FYW- Response to Lead Blog Post #11 (Baywatch)

Baywatch incorporates many different theories of humor, but I can agree with you that the benign-violation theory shows up the most. In the scene where Ronnie is choking and then falls into the chair and gets his private parts stuck, benign-violation theory is evident. Getting his private parts stuck in a chair is definitely a violation, but at the same time Mitch shows up to help him telling him that he has gotten stuck before too. In a way, that makes it more benign because Mitch is trying to make Ronnie feel better about the situation even though it really doesn’t work. Whether it makes him feel better or not, the benign-violation theory plays a role because they take the violation (Ronnie getting his private parts stuck which would normally be extremely painful) and make it benign (Beachgoers filming the incident and laughing and Ronnie eventually just falling and breaking the chair). In the second scene, I can agree that benign-violation is present as well. It is a violation that Mitch tricks Matt Brody into touching a dead man’s scrotum just to mess with them. What makes it less violating is when Mitch begins taking pictures of Matt because he thinks it is funny. Relief theory was also present because it is a serious scene and Mitch asking Matt to check the man's scrotum offers some relief because it is obviously unnecessary in figuring out what happened to him.