Modi Sneha Modi Erin Dietel-McLaughlin Multimedia Writing and Rhetoric 1 March 2013 Putting It Gently: Relief and

Reaction GIF Blogs Its late. The study lounges are full of what appears to be college students studying, computers out next to piles of books. But then, a giggle. Multiple giggles erupt from students seen scrolling through something on their computer screens. Surprisingly, Facebook windows

arent open on any of their computers. What is relieving them from the stress of midterms, exams and papers? The newest phenomenon in college humor are Tumblr blogs such as #WhatShouldWeCallMe and How Do I Put This Gently?, reaction GIF blogs that apply GIFs, or moving images, from popular culture to a relatable statement or caption about the dayto-day life or the struggles of college students. It is clear by the amount of giggles, reblogs, notes, and shares, that not only are these blogs relatable, but they are also quite humorous, and have become extremely popular recently. When logging on to Facebook, it is almost impossible not to see a link from one of these blogs posted or shared by someone who is probably procrastinating. So what is it exactly makes these blogs funny? David Hector Monro, a professor of philosophy and the author of The Argument of Laughter may be able to explain this phenomenon. Using Monros Relief Theory from his Theories of Humor article, our laughter can clearly be explained by the relief we feel when we scroll through pages and pages of these blogs. Reaction GIF blogs address the little situations and stresses of day-to-day life by making people feel less self-conscious or embarrassed of their behavior, providing relief from societys

Modi requirements, the struggles of daily life, our own self-restraint and the relief that we arent the most awkward person to exist. Monros Relief Theory demonstrates that the humor of these blogs is found in the relief they provide to us, by pointing out to us that we are not the only ones who act differently from the norm. In his article, Monro explains that Since humor often calls conventional social requirements into question, may be regarded as affording us relief from the restraint of conforming to those requirements (Monro 353). Not sure whether other people feel the same way or understand, we hide our true feelings or weird behaviors, to try to conform to the rest of society. However, when we scroll through these blogs and realize that our weird behaviors are accurately explained on a post that has thousands of reblogs, we realize other people also relate to those emotions and behaviors we have tried to suppress. For example, Appendix A depicts someone extremely exhausted with the caption Me Three Minutes Into Working Out. Many people may consider this an embarrassing truth; nobody really would ever want to admit their true feelings about their workout if they felt this way. Fitness is not necessarily a conventional

social requirement but it is more acceptable to be fit than to be lazy and out of shape. However, the fact that this post is on a popular and relatable website, with hundreds of reblogs within a few hours, may provide some relief, in knowing that one is not alone in being totally out of shape. We now find these interpretations of behaviors funny, because we find relief and comfort in the fact that others do not conform to every social requirement. These blogs may also provide relief from the struggles of daily life. Most people use these websites to procrastinate, in an attempt to distance themselves from the problems and struggles surrounding them. Monro even points out that people who have been undergoing a strain will sometimes burst out into laughter if the strain is suddenly removed (Monro 353). By

Modi utilizing humor, How Do I Put This Gently? and #WhatShouldWeCallMe relieve students from the strain of college life. Appendix B, a recent post on How Do I Put This Gently? is a perfect example of how this blog relieves people of stress. The post is captioned When I Think About How Much Time Ill Be Spending in the Library Over the Next Few Weeks with a GIF of Britney Spears, obviously struggling with something. As students near finals week, many are looking for something to distract them from the serious studying that is approaching. This post and others similar to it are providing relief to stressed students because the emotions and

situation relates to exactly how they are feeling. Inside, many students probably feel like Britney looks in the GIF, and they know it. Quickly scrolling over a relatable post like this one will suddenly remove the strain they have been undergoing from laboring over a paper or cramming for an exam, and cause them to laugh and for a few minutes, forget about the rest of their problems, and feel a sense of relief. Monro also claims that relief comes from the removal of restraint (Monro 353) and these blogs help to remove some of that restraint, creating relief and promoting humor. In addition, many people look at blogs like these in the privacy of their own home or room. Without the rest of society judging us, we are able to freely laugh at posts we find relatable. We are no longer restrained from laughing at ourselves, finding relief in the idea that there is somebody out there that understands our problems and struggles and deals with them in the same way as we do. We may even find relief in the possibility that there are people who act more abnormally or outside of the norms of society than we do. There is a sense of relief felt in knowing that we are not totally ridiculous, so we can now laugh at ourselves, because we are not so embarrassed at our behaviors.

Modi Relief can also found in knowing that we are not the person creating these posts and

experiencing all of these embarrassing experiences. The tag line for the blog How Do I Put This Gently? is Just a semi-functioning individual navigating higher education with a cocktail in her hand and a tendency to embarrass herself. Basically, Im in graduate school and (still) slowly losing my mind (How Do I Put This Gently?). Realizing that these posts are based on the real experiences of a college student somewhere out there provides us with a certain relief. Sure, we are able to relate to many of the posts on the blog, but that does not mean we have actually gone through all of those experiences. Not all of us can relate to every single struggle or situation that has been posted about. There is some sense of relief that overcomes us knowing that we havent embarrassed ourselves as much as the creator of this blog has. Some may argue that these posts are not funny to those who dont understand the humor behind them, maybe because they are unable to relate to those particular situations or are not familiar with the context of the GIF. Sophia Stones Robust Theory of Humor offers an explanation of why this may be true. Stone argues in order to have a language, we need a shared set of rules for the language. What also comes with these rules are non-speaking verbal cues and a social context that helps us understand the meaning and intention behind every speech activity (Schiller 172). Basically, she is implying that if someone does not understand the context or language of a certain humorous situation, he or she will not find it funny no matter what. Stone goes on to say, We need a Form of Life a web of shared human relationships, a commonality of everyday life (Schiller 172). Without a common thread or link between the person telling a joke and the person listening to that joke, the humor will not come through because the listener will not understand any of the context or the build-up of the humor.

Modi One example of this type of humor is seen in Appendix C. This particular post is funny because we understand that Ariel is depicting the feeling of excitement and happiness when someones crush finally texts him or her back. Of course, somebody who has not seen or been exposed to the movie The Little Mermaid would not find this GIF as funny as somebody who

has, because they would not understand the context of this scene in the movie. This post is much funnier with the knowledge that Ariel is actually looking at her new legs with wonder, not at a text message. The bright flash of light is really from the change of her fins to legs, not the arrival of a new text message. Understanding this makes the post a lot more humorous because the joy on Ariels face is comparable to the joy some people feel when their crush texts them back. Stones theory may explain why some of us will find this post funny while others will not. However, it does not explain what we are laughing at or what the humor behind the post is. Those who understand the humor behind the GIF laugh at this post because they understand the post is meant to highlight how excited and in awe someone can be when their crush finally texts them back. We are relieved that we arent the only ones who act this way because we know there are thousands of others who can relate, as demonstrated by the amount of reblogs on this post. On the other hand, even if one does not understand the popular culture behind certain GIFs, it is still possible to find the post funny, because certain GIFs are very vague and the viewer understands the gist of it. For this particular post, the viewer is able to deduce that this girl is very excited and happy, even without having seen The Little Mermaid. So in this case, it is not necessary to have seen the movie to understand the humor in the post. The humor still comes from the fact that we are relieved there are other people who look or act this way when their crush texts them back.

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Others believe that the humor is not in the relief, but rather in the association of a normal, recurring situation with a reference to popular culture. This idea is explained by the Incongruity Theory, a concept described by Monro as the abrupt intrusion into the attitude of something that is felt not to belong there, of some element that has strayed, as it were, from another compartment of our minds (Monro 351). We dont necessarily associate that particular scene in The Little Mermaid with our happiness that our crush has texted us back. These are in two separate realms of our thinking and associating them brings something unexpected together, which ends up being humorous. While this is the basic premise of the blog, to bring unrelated GIFs to college humor, it is important to remember that the reason people laugh is not because of how well the two correlate. People imagine the ridiculous scene or situation from the GIF being applied to their own version of that situation and laugh because of how well this post relates to their emotions or feelings. They project the expressions and attitudes of the people in the GIFs onto themselves and realize how much sense the post makes. They are relieved that they did not respond in such a ridiculous way, or arent the only ones who imagined acting in such a ridiculous way. The incongruity between the GIF and the post may bring out these emotions and feelings to help illustrate the post, but people laugh at these posts because how well they are able to relate to the overall post, not because of how well the GIF and the caption relate. D.H. Monros Relief Theory allows us to understand the reason we find these Reaction GIF blogs humorous. This theory demonstrates that we are overcome with a sense of relief when we view these blogs, which then permits us to laugh. These blogs have brought about a new era of college humor, utilizing what seems to be the new language of humor, relatable memes and GIFs that help express a certain idea. These new forms of humor demonstrate the shift of college

Modi humor from websites depicting dumb stunts or crude skits to humor that relates more to the life of the students. Looking at these blogs from the perspective of the Relief Theory allows us to understand the culture of humor right now and how it continues to evolve.

Modi Appendix A

ME THREE MINUTES INTO WORKING OUT. Web blog post. How Do I Put This Gently ?. 28 Apr. 2013. <http://howdoiputthisgently.tumblr.com/post/49093333496>.

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Appendix B WHEN I THINK ABOUT HOW MUCH TIME I'LL BE SPENDING IN THE LIBRARY OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS. Web blog post. How Do I Put This Gently ?. 26 Apr. 2013. <http://howdoiputthisgently.tumblr.com/post/48939141345>.

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Appendix C WHEN MY CRUSH FINALLY TEXTS ME BACK. Web blog post. How Do I Put This Gently ?. 26 Apr. 2013.

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Works Cited "How Do I Put This Gently ?" How Do I Put This Gently? Web. 21 Feb. 2013. <http://howdoiputthisgently.tumblr.com/>. Monro, D.H. Theories of Humor. Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum 3rd ed. Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen, eds. Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman and Company, 1998. 349-55. Schiller, Aaron Allen. Stephen Colbert and Philosophy: I Am Philosophy (and so Can You!). Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2009. Print. 162-178. "#whatshouldwecallme." #whatshouldwecallme. Web. 21 Feb. 2013. <http://whatshouldwecallme.tumblr.com/>.