The Comedian story
A struggling comedian learns that jokes about the people in his life get laughs, but cause them to disappear from existence. Directed by: Owen Harris. Story by: Alex Rubens.
26 total · 1 choice · 10 major · 15 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| be careful what you wish for | choice | Samir wished to be funny, but found that this (for some reason) came with the caveat that the object of his jokes would vanish. |
| actions have consequences | major | Rena hammered home to Samir about how he never thought about how his action affect anybody else, especially her, and about how he would just use people as sources of material for his comedy routines. In addition, Samir learned that making people vanish had unpredictable effects, like when he disappeared Rena's mentor, and she suddenly went from being a lawyer to working as a waitress. |
| boyfriend and girlfriend | major | Samir and Rena were living together as a couple. |
| compromising one's ethical principles for personal advantage | major | The dilemma here was complicated, but one aspect of it was Samir getting rid of various disagreeable people in order to become famous. |
| human self-sacrifice for another | major | In the end Samir made himself vanish in order to undo the bad things he had inadvertently done to, in particular, his ex-girlfriend Rena. |
| killing for personal advantage | major | The only way Samir could get laughs was by uttering peoples names during his stand up act, knowing full well the people whose names he uttered would vanish. |
| killing wicked people | major | We must consider, as Samir no doubt did, whether it was alright to eradicate various maleficents. |
| rivalry | major | Samir rivaled with other comedians at the club, and especially the black, lesbian comedian Didi. |
| speculative ability | major | It came about that anybody who's name Samir mentioned in his comedy routine would suddenly cease to exist. |
| stand-up comedy | major | We saw the goings on at a comedy club. |