Limitless? there's a pill for that
filmic representation as equipment for living
pp. 225-234
in: Michael Hauskeller, Thomas D. Philbeck, Curtis D. Carbonell (eds), The Palgrave handbook of posthumanism in film and television, Berlin, Springer, 2015Abstract
Everyday life is a rather curious thing, and sometimes this realization seems to escape us. But what is it that causes audience members to laugh at a comic's well-timed joke or witty turn of phrase? Is it that the comic introduces audience members to an entirely new world or causes us to experience the world in the strange light of its naturalness? It is my contention that comics are particularly skilled at pointing out the obvious, the mundane things that we all know exist, and calling them into question or performing their routine in such a way as to resituate the everyday object in a context that allows for other interpretations to emerge. Is this not also the same thing that critics and most of the great poets and dramatists have been doing? Perhaps, in differing ways, the comic and critic provide conceptual horizons for interpretation.