Mojo, The Bard, & Me

5/15/17

[Beneath] Swear.

-Ghost

Hamlet                        Act I, Scene v, Line 161

Hamlet is a pretty serious play, but I find this part a little bit comical. This is the scene where Hamlet has the conversation with the ghost of his father. At this point the ghost has finished talking and has exited, and Hamlet’s friends have rejoined him, Hamlet is swearing them to secrecy about what they saw. While he’s trying to get them to swear, the ghost, who’s no longer on stage but apparently is yelling from beneath the stage (that 'beneath' above is a stage direction), keeps reiterating ‘Swear’. He says it three or four times. Maybe I’m a little kooky, but I think it’s funny. And it’s made more funny by some of Hamlet’s comments about the ghost while this is happening.

I think it’s good to be able to find humor in odd places.

 

 

Now here's a perfect example of finding humor in an odd place. This is Jess in the bathroom of a fancy hotel in Pittsburgh, with Nina taking the picture. Now I have no idea what she's doing, or why it's funny, but they obviously found something funny about it. I guess the fruit didn't fall too far from the tree.