The unbearable lightness of Hong Sang-soo's HaHaHa: awkward humor, nervous laughter, and self-critique in contemporary Korean comedy

Abstract

Drawing from existing literature in the field of comedy studies (including work related to three long-established theories of laughter: superiority theory, incongruity theory, and relief theory), this paper examines the humorous elements in Hong Sang-soo's films. Focusing on the Korean director's tellingly titled film HaHaHa (2010), the author puts forth the idea that both internal and external bursts of hilarity (coming from the characters and from the audience, respectively) form a line of bivalent critique that links textual and extratextual aspects of screen comedy. That linkage is gestured toward by the artificial ‘movement’ (or, rather, magnification) of the image specific to the zoom shot, which can be seen in nearly every one of this film's simultaneously painful and pleasurable, uncomfortable and entertaining, sequences. In addition to expanding Paul Willemen's theory of cinematic zooming, the author seizes upon some of the most persuasive writings about the comic mode in order to critically frame Hong Sang-soo's unique brand of humorous self-reflexivity.