Elf

Elf is one of the greatest movies to watch around Christmas time. Of course not only does it get you in the Christmas spirit, but it is simply hilarious. The whole movie revolves around how the protagonist, Buddy, is a human raised among elves at the North Pole. This means that he is too large to fit in with the elves physically, and among humans, he has not adapted to social norms and has yet to understand how normal people work. This unique situation creates a man with the mind of a small child, producing a plethora of absolutely hilarious incongruities, such as his lack of understanding of the workplace, him failing to recognize basic social cues, and even things as ridiculous as eating chewed gum off of the underside of a rail. And the most interesting part is that Buddy seems to have no awareness that he is being a nuisance to other people. As seen in the first scene of the lead blog, having lived at the North Pole, Buddy can be a bit skeptical about Christmas in New York. When his boss introduces him to where he will be working, he calls it the North Pole. Buddy repeatedly denies this. This is seen again later in the film, where a man dressed up as Santa has kids sit on his lap and tell him what they want for Christmas. Buddy calls the man out for being a fake, and a fight breaks out between the two. The second scene features the comedic burp; a blessing to the world of comedy. These are just a few of the many examples of incongruities and benign violations that the movie is full of.

Comments

  1. Shane HerronOctober 19, 2018 at 2:43 PM

    It's interesting, I've heard about this movie many times and I've now read several blog posts on it, but I never totally got the idea that he was an elf raised by humans. So he's doubly out of place. I'm sure that's just me being obtuse, and I've seen a good deal of the movie in clip form. But I think that's pretty crucial to the unique humor of the movie and to the Will Ferrell brand of I-dont-belong-anywhere humor.

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