Humor2021

             One aspect of Craft’s New Kid that struck me was the balance he achieved between capturing both young and adult audiences. Being a graphic novel, New Kid appeals to a younger generation, as the pictures are no different than the comic books they read to learn more about their favorite superheroes. The adults are able to pick up on the real superhero, however, in the main character of the story, Jordan Banks, a twelve-year-old kid that has to overcome blatant forms of microaggression and racism. The graphics in the novel help to deliver a more serious message to the adults while also helping the children through a book that puts real issues at the forefront. This is the brilliance of Craft’s work.             In terms of what I found most surprising this semester through all of our discussions, it would have to be the sheer amount of different types of humor there are. Between ...

 Yesterday I found out that Jayden likes disco music. Specifically those tunes he reminisces playing during family cookouts. In honor of Luther Vandross, Google had paid homage to him on their homepage, including a tune that Jayden recognized. It was really touching to bond over that random that experience. In fact, a kid who likes football, anime, and gaming would hardly be a consumer, I would think, of disco music. However, it was an entirely new side of Jayden I had witnessed yesterday. Though I've still yet to see his face, it was as if I had gotten another glimpse into his life.  What New Kid does so well, is infiltrate the mind and psyche of a child adjusting. Not only to new surroundings, but also to new people. Jayden has had to adapt to new "surroundings" as far as schooling goes, and a slew of new people he's never officially met. Admittedly, Jayden is socially awkward, and lacking all of those interpersonal senses that Zoom ignores it becomes very difficult...

  I had never read a comic book before, I never had the desire and they never really appealed to me. I did not know what to expect when I began  New Kid  by Jerry Craft. However, it reminded me of a more serious, deeper, and meaningful version of  Diary of the Wimpy Kid.  It reminded me of something my Bridges Student from Service Learning would like. She often shows me her drawings and loves to distract me by showing me artistic skills. She is also currently entering school as a new kid. Due to COVID-19, her in-person learning has just begun, she is just starting to be in person as a new middle schooler. It is April and she is currently learning where every classroom, cafeteria table, and locker is as a 6th grader. When I asked her if she ever got lost she held up the most detailed map, 6 pages long, a map for every class period, for every new classroom -- similar to Jordan. This text,  New Kid , discussed race in a very clever and unique way. The role of...

  Jerry Kraft uses lighthearted humor to describe racial issues and identity in his comic book “New Kid.” It follows the “new kid” Jordan as he enters and adjusts to a school in which the majority of the people are different from him; they are rich and white. One thing about this book that is different than the other ones we have read, is that it is written (or drawn) in a graphic novel/cartoon style. Because of this, the drawings themselves are funny rather than the text.               In the very beginning of the book, one part that made me laugh was when the kids called Maury an Oreo because he was “black on the outside and white on the inside.” To accompany this text, the drawing showed Maury’s body with his head in the shape of a sad-looking Oreo. The book deals with a lot of racial profiling and pointing out stereotypes as well. In Maury’s case, even though (arguably) there is no such thing as “black” and “whi...

 Jerry Craft's New Kid  expertly shares the experience of a black boy entering a predominately white school as a new student in a new area. Through graphic illustration, readers feel as if they are inside the head of Jordan, which is a perspective that I have never had as a white person. While I could never understand Jordan's position in life, I feel that Craft's humor provides insight into how Jordan experiences this major transition, where he is challenged by microaggressions and racist assumptions. There is a layer of personality and accessibility, which is powerful considering the audience of this book is kids age 8-12.  Each chapter correlates with a pop culture reference, which adds a sphere of humor and relatability. For example, chapter four is titled Upper Upper West Side Story as a play on the classic musical, West Side Story, where individuals from two different ethnicities are kept apart. Craft's use of allusion, in this instance, demonstrates Jordan's...

 Jerry Craft's brilliantly witty and eye-opening novel places us in Jordan's shoes as the new kid. We learn he's not only the new kid at Rad, but the new kid in this white-washed student body. Jordan makes sense of his world--he gains control--through illustration. For example, in the black-and-white sketches with bannered titles he includes throughout the novel. The most important aspect of this novel, however, is learning about this new world through Jordan's eyes. His thoughtful illustrations and recounts of his experience show the readers the microaggressions and discrimination the black community faces from the modern white community. Through his personal experiences, the readers understand what it is like for a person of color to integrate into a predominately white world.  The most prominent obstacle Jordan faces in this novel is microaggressions, and they never seem to die down. For example, Andy and Ms. Rawle call Jordan and Drew by the wrong names. This sugges...

       The graphic novel,   New Kid  used humor in insightful ways. Specifically, the pages labeled “Jordan’s tips for …” Craft uses these pages where Jordan is inserting his own voice and writing in a very humorous way. The pages are giving tips to simple everyday things such as, “Jordan’s tips for taking the bus.” The complexity and inner though process to each of these is humorous, it takes simple notions and makes them less simple in a humorous light, showing that there are complexities even in life’s simplicities. In “A Guide to Cafeteria Hierarchy” specifically, it is something the reader can relate to because everyone has had that high school experience of the cafeteria and its implied assign seating based on popularity. However, instead of explaining and drawing the cafeteria with humans, Craft (Jordan) uses animals, “Regular seniors (Wolves) get the window seats… The Upper-Class Black Table (Rhinos)… Juniors (Foxes) get their own section in the mid...

The humor present in New Kid is exemplary of what we have been discussing all semester long: the ability of humor to introduce serious issues in a non-threatening, yet still serious, manner. Craft’s utilization of the power of laughter allows him to talk about the serious and frequent issues of racism that black kids have to deal with around upper-class white society, and the challenges and stereotypes that they face. The usage of a childlike art style and mentality allow him to show this behavior as childish and immature itself – and the constant comparisons between the kids and the adults emphasizes his point that those who act this way have never truly grown up. An example that can highlight this comparison is the phenomenon of calling the black students by each other’s names. It is frequently mentioned that both the students and the teachers do this, yet we only are shown the adults’ behavior. Craft critiques this through the narrative, yes, but he does so most prominently thro...

  Jerry Craft rides the line between Black trauma and Black joy in his graphic novel   New Kid . In the past year, I have been exposed to the double-edged sword of “issue books”. Profiting off of Black trauma through books and media is commonplace in America. Books like   Just Mercy  by Bryan Stevenson and Colson Whitehead’s   Nickel Boys  put Black pain at the center of their stories and profit off of doing so. These books are important and should continue to be written, read, and celebrated. However, when the dominant narrative of Black Americans becomes one of pain and suffering, the Black experience is siphoned into a one-dimensional, static frame. To combat this, writers like Danez Smith ( Dinosaurs in the Hood ) and Samantha Irby ( wow, no thank you ) write counterstories that decentralize Black trauma and showcase Black joy. Jerry Craft does this while also highlighting important struggles with microaggressions, white saviors, and the day-to-day raci...

  The graphic novel style of  New Kid  creates a superhero-like atmosphere from  Jor dan’s perspective.  Jordan compares himself to Batman which is interesting considering his divulgence of exper iences of code switching. Preliminary to the text, plot, and characters, Craft’s artwork and stylistic cho ices stick out and add humor. One thing I traced throughout the first half of the book were uses of emoji-like graphics  and also  hyperbole of emotions , like the zombie students. Craft’s  decision  to heighten reality in this way makes the book fun and youthful while still  addressing  topics of microaggressions, race, and  peer relations .  A specific example of this style intercepting with content are the angels on Jordan’s shoulders. These angels first appear on page 24 when Jordan sees Maury, the first student of colo r he has seen at his new school. The angels are holding a banner that reads “Hallelujah”  The...

          Before diving into my superlatives for this semester, I want to talk about a detail of structure I found interesting in Jerry Craft’s New Kid. While I was reading the graphic novel, I really enjoyed how Craft incrementally juxtaposed the normal colorful pages that depict the overarching third-person narrative with black & white sketch-like overlays that showed Jordan’s first-person perspective of particular events. One instance that stood out to me was Jordan’s rendition of his journey to school and how he uses the metaphor of being a chameleon to relate how he morphs into different appearances as the bus travels through different neighborhoods. Before Craft inserts this two-page spread from Jordan’s point of view, he sets the audience up by showing Jordan talking with his family and then embarking on his way to school for his second week. By inserting Jordan’s viewpoint, Craft adds an additional layer of meaning and commentary to the themes...

 Our readings today explore how humor is used to cope with difficult situations, from mental illness to death. Bob Grigg's anecdote on humor made a point that I resonated with when he said that there is an extent to which humor is healing before it crosses into a territory of harm: "I’ve laughed at myself with contempt and fierce anger, which can be emotionally self-harming. This doesn’t happen much anymore, but I still have to pay attention to what I’m laughing at." I thought it was interesting that he pointed out self-deprecation as a form harm when the other article for today explores how self-deprecation can also be a tool for tension relief and entertainment. This caused me to wonder, who is the judge of territory when humor is self-deprecating? Is it the joker or the audience? From experience, I know that too much self-deprecating humor is uncomfortable and concerning. Based on most humor types, I think its effects depends on the severity of the scenario and the imp...

              In Bob Griggs’ article   Using Humor as a Coping Tool,   he brings up a point I have been wrestling with all semester. In his penultimate paragraph, he says, “I cannot write about using humor in recovery without a caution. Humor can help in many ways, but it can also do harm. There’s a kind of humor that restores our spirits, and there’s also sarcasm that inflicts pain. Unacknowledged anger at another person can so often sneak out this way… I’ve laughed at myself with contempt and fierce anger, which can be emotionally self-harming” (Griggs). Self-awareness with humor is so important. There are many times when I hear a joke or say a joke myself and realize that it does more harm than good. Restructuring the humor so that it results in positivity and healing rather than destruction and pain is crucial for humor to serve a proper function. Humor is like a muscle and if you train it in a certain way, it remembers how it is used. Pr...

  Katie West  April 14, 2021 Blog Post  Wow, No Thank You began the semester on a strong note, Ibry boldly and unapologetically shares her true self, even the more grotesque aspects of human life. Ibry also acknowledges her identity with no fear and not holding back. Plato, Hobbes, Kant’s article offered me a more serious and deeper understanding of humor. Each philosopher brought very different ideas to the table, yet all provided a way of thinking that became a foundation while reading modern humor writings. Kolvenbach’s “Service of Faith and Promotion of Justice in US Jesuit Higher Education” tied the course back to Loyola University’s core of humanities and cura personalis. And Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail '' showed us the power of language, writing, and words--whether it is humorous or not. It was also my first time reading this important piece and I was able to relate to it in my other English classes. Similar to Ibry’s novel, Sedaris...

The introduction of the article “Communicating death with humor” by South, Elton, and Lietzenmayer talk about using humor in order to make the conversation about death easier. Naturally, I think this is good to help the psychological burden that death has on the mind, but this also reminded me of euthanasia. Now that there are more “psychological” outlets like “Let’s Get Together and Talk about Death,” I think it’s also important to talk about “morally right” ways to die, which could also help the mental burden of death just like humor. Even though euthanasia is incredibly controversial and illegal in almost all countries, I think it should be normalized more in some cases, such as terminally ill patients. Not only does this allow people to die peacefully, but it also allows them to die when they feel is right. If we have a right to life, shouldn’t we have a right to death as well? I think Bob Griggs talks about an important aspect of humor that many people use voluntarily or involun...

Throughout this semester we have examined a myriad of examples of humor in literature. With an understanding of the theory established in philosophy and psychology, we have brought a critical lens to authors of the modern era to understand how comedy in the Postmodern age relates to the theory of yesteryear. From David Sedaris to Tyler Perry, each of the authors we have studied in this class use humor as a facilitator to reveal elements of reality that are under the surface and also uses it to conceal elements of reality that may hurt the message they are presenting. Humor is the mask and the vehicle by which the author hides behind and uses to move his point along through a narrative or to distract the audience from the author themself.  Wow, No Thank You By Samantha Irby Humor can be used as a facilitator of self-acceptance. Since we read Irby early in the course, I was relatively green to the form of humor we were getting into. However, Irby quickly got me acquainted with the id...