'Little Fockers' is a sequel to the movie 'Meet the Parents' which was produced back in the year 2000. Back then, the movie produced much unanticipated laughter from a crowd who could connect easily with the plot. This time round, the plot was thin, the jokes were half-baked and laughter was barely in sight.
Maybe it was because jokes, such as how easily adults were scared by the pet lizard did not appeal to an audience like me. Maybe it was because the audience nowadays are harder to please. Maybe what appeared as jokes to them didn't come across to us as jokes.
Recently, I participated at the Club's Humorous Speech Contest. Though I spent much of my time re-writing the contents of my slapstick-like speech titled 'Voting during Courtship', I did not make the audience burst out in any sign of an audible laugh. Only through reflection and defeat did I come up with 4 learning points. I figured that laughter comprises of:
(i) Warming up the audience sufficiently, and hence it does not help that I went first onto the stage as part of the draw of the lot,
(ii) Using previous jokes to enhance the current jokes, and hence kudos to other contestants who used me promptly to lighten up the audience,
(iii) Making jokes more light-hearted and easily comprehensible, as Singaporeans are a stressful bunch of people who doesn't try to think too much into your contents, and
(iv) Making simple noises, instead of the usual jokes (e.g. 'tan, tan, tan, tan' created some laughs).
Just like how this movie has turned out, maybe I need to reflect on my recent performance. Whilst I was easily amongst last year's Division S' best, my sequel, released on 31-Aug, only got me a 2nd runner up placing.
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