Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Week 47 - "That's What She Said"

This song is partially based on the research I've done on humor for my dissertation, which is on musical humor.  I was reading about the semantic theory of humor (Victor Raskin) and I realized that the switching from one verbal script to another to create a humorous incongruity can be signaled by the phrase "that's what she said."  That's where the middle section comes from.  The rest of the song was built around that idea.

I shot this video with a regular digital camera.  No other person helping me, I set the camera up on a tripod, started the song, and then walked into shot and sang in sync with the audio.  I shot the song (or portions of it) from about six different angles.  I only used four of them in the final video I think.  I took the different videos and edited them together with Window Live Movie Maker.  For my first attempt at anything this complex, I think it turned out alright, considering my limited resources.



Lyrics:
Long ago there was a very special man
And if I could I'd really like to shake his hand.
He became a master of verbal comedy
By inventing a line that never fails to be funny
and it was, "That's what she said."

Don't know how he came up with such with such a perfect line.
I know some guys who really use it all the time.
You can use this phrase to catch your friends off guard.
It's pretty short and it's really not that hard.
That's what she said.

And the thing that makes the whole phrase so ingenious
is the way it changes the interpretation of the preceding sentence
with semantic mechanisms that trigger you to reinterpret what it means
according to a different verbal script.
And then you think about the alternate meaning
and it's usually something dirty that you didn't intend
but that's the genius of the phrase - that you can use it any day.
And even if it's not that funny, somehow it makes people laugh anyway.

That's what she said.
It's the lazy man's way
to make a joke out of anything you say.
And it never gets old from week to week,
And I will even confess
you need absolutely no finesse.
You only need the ability to speak.

No comments:

Post a Comment