that there is really no one in the office, and they are waiting for nothing. What makes the play even more absurd is that even after finding out that no one is in the office to see them, the characters still wait. While waiting, the characters carry on nonsensical conversations with each other. In the end, the stage goes black in the middle of a conversation, and nothing has been accomplished.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion the movie that I believe has absurd scenes would be Mr. Beans. Mr. Beans has trouble carrying out the simplest tasks in the movie. He gets up to ingenious oddball nonsense throughout the movie while being silent. Even though Vladimir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot are talkative; they both perform an ignorant acts. Although Mr. Beans is silent he performs ignorant acts by his gestures.. Both Waiting for Godot and Mr. Bean contain comic gestures. For instance, the ways the characters in both plays jump from one situation to another. Mr. Beans and Waiting for Godot’s adventures are humorous. Mr. Beans, the movie, is an amusing film, which always finds a way to cheer up your day.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes find the cartoon TV sitcom "South Park" a little absurd. "South Park" follows the odd adventures of four little friends Stan, Kyle, Eric, and Kenny around their titular Colorado town. Absurdity is definitely present in the sitcom, most significantly is the death of Kenny in every episode. Some episodes have sequel episodes to them, in the second episode Kenny out of nowhere reappears; everyone acts as if nothing happened to him, and the funny thing is that he dies again in a bizarre way. As for the dialog between characters, absurdity seems to be visible; the directors reflect on significant issues and make the dialog about them sound absurd and irrelevant.
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