Process

This thesis started with a look into why humor communicates information more effectively. For instance, why people who watch satirical news programs have a better understanding of the issues. So I decided to attempt to make my own and figure out what tools they were using to communicate humorously. The result was a group of things: 1) I'm not as funny as I think I am. 2) It is about telling a story. 3) and it is about playing off of your audience's previous knowledge.

From there I discovered the ideas of honesty, surprise, and relatability. I learned that the ideas that people truly find humorous are the ones that they can relate and the more truthful the better. The main component of that I learned was that you need the element of surprise. You need to set them up with an expectation and then give them the unexpected. This is one of the basic theories of humor which is incongruity.

I continued to explore the idea of incongruity and the unexpected through more and more projects. The surprise box takes you through a journey that gives you a very surprising ending. This concept is further elaborated on through my capstone project and thesis book. The process documentary helped me to conclude my first semester of thesis work and allowed me to document my process thus far that led my thesis work on humor into what it is now.

Thesis Book- "Brian Loves Dope"

Weird Playground

I conclude my thesis work with a solution that helps designers and regular people come up with humorous solutions using incongruity without forcing them to even think about being funny, but to focus on the different, conflicting, unexpected, or surprising idea that they can come up with based on the prompt. My capstone included the creation of the game itself including branding and packaging as well as a humorous mock 90's board game commercial.