IL94 - Portfolio Assignment

As the only M25 in Taiwan for the fall semester, I felt somewhat of a misfit between all the M23s
stressing about their classes and all the M24s finishing up their capstones. Then when the quinquatria
rolled around and no one else signed up to host the event, I thought that perhaps that was exactly the kind
of opportunity that would make me feel more included in the community. Quinquatria in Taiwan was
hosted at this fancy venue and I had signed up to host it along with an M23 friend. Hosting a fancy
university event can be both exhilarating and nerve-wracking. As the host, we have the responsibility of
setting the tone and making sure the guests feel welcome and engaged. One way to do this is by
delivering a captivating and entertaining speech that incorporates humor.

Humor also tends to be complicated with all the body language and connotation that comes along with it.
When incorporating jokes into our speech, it was important to consider our audience and the tone of the
event. We wanted to make sure that our jokes were appropriate and not offensive. We also tried tailoring
the jokes to the specific events within the Minerva community to make them more relatable and engaging.
Incorporating humor into your speech can help to break the ice and create a more relaxed and enjoyable
atmosphere. It can also help to make your speech more memorable and leave a lasting impression on your
audience.

One of the jokes that the audience had an intense reaction to was when after a performance I said, “wow,
that performance was the bomb” and the co-host responded by saying, “We can’t say that, we are
Pakistanis'. This joke had a strong use of connotation by placing the word bomb and Pakistan together,
and while it was right on the edge of being offensive, it wasn’t offensive since the awareness of our
Pakistani background meant that we could own that joke. Also, the way we told the joke, our casual tone
and how we laughed when the audience responded with oooo’s meant that our expressions were also
tailored to the joke.

At the end my co-host mentioned that she would call another friend on stage to talk about the venue, to
which I responded “You have other friends?! How dare you?”. Which again, the audience had a laugh too.
This joke focused more on expression since I acted really agitated and annoyed at the mention of my
co-host having other friends.

HC footnotes:

#self awareness: Being self-aware of feeling like a misfit as an M25 in the midst of M23s and M24s made
me understand that hosting an event might make me feel like I am part of the community as well. My and
my co-hosts' awareness of our Pakistani background and how it is perceived helped us deliver a joke that
caused shock and surprise for the audience and elicited a strong reaction. Understanding this helped us
navigate the complex edge between offensive and surprising jokes.

#expression: When dressing up for the event, me and my co-host, both decided to wear formal black
dresses and host the event in a casual tone while incorporating many jokes and delivering those jokes with
the needed expressions and the right body language to ensure that the punchline is noticeable and the
audience is able to be on the same page. Often jokes are sensitive and humor is super subjective, being
able to successfully navigate it means that we can understand context and the people within it and how to
use that to our advantage.

AI: I didn’t use AI in this self reflection.