{"id":3969,"date":"2024-10-29T12:26:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T16:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/?p=3969"},"modified":"2024-10-23T17:34:18","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T21:34:18","slug":"comedy-is-the-best-horror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2024\/10\/comedy-is-the-best-horror\/","title":{"rendered":"Comedy is the Best Horror&#x1f383;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A lot of my favorite horror films are SNL digital shorts. I\u2019ve been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2018\/02\/why-do-i-love-this-ad-so-much\/\">mulling this over for years now<\/a> (in fact, I just spent the last hour writing about this from a craft perspective, a screed that I mercifully deleted rather than sending).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think it all comes down to this: horror in film basically relies on four tools:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>jump scares<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>mounting dread<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/squick\">squick<\/a> (e.g., gore, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Body_horror\">body horror<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Splatter_film#Torture_porn\">torture porn<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Uncanny\">uncanniness<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Jump scares<\/em><\/strong> are easiest, <strong><em>mounting dread<\/em><\/strong> takes the most time, and <strong><em>squick<\/em><\/strong> is often the best way to cash in or make a name for yourself. But it\u2019s always the <strong><em>uncanniness<\/em><\/strong> I\u2019m after in horror, that experience <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110714192553\/http:\/www-rohan.sdsu.edu\/~amtower\/uncanny.html\">Freud described<\/a> as abruptly seeing the \u201cfamiliar and old-established\u201d as strange and alien, thus giving the sense of revealing a deeper truth \u201cwhich ought to have remained hidden but has come to light.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s the horrific <strong><em>uncanniness<\/em><\/strong> I love in these comedy skits. In part, this arises from what\u2019s implied about the universe that the characters live in, all the stuff that\u2019s outside the frame (e.g., Jason\u2019s refrigerator, the pizza beast, the old woman across the street, that high school).\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I think the key element\u2014the thing that pushes this beyond \u201cthe familiar and old-established made strange and alien\u201d and into the territory of \u201cthat which ought to have remained hidden being dragged up into the light\u201d is the fact that the world we <em>actually really live<\/em> <em>in<\/em>\u2014where I\u2019m sitting and typing and you\u2019re sitting and reading and we\u2019re both watching these little 3-minute-gems\u2014is <em>also outside the frame. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The awful thing the characters in the movie are about to experience? It\u2019s already happening here. Hell, it\u2019s us. And we\u2019re laughing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For your viewing pleasure:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zejK1XHIDcI\">My Best Friend\u2019s House<\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fYcDQ11vI0M\">Touch Up<\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KLHRjaUBb3o\">Almost Pizza<\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7HDOieQvP58\">Lonely Christmas<\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tKRAw6he37c\">Cockblocked<\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZH0eTRxiXkw\">After High School<\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rF9ZIdEnZU0\">Tasty Toaster Tarts<\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/2gMjJNGg9Z8\">Unedited Footage of a Bear<\/a>\u201d \u2014&gt; the unskipable Claridryl ad \u2014&gt; the uncanny Claridryl reality that may or may not be part of the unskipable Clarifryl ad<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"My Best Friend&#039;s House - SNL\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zejK1XHIDcI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Please Don\u2019t Destroy - Touch Up - SNL\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fYcDQ11vI0M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Almost Pizza - SNL\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KLHRjaUBb3o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Lonely Christmas - SNL\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7HDOieQvP58?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Key &amp; Peele: Cockblocked\" width=\"840\" height=\"630\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tKRAw6he37c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"After High School - SNL\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZH0eTRxiXkw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tasty Toaster Tarts - SNL\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rF9ZIdEnZU0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Unedited Footage of a Bear | Infomercials | Adult Swim\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2gMjJNGg9Z8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lot of my favorite horror films are SNL digital shorts. I\u2019ve been mulling this over for years now (in fact, I just spent the last hour writing about this from a craft perspective, a screed that I mercifully deleted rather than sending). I think it all comes down to this: horror in film basically &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2024\/10\/comedy-is-the-best-horror\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Comedy is the Best Horror&#x1f383;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_share_on_mastodon":"1"},"categories":[11,3],"tags":[274,71,398,954,30,572,952,308],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/a2mi.social\/@dave0\/113391643058532380","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3969"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3973,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969\/revisions\/3973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}