In week 2 we covered relief and benign violation theory and watched examples of their use in ‘silent comedies’ including The High Sign (1921), Mr. Bean (1990) and a viral clip of a BBC News interview being interrupted by the children of the interviewee. These viewings showed us examples of comedy that engage with the aforementioned theories less with dialogue and more with timing, pacing, and performance, demonstrating the potential of the concept of ‘silent’ comedy beyond my previously held belief that silent comedies were exclusively ‘legacy’ media from the era of Buster Keaton.

Benign violation theory tells us that comedy can occur when there’s an intersection between a situation depicting a violation and a situation that is considered benign by audiences. For example in A Roll Too Far the violation is intended to be the length of toilet paper stuck to the shoe of the protagonist, simultaneously audiences perceive the situation as benign as the comic device of toilet paper being stuck to a character’s shoe has long been an established trope in media.

I believe A Roll Too Far also engages with the concepts of Peripeteia and Syllogism (Palmer 2018) explained in this week’s readings. In its most basic form the sketch relies on the surprise or shock of the extent of which a roll of toilet paper can be stretched whilst attached to an unsuspecting persons’ shoe. Logic insists that a standard roll of toilet paper has to run out or break eventually, audiences presume this as an inevitability, however in this case I have utilised a different syllogism in my approach in that the audience observes a seemingly endless roll of toilet paper contrary to their assumed beliefs to generate a comedic effect. However, I ultimately believed I failed to utilise relief theory to truly create a comic event, as the ending of A Roll Too Far doesn’t have a particularly satisfying ending to create that sense of relief in a truly comedic way.

Palmer J (2018) The Logic of the Absurd. In: The Comedy Studies Reader. 1st edition. Austin, University of Texas Press. pp. 51–54. doi:10.7560/315996.

Warren C and McGraw A.P (2015), Benign Violation Theory in Attardo, Encyclopedia of Humor Studies,Los Angeles SAGE Reference.