CHRIS ROCK Laughing at life, learning through laughters : a study of stand-up comedy.
youngsters of Indonesia preferred entertainment over „heavier‟ subjects such as politic. Given that goal, Samuel understood that the subject to be
communicated, i.e. politic, needed to be presented in a more popular media, television. This idea was in line with Gordon‟s view on television when he
stated that this was the era when television had a privilege of being labeled „the educator of society‟ 148. Having discussed that, the writer found out
that Samuel had actually been trying to kill two birds with a stone by delivering his performances on television: by attempting to transmit important
messages with the help of popular media, namely television. 2.
Do you target people belonging to middle class society? A firm „yes‟ was the answer to this question. Later on, Samuel went on by
explaining that people of middle class society were the „objects‟ of the
government because they knew one thing: contented middle-class society means a safe nation. However, Samuel knew too well that the kind of „safety‟
felt here was a fake one and he felt that one of his responsibilities was to „rock the wat
er‟ by attempting to make middle-class people to open their eyes and see the truth surrounding them. Again, this showed another master stroke by
Samuel because as explained by Kharaz and Geerts, members of the middle- class society were the ones with the privilege of time and money, but not
power, and with what they had, they had plenty of options to get themselves entertained 2. Samuel, the writer believed, has done the right thing in
selecting, albeit not too specifically, middle-class society members as his main
subjects of his performances, given his target that he wanted to educate his audience through his jokes.
3. What is Stand-Up Comedy to you?
When asked this question, Samuel had one brief, but sharp, answer. He responded to this question by answering that Stand-Up Comedy to him was a
media which has shaped himself as a fighter of freedom of speech. Later he went on stating that Stand-
Up Comedy was the media the „next level‟ of public speaking because in Stand-Up Comedy performances, he was forced to
inspire his audience, rather than only to entertain them. This statement of his agreed with what Lewis wrote about the potential powers of comedy as Lewis
dared saying that comedy was one way to prove somebody‟s existence as well as an evidence that somebody mattered 35.