I have chosen to do my research topic over humorous food media. I chose to pursue this topic because I am a very humor-driven person and strongly enjoy comedy in all its forms. I didn’t want to bore myself with this project, so I chose this topic because It is focused around something that I genuinely enjoy. I have had success finding food comedy over a wide variety of mediums, from texts to videos. In addition, I think I have done a good job with the diversity of the content.
Some of the texts that I have chosen to include thus far are NYT’s Review of Guy’s American Kitchen, It’s Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers, and Surviving Whole Foods. Each of these texts are written about very different things, yet they all relate to food in some way. The first text is a scathing review of a restaurant, discussing not only the food, but the atmosphere and experience of the place itself. The second text never talks about eating or preparing food all all, but rather analyzes the symbolism of gourds and how they have come to represent the image of Fall. Finally, the third text references the process of going to a store and purchasing food, something that is often overlooked when writing about preparing and cooking food.
I recently began to broaden my mediums of communication by including videos as well. I have had great success finding a number of comical videos on YouTube. Most of the videos that I am thinking about using thus far are fairly similar structure-wise in that they are all “cooking show” videos. Two of my favorites are Chef Henny’s Henny Cookies, which shows the viewer how to prepare, Hennesy-based chocolate chip cookies, and How To Make Vegan Blueberry Muffins with Waka Flocka Flame & Raury, which shows two vegan rappers tackling a rather complex recipe for blueberry muffins. I plan to continue searching YouTube for videos that incorporate food in a different way other than instructional, how-to cooking videos.
I have noticed a bit of split in regards to the age of the authors in relation to the medium. The written articles that I have found so far have all been composed by older authors while most of the videos are made by younger individuals. I think this is representative of the dichotomy of traditional versus. modern day forms of communication. Older people are used to communication via writing while younger generations experience a lot of content digitally with the rise of internet and televisions.
For my readers, I have several questions regarding the future of my research. Firstly, is my topic too broad? Should I narrow it down to a more specific sub-genre within comedy? Also are there any comedic mediums besides texts and videos that you recommend I include in my bibliography? I look forward to exploring any suggestions that you offer!