Response to Caroline's Main Blog


            Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is one of my favorite movies of all time.  I especially love the line during the scene that Caroline described where Ricky Bobby’s youngest son threatens his grandfather Chip by saying “Chip I gone come at you like a spider monkey” after the grandfather calls Ricky’s sons “terrible boys.”  Chip then asks, “what is wrong with you?” to which Texas Ranger responds, “I’m all jacked up on Mountain Dew.”  It is one truly classic scene and Caroline is right to say that the entire movie is full of incongruity.  Later in the movie, Ricky is racing a car that has a giant Fig Newton sticker across the entire windshield.  He could see absolutely nothing which is a really ridiculous because of all the places on a race car to put a large sticker, why would anyone ever choose the windshield.  I also think that a lot of the humor in Talladega Nights can be explained by the superiority theory.  In the scene in the movie where Ricky has his first big crash, he strips down to his underwear and runs around the track trying to put out a non-existent fire.  Relief theory also comes into play in this scene as while he runs, waves his arms, and attacks the members of his own pit crew, Ricky is yelling “Help me Jesus!  Help me Jewish God!  Help me Allah!  Help me Tom Cruise!”  Again, we have another shining example of something like religion, which has a certain tension associated with it, being injected into a situation that breaks the tension and allows us to laugh.  In conclusion, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby combines all three theories of humor into a goofy movie that makes us laugh and at the same time has an intriguing plot that keeps the watcher interested.  There are so many more incredible scenes that I could sit here and go through to prove my point, but I will refrain for the sake of time.

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 9, 2018 at 9:01 PM

    I agree with the fact that the relief theory is utilized perfectly throughout the movie as they make religion into humor. When Ricky attacks his pit crew and asks for help from gods from every religion, and tom cruise, is just a classic Will Ferrell scene.

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  2. UnknownOctober 11, 2018 at 10:30 AM

    I completely forgot about the scene where Will Ferrell runs around in his underwear thinking he's on fire until you mentioned it. Talladega Nights has so many crazy moments in it, from family dinners that go wrong, to cougars in cars, and I agree, those scenes are superiority theory and incongruity theory and sometimes relief theory at work.

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  3. UnknownOctober 11, 2018 at 3:00 PM

    We mentioned the same scene with Ricky stripping down to his underwear after the car wreck! It is interesting that he mentions religion and is able to make it into something humorous. I had forgotten about the scene where Texas Ranger exclaims that he's "All jacked up on mountain dew" and I have to admit I laughed while reading that.

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  4. Shane HerronOctober 12, 2018 at 7:58 AM

    I laughed at that line too, it's one of my favorites. There's just something so funny about those early scenes at the dinner table. I think you are right that they sort of hollow out offensive or dark material. Jonathan Swift the famous satirist said that we can mock the corruptions of things without mocking the things themselves. It seems perhaps that is what makes the movie so funny.

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