A Study in Sunny: Playing Tragedy as Comedy
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- Опубликовано: 21 сен 2024
- This video is a critique and a study of the technique used in "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"
It falls under fair use, and does not replace the original work, but seeks to add to it and fulfill a different purpose.
They are gonna copyright strike my ass for these longer uncut scenes, but I feel its necessary to fully capture the subtlety of these particular scenes, though I did cut out as much as I could.
(they already demonitized it. Lol. Oh well, guess I will just have to suffer through the dispute.)
Twitter: / nach0mama
I'm very active, but very political.
It's hilarious how Frank sits down with a therapist for 5 minutes, and immediately goes into the most heartwrenching tragic event of his entire life, unprompted.
“This brain is Fort Knox can’t get in here”
And then opens up after one (1) question
so real tbh
She even said “let’s just talk about the dishes”
Oh you unzipped me 🤯😫😢
Rum Ham was the greatest tragedy of all time.
Pink Guy is your profile picture danny devito with eric andre’s face photoshopped on top? because it’s art
Second time I see someone with this pic on RUclips. There are 3 of us so far. We must come together as one.
@@JayCurb ,can I barrow that profile pic? I'm in.
@@ericortega7342 go right on ahead
Great, now I'm crying.
All British comedy shows are just watching a man suffer as his life falls apart. Think of Fawlty Towers. The British love suffering because they’re all sad.
Connor Reynolds true than I care to admit
That is actually dead right, we british are the most downright depressing and downtrodden peoples, the weather is the cause. But it births the best comedy.
The original 'The Office' was British and I swear to God it's the most tragic look at a man's life. The finally was actually more upsetting than funny because I was just watching a man who's suffered loose everything.
Mate we live in Britain, is it any wonder we're all fucking miserable?! It's awful here!
One Foot In the Grace isn't as well known outside the UK but its the epitomy of this and possibly the best British sitcom of all time.
De Vito deserved an Emmy for that performance
De Vito deserves an emmy for every performance.
De
Vito
-De Vito- Devito
Tobaggon
Absolutely, he's a fantastic and utterly fearless actor, show was so damn lucky to get him.
"aw you unzipped me"
The greatest words Danny DeVito has said since "Suicide is badass!"
Stormy Weraf that’s my favorite episode to show people for the first time
not to be that guy but "you unzipped me" came first
@@BazingaBro 9:59 watch it again, I worded it correctly
Suicide is badass actually came after aw ya unzipped me
Funny that you chose the Charlie has Cancer scene to start your critique, this was actually the scene that Rob McElhenney has said that he built the entire show around.
T M I have seen the interviews and footage where he talks about that but I didn't even think about that when I was using this scene
T M The situatonal irony when dennis pauses at the door killed me. I'm a perennial sucker so the irony hits me every time. I'm so invested in Dennis doing the right thing that it hurts being sucker punched like that. Same with east bound and down. Every time Kenny Powers has a shot at some sort of redemption I get emotionally invested in his success, despite all prior evidence that he will fuck it up.
The pilot was that scene, just a bit longer and instead of a basketball, Dennis (named Glen here) needed sugar for the "Shittonne of coffee" he had made for a meeting he needed to go to.
The show was built from the ground up on making light of bad situations by clashing them with lighter ones.
Rob said he had a dream where a dude had cancer and none of his friends really cared at all and that's what led to that scene and the show as a whole
it's the pilot episode dude. no shit
She had no lips, but her mouth was still very much in play 😂
In the scene with Frank talking about the nitwit farm, I think the jump cuts as he spirals through those emotions work with the overly dramatic music to exaggerate the performance. That and the repetition of 'you unzipped me' really bring it home for me. The two biggest laughs are at the beginning when he claims his head is fort Knox and then immediately starts telling his story, and right at the end when he continues to moan after you see the therapist reaction to his breakdown.
That Fort Knox thing works in two planes, it's comedic because he opens up completely, but it works also on social critique as there's no gold on Fort Know anymore. Or most of it is gone. That's the power of fiat currencies, those who control them end up owning everything, until masses wake up and put end to it.
I love that his vent is so dramatic and emotional but the throwaway lines like "always smiling... that's because she had no lips" and the bit about the plastic bag for a helmet being completely glossed over by him as tragedy made it absolutely hysterical. The fact that he just throws those lines away had me reeling
WITH A PLASTIC BAG FOR A HELMET!!!!
@@juzujuzu4555 what?
@@cassie4300 It's the truth. USA has been under bankruptcy since 30s when the owners of FED promised to finance USA against all the gold.
Goldfinger 007 tells the truth in clever ways. As did majority of 007 films if you decipher the meaning.
Baby croaked
Comedy gets funnier the more realistic the setting is. I learned that from Gene Wilder.
Gene Wilder was a treasure. Definitely underrated in his lifestyle.
I think the fact that Frank is sat there, being as depraved as always, spitting constantly and making an enormous mess adds to the comedy.
Speaking of music in a scene, Charlie's molestation intervention is art. The slowly advancing point to the doll, Mrs. Kelly's sobbing, Uncle Jack and the McPoyle's perverse and eager anticipation. Had to have seen that episode a dozen times by now and it still kills. Again, it's a sensitive topic, but it's so exaggerated and over the top.
Ok but tragedy isn’t just bad things happening to a character, it’s when the protagonist tries to do the right thing but their intentions get reversed
Sam Cook that's more like theatrical tragedy but also a really good point and makes me think 🤔
I would argue that the episode set-ups tend to be in the vein of theatrical tragedy. They get ridiculous ideas, then go out to execute them on something like a heroes arc, but because they can't overcome their tragic flaws they always arrive at an ending of general failure. Part of why we laugh so hard from the first moments of the show is that we as the audience know the gang is going to crash and burn, and that we're watching the seeds being planted.
Well them having their attentions get reversed is a bad thing.
@@jacobreeves3110 what?
This shows smug aura mocks me
Gary P. Interesting. How so?
I never heard it called "smug" before honestly.
John Henkam Gangte lmao google "its smug aura mocks me" then get back to me
Gary P. Damn. Totally forgot.
John Henkam Gangte 😂😂 it's all good
John Henkam Gangte kudos to you though for engaging in actual conversation and not raging at him for saying that then looking really dumb.
I thought Charlie actually was molested by his uncle jack
Disappointed Optimist he was
Yeah, but that was hinted at much later, I think.
Yeah, he was. That's what his Nightman song is about.
Not like he would even feel it from those tiny hands
Well, he did try to share his room with him when he was a kid.
*turns up volume to hear clips*....*listens*....*Blasted in the ears with commentary*
I appreciate your "social awkwardness" point example at the beginning, but I'm pretty sure the fact that Dennis is a sociopath is meant to explain why he doesn't actually want to talk about the cancer; he doesn't actually care enough
he also is kind of in a weird situation, and in a rush because people were waiting on him. He was just trying to pick up a basketball. So the awkwardness makes more sense than him just being a sociopath.
The sociopath characteristic gets added/developed as the series develops. It wasn’t really a building stone for his character in the very beginning. So I’d say it’s more on socially awkward than anything.
@@ItsMeMarioTv so, you wouldn't call it sociopathic to care more about people waiting to play basketball than your friend possibly dying of cancer...?
@@stefanforrer2573 it's more social awkwardness. It's very in the moment and all in his face while he was just trying to get a basketball. A sociopath would of probably made him think that he cared if there was something he could gain from charlie.
He’s still socially awkward because he’s absolutely terrible at pretending to respond to things normally
Fix the volume from clip to clip. Normal volume into barely audible scenes??
Thomas Paulus I'm so shit at audio. I'll try to correct this though. Decent chance I make it worse next time XD
I think the audio got better This is just the first video I've watched of yours. Watching more...
There's a lot of free volume normalization software out there that will scrub through your whole video for you. I'm sure you can figure it out. Good video.
@@tropicmephisto keep an eye on the meters! your ears will lie about volume, but the meters wont
"She was always smiling...that's because she had no lips." Jesus this show is SO delightfully depraved and I am filled with shame by how much it makes me laugh 😂😂😂
Another thing that makes the scene work with Frank is the editing. The jump cuts give the sense of someone quickly losing control. Compare to the more traditional, naturalistic editing illustrated by the In Bruges clip.
With a plastic bag for a helmet!!
Imagine that scene with charlie at the mall just with out the music.... creepy
I'm not even joking but the first time i saw the danny devito scene i cried
HAHAHAHAHAHA
uncle jack in “Charlie got molested” is the greatest.
“Do it.....slow......slow”
Forget sunny...how does ANY show get away with that?
How does a show get away with the first episode being about racism and white men saying the N word?
@@hondaaccord1399 by having something no one else in Hollywood has selfwareness
@@thewildcardperson
Faccs
because it's on a cable show, and not on regular channel, or they would get letters from millions.
Im surprised you didnt tie in any clips of pondy trying to drink himself to death from mac kills his dad. would have worked well with the points youre making
fuck me, that would have been perfect
looking pretty dapper there bill, ya hittin it hard or what?
I'm celebrating today baby!
Tropic Mephisto oh yeah, what's the occasion?
@@otterhero6229 im gonna drink myself to death*bang bang* keep it open lmao
the wolf cola plug always gets me
Thank you for talking about what no one cares to talk about. I'm a die hard fan of always sunny and this makes me happy.
And my favorite episodes would have to be:
The Cereal Defense, The Gang Gets Analyzed, The Nightman Cometh(of course), the Family Feud knock off episode, and Charlie Work
top notch choices
If you're a Louis CK fan I'd definitely say you should analyze some of his sketches, but now wouldn't be the best time with the whole masturbation allegations. Either way I'd recommend you do more reaction videos because you seem like you've got the voice and drive for it
danny devito is a national treasure
Control your audio! I keep having to turn it up for the clips and then turn it down for your parts.
the audio levels are still pretty harsh, I kept adjusting my volume. anyways great video!
I love Sunny and really love that last episode. Especially later when Frank unzips the story that the twins were really triplets but Dee and Dennis attacked "Donny "who would have been the good one" in the womb and tore him apart. Dennis dismisses the story as something that couldn't be true. But you know it so is.
This show made me laugh more per episode than any show on TV and kept doing it until last season, genius, thank you! To create a great comedic situations with same Characters for so long!!!
"This is dark."
4:00 Charlie did get molested by uncle jack and the night man was his interpretation of it
THERE IS A SPIDER (spider)
HE LIVES IN MY SOUL (soul)
I think Frank’s breakdown was also great due to the hilarious dialogue.
You sound like a big nerd who loves to analyze comedies and I wanna fuckin marry you
Really love your analyses of a show that seemingly doesn't require analysis! It's really insightful and adds a lot to my enjoyment of a great show
When you first see the "did you fuck my mom" episode...You cry laughing; probably one of the funniest parts in any episode.
This show is a guilty pleasure for me. I feel like I am losing a piece of innocence when I am watching it.
oh my goodness. THAT'S MY FAVORITE SCENE TOO!
"WITH A PLASTIC BAAAG! FOR A HELMET!" LOL!!
I love the irony in the fact that they sometimes refer to See as "Sweet Dee".
Uncle Jack's reactions during the intervention has me cryin laughing every time.
So well articulated; a joy to watch, you're a connoisseur of the finer points of a show I have a true love of.
I think it goes even deeper than anything mentioned- what makes iasip so uproariously hilarious is that we know every episode will end in general sadness for the gang and the side characters. It's not just the presence of tragedy or dark humor, but the fact that the stories are crafted as tragedies rather than comedies.
wow i never realize frank's scene was that intense. thank you for analyses.
Wanted to write a comment about the audio volume halfway through but then you mentioned it yourself in the ending... And for some reason I still ended up writing that comment lol
That's what I've always loved about that Frank scene is that all the therapist asks is "why don't you think therapists?" And he just fucking loses it and she's like "ah shit okay okay whoa let's talk about the dishes" and he just continues to fuckin lose it.
my favorite thing about the nitwit farm scene is how the therapist is treating it as the horrible event it is and frank is just being frank
A lot of people are also thinking themselves to be at a higher moral standard than these people, when they don’t realise that each and everyone in this group has turned out how they are due to being a victim of horrible circumstance failing to realise that if they themselves grew up in a similiar situation to anyone in gang, they’d probably turn out very similiar, if not the same. It also begs the question for people like charlie: If you hang around people who do selfish and horrendous things your entire life, how would you know any better than those actions?
This is a very well done video aside from the enraging sound issue. This is unrelated but I was just watching the first 4 episodes of the first season (they'lre free with comcast) and it struck me how much the characters have changed. I hand't even noticed how the characters got progressively stupider and more selfish. It seems like with just about every other show of the format the characters stay exactly the same and the wacky hijinks around them is what changes, where with sunny theyproceed to get themselves into worse and worse situations. From the subtle things like mac slowly becoming gayer and gayer, to the obvious like charlie getting worse and worse at reading and writing. I have to wodner how much of that was plaanned from day one (thought it did seem to speed up a bit when danny devito came on). I saw an interview with vince gilligan from breaking bad talking about how he wanted his shows to break from the normal static "guy gets into predicament, guys gets out of predicament" fromula by having the character chnage and learn and grow after every predicament. It'ls one of a few similarities I've noticed between BB and IASP that I don't feel like going through right now because i need to go to bed and stop writng long, meandering cmments.
Great video, please continue doing this!!
I don't like the commentary on this video ..it's smug aura mocks me.
grasshopper sounds without the grasshopper sound effect is much more emotional than weepy music
I think what makes it better is that he said “my skull is Fort Knox” then a sentence he completely unzips
"Got my first kiss there........................
It was terrible."
That shit gets me every fucking time.
Seeing that you only have 3.3k followers was a surprise after I watched the video, very insightful and fun to watch along as you pick apart the scene, keep up the great work!
I'm glad that you liked In Bruges, it's an amazing film.
Excellent video. So many videos talking about the complexities of always sunny, and they don’t actually break it down and give examples.
Didnt read many of the comments so I dont know if this was said, but just noticed, you called her Trudy Wiegel lmao, thats her character on Reno, not her real name lmao.
Good video, but did you listen to this at all after making it? Your voiceover is really loud and the scenes are really quiet in comparison.
“In times like this, I like to quench my thirst with a delicious Wolf Cola”
I wrote a collection of short stories each with a villain named "The King of Tragedy" and his brother "The King of Comedy"
Nerds of the Lost Cinema Productions sounds lit
GrimLocke Radio sounds fuckin lame buds
Omg that is awesome I wanna read that, you got a wattpad?
Rewatching the Danny scene makes me realize he was trying so hard not to smile thru half of it !
That scene cracks me up every damn time
Im suprised theres no Joker "I used to think that life was a tragedy, but now I've realized its a comedy.
Since you mentioned the audio levels, I feel like I should mention that the TV show audio was too quiet for me on a phone. I kept having to adjust the volume up and down a couple clicks. Great video though. I love Sunny and you did a great job highlighting what makes it amazing.
I read the description; thank you so much for suffering through youtube's dumbass policies so that we may learn. Great content, m8, subbed!
Dustyredman I'm thoroughly suprised at how fast fox releases the claims on the sunny videos. RUclips immediately auto detects and demonetizes it WITHOUT telling fox. Once fox gets my dispute, within 24-36 hours it's released. So it's not even fox doing it. It's all automated which is the absolute worst part...
"Charlie Has Cancer" is IASIP's manifesto
Great video, audio levels where fine with me. Continue to have fun!
The real tragedy here was the sound mixing. Kept turning it up to hear what the characters were saying only to have the narrator screaming at me when it switched back.
Sometimes I'm bad at stuff lmao
Tropic Mephisto I hope it came off as constructive criticism, that’s how I meant it, haha
The Charlie and santa scene is probably one of my favourite scenes of anything ever
great video, i really enjoyed this
From "this skull is fort Knox" to completely unzipped in seconds because of one unrelated question, I love Frank.
In bruges is one of the best films. In my english class in high school, my mentor had the film poster on the wall.
'Trudy Wiegel' does a great job too!!!! lol that was the best, she's somehow doing this after being a deputy, totally makes sense!
Would you be able to bring out audio meter when editing please. the video is great but just the audio lacks consistency. the voice track is so much louder than the sounds from the clip.
I got to go back at watch some of these
In the first example, they're not "misreading the people they're talking to". That's not what causes the awkward moment. What causes the awkwardness is that both of them have a hidden desire which they struggle to present because it's socially unsuitable to do so. Namely, Charlie wants to discuss his fear of his potential diagnosis, while Dennis, although attempting to appear caring, really just wants to leave. Charlie doesn't want to say "Dennis, I'm scared of dying," because it will make the situation awkward, and Dennis doesn't want to say, "Charlie, I give more of a shit about playing basketball than listening to you talk about your cancer," because it would also make things awkward. So they meet in the middle, with both trying to step around their inner desires, and it works for a combined awkward moment.
Zombiefruit but Charlie isn't scared of dying in that scene Because he doesn't have cancer in that scene.
oh
lol
then i take it back
“Trudy wigle” thank you that’s all I know her as no matter what she’s in 😂
Comedy is just tragedy, remembered
I don’t even know when you last uploaded but this videos content is so good you get a sub
What’s the best episode you guys show people who are new to sunny? I start with the therapy episode so they can learn a lot about the characters in a short time but what do y’all think?
The gang hits the road is my favorite to show to people. Great stand alone episode and feels like one of the best examples of a middle ground of what sunny was at the start and what it would later become.
I love ur synopsis dude
i could listen to you talk about this for hours
There's so much about It's Always Sunny that can be used to study human behavior. The effects the gang had on Cricket would be very entertaining. Through out the series the gang caused him to go from an upright father at a church to a homeless crackhead that gets rapped by dogs
*raped.
Definitely failed to make the audio bareable I could hardly hear the show
“Trudy Wiegel” is actually Kerri Kenney, originally of The State sketch comedy series and the band Cake Like
Danny Devito acted the shit out of that last scene. That was devestating.
You should check out nerd writer. He makes similar content, video essays, and is a true master of the format. I like what you're doing, keep it up!
The santa Clause Scene is so funny even with the blood and act of violence, i feel like such a primitive animal when it comes to laughing so hard at that haha
I've always said to understand comedy, you have to have endured tragedy
Love Frank. Love Sunny. But the "Like" is for referring to the therapist as Trudy Weigle lollll
I know this is somewhat unrelated to the video, but tragedies as comedies are rare because they're so difficult but when they're made, they're brilliant. Stanley Kramer was a director of well-known social commentary dramas (then-referred to as dramatic epics) during the transition from silver screen to technicolor. After being criticized by critics and friends alike for being too serious and symbolic, he was challenged to make a comedy epic, which he did: It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. What with censorship laws at the time and what-not, of course the movie is more light-hearted than IASIP, but it is at its essence a tragedy full of jokes. From a cast of over a dozen characters, there's barely more than two that are sympathetic at all, and /nobody/ has a happy ending.
It's basically a story of greed turning the lives of ordinary and upstanding citizens /complete/y upside-down and endangering the public around them, but on the surface it's a screwball comedy.
I feel that what Charlie Day in one of the behind-the-scenes features, namely that seemingly offensive material isn't offensive if it's funny, may explain how it's possible to make tragedy funny. Another great example of a tragedy-turned-comedy is the Fantozzi series, especially the first film (it's not well-known in the English-speaking world because it was apparently never released over here, but it is quite well-known in Europe, especially in Italy, obviously). Another good example is the Gaidai adaptation of The Twelve Chairs, though the novel in itself was a kind of a tragedy written as a comedy, as was Gogol's Dead Souls or practically anything penned by Chekhov (his plays were considered so dark and cynical, that the troop that performed the debuts under the direction of Stanislavsky advertised the plays as dramas and tragedies, /very much/ to Chekhov's chagrin, who complained that Stanislavsky simply didn't "get" the humor in plays like The Seagulls or Three Sisters).
You probably need an extremely fine sense of humor and a non-hypocritical position on morality to turn what is structurally and contextually a tragedy into a comedy, especially on stage or in a movie, where dark themes like drugs, death and rape tend to make a dark impression (or else offend the audience with handling dark topics "too lightly"). What I mean by "non-hypocritical" is that if you're going to touch upon themes like drugs without offending anyone, it helps if you are against drugs to begin with. When you have a cast and crew full of decent people like IASIP does (these are some of the nicest, homiest people you'll meet on TV or in Hollywood), then of course the show will handle dark themes responsibly, even if profanely.
Thank god Charlie didn't actually have cancer cause he might've had to sell meth to Dee and Dennis to pay for the medical bills
Officer Trudy knocks it out of the park.
"I used to think my life was a comedy, but now i realize, it's a tragedy"
- or vice versa
the videos had such low volume while you had very high volume. I had to constantly turn up and turn down the volume
hey dude great video but just for some constructtive feedback check the audio levels because your voice is way louder than the clips
“Awww ya unzipped me” had me dying
Bro it just hit me that the therapist is Truty from Reno