I agree with Moseley’s statement that pain is no longer funny when the victim cannot get back up and laugh at himself or herself, but I disagree that the Hangover taser scene is a good example of pain being funny. Rather than the action of the tasing, I believe the circumstances and commentary are the parts of this scene that make it truly funny.
The pain in this scene looks serious, and Phil, Alan, and Stu do not appear like they will be getting up and laughing anytime soon. Personally, I do not find Phil and Stu’s shrieks of pain and the dazed looks in their eyes after being tased very humorous. And the moment when Zach Galifianakis is shot once and walks around like a zombie is simply horrifying to me. But this does not mean I don’t find this scene hilarious.
We laugh at the position these three men are in because of the incongruity of the situation. Children, more than twenty years younger than them, are in a position of power over these three stooges. A second example of incongruity in the scene is after the whole tasing incident, the officer asks the children “Now who wants to get their fingers printed?!” with the friendly voice of a camp counselor. This sudden change of tone is so unexpected because we just saw him treating the men so poorly. I also found moments in the dialogue that were very funny. For example, I loved when the officer called Galifianakis “Fat Jesus”. Moments like that made the tone much lighter. Without the clever dialogue and incongruity of the situation, this scene would simply be a depressing video of three men getting tased.
I also find it horrifying in many different ways, yet at the same time humorous. Which is to say, I'm not exactly laughing at it, but I'm certainly finding it amusing. All of which raises the questions of what people are attempting to get from humor, an idea addressed in all the readings. It seems that liberals and conservatives simply get different things from what they look at.
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