4 page Contextualizing Humor/Comedy in Culture Essay

Tom Segura - My Dad Was in Vietnam  


2 Jokes  • 1. Diner  ◦ Dad - You Chinese?  ◦ Waitress - No, Im Korean  ◦ Dad - Ah. I was in Vietnam  ◦ Tom - (wtf) what are you doing?  ◦ Dad - A lot fewer of them if you know what i mean buddy.  ▪ Cultural Background - American Vietnam War  ▪ Tragic Past - Common known mistake of the American

people  ▪ Tom - Pointing out the shameful background of Vietnam but

a proud veteran father that glorifies his actions  ▪ Punch Line - relied on the comprehension of the audience

that Vietnam war was a mistake but the participant of the war however tragic is somehow proud and glorifies the experience. 

▪ Subtle Racism  ▪ The older generation of white americans - seeing all asians

as the same  ▪ Seeing asian faces - bring about the event that defines him

as a person - vietnam war vet  ▪ Punchline - relies on the presumption that everyone in

united states know “this guy” that won’t stop talking about his war achievements and bring it up anyway that he can 

• 2. Threw Grenades in the Bunkers  ◦ Background - Not all veterans likes to talk about tragic past due to the

inhumanity aspect of war BUT toms dad loves to talk about it  ▪ Story  ▪ Tom - Did you kill anyone in vietnam? ▪ Dad - it wasn’t like that i was a lieutenant, it didn’t work that

way  ▪ (Few years past) Tom - did you kill anybody?  ▪ Dad - I there grenades in the bunkers  ▪ (Few years past) Tom - did you kill anybody?  ▪ Dad - There is no greater feeling than killing the enemy  ▪ Underlying joke - the rationalities of a vietnam war viet slowly

accepting and willing to open about his experience as he grows older 

▪ The tragic past no longer becomes a shameful event, rather one that he is proud and would share to the world 

▪ Punchline - The fact that tom’s dad tried to cover up the shameful past that the american people expect a vietnam war vet to do, he progressively slowly surprise the audience in glorifying his killings and revealing the absurdity and insaneness tom portrays his father to be in his acts 

• Thesis - Tom’s Vietnam Dad jokes takes part in a progressive/post war conflict era where everyone understands the cruel reality of war but is too young to personally experience it during their life time therefore seeings an older vietnam vet’s killing of vietnamese people as ridiculous and eccentric 

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