Exaggeration

Recently I had the chance to go out with a couple of friends, and while having a good time, we eventually started playing a little funny and crazy mini game about...well...coming up with ways to kill yourself...and act them out to illustrate everyone else. Yeah, pretty weird I guess, but it's pure fun when you see how exaggeration plays a very important role when you try to get the message across. Surprisingly, this coincides with one of the Spline Doctors blog posts about an air guitarrist who's really into the music. I think I could perfectly identify with what Andrew Gordon said: "The fun part of pretending to be the drummer or guitarist for whatever piece of music you are listening to is how much you exaggerate what you are doing". Applying this to our suicidal play, you can start to picture various situations in a way that's entertaining to watch, not necessarily implying funny comedy....(although it did end up with lots of laughter in our case, perhaps because of our "cheesy bad acting" too!!). Some of the simple wacky ideas we acted out were:
- Pointing a gun into our mouth and pulling the trigger
- Taking pills
- Sitting on an electric chair
- Jumping off a cliff
- Seeing our other half with someone else and stabbing ourselves after being heartbroken (this was a really funny one)
- Hanging with a rope

I also wanted to share this video to illustrate my point:



The famous performance by Chaplin in "Modern Times", when we first hear his voice. What I find really amazing about Chaplin is the fact that he always acts with a context and meaning. His comedy is not cheap, is always natural, and has a purpose. And if we didn't have the element of exaggeration, I don't think it would have been as funny. What he talks is gibberish, but what he acts out is beautiful and fully understandable. He is trying to entertain the audience, the way he best can, to save his job. And does it with exaggeration and good timing too.

This one is also a great performance in my opinion...and fully relying on exageration. I would love to know who this duo is...perhaps anyone out there could let me know?



Although not apparent context or drama going on as in Chaplin's performance, this duo makes the most out of exageration to the point where they both can be compared to cartoon characters. I think, if applied to animation, these things should be taken into consideration when exagerating things...the fact that there is a purpose for it and that if it's well done, it will surely guarantee entertainment...no matter how simple the act is gonna be...