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Hidden Camera Shows

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KevinD

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I'm an actor in Los Angeles who specializes in comedy. The issue of hidden camera shows has come up for me in a professional context twice in the past six months: Both times I turned the work down. (And no, I'm by no means successful enough to be able to reject work indiscriminately.)

One of the problems with being known as a funny guy in this business is that there is so much bad, malevolent humor out there — and people are often mystified when you explain that you don't want to work on a seemingly harmless little hidden camera show on the grounds that you find the concept distasteful.

While I do find some of the early Candid Camera bits to be clever and interesting as social experiments — a man gets in an elevator in which all of the people are facing to the rear; he pushes the button for his floor, then faces the rear too — I would be suspicious of someone who said that hidden camera shows are his favorite form of entertainment, or who even laughed very heartily at them.

Qua comedy — which is what they're are always presented as — I consider "prank" shows to be, in basic premises, examples of malevolent, anti-man humor. Some are much worse than others, of course, but this is merely a difference of degree.

There's a line from the theme song of the 70's incarnation of Candid Camera which I think says a lot: "It's fun to laugh at yourself." If you understand what humor is — that to laugh at a thing is to undercut it and deny its importance — then you understand what Ayn Rand meant when she said that to laugh at yourself amounts to spitting in your own face. And because most viewers presumably aren't tuning in to literally watch themselves, in this context to "laugh at yourself" clearly means to laugh at man; at the so-called "human condition" which afflicts us all.

In comedy, the issue of laughing at versus laughing with is critically important. If you laugh when Rowan Atkinson pratfalls as Mr. Bean, you're laughing with him (Atkinson); your laughter comes as a result of his cleverness, his sense of timing, his wit — while at the same time you're laughing at Mr. Bean, who is portrayed as a bumbling, conniving little weirdo. Bean is always the butt of the joke; in fact, Bean is the joke. And that's exactly what Atkinson and his team of writers intend.

Clearly, the people caught on a hidden camera show are intended to be laughed at. Leaving aside some examples which are almost certainly faked, or cases in which the victim quickly figures out that it's a joke and plays along, the "marks" (as the producers of these shows refer to them) don't even know they're being filmed, let alone participating in a staged scene.

These marks are generally not bad or foolish people — they are average, ordinary folks who are made to appear foolish by the nature of the situation they're put into. If the core of Mr. Bean's appeal is his ability to turn the most commonplace situation into a disaster, the premise of the hidden camera shows is exactly the opposite: to create situations in which even the most admirable and intelligent person can't help but look like a fool.

(This applies not just to hidden camera shows, of course, but to practical jokes in general: The root of a practical joker's sense of pleasure is his feeling of being "in on it," of having faked reality successfully enough to fool another person, and delighting as the helpless mark struggles to make sense out of the situation.)

I'm working on an article about this issue, and would enjoy hearing your comments and responses. Specifically, is anyone aware of this having been addressed in Objectivist literature?

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Saturday Night Live did a satire of Candid Camera. It was a diner, in which they served a piece of cake to a patron. The fork was heated almost to red hot. The "mark" put a bite in his mouth, and screamed in pain. I think it was poking fun at Candid Camera, and the malevolence of it, which it took to the logical conclusion. If it's ok to make the poor sod stumble in some minor way, even better to serious hurt him... I don't know if SNL saw the malevolence in Candid Camera, but implicitly the writer of that skit did.

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I'm working on an article about this issue, and would enjoy hearing your comments and responses. Specifically, is anyone aware of this having been addressed in Objectivist literature?

To my knowledge, this issue has not been addressed. The most in-depth discussion of Rand's view of humor is in Robert Mayhew's lectures "Ayn Rand on Humor" which I'm currently listening to. As a humorist myself, I'm very interested in anything written on the subject from an Objectivist prospective. Would you mind posting your article here once you are finished?

Incidentally, I'm of the view that the form of humor most consonant with Objectivism is stand up comedy, because I don't think comedies can usually sustain an interesting plot line and remain pro-life, and because it is primarily conceptual. Besdies, I can't think of any funnier form of humor.

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Incidentally, I'm of the view that the form of humor most consonant with Objectivism is stand up comedy, because I don't think comedies can usually sustain an interesting plot line and remain pro-life, and because it is primarily conceptual.  Besdies, I can't think of any funnier form of humor.

I also like stand-up I and I have done it myself. Some samples of my material are on this forum including "Philosophical Computer Viruses" and "Social Judaism."

Situation comedy can also be very benevolent IF the main protagonist is a good person and the protagonist's enemies are shown as silly and stupid. A good example would be the Mary Tyler Moore Show which is a big favorite of Harry Binswanger and Mike Berliner.

I also like Dave Barry and especially his books which satirize other genres like business books (Claw Your Way to the Top), new parents books (Babies and Other Hazards of Sex), physical fitness books (Be Fit and Healthy Until You're Dead), and sex manuals (Dave Barry's Guide to Love and/or Sex).

Another favorite form of humor is totally benevolent -- verbal humor. I've loved puns and double-meaning humor since I was a kid.

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