A RABBI, A PRIEST, AND A NUN WALK INTO A BAR. . OR, THE SEARCH FOR COMEDIC ARCHITECTURE
An Undergraduate Thesis in Architecture By Ryan MoUoy
Submitted to the College of Architecture At Texas Tech University In partial fulfilhnent of the degree of: Bachelor of Architecture
Programming Instructor: Dr. Michael Jones, Ph.D.
Design Critic: Joanna Mross
Accepted
Dean dojlege of Architecture Special Section: {1.51 ^^^f''^- nn .f jrf <* *^''
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Searching for ideas was like Ilookin g for burried treasure.
I learned how to build ^ ' great architecture. peculiar perspectives
Note to reader: this crucial page of the plot development was unfortunately draw n with disappearing ink.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Architecture as a Comedic Act What is Humor? A Few Theories Regarding Why We Laugh Defining the Root of Humor The Architect and the Farceur Model Farceurs Tricks of the Trade Formula for Comedy
The Satire The New Religion: Television A New Pantheon of Gods Gospels of Televisions Greats Hymnals for a New Religion Roles of the Church: Worship, Learning, Fellowship
The Mother Road Route 66 and the New Religion Americana
Functional Building Requirements The Primary Function Tables, and Charts, and Graphs, Oh My! Introduction
David Farrell Krell writes in his hook Archeticture, "Without multiplicity, mix, swap, surrender, ecstasy, and humor—no arheticture. Instead, an architecture shaped in the traditional mold, one that exchanges the entire universe of life for a few facades of power."^ Krell speaks of humor as being an essential element of architecture. It is true; humor is, and has been, historically an element often found, though commonly overlooked, in architecture. This notion of humor being an essential element in architecture has moved the author to search for an architecture of humor, an architecture that does not concede to anything but the conventions of comedy.
This is not a reaction to current stylistic trends in architecture. It is, however, an
experiment to test the boundaries architecture has as a medium of expression. If we are able to
communicate worldly ideas, cosmic forces, and timeless thinking through architecture we should
be able to create comedy. It seeks to ask if an architecture can be created whose structure, form,
and function can be inherently comedic.
The project proposes a pilgrimage church for those who watch television religiously. It
serves as a satire; the underlying foundation upon which one builds comedic architecture. Through the notion of celebrating television with something as sacred as 'church' we begin the pursuit of
comic architecture.
^ David Farrell Krell, Archeticture: Ecstacies of Space, Time, and the Human Body (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997), 34. Architecture as a Comedic Act
Architecture is a medium of expression just as is art, prose, poetry, the five-panel comic strip, film, and theater. These are merely the mediums through which we communicate various ideas. If the content of film can exist for the purpose of making us laugh, can architecture do the same? The sole purpose of the half-hour sit-com is an expression of comedy; can architecture be similar to sit-com in which its sole function is comedy?
What is Humor?
Humor is everywhere, it works its way into every aspect of our daily lives. Humor is found in the newspaper, on the television, in literature, magazines, radio shows, bathroom graffiti, architecture, art, and in our daily conversations with others. There is no escaping humor, and no subject matter is sacred to the attack of comedy. Humor has penetrated our most treasured beliefs and private aspects of our lives, whether it is sex, religion, politics, death, education, and ethnicity. If there is something one can name it has most likely been ridiculed, joked about, or used for someone's comic attack.^ Humor has no boundaries. For unknown reasons we laugh at the comic revelations about the inadequacies and absurdities of ourselves. We even laugh at our own expense. Humor gives us delight. Events in our lives that are humorous make us feel good. In fact, that very aspect, delight, is the most important aspect of humor.^ To create an exact definition of humor is impossible. Humor remains enigmatic. We can define some common things that make us laugh and we are able to recognize the varying modes of comedy, but there still remains a great deal of controversy as to why we consider something as funny. Perhaps we can only define what humor is by the feelings we receive from it. Humor gives us pleasure, in a sense humor tickles our minds.
2Arhtur Asa Berger, A// Anatomy of Humor (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1993), 1. 3lbid, 2. A Few Theories Regarding Why We Laugh.
The ambiguity of the definition of humor has attracted some of the greatest minds. The theories of Emanuel Kant, Thomas Hobbes, Sigmund Freud, and others has helped formulate and influence the work of humorists. It is important to recognize theories of why we laugh if we are to be able to understand what humor is.
For Aristotle, humor, is based on imitation of men worse than the average. This notion that comedy is predicated on people who are "ridiculous" suggests the superiority theory. Hobbes took Aristotle's notion further, saying that: "The passion of laughter is nothing else but sudden glory arising from sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves by comparison w ith the infirmity of others, or our own formerly."^ The superiority theory relies upon the 'thank God I am not him' attitude: the glory and degradation of others. It is an affirmation \\ hich gives us self esteem. Using Hobbes' theory we discover that degradation of others is not the only thing that creates laughter, we also laugh at our own follies. This enjoyment, however, can only be possible if we laugh at an event in our past which helps to increase self-esteem.
If laughter is "sudden self-glory" it explains why we can laugh at apparently nothing; external stimuli has little to do with laughter. Laughing is only created by self-glory, the laughter of sheer joy. Hobbes' account for laughter cannot occur at all times. It is in his use of the word 'sudden' that reveals to us that humorous situations are not created by a constant feel of superiority. Timing then becomes an issue to the modes of comedy; sudden glory falls upon sudden conception.^ Hobbes believes we laugh at ugly incongruities, absurdities, and cross purposes of life, matters intellectual as well as moral, and our own follies, provided these events give us "sudden glory." External stimuli relating towards laughter is held only to these few things. Hobbes' theory thus falls short of providing us a thorough explanation as to why we laugh, though this can only be held accountable because he is primarily a philosopher of power. Hobbes theory does relates
^Arhtur AsaBerger, An Anatomx of Humor (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1993), 2. 5lbid, 2. humor to power, and this may be its strongest point. In this sense, humor can be a subtle and powerful means of social control by dominant elements. It can also be a force of resistance.
Perhaps the most important theory of humor generally accepted by scholars and is the incongruity theory, which argues that humor involves some kind of a difference between w hat one expects and what one gets. Kant, the father of incongruity theories, says laughter is: "an affection arising from the sudden transformation of a strained expectation into nothing."^ Kant's simple formula for humor assumes that the mind is wound up to head in one direction when instead it is wrenched off its path and turned in a different direction. Humor thus becomes a tricking of the mind. The term "incongruity" itself has many interpretations: inconsistent, not harmonious lacking propriety, irrational, and not conforming, a number of possibilities are hidden in the term. Some incongruity theorists will include the superiority theory as a special type of incongruity. Our ability to recognize something as being incongruous occurs almost immediately. We recognize those things that we have learned are incongruous as well as those that are instinctively incongruous in our subconscious. This might explain why slapstick, farce, irony, and the absurd are easily recognizable modes of comedy. The most intriguing and controversial theories of humor stem from Freud. At the core of Freud's theory is a single assertion: jokes are not distinguished from other verbal phenomena by their linguistic structure, but by their relation to the unconscious. In his book. Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, Freud writes: "Here at last we can understand what it is that jokes achieve in the service of their purpose. They make possible the satisfaction of an instinct (whether lustful or hostile) in the face of an obstacle that stands in its way."^ The nature of humor lies in our unconscious desire to satisfy an instinct. Freud tells us that we mask our aggressions (including sexual aggression) through humor. Humor, therefore, is a release from inhibition.
6D. H. Monro, Argument of Laughter (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1953), 147. "^Sigmund Freud, Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconcious^ New 1\ Translated From the German and Edited by James Strachey (New York: Norton, 1963), 101. However it is not just the unconscious that helps formulate humor. Freud devotes a great deal of time discussing the forms and techniques that jokes employ. It is important for us to recognize word-play, condensation, and displacement as important structural properties of jokes.
The theories of humor often overlap or expand upon each other. No one theory is correct, in fact each theory has helped define those things that we do find humorous. The various modes of comedy would not be understood without this groundwork.
Defining the Root of Humor
At the root of humor is manipulation or play. There are two types of play, play with meaning and play with perception. We respond to play as the structure of all comedy. Humor plays with meaning. It touches upon genuine, values and issues or it does not work. Robert Williams suggests that: what we feel as "meaning" is compounded of moral values and social protocols on one hand, and on the other the values of a purely comic ethic. (For convenience, hereafter I will use the term moral-social values to include such things as the Ten Commandments, but, as well, expectations of proper behavior, appropriate dress and manners, in other words social decorum.)... the shades of "meaning" really come down to the relationship between serious and comic values, the two polarities of judgment.^
The infinite combinations of these two polarities can create a single comic moment in a piece of work or a total work of comedy throughout the piece. Perceptual play is different, it stems from the notions of the incongruity theories. Perceptual play comes from the idea that 'expectation' includes far more than word meanings and symbolic associations. Perception involves our whole mental state and working of mind. Almost all workings of humor will involve play of perception, there is always a turning over of our habits of thinking. Perceptual play operates at the level of obvious semantic content and also at the level of unconscious structures of visual response.
The structure of perceptual play is juxtaposition and its kin the joke. The joke form is something we are all familiar with. We have told and heard a great number in our lifetimes. The
^Robert I. Williams, Comic Practice/Comic Response (Newark: Uni\ ersit) of Delaware Press, 1993), 75. structure of the joke is simple: a lead-in and a punch line. The lead-in sets up a network of expectations using symbols, meaning, and concepts. The punch line cuts across the lead-in, it alters the perception established in the lead-in. It is at the point where we are deterred from our train of thought and turned to a new thought pattern.^ From these two basic elements the joke form can permutate into a number of forms. The verbal joke is primarily found in literature, stand- up comedy, theater, and film, it's counterpart, juxtaposition, is found primarily in the visual arts.
Juxtaposition at its basic form collides together two things that would normally would not be associated with each other. It is the joke's lead-in and punch line combined into a static object. It causes an excitation of our perception by means of dislocating, relocating, or shaking-up expected associations. It can be achieved by juxtaposing objects with symbolic content that clashes, or by creating a bizarre effect with little or no inherent significance other than the act of juxtaposition itself.^ ^ JY^Q effect causes one to balk just as the joke does.
The language of play is essentially a sleight of hand: trickery. The sleight of hand is created by one's ability to formulate the elements of play with meaning and perceptual play into a game. How we formulate the irregularities, incongruities, symbols, and meanings into a game creates a work of humor. We thus view comedy as having an organized and rational structure of irrational occurrences; one can expect the unexpected. Take for example this children's joke: Why do elephants paint their toenails red? / don^t know. To hide in cherry trees. Have you ever seen an elephant in a cherry tree? No. Then it must work. The joke begins by stating an absurd notion of elephants painting their toenails and leads to an even more unexpected circumstance of the large beast hiding in a fragile cherry tree. Based on our knowledge of cherry trees and elephants it is obvious to us that this occurrence is not possible. However, the second part of the joke shows us that it is. If we have not seen elephants in cherry
^Robert I. Williams, Comic Practice/Comic Response (Newark: UniN ersity of Delaware Press, 1993), 48. 10lbid,48. trees then the camouflage of red nail polish must work. The joke affirms the existence of this irrational occurrence into a rational idea.
We have expectations of the irrational occurring more so in cartoons and comic strips. In the cartoons produced in the Wamer Brothers studio we know which characters will triumph and which will fail; Bugs Bunny will always triumph over Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and Yosemite Sam, likewise Wile E. Coyote will never catch the Road Runner. We have come to the expectation that each episode will follow this set pattern through a series of gags. The gags provide us a roller coaster of twists and turns of perceptual play. In each sequence of the Road Runner films we know that Wile E. Coyote will fail, what is unknown is how. Thus the animators play upon our expectations of how the Coyote will continue to fail. The gags create a series of irrational events within the accepted logic pattern of each episode. One may say that in comedy it is only rational to believe that the irrational, incongruous, outlandish, and unexpected is what we expect.
Humor is composed of play with meaning and perceptual play. We will always remain susceptible to these irregularities, incongruities, and a twisting of our expectations. We will always laugh as our minds are pulled in different directions, and our normal patterned ways of thinking become obsolete.
The Architect and the Farceur
How does architecture become a medium of humorous expression? Architecture is inherent 9 with me^ng. It is the role of the comedic architect to manipulate the meanings latent within. In - terms of perceptual play the architect must assume the role of ihe farceur, one who creates farces. He must push the level of perceptual play to an extreme. Robert Williams describes the farce as more than a group of works, rather it is a degree of play. Farce is a less distinct group of works than a matter of degree. And while it is useful to refer to as if it were a descrete but overlapping mode of comedy, it is distinguished from other modes, say sub-comedy and satire, mainly by the extent to which it is committed to perceptual play. Its content is often embarrassingly thin; it . , relies heavily on stereotypes; it is as careless of subtleties as it is probability. No •^ (_ matter, the farceur would say, the dynamics of the art lie elsewhere. Reckless, extravagant, erratic, bordering on lunacy, farce is the chanciest of art forms, teetering on its edge, risking loss, even, of its own fictional underpinnings, it is the comic mode that approaches a state of pure play.i ^
The farce does have an underiying message, the little man has a chance, lo\ e conquers all. and so on. It is latent with satire, often providing its theme. In his book. Comic Moments, Fred
Robinson writes: "That the social worid can be seen as something created by language gi\ es farce its often surreal aspect, and that nonsense can be made to seen an informing aspect of a worid familiar to us gives farce its satiric bite. Farce puts into question the very substance of ideals, laws, beliefs and earnestness of all kinds."i2 Farce makes our worid appear to be a cartoon.
For farce to succeed, as for most comedy, it must have order and coherence. It requires a skeletal framework from which the farceur attaches the reckless, extravagant, erratic actions. This structure allows the farceur to play his games with psychological probability and causality as well as conventions, formulae, and expected configurations of the experience. The farceur is concerned primarily with the impact of play on our conscious and unconscious mind.^^ The farce takes us on a joumey of jerks, turns, and pointless excessive jolting.
The comedic architect already has the tools from which they can build a farce. The architect's choice of vehicle is to be used as a loose framework for play; much as farceurs' use of plot as the frame work for their work. It may be best if the vehicle is the satire latent within farce, providing the work with a humorous foundation. Architecture directly affects how one experiences space; one must twist the expected experiences formulating a game in which the inherent meanings established within a project become the meanings that are played with, and perceptual play becomes its primary function. The architect, as with any comedian, formulates irrational events into an ordered coherent entity. It is through the unexpected, nonsensical, extravagant experience provided by the architect that creates an architecture of comedy.
Model Farceurs
' ^Robert 1. Williams, Comic Practice/Comic Response (Newark: Uni\ ersity of Delaware Press, 1993), 95. 12Fred Miller Robinson, Comic Moments (Athens: Uni\ ersity of Georgia Press, 1992), 50. l^Robert I. Williams, Comic Practice/Comic Response (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1993), 95. The comedic architect must become the Mel Brooks or Tom Robbins of architecture. One must commit to farce's zany, pointless effect to risk the very implied contract his work rest on as does Brooks and Robbins. They place the works essential being as play, accepting the fact that the viewer will either reject it or join in. They also play with a medium's own fictional and semiotic conventions to the point of risking their collapse. These two model farceurs are consistently, deeply committed to play.
Mel Brooks is perhaps the film industry's greatest farceur. All works of Brooks are extreme in farcical play. Perhaps his most notable and playful is Blazing Saddles, an attack on racial stereotypes as well as a parody on Western Films. The film contains the usual characters: a greedy land developer, a corrupt, incompetent governor, frightened townspeople, a wild gunslinger, and a heroic sheriff, who so happens to be black. The plot is simple, a town is in trouble and a sheriff is hired to save the day. It is not the plot however that makes the film v\ hat it is. Brooks is so committed to play that the film approaches lunacy. The actions remain thematically relevant to stereotypes and Westems. The game of play occurs when an Indian chief speaks with a heavy Brooklyn Jewish accent, Klu Klux Klansmen wear traditional white Klan robes with smiling yellow happy faces and "Have a nice day" printed on them, the gunman with lightning quick hands always wins the draw, yet his hands are so quick one never sees them move. More pointless to the theme of the movie are incidents when our heroe rides past Count Basic's jazz band in the middle of nowhere. Or when the villans in pursuit of our heroes are stopped at an unmanned toll booth in the middle of the dessert. In stead of riding around they decide to pay a toll in which none of them have change. The finale of the film results in an enormous brawl across the Wamer Brothers studio lot, interrupting the filming of a Busby Berkely dance routine, creating a vaudville pie fight in the studio cafeteria, and finally out onto the streets. The action takes our heroes to a movie theater which happens to be showing Blazing Saddles. They then join the audience and watch the end of the film, which has them riding off into the sunset in a limousine. All time, space, and probability has been thrown out the window by the looniness of the ending.i4 Brooks has managed to play with the medium he is using, the filmic experience. As viewers, these sudden jolts and unexpected twists constantly play upon our normal thought pattern creating a wonderful comic experience.
What Brooks does for film, Tom Robbins does the same for fiction. Robbins' Even Cowgirls Get the Blues examines women and sexual stereotypes more through comedic play rather than through satire. Similar to Brooks, he incorporates silly and nonsensical events that remain thematic to the works fictional meaning. But it is Robbins' play on the medium which he is using that creates such an amusing experience for the reader. Robbins, the voice of the novel, talks both to readers as well as the characters, placing the fictional medium at risk.i^ Robbins acts as a writer who is not under contract with any of the muses, which allows him to play with his medium. This sentence is made of lead....This sentence is made of yak wool. This sentence is made of sunlight and ^\\xms....Like many italic sentences, this one has Mafia connections.... This sentence may be pregnant, it missed its period. This sentence suffered a split infinitive-and survived....This sentence is proud to be part of the team here at Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. This sentence is rather confounded by the whole damn thing.i^
Robbins commits himself to playing with the conventions of fiction. He is also committed to pun and plays them out fantastically. Chapter 40 begins: "Bang, Bang bang bang! Bang squared and bang cubed. Bang conjugated and Bang koked. They arrived at the sound of gunfire."^^ j^e has done what Brooks achieved in film—a zany, wacky experience of play, kvw-— . These serve as great models for the architect pursing an architecture of comedy. For a rich comedic architecture to exist one must commit oneself to the level of play to which these examples commit to. What will be accomplished is a rich comedy of architecture.
Tricks of the Trade The idea of farce existing in architecture to the extreme discussed earlier is questionable. What is irrefutable is the fact that humor and play exist in architecture. When creating farce it is
^^Robert I. Williams, Comic Practice/Comic Response (Newark: Uni\ersit) of Delaware Press, 1993), 102. l^lbid, ill. ^^Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (New York: Bantam Books, 1976), 108. »7lbid, 120. necessary that we understand the elements of play that have been most successful in the past. Perhaps the most successful types of play have been tromgej^l. witty expres^. such as Erk_ Owen Moss' 708 House, and nonsensical play.
Trompe I'oiel is a key type of perceptual play in architecture. It may be mereh the painted surfaces, such as the Veronese frescoes in the Villa Barbaro (1560-62), or it may be a built structure such as the foreshortened stage layout of the Palladio's Teatro Olympico. Trompe I'oiel IS a sleight of hand altering how one perceives space. Done property it can make a room look larger or smaller, shorter or longer than it really is. It can make imaginary elements appear to be real. Mel Brooks, in History of the World: Part 1, uses trompe I'oiel to achieve a hysterical parody of the French chateaux. In his film a peasant posing as the king is trying to escape an angry mob approaching the chateaux. In panic he begins to run down a hallway, frantically opening each door along his way. As he continues down the hallway he grows in size and the doors progressiveh get smaller. The finale of this madness is on arrival at the end of the hallway when he is now appears the overall size of the hall and cannot make it through the last door. Brooks' mastery of perspective is what makes this a great example of Trompe I'oiel. Trompe I'oiel can always serve the architect to achieve comedic perceptual play. If one examines the humorous work of Charles Moore^ Stanley Tigerman, and Eric Owen /^Moss, we can recognize wit as a legitimate architectural component. Wit in architecture is part satire and part play. Perhaps the best example of witty expression is Eric Owen Moss' 708 house. Among the critical features to be noticed on the house are the wood and steel "flying Buttresses," satirizing Modernism's deification of structure. The "flying wall" acts a reference for the current stylistic preference of the suburb the house is located in, and "flying grid," an angled grid extending past the wall, mocking stylistic preferences of other avant-gard Los Angeles architects. There is even a "gang plank" defined as, "plank folding out of the east wall providing access (for pirates) to the first floor roof. In extended position, (it) rests on two rubber toilet plunger ends."i ^
^ ^Charles K. Gandee, "Gathering Moss: Four Projects by Eric Owen Moss, Architect," Arcfiitectural Record, \. 173 no. 8 (Juh 1985): 134. Moss simply expresses the notion of home through two tiny plunger ends; it is a celebration of daily life. What Moss has done is create an inversion of accepted meanings, and celebrate the banal activities of everyday life. Through wit he has created a satire on current and past architectural trends. As if they were one-liners for a comedian, each witty element serves Moss as a tool to creating humor.
Nonsensical elements often provide perhaps the most humorous effect in architecture. It may be because these elements are the most unexpected. They often achieve a, "Why would someone do that?" response. It is the elements that make the least sense as to why they are there that really turn our expectations 180 degrees. Perhaps one of the most notable of these elements can be found in Paris' Pare de la Villete. Somewhere among the Parc's great follies is a "staircase to nowhere." Why park designer Bernard Tschumi would put a two and a half story spiral stair case that abruptly ends is a great question. Perhaps we shouldn't ask for an answer. The "staircase to nowhere" is not a new idea either; it can be found in James Steriing's Neue W< • • -«^ Staatsgalerie as well as Luis Baragan's own home. Circulation leading us nowhere is a traditional /^ architectural joke. Tschumi's madness, however, does not stop there. Within the park are man> ^^-^ tv^' \ nonsensical elements attached to the follies. There are staircases that one cannot walk on, others that are too big, structure that does not connect to the system, and many other nonsensical elements can be found through out the park. What Tschumi has created is an ordered system of irrational occurrences. Whimsical play such as this is a great tool to use for the architect seeking a work of comedy.
Perhaps one of the greatest achievements in comic architecture is Giulio Romano's Palazzo del Te. Built for Federigo II Gonzaga, a political opportunist and member of the royal court, the palace acts as a symbol of his fame and his folly. Romano created a masterpiece of wit, trompe I'oiel, and nonsense. Outside the facades are ornamented with triglyphs and keystones that appear to be falling. Pediments on the east and south facades are incomplete and cannot be completed because of the keystones here are too wide. These unconventional features do not express the social and political unrest of the time, although that would be a fitting joke; they due, however. create a witty allusion to the hurried construction schedule and poor working conditions that Romano had to work with.^^
Inside the Palazzo del Te one will find an assortment of humorous rooms, each differentl>' themed to express aspects of Federigo's life. Of the many rooms the Sala di Pische, Sala dei Cavalli, and Sala dei Giganti best demonstrate Guilio Romano's sense of humor. The Sala di Pische is covered in beautiful erotic, if not pomographic, frescos depicting the story of Amor and Psyche. Fittingly the statement found on the four walls of the room reads: "Federigo II Gonzaga, Fifth Marquis of Mantua, Captain General of Florentine Republic, ordered this place built for honest leisure after work to restore strength in quiet."20 Romano's wit would lead us to believe that the term "leisure" was to be understood in a sexual manner, a fitting comment one the sex life of Federigo. The Sala dei Cavalli, a room devoted to his horses, is an elaborate display of trompe I'oiel. Egon Verheyen writes:
the largest room in the palace, and by virtue of its painted monumental architecture perhaps the most imposing. Corinthian pilasters uphold an architrave with a frieze of foliage and putti, which in tum "support" the ceiUng. Between the pilasters are niches or windows with different implications of reality. The rich plasticity of the walls is further enhanced by full-length or truncated niches containing painted statues or busts. These alternate with trompe Voiel windows revealing landscape, before which Federigo's favorite horses appear.^i
When entering the room the first impression is definitely one of rich and ornamentally displayed antiques, our perception is changed when we view the horses; the room is transformed into a showroom for the selling of horses. The Sala dei Giganti is perhaps the most provocative and stimulating decoration. Here Romano has removed any sense of wall and ceiling creating an exciting display of trompe I'oiel. The room invites the occupant to take part in the battle between the gods and the giants. One is surrounded by crushing boulders, collapsing temples, and spiraling clouds. It is a display of madness, rumored to be the room in which Federigo would
^^gon Verheyen, The Palazzo del Te in Mantua: Images of Love and Politics (Baltimore: John Hopkins Unhersity Press, 1977), 48. 20ibid, 25. 2 ^Egon Verheyen, The Palazzo del Te in Mantua: Images of Love and Politics (Baltimore: John Hopkins Umversitv Press, 1977), 115. enter to feel "sane." Each room in the palace is filled with witty incongruities and elaborate trompe I'oiel that creates an exciting, comedic architecture. f Formula for Comedy We have arived at a means of creating an architecture of comedy; all one has to do to is create a work of architecture that exists for the sake of comedy. With a foundation of satire, the architect can then use trompe I'oiel, wit, and nonsense to create all types of perceptual play and play with meaning. The architecture seeking to be comedy must have as a primary function the function of making us laugh. Every piece of the design, from the building program to the mechanical systems, must be carefully composed like the performance of a stand-up comic.the five-panel cartoon stip, or the farce of 2i farceur. The Satire
A vision of this occured to me weeks ago as I spent my Saturday aftemoon on the couch watching television. Entranced, my fingers perpemally flipped through a hundred channels of mind-numbing cable programming. The pulsating light of the T. V. called to me. I searched for hours attempting to find a program worth watching, only to fail. The whole time I didn't budge from the couch. Occasionally, I found a commercial that caught my eye, the explosiv e end of an action film, or the bust of some bikini clad super-model running across the beach. No matter what the subject matter was, which T. V. special was on, or what sit-com rerun was showing I would lose interest in just a matter of seconds (I would not have lost interest in the super-model if it wasn't for her bad acting). "There's nothing on!" I shouted in rage, changing the channel faster and faster. Then it hit me.
I watch too much television. America watches too much television. At that moment I could have been playing basketball, reading a book, flying a kite, riding a bicycle, or any number of things other than sitting on my couch. The most horrifying thing of this event was that 1 didn't go do any of those things, instead my bottom remained fixated to the couch, and my thoughts were soon replaced by one-liners and catch-phrases.
I am not the only one to whom this has happened. I have a disease common across the United States; I watch too much T. V. That Saturday aftemoon made me feel sick, yet I couldn't stop from doing that which was making me ill. Jerry Mander, in his book Four Arguments For the
Elimination ofTelevision, writes: If you could drop all preconceptions of television and read this list as though people were describing some instrument you'd never seen yourself, I think the picture you would obtain is of a machine that invades, controls and deadens people who view it. It is not unlike the alien-operated "influencing machine" of the psychopathic fantasy. 1. I fell hypnotized when I watch television. 2. Television sucks my energy. 3. I feel like it's brainwashing me. 4. I feel like a vegetable when I'm stuck at the tube. 5. Television spaces me out. 6. Television is an addiction and I'm an addict...22 He also adds that television is deprives us of our senses.
Television isolates people from their environment, from each other, and from their senses. In such a condition, the two semi-operative senses cannot benefit from the usual mix of information that humans employ to deduce meaning from their surroundings. All meaning comes from this very narrowed information field.23 What I had found was that there are millions of other television viewers w ho felt the same v\ ay 1 did.
Not only was I captivated and deadened by television; I noticed I would watch it reUgiously. I put myself through this sort of self-numbing activity weekly, as if it was a ritual. Sunday night I watch Fox, Monday night, football, Wednesday, it's Comedy Central's Southpark. and Thursday is "Must see T.V." on NBC. If it wasn't for class I'm sure I would find time for some daytime soap-opera. My daily schedules are influenced by television programming. Television had become a religion for me. The ability for television to become a religion is irrefutable. George Comstock writes: "where television particularly resembles religion is that the basis of this power is the acceptance of its communications by the intended audience. Television also would appear to resemble religion in the communication of values and interpretation of the world."24 With over 91 million television households it may be said that a majority of the nation watches television religiously.
It is a new religion. It cannot be stopped. The television has now become America's new pastime. Regardless of the harmful effects watching television has on us mentally and physically we still tum on the T. V. Jerry Mander writes: I am satisfied that most people are already perfectly aware of what television is doing to them, but they remain tranquilized by the general wisdom that: the progranuning is the problem, and it is useless to attempt to change it anyway. Television is here to stay.^^
^^Jerr\ Mander, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television (New York: William Morro\\ and Company, Inc.,' 1978), 157-58. 23ibid, 168. 2'^George Comstock, Television in America (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1980), 130. 25jerr> Mander, Four Arguments for the Elimination ofTelevision (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1978), 161. He is correct, television is, and will always be. It has become deeply rooted in our society we cannot fight it. So instead of destroying, condemning, and blaming television for the downfall of society we should celebrate it. Just as the great motto says, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." We shall build upon the viewing of television and form it into a new religion. We shall celebrate and worship television. As Joe Borgenicht writes in of his anthology of famous television quotations.
This book is to us what the Bible was to the eariy Judeo-Christians. Here's the new mythology. Maybe we should just bury this book in the desert of Arizona so that in a few hundred years there will be churches filled with Charlie's Angels, Gilligan's Islams, and Brotherhood Brady's. It couldn't hurt.^^
The New Religion: Television
If one were to look through the history of television they would find all the necessary ingredients to cook up a new religion. They have always been there. One can follow the examples set by television figures. One can listen to the wise teachings of sit-com characters. One can even sing along with countless theme songs from hit T. V. shows. The foundation of telev ision has provided us new gods, new gospels, and new hymnals.
A New Pantheon of Gods When Zeus's head split open the gods of an ancient civilization were released; television has done the same for us. It has provided us a new group of immortals: a group of gods who cannot be harmed by humans. They are cartoon characters. Most of them appearing to us as animals, are endowed with complex, richly nuanced psyches. Their enduring appeal spans all ages and cultures. We can all associate with the problems that they have; they are just as human as we are. Animator Chuck Jones teaches us that: "it is easier to humanize animals than it is to humanize human beings. We are far too close to other
26David and Joe Borgenicht, Mom Always Said, "Don't Play Ball in the House," atid Other Stuff We learned from T.V. (Radnor: Chilton Book Company, 1996), xi. human beings; we are surrounded by human beings; we are subconsciously and consciously too critical of other human beings."27 So, what better creatures to leam the trials of life from.
Like the gods of ancient Greece and Rome, or the legends of the Norse gods, they each command an element of life. Steve Schneider writes:
Bugs Bunny was witty and self assured and always in control, and a master of the one-liner, as well. Only he was capable of convincing a behemoth of a wrestler that his shorts are ripped, so that Bugs could impersonate a tailor, maneuver his opponent into a greatcoat, and then literally pin the big galloot's shoulder to the canvas. And the Wamer's characters could be deeply conflicted, too: how else to explain a desert coyote's unquenchable-yes, even neurotic--need to punish himself in the pursuit of a scrawny, oblivious bird that it has become unavoidably clear he will never be able to nab?28
We can deem Bugs Bunny the God of Humor, and like Loki, Wile E. Coyote is the God of Mischief. They form alliances and enemies, and their stories are retold through films of their actions. We shall watch these films and retell the stories of our new gods to others. We will spread the wisdom and the gift of laughter to everyone.
Gospels of Television Greats Television has provided us with some of the best advice available. There are new priests to teach us the gospel of television. As George Comstock writes: "Television's preeminent figures function much like priests in guiding those who watch them to people and things fit for their scrutiny. In this respect, television has become an arbiter of acceptability."29 We shall listen to the wisdom of the words of the many wise men and women that have graced the tube. We have from the gospels of prime-time television teachings such as: Individuality is finc.as long as we do it together-Frank Bums, M.A.S.H. It's unwise to condemn what we don't understand-Batman and Robin, Batman
We've all got a little Obi Wan Kenobi in us-Jim Kowalski, Taxi He who quits and mns away will live to quit another day-Corporal Agara, F-Troop
^^chuck Jones, Chuck Amuck (New York: Avon Books, 1989), 227. 28stev e Schneider, That's All Folks: The Art of Warner Bros. Animation (New York: Herny Holt and Company, 1988), 23. 29George Comstock, Television in America (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1980), 130. A straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting-The Doctor, Doctor Who
An insult to a man with no feelings is like hay to a man with no nose-Mork, Mork and Mindy Anything is possible on Fantasy Island-Mr. Roarke, Fantasy Island Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down-Weeble Wobble commercial A horse is a horse, of course, of course-Mr. Ed, Mr. Ed
The wisdom of the ways of may and the ways of the worid were taught by many men on television's Rung Fu:
When a man finds his way, heaven is gentle—Caine Become the calm and restful breeze that tames the violent sea-Master Kan The sun endures, the moon endures, life endures—Master Po The supple willow does not contend against the storm yet it survives—Master Kan
T.V. shows such as The Brady Bunch and ThePartrideFamily taught us many lessons. The Book of Brady and the Book of Partridge teach us that: Sometimes when we lose, we win—Carol Brady You shouldn't put down a loser...because you might be one yourself someday-Carol Brady You can't step forward with two feet on the ground—Mike Brady There's more to life than taking bows-Shirley Partridge A Partridge never forgets—Danny Partridge
We can not leave out the sage wisdom that wise man Homer Simpson from television's The
Simpsons has left us. From the Gospel of Homer, we are told: A boy without mischief is like a bowling ball without a liquid center You know that little ball you put on the antenna so you can find your car in the parking lot? That should be on every car...And some things are so snazzy they never go out of style! Like tail fms! And bubble domes! And shag carpeting! When you participate in sporting events, its not whether you win or loose: it's how drunk you get
if the Bible has taught us nothing else-and it hasn't-it's that giris should stick to giris' sports, such as hot oil wrestling and foxy boxing and such and such Now, son, you don't want to drink beer that's for Daddys and kids with fake I.D.'s The answers to life's problems aren't at the bottom of a bottle. They're on T.V. T.V. is always right
The advice of sages such as Al Bundy, Archie Bunker, Ralph Crandom, Ed Norton, and Ward Cleaver will also be taught as part of the new gospel.
Hymnals for a New Religion The television has graced us with music for years. Theme songs to popular television shows are something we all know by heart. Every child who grew up watching The Brady Bunch, can sing the words to its opening without stumbling. They are songs we can all associate with, the opening song to Hong Kong Phooey, Gilligan's Island, Bonaza, and countless others. They will help teach the new gospel of television. They are our new hynmals.
Ther are songs of friendship and companionship such as this catchy tune from. Three's
Company: Come on knock on our door (Come on knock on our door) We've been waiting for you (We've been waiting for you) Where the kisses are hers and hers and his. Three's company, too! Three's company, too! Come and dance on our floor (Come and dance on our floor) Take a step that is new (Take a step that is new) We've a lovable place that needs your face. Three's Company, too! You'll see that life is a frolic and laughter is calling you. Down at our rendezvous Three's company, too! Some are songs of love and passion for others, like this classic from the Eove Boat.. Love Exciting and new Come aboard We're expecting you And love Life's sweetest reward Let it float It floats back to you The Love Boat Soon will be making another run The Love Boat Promises something for everyone Set a course for adventure, your mind on a new romance And Love Won't hurt anyone It's a friendly smile On an open shore It's loooooooooove Welcome aboard its loooooo-oooooo-ooove! We will rejoice in song celebrating the glory of television. Theme-songs, tunes from the Partridge Family, songs from the Jackson Five, music from the Monkees, and even number one videos, past and present, from VHl and MTV will become the hymnals to show love for television.
The Church for the Worship of Television The church aspires to express the image of the television kingdom. It consists of men, women, and children who are redeemed by the television. It serves to link man to the man, man to television, and man to cosmos. It is a magical model of the television universe and its gods.
Justus Dahinden writes on the function of church, we believe in a spiritual expectation, which is based upon inherent religious conviction formed through sensual perception of the created object. It grows and builds itself within an experience of tangible form, light and shadow enliven its contours. The church building seeks through its urge for perception of reality, sincere dialogue with the community, which should not be an end itself, but rather lead to an individual experience of the divine.^o
^Ojustus Dahinden, New Trends in Church Architecture (New York: Universe Books, Inc., 1967), 73. The church is a physical entity embodying the spirit of television. It provides one the spiritual path towards a union with the television. Through a creative en\ ironment it provides a religious deepening and spiritual awakening.
Roles of the Church: Worship, Learning, Fellowship
This church is like any church; the primary activities which occur here are no different from any other religious practice. There are three primary actions are inherent to the church: worshipping, learning, and fellowship.31 The church must embrace these three actions. The act of worship consists of individual, corporate, private and public service generated by reverence for the television. Currently worship takes place in the private homes of members. The members of this large congregation need a place to gather. The church ser\ es as a place for specialized religious services and social activities of the assembly. Worship at the church involves learning the word of the new gospel, prayer, singing the new hymnals, giving and fellowship. The church should accommodate a unified group of people seeking for enlightenment from the gospel. Before one can serve television, one must know what to do. The act of knowing comes from the teachings of the new gospel. One must know something of the kingdom of television and the meaning of the words spoken by priests before spreading the faith to others. Learning is thus a critical activity in understanding the gospel. The church functions as the teacher of the gospel.
Just as we have our own families the church and congregation are a larger family. Fellowship is the sharing of the gifts we are given with our fellow man. If one is good at teaching, they shall teach. If one is good at serving than they shall serve. Each of us must offer our own special talents to the assembly. The church should accommodate and promote fellow shipping. Places of encounter and areas of socializing should permeate the design. The act of fellowship is only an extension of the word of the new gospel.
3 Ij. Mark Fr) ar, "Housing the Family of God: A Church and Educational Facility lor a Nondenominational Body in El Paso" (Thesis in Architecture, College of Architecture Library, Texas Tech University, Lubock, 1995), 14. The Mother Road
U.S. Highway 66 is more than just inanimate concrete. U.S. Highway 66, commonly known as Route 66, has a soul. It is a symbol of Americana; it stands as a cultural icon, a home to the homeless, a vacation destination, a path to the promised land, and Main Street U.S.A., rolled into one. Route 66 is Steinbeck, Will Rogers, Woody Guthrie, Merie Haggard, Dorothy Lange, Mickey Mantle, and Jack Kerouac.32 Michael Wallis describes U.S. Highway 66 as nostalgic America.
Route 66 means a time before America became generic—when motels didn't take reservations, when there were genuine barber shops and drugstores. Movie theaters weren't look alike boxes in a shopping center. There were no diet soft drinks or imported water. People drank straight from the tap and sipped iced tea brewed by the sun, or guzzled bottles of beer or Coca-Cola or Grape Nehi. America seemed more innocent. Billboards on the highway were legal; hitchhiking was safe. Nobody knew about cholesterol. Summers lasted longer because there were drive-in movie theaters and miniature golf courses and slow pitch softball games under the lights.^^
Route 66 is everything American. It is the spirit of the open road, and America's passion for the car. It is a '67 Chevy Malibu, a Model-T Ford, and a '52 Chevy pickup. It is the shinning, silver Air Stream Clipper roaring through the desert straight out of a science-fiction comic book. Home to America's food: burgers, steaks, sandwiches, and fresh made pie made by the cook behind the counter that morning. It is the waitress who can solve life's problems, and the bartender who will always lend an ear. It's two elderly men sipping tea, talking on the porch, and their wives gossiping over a cup of coffee at the diner just down the road. It is the hotel clerk who always, no matter how busy, is willing to offer a helping hand. It is an easy way of life, an adventure.
Highway 66 has served as inspiration to many. The road has managed to capture the hearts and minds of countless writers, served as subject matter for artists, and given birth to the creation of television shows, films, and board games. Michael Karl Witzel writes: "It functioned as both
32Michael Wallis, Route 66: The Mother Road (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990), 2. 33ibid, 2. an inspiration and a facilitator for an expansive reach of human experience. While intended as a purely utilitarian conduit for the purpose of car travel, the highway and its businesses have doubled as a base for memories."34 On this road, lost loves are found, friendships are formed, old acquaintances revisited, old flames rekindled, hearts warmed, minds are broadened, and thoughts are inspired.35 The person traveling on U.S. Highway 66 was sure to find adventure lurking beyond the horizon. The many who traveled along Route 66 all have stories to tell of the mysterious highway.
Filled with oddities and curiosities Route 66 offers the unexpected. It is a land of giants; nowhere else can one find a giant cowhead, a human size cheeseburger, one-story tall mosquitoes, giant mushrooms, a monstrous plate of ribs, a two-story ice cream cone, and an enormous statue of Paul Bunyan peering his head above the trees. Along Route 66 one will find giant jack rabbits, musical fountains, a two-headed goat preserved in formaldehyde, an iceberg in the middle of the desert plains, buried Cadilacs, alligator farms, and a mile-wide crater created by a meteor over 49,000 years ago. It boasts the first McDonald's, and the first Bob's Big Boy, originally Bob's Pantry. The long stretch of highway is always serves up surprises no matter how many times one has traveled the road. It is a landmark to American ingenuity. At times one loses all evidence that civilization exist while driving down the highway, and no longer will they have a sense of time and place.36 People who venture down Route 66 find themselves traveling through the past, present, and future. U.S. Highway 66 is American folklore, a fairy tale land filled with magic, and an glimpse of a bright future. Route 66 is mysterious; it is an adventure.
Perhaps the grandeur and excitement of the road may best be immortalized by the words of song writter Bobby Troup's 1946 hit, "Get Your Kicks on Route Sixty-six."
If you ever plan to motor west Travel my way, take the highway that's the best. 34]viichael Karl Witzel, Route 66 Remembered (Hon^ Kong: Motor book's International Publishers and Wholesalers, 1996), 157. 35ibid, 159. 36ibid, 23. Get your kicks on Route Sixty-Six! It winds from Chicago to L.A., More than two thousand miles all the way Get your kicks on Route Sixty-Six! Now you go through Saint Looey and Joplin, Missouri And Oklahoma City is mighty pretty; You'll see Amarillo; Gallop, New Mexico; Flagstaff, Arizona; don't forget Winona; Kingman, Barstow, San Bemardino. Won't you get hip to this timely tip: When you make that California trip Get your kicks on Route Sixty-Six!37
Route 66 and the New Religion
Driving down the entire length of Route 66 from California to Chicago is impossible to do today. Portions of the road have been closed down, other portions of the road do not entice drivers to stray from new highway. However in the west it remains mostly intact and one can hop in their '58 Corvette with the top down and start to seek adventure. With the sun scorching one's head and the blistering wind scraping at their face, the pilgrimage begins. It is in the West that state lines begin to disappear, and one loses themselves as they speed down the ancient asphalt. The sound of tires click as they pass over the cracks in the road that give way to stubbom weeds. The engine hums a familiar tune; the radio wails with the voice of a radio disc jockey from an unknown town nearby. Abandoned cars line the highway accompanied by abandoned hotels and once great diners. Old trading post signs continue to rust along with the Route 66 shield which guides one on this joumey. The buzz of a neon sign that struggles to stay lit fills ones ear. It is along this trail that civilization vanishes and one is left on a spiritual quest. As one pulls over, whether to stop to use the restroom, stretch one's legs, or simply enjoy the crimson, orange sky of the setting desert sun one will find on the horizon a new oddity added to the many on this famous highway. Surrounded by nothing, one is removed from the world and, in the distance, there is a view of an abandoned drive-in theater; it's panels flap in the abrasive desert wind. Dust and dirt dance
37Bobby Troup, "Get Your Kicks on Route Sixty-Six," Words and Music, Londontown Music Inc, 1946. around one's feet as each foot slaps the hard ground. A jack rabbit scurries across a patch of dead grass, kicking up a trail of dust behind. Occasionally a tumbleweed comes to greet one as one makes the short joumey down some ancient footpath.
It is here in the desolate region of the desert, where the cracked ground gasps for water, that they will find "the church." It is here on the vast, flat wasteland that the new religion creates its roots. It is fitting for it to be here, as Newton Minnow, FCC Commissioner during the 1960s, testified before congress: "Television is a vast wasteland." From the altars of the television inside people's homes to this barren desert region, people will make the pilgrimage in search of the new religion. Those who come leave their Bibles, their Torahs, or their Korans at home; they bring only their 7. V. Guides.
Americana
Route 66 is said to be: "a thread looping together a giant patchwork of Americana. "38 Route 66 symbolizes the dreams, hopes, and aspirations of many Americans. It is a piece of nostalgic America. Then, why is it that here you find "the church;" why Route 66? Television, too, is classic America;it is an American invention. It has become a daily activity of life for most Americans; it has become a new way of life for others. This religion is already imbedded in the minds of television viewers, the church will coax the desire to participate in this new American culture. Television and Route 66 are synonymous with America; it is only fitting for the two to be together.
38Michael Wallis, Route 66: The Mother Road (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990), 2. Functional Building Requirements
In the creation of an architecture of comedy it is difficult to provide specific functional building requirements. They are needed; they further aide the satire in creating the loose framework for the farceur. Some of the building's spaces can easily be translated into square footage requirements, others such as nonsensical items cannot. The farceur at this point does not know what tricks will be used in the formation of comic architecture, thus making it difficult to provide the exact space required by such items. One can only allude to their presence and warrant that they will be in the final design.
The Primary Function
First, and foremost, the building must assume that it's primary function is comedy. The function of comedy must not give way to formal and traditional ways of space planning: comic architecture violates the rules. Umberto Eco writes on the comic: "The comic seems to belong to the people, liberating, subversive, because it gives license to violate the rule. But it gives such license precisely to those who have so absorbed the mlc.the rule violated by the comic is so acknowledged that there is no need to reaffirm it."39 One must concern oneself with play, both play with meaning and perceptual play. The functional building requirements of traditional and common practices are what are to be played with. Restrooms can become lobbies or vestibules. The size of an average bedroom or office becomes a room three stories tall, 5,000 square feet, with only an island of fumiture off in one comer. These games are perhaps the ones that one plays to create comedy. It can be said that in the creation of humorous architecture the building requirements specified themselves do not serve the traditional roles and functions they commonly would do. They now serve as tools to create farce.
39umberto Eco, Travels in Hyper Reality (San Diego, Harcourt Brace & Company, 1986), 275. A Rabbi, A Priest, and A Nun walk into a Bar... or the Search for Thousands of Headaches.
No one should underestimate a theory such as this. Comedic architecture is something that is as difficult to create as it is to find writings on such a thing. Writing the theor\ behind a project that is comedic in nature is simple, designing such a project is near impossible. There is no single end all, be all solution to a project as such. Even after spending thirteen weeks in a studio environment I still have only arrived at the possibility of a very good beginning.
The design plays with fomis, twists meanings, and even puts into question our very beliefs as to what architecture. It is truly a farce. It pushes the border of what we call architecture, it teeters on edge just as literary and filmic farces do. It is composed of nonsense, which provides a good foundation from which we can begin to create the form and spaces created. It is injected with double coded images that take everything we hold sacred in religion and shatter what we expect them to be. The architecture created is somewhere between deconstruction and post-modernism.
It cannot be described in the temis of styles we have defined up until today, it can only be described as comedic architecture.
The Jokes There are many jokes that create this comedic act. Perhaps there are not enough, or not funny to all, but they are there. Below is a list of jokes that create the architecture of the church.
One enters the building by parting the waters. The path they follow is made of yellow-brick. At one end of the path you arrive at a spot in which you walk on water. The other end has you riding off into the sunset, the classic T.V. western ending. There is a staircase to heaven. Building elements float, as do all heavenly things. The structure supporting the elements has a column that is bent (it also doesn't carry a load), a column that is chopped off, and one round one of a different material. There are five pillars, representative of the Five Pillars of Islam, oddly the script on these is Hebrew and UPC barcodes. Like Mecca, the church has a black box. The black box contains a toilet, we pray to the porcelain god. The toilet is on a terraced platform, it is truly the throne. Toilet jokes are the easiest. The television is crucified. Striped Italian marble becomes zebra stripes. There is a Solomonic column. Like the one from the Temple, it is the last remaining thing. The mechanical system functions much like a Rube-Goldberg machine, powered on hot-air created by a group of professors talking. It has nudity, Hindu temples did it so can I. The church is a trompe I'oiel making the crucifix and preacher seem larger than life, more omnipotent I guess. It has pointless cuts into the ground, paths that lead nowhere, staircase one can't get to and Wonder Woman. Did I mention the tons of naked pictures on it. They are great.
Warning to All Who Wish to Try to Create Comedy
Be careful, to embark on such a task is near impossible. The subjective nature of humor and comedy applied to the subjective nature of architecture places the architect in double jeopardy.
It is frightening how fragile such a topic is. It is the nature of the project to have some people not understand it, some completely reject its validity as architecture, and some not find a single thing funny, it is these things that will cause one to fail at their task. The project tested well with my peers, some professors however need to gain a sense of humor that is not cynical or sarcastic to begin to enjoy such a project. If you are reading this in consideration of attempting a similar thesis, my advice to you is do a written thesis, it would be easier. However if you wish to pursue something physical in nature push the limits, be funny, argue with your advisors, fight for your ideals, make sure your humor doesn't get lost in theirs, watch Eddie Murphy's Delirious ten times, have fun, and fuck the system. This is what one needs to do to create comedic architecture.
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