Sunday, May 17, 2015

Anthropomorphism in Comedy

Hi everyone,

I recently saw a video BBC put out that used voiceover on clips of animals. Granted, it's pretty funny. What I think is interesting about this video is it undermines important and unique ecological processes with humor based on human experiences. For instance, the black heron in the first clip is dubbed ver with "Nighttime... Daytime!" Hilarious, really. The heron is actually creating artificial darkness to lure its fish prey into a false sense of security. If the fish think it is night, then they know the heron will be asleep and they can swim around safely. This is a very important process in the heron and fish ecosystem, but human exceptionalism tells us that it is acceptable to discount these complex behaviors as jokes. Funny, but harmful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ1HKCYJM5U

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