When considering quotidian humour we must first consider how we derive humour from the everyday that we are in some ways familiar with, for example one of the main publicised television shows called "Big Brother" shows how we can manipulate the everyday and make something comical derive from it. In some ways consider the everyday to be a form of repetition: you wake up, get dressed, have breakfast, go to work/school etc. We repeat the routine for each separate day constantly, trapping ourselves in this cycle. But when we are put in a position where our moves are being watched and even manipulated in some ways, we develop this sense of insecurity and somehow create this wall, separating the viewer from ourselves in some ways. This "Big Brother" figure in the television show is not only looking at you but is ordering you. Artist John Smith first used this idea to experiment with the everyday and how we can derive humour by giving direction on a normal, everyday street.

In John Smith's "The Girl Chewing Gum" (1976), an authoritative voice over pre - empts the events occurring during the video, giving this interpretation of the voice over ordering the people as well as the vehicles and moving objects within the screen shot as well as the camera movements. This gives this effect of a fantasised scene like a film when comparing it to similar scenarios such as television documentaries with relation to the voice over giving orders, showing how powerful language can be. But as we focus more on this video we realise he is not ordering these people and moving objects to go a particular direction, he is merely describing what is occurring in the everyday. By describing what he sees he lifts this idea of quotidian humour by saying what we are processing in our minds of the everyday events occurring aloud, making the process and routine of the everyday become humorous with the use of the voice over. Because as individuals we can predict some things that are going to occur in our day as we are stuck in this cycle, constantly repeating ourselves in the everyday, for example if you catch a train everyday to work or school, you most probably see the same people everyday getting on the same train as you, and as this repetition continues you can then predict what ticket they will buy, where they will sit etc. In our minds we are doing the same thing that the voice over is doing in this video. But only when it is presented in a audible way can we recognise this quotidian humour in the repetition and routine of the everyday life.  



As individuals, we all don't necessarily pay attention to the little details that surround us in our everyday surroundings and routines, normally it's perceived to be the norm, blank, dull and not worthy of contemplation as we continue this cycle of repetition day after day. However, if we just focused on these little details, the things we miss when we focus on the task of continuing this cycle of the everyday, the act of the everyday routine becomes humorous. Our interpretations are altered as to why we do what we feel is the norm. In this blog I will consider how the everyday is humorous by considering artists who capture quotidian humour, and also question as to why it appears to be humorous by looking at themes such as repetition, cycles and what is justified to be normal in the everyday. I will also consider how it can in some ways become controversial when we question our own cycle that gets ourselves through the drudgery of the everyday. Is quotidian humour something everyone can relate to or is it only relatable to people who live in a particular, modern day culture?