Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is not the hero’s journey as George Lucas previously conceptualized it. Instead, the story line of The Force Awakens leads me to believe that it creates a new iteration of the hero myth. It follows the contemporary heroine’s journey while conforming to the essential construct of the hero monomyth. First, the contemporary heroine’s journey focuses primarily on the greater good and secondarily on her own personal journey, which is the converse of the traditional (...) hero’s journey. Second, the contemporary heroine’s self is awakened and called to adventure in a different way than the traditional hero. Third, the traditional hero receives guidance on his journey, while the contemporary heroine pushes ahead alone, striving to save her society from despair. (shrink)

We live in a world that witnesses an ongoing war between an entitled audience and, for the purposes of this paper, comedians who are too afraid to be vocal in their acts. There is no better time to try and understand the journey of humor- how it has fared in history and how people have reacted to it over time. This paper focuses on the philosophical implications of a joke by trying to break down the concept of humor to its (...) fundamentals. (shrink)