Maya & Marty - Submarine
Maya & Marty is a new variety show on NBC starring the hilarious Saturday Night Live alumni, Maya Rudolph and Martin Short. The show had a brief and perplexing first season, which I think was a result of trying to find their identity as a series. Although there were many head-scratching moments during the show's initial season, there were a few extremely funny highlights. "Submarine" is a sketch satirizing the intensity of the war-movie genre.
The scene is set in the East Siberian Sea, aboard the USS Nuclear Submarine Mohegan. Alarms blare as a group of sailors talk frantically to one another, calling for their captain (Maya Rudolph). They inform her that the resistor switch is offline, which as a result could launch a plethora of nuclear weapons. One sailor (Mikey Day) speaks with confidence as he begins rattling off a long technical explanation, while the captain and other sailors listen hopefully. His voice escalates until he stops abruptly and says “Never mind.” This happens multiple times, while the crew grows more and more exasperated. Finally, the captain announces she is going on the outer hull of the submarine to manually fix the problem, sacrificing her life in the process. The deceptive sailor jumps in again, declaring that he will sacrifice his life instead. He says a dramatic goodbye, claiming that he is “just a kid from Indiana who's lucky enough to wear the uniform of the United States Navy.” The music swells as he makes a profound statement and the door closes. Not even a second later, he reemerges, saying, “Never mind, I'm scared.” Again, the captain interjects, announcing that she is trying the last resort - a re-pressurization. The engine whirs and the crew grows excited. The final shot shows the submarine rising up in the water, only to sink back down again. Emerged in darkness, the dejected captain says, “Aw. Never mind.”
Incongruity is undoubtedly the most fitting theory for this sketch. In the article “Theories of Humor”, Monro references a quote from Immanuel Kant, which states that humor stems “from the sudden transformation of a strained expectation into nothing.” This video presents the expectation of a stereotypical war movie, in which the hero suddenly discovers a solution to the major conflict. When the sailor seems to have an epiphany, the audience will likely assume the problem is about to be solved. It becomes humorous when he stops abruptly, admitting that he actually has no idea what he is talking about. The element of surprise is initially what made this funny, but as the scene goes on, the repetitiveness makes it even more humorous. The melodramatic nature of this situation, contrasted by the failure of each idea the sailor presents, is ultimately what made this sketch really funny to me.
