This path was created by Jim Witkiewicz.  The last update was by Mary Lopez.

Senior Project: University of California, Los Angeles

Introduction to the Truth Tellers


WOO! We made it, to the heart of my project. I strongly believe in the power that humor is able to play in our society, meeting an unmet need in the way of communicating and healing amongst different social issues we face. My work explores the role Comedians and Late night TV hosts play in communicate different social issues while simultaneously allowing pain to be processed and healed. Being able to deconstruct such circumstances through the eyes of laughter, allows us to somehow begin to digest certain horrors, provides people the ability to process, speak and act about painful topics that need to be addressed, and not view them as ‘taboo’.
 

How can we get a conversation going, bringing awareness and enable change, a solution for a problem within our society when the general public, for the most part, feels too ‘uncomfortable’ to talk about that issue?

Sketch and stand-up, is making a turn here, a leap forward in answering, not the awkward encounters and funny moments of life, but these shows are looking to take on some of the hardest subjects that our society might not want to talk about but desperately needs to be talked about: racism, sexism, more issues**..  and issues such as police brutality.

"As a comedian, we're the truth-tellers in the world. We say what actually happens. You know, politicians say what you want to hear, and the media says what they want you to hear, and comedians are the only people that are out there telling the truth to the people." Canadian comedian, Russell Peters'

 
 

This page has paths:

  1. Humor Missing the Mark: Yikes Mary Lopez
  2. MLo's Senior Project Mary Lopez

Contents of this path:

  1. John Oliver
  2. Samantha Bee: Full Frontal
  3. Trevor Noah: The Daily Show
  4. Inside Amy Schumer
  5. Two Dope Queens
  6. Neal Brennan: 3 Mics
  7. Key & Peele

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