HO CHI MINH UNIVERSITY OF

EDUCATION

DARK HUMORHumorinEnglishINLiteratureCARTOONS

NGO CHI CUONG

43.01.701.008
NGUYEN VO BAO NGOC
43.01.701.058

Thursday Morning Class

 Contents page
Preface 1
Body:
Dark Humor: Definition and The Psychology
Behind It 3
Application of Dark humor into Cartoon
1. Why Use Cartoons As Its Medium? 12
2. Dark Humor in Cartoons and Comics 17
How To Use It In Your Life 27
Conclusion:
Summary 36
Reflection 37
References 42
In-class writings 44
 Preface
Life is said to be the greatest gift to us, but it
does not always feel that way. There are hard
days that would bring us to our knees, make us
feel tired, weary and moody, like the world is
against us. At those times, a hug, a meaningful
conversation, a vacation even, would be a huge
help. However, they are like big surgery that
would require various conditions to be met and
may not come in time of immediate need.
Therefore, people need something simpler and
faster, a kind of first aid. That is where humor
comes in. A well delivered joke brings forth the
most needed smile. Be it a pun or a silly
punchline, a funny story or a humorous act, it
brings joy to our minds and diverts us from the
worries we have. But that is all they can be,
simple distractions from the woes of life. But
there is a kind of humor that is used to laugh
those woes in the face, a strange mix of humor
and
1
self-contemplation - dark humor. Through our
portfolio, we will be examining the idea of dark
humor, how it is used in cartoons and the way to
apply them into real life.

2
Dark humor: Definition and the
psychology behind it
Similar to humor as a whole, dark humor is
mainly used to relieve stress and anxiety.
However, the mechanism behind how it makes
us laugh is much more complex. This is because
dark humor deals with highly sensitive and
sometimes taboo subjects such as death,
terrorism, trauma, catastrophe, etc. These
themes usually induce within the listeners a
sense of fear, discomfort, disgust or even anger.

3
Nevertheless, dark humor is able to utilize these
issues to make people laugh. The question here
is, how does it do that? The leading theory in the
field was established by Peter McGraw and his
team in the Humor research lab, and they called
it The benign violation theory. The theory
proposes that three conditions have to be met
for something to be funny:

It is a violation
It is benign
They happen simultaneously

4
The nature of dark humor is already a violation
since its themes usually register as a threat in
the mind of the listeners. The key to a successful
dark joke relies heavily on the ability to keep it
benign. That is, to make the idea appear
harmless to your audience. Peter suggested two
main ways to pull this off:

a) Make sure they do not take the joke

seriously. This can be done by stressing that this
is only a joke and it is meant to make you laugh.
This technique is not only used in the practice of
dark humor, but in other forms of humor as well.
A prime example in the usage and effectiveness
of the technique is the famous reality show “Just
for laugh gags”. The unsuspecting participants
may feel angry after being pranked, but they
bursted out laughing as soon as they were told it
was just a show. The same principle also applies
to dark humor.

b) Make the joke appear appropriately

distant from the listeners. The idea here is
5
that the listeners have to be able to relate to the
joke and the joke isn’t too serious to them. Let’s
have a look at the table to have a better grasp at
the idea:

According to the table, we will not find something

funny if it is too serious to ourselves or our
friends. However, it would be funny if the event
happened far in the past. Nevertheless, it would
not be funny at all if
6
we cannot relate to the event, as in the final row
of the table. This table shows only the basic idea
and the appropriate distance required would be
relative for each person. Therefore, it would be
accurate to say that choosing the right distance
is the talent of the humorist.

The Benign violation theory quite satisfyingly

explains how dark humor is used as a medium
for laughter by humorists. This means that we
are the recipients, the listeners, the audience in
this case. However, there is another function to
dark humor when we are the ones to tell the
joke, it is a form of self-coping mechanism. Dr.
Alex M. Borgella stated that humor is used in
seemingly inappropriate and dire situations
because of its power to increase social bonds
and improve psychological well-being of human
beings:

“Though it seems even more

counterintuitive, dark humor might be an
7
equally viable method of anxiety reduction in dire
situations that seem completely hopeless or out
of a person’s control. This type of humor is
typically found alongside death and destruction
—amongst doctors and nurses in hospital ERs
and oncology units, soldiers in the trenches
during wars, wartime refugees, first responders,
and many others—and serves an important,
albeit a seemingly callous, function: to keep
spirits high, stress low, and maintain a sense of
humanity where none seems to exist.”

This idea is further supported by professor

Sophie Scott, who said that “high-stress
professions like medicine and law enforcement...
tend to heavily deploy humor that would be dark
or sort of shocking to people outside their
professional circles... as a way of coping with
stress, to make the specific stress they’re
dealing with more tolerable, and to increase and
maintain the bonds they have with their fellow
team members.” And this idea is proved to be

8
highly accurate in the scope of the coronavirus
outbreak. According to an article on The
Guardian titled “The ER diaries: dark humor gets
us through – we save our tears for home”, the
personnel of the emergency department find
dark humor as a way to lighten the mood and
get them through the sorrowful and anxious
working hours as they all share the threat of
being exposed to the virus when going out on
distress call.

In addition to that, professor Janet Gibson also

noted that humor is a way for us to deal with
anxiety as we use it to poke fun at the very
things that terrify us. In a sense, it is like the first
method proposed by Peter, which is not to take
things seriously. By making fun of our problems,
we change the way we view them into a more
positive outlook and thus give us better
judgement over the situation.This idea is
supported by Adrienne Wood, who said that “we
can use humor to examine and make sense of
otherwise
9
threatening ideas”. Some even go beyond just
coping and turn their predicament into their
weapons. One such individual would be The lost
voice guy - a mute stand-up comedian who went
to Britain's Got Talent and made the world laugh
comfortably at the subject of disability.

“I hate that we have so many politically correct words to

describe disabled people now. It’s all special needs.
Special schools. Special Olympics. I don’t know what is so
special about me. That is why it always alarms me when I
hear about Special Forces going to war.”

10
To sum it up neatly, dark humor has the power
to relieve stress and anxiety even in distress and
disastrous situations while also serving as a self-
coping mechanism for the human mind to have a
more positive and constructive outlook on their
predicament.

11
Application of Dark humor
into cartoons
1/ Why use cartoons as its
medium?
First off, it is crucial that we clarify what we
consider to be cartoons in this portfolio of ours.
In technical terms, cartoons are a series of
pictures set in motion and recorded continuously
frame by frame to create the impression of
movement and flow. Even so, we do not just
include the final motion picture but also the non-
moving ones as well, which are called comic (or
comic strips). This is because dark humor is
rarely the theme of an entire cartoon, but mostly
as small scenes in it and this would depict the
comic strips as well, where dark humor would be
more likely to appear. With this foundation laid,
we move on to the main point of the portfolio.

Suffice to say, dark humor in itself is already a

hard topic to slip in during normal
12
conversation, so the thought of doing so through
cartoons may appear to be even harder.
However, careful reconsideration of
the aforementioned theories and psychological
pathway would reveal that cartoons have passed
several checks already and would actually
reduce the difficulty level of dark humor
implementation.

The first advantage is that since its first

appearance until now, cartoons have
established itself in our brains as something to
be enjoyed and not taken entirely seriously. As
Peter’s Benign violation theory suggests, part of
the success of dark humor lies in reducing the
seriousness level of both the topic and the
listeners. If either the topic seems heavy or the
listener’s mind is in an alert state, high chances
are that they will find the joke to be more
offensive than funny. On the other hand, if they
are told they are going to see a cartoon or a
comic strip, their hard-wired brain enters a state
of relaxation and
13
would be more likely to see the funny side of the
content.

The second advantage is that it creates a sense

of psychological distance from the audience. As
previously demonstrated in table 1, the audience
will not find the violation part funny (or benign) if
it is closely or directly related to them. It is right
here that cartoons come in. Since most cartoons
offer a set of non-existence characters, along
with a line at the beginning saying that any
resemblance to real life is merely a coincidence,
the audience would be in a comfortable position
to view their content. In extreme circumstances
where real life characters are involved (Adoft
Hitler, as an example), the two other rules of
distance has to be utilized, which are to keep it
from the people closely related to the person in
question or that person himself, and to make
sure the time distance between the characters
and their deeds and your current

14
audience is sufficient so as not to create an alert
state in the audience’s mind.

It may be argued that the second benefit may

satisfy the requirement that the audience are not
closely related to the content, but such distance
may prevent them from finding it to be funny at
all, as Table 1 suggested. However, cartoons, as
well as some other medium like books or games
or music, have an incredible ability to make the
audience feel, to an extent, emotionally attached
and later would even induce self-reflection in the
audience. Thanks to this creation of an
appropriately distant relationship, the
requirements in the Benign violation theory are
satisfied and laughter follows.

15
In short, cartoons are able to set a non-serious
state of mind, create an appropriate distance for
humor and induce a sense of self-reflection.

16
2/ Dark humor in cartoons and
comics
Although it was in 1939 that Sir André Breton
first launched the term “Dark Humor”, it then was
not considered separately a genre of literature.
Until in the mid to late 1950’s, Europe witnessed
a sharp development of dark humor in comedy.
Thereby, this form of humor gradually existed in
cartoons with great almightiness which can be
seen in Paul Krassner’s magazine The Realist
(1958-2001).

In the search for popular cartoons in which most

people enjoy dark humor, we trust in the site
Internet Movie Database (IMDb) to give the most
relevant and objective examples as possible.
According to the Top
100: Western Cartoons list, we agree to
present the following five animation movies
below:
- Rick and Morty ( 9.2)

17
 Photo: Warner Bros. Television Distribution

Created by Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland,

Rick and Morty ranks first in the list
broadcasting in Adult-Swim. This animated
series exploits a self-righteous psychopathic
scientist named Rick and Morty, his 14 year-old
grandson who is growing with a learning
disorder. They travel to explore the infinite
universes and hereby causing countless
mayhem. Each character drawn in the series is
not as glorious as supermen. Each one is
instead dysfunctional, which means every one
of them presents an anxious issue of life. The
cartoon relates to the absurd existence and
encourages us not to romanticize or idealize the
meaning of
18
survival. By providing a very meta viewing
experience in different aspects, Rick and Morty
emphasizes the genuineness of life, the
existence of human beings and persuades us to
live our life to the fullest.
- The Simpson ( 8.7)

Photo: Tumblr

The Simpsons has been the best cartoons of all-

time since 1989. As the title suggests, the story
revolves around the working-class
19
Simpsons family in Springfield. It uncovers the
irony that is coated by the term "American
dream" and brings forth the shortcomings in the
American culture. Ranging from politics to
domestic issues, The Simpsons is the perfect
medium for us to have sarcastic comments on
the absurd events happening hereabouts us. Its
impact is so huge that there are thousands of
meme collections cut from the movies on big
social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

- BoJack Horseman ( 8.7)

Photo: Pinterest

20
Bojack Horseman is an animated black comedy
produced by Netflix. Bojack is no longer a
famous star in Hollywood. He now is a self-
loathing man who deals with alcoholism,
depression and complains about everything. To
mock deceitfulness in showbiz is the main
purpose of the cartoon.
- F Is for Family ( 8)

Photo: Pinterest

F is for Family is another animated sitcom aired

on Netflix. The writer of the show is Bill Burr, a
son of the Murphy family as depicted. The
setting of the show is in the 1970s when it is a
norm to smoke inside the house,
21
embrace patriarchal principles and downgrade
women, and to abuse your children emotionally.
The sitcom exposes the dark side of domestic
abuse occurring inside households at the time,
delivering the lesson that society needs to make
further progress on equality and get rid of toxic
stereotypes.
- Beavis and Butt-Head ( 7.5)

Photo: Pinterest

Beavis and Butt-head is one of the best 90s

22
cartoons, which revolves around two ill-
intentioned teenagers who are interested in
heavy metal, violence, sex and destruction. Its
controversial content even made MTV warn
viewers.

All these five shows take dark humor on as their

main point of attraction and have earned
enormous popularity from the community, thus
showing the power of cartoon as a medium
through which dark humor can be spread.

However, beyond just conventional cartoons, the

age of the internet and social media has given
dark humor another way to grow in this medium
– short comics. Before the internet, dark humor
in cartoons mostly appeared in major
productions as we mentioned above and so the
ideas from common folks, which is arguably the
biggest source of ideas out there, were left out
and never even heard of. And so, when a place
where even
23
controversial ideas can easily be shared as the
internet appeared, the medium flourished like
never before. All that is required would be a few
common drawing tools, an internet connection
and an idea and it would be spread all over the
globe. The benefit here is that drawing a single
comic strip like this takes much less resources
and money compared to a complete cartoon
while still sharing the effects that cartoons have,
so many people can do it just as effectively. It is
almost impossible to pinpoint the start of this
movement, but it is still going incredibly strong.
Try typing dark comics into your search engine
and a myriad of comics would flood your screen.
However, this movement is still individualistic,
meaning it is a combined source of idea from a
lot of random people. But lately, some groups
and communities have been more committed to
spread this medium via the power of social
networking. A leading example of this would be
a group called Cyanide and happiness. They
started as

24
a small group on Facebook, sharing short strips
of dark comic to people of interest.

With nothing more than a few strokes of stick

figures, they managed to spread dark comic to a
lot of people. Their page eventually got banned
because of Facebook policy, but that could not
stop the movement they had started. They now
have a closed group on Facebook where not
even they themselves but the fandom can share
what they have created also.

25
Another factor contributing to the success of
dark comics is our age of “memes”. Back in the
day, short and funny stories posted on social
media was the trend. But once the memes take
over the world by storm, posts with anything
longer than three lines of text are a lot likely to
be ignored whereas a picture with a few simple
words would be shared all over the place. Under
this trend, everyone is forced to adapt or die.
Thus, the strips of comic become mainstream
media and greatly assisted the spread of dark
humor via this medium.

26
How to use it in your life
It would never hurt to have more laughs in our harsh modern

world, so learning to make use of dark humor to brighten your day

and those around you would be a worthwhile

endeavor. 1/ Use it for your own good
- Adopt a humorous state of mind
As dark humor utilizes heavy topics to create
humor, it should be crucial to adjust and adopt
an open-minded state of mind rather than an
aggressive or defensive state. It might not sound
like much, but in reality, your expectation shapes
most of the information you received. For
instance, in a performance meeting, you are
more likely to accept and improve if you view
others’ feedback as advice and not as criticism.
Negativity restrains our capacity to take in
information, meaning we are more likely to either
shut our ears off or simply reject the idea without
first giving it any thoughts. Therefore, getting
yourself mentally prepared to receive instead of
reject is the first step in seeing the beauty of
dark humor.

27
 - Focus on the funny side of things

With the nature of dark humor being finding

and/or creating humor in a violation, it will
always be either offensive or hard to stomach if
you focus on the bad side of it. Take this one as
an example:

This short comic deals with the topic of faith and

religion, saying that to ask for something in
prayers is wrong and the “correct” approach
would be to steal what you need
28
then ask for forgiveness in one’s prayers. This
would be a violation on both the moral side and
the religious side, but we cannot help but see
some truth in its twisted logic, because praying
will not ever get you anything and you have to
work to get it instead. While giving this message,
the comics also mocks the blindly faithful and
the one using religion to justify his sinful deeds
at the same time. While those who have a strong
belief in religion may find it offensive, the one
seeing the brilliance and truthful mockery will
find it enjoyable instead.

It can also go the opposite way around, creating

a violation in something that appears to be
normal at first. Take this as another example:

29
Let’s face it, food fighting is not generally a good
thing to do, but in some western countries, some
people view it as funny and acceptable in certain
circumstances. This short comic takes that topic
and gives it a twist, giving a benign situation an
unexpected violation that brings both laughter
and awareness on the importance of food, like a
slight smack in the face of ignorance. These two
examples show that there is brilliance and
humor to be found in dark humor, one only
needs to seek them out before taking offense by
the other side.

- A way to deal with yourself

As already mentioned before, dark humor is a
wonderful tool to help us deal with our own
hardships by laughing at them. This works in
quite the same way as the saying trying to see
difficulties in a more positive light, if not darkly
positive. When we think about difficulties, our
brains are usually set in a negative perspective,
and not everyone would
30
be capable of switching their mood and view. In
that situation, taking a mental dark humor pill
may be just what you need.

Let’s first tackle a lighter subject as heartbreak.

It is a devastating experience to have and the
more recently it happens, the more painful it will
be. And to this painful emotion, dark humor also
offers a cure:

31
This might not be as bad as the other example,
but drinking a shampoo to heal your love
wounds would still preserve you a hospital seat
in the after life. But still, the brilliant way they
lead in and the unexpected sentence at the end
makes us sad and laugh at the same time, and
that little laugh is more needed than ever.

And at its best, dark humor deals with the most

serious problems facing our lives and society.
Take this one as an example:

32
The subject matter of this comic strip is heavy as
it deals with the idea of wanting to die. The
harsh truth out there is that the thought of dying
as a way of escaping has passed through almost
anyone’s head at some point in their lives. And
this comic reflects that in a strange yet
somewhat sensical way. Normally when robbed,
people give their stuff to keep their lives, but the
victim here is willing to give his life off, even
offering his money at the end. It is the sense in
this abnormality that put forth a chuckle in our
part. And since our brain is hard-wired to find
relief in hardship, the next time when the thought
of suicide crosses your mind, your brain would
show you this comic again and the soft laugh
that follow may save your life.

2/ How to use it with other people

A dark humorist would also be a master of
decision, for there are three key aspects to
consider before spreading the joy of this
medium.
33
 - The target audience: Everyone has their
own set of moral, belief, acceptance level so it is
wise to consider where your target audience
stands before making the jokes. Keep in mind
that the violation you present must be benign to
them rather than offensive. For example,
applying a heavy joke on the slavery of black
people in a community of African-American
citizen is quickest way to get yourself criticized
or even assaulted.

34
 - The relatedness of the topic: For the
audience to find something funny, they have to
be able to relate to it in some ways. Like the
table showing a bunch of people falling off the
stairs in the first part of this portfolio has
presented, the topic must be close enough to the
audience without threatening them. Therefore, it
should be something observable in their
community and not directly affecting their lives.
For example, in the coronavirus outbreak, dark
memes about it are helping people keep their
morale up, but families of the victims may have a
harder time finding it funny at all.

- The tone and voice: The delivery of the

joke is just as important as its content. Every
word and every line comes with great
consideration because the line between a joke
and an offense is extremely thin in this kind of
humor. When delivering the joke, it is important
that the focus is on the humorous side and there
is no aggressiveness on the part of the humorist.

35
Conclusion
1. Summary
Dark humor is a vast branch of humor whose
potential is utilized much later than other forms
of humor. The workings of it can be explained by
the Benign Violation theory, which states that
you find something funny when it is an
acceptable violation. This is achieved by
choosing a topic that is relatable yet isn’t directly
negatively affecting the audience. And this
requirement is easily satisfied by the use of
cartoon and comic as the medium to spread
dark humor because of their nature of being
mentally-distanced from the viewer and highly
relatable. There have been many famous
cartoons utilizing dark humor as their central
charm such as Rick and Morty, The Simpson,
BoJack Horseman, F Is for Family and Beavis
and Butt-Head. The age of internet and social
media has also given rise to the movement of
dark comic strips because of their short and
funny
36
nature, which fits in so well with the ‘meme’
trend going on. Along with other forms of humor,
dark humor is a great asset to relieve stress in
life and so learning to use it in your life would
only benefit you in the long run.
2. reflection
To the two of us, this portfolio is kind of like an
adventure.
In the first place, people usually choose
something safe or familiar to work on when they
are required to submit it as a big project in their
course. But my friend and I decided to choose
an adventure instead. Personally, I am a person
whose work is fueled by interest. But when
choosing a topic for this portfolio, I was not
exactly interested in any topic but for the
crossing thought that was dark humor. I knew it
would be a risky territory, but I would rather take
that risk over the safety of the mundane. I was a
little worried when proposing this to my pair-
working buddy, but I forgot that she, too,

37
was no ordinary girl. And the rest, may I
compare, was almost like an action film on its
own.
When we heard that the topic we had chosen
was due for reconsideration, we were on edge
the whole time, but we stayed on the edge rather
than inching back in. We poured our hearts into
our explanations and the result made us jump up
in joy - our topic was approved. It felt almost as if
our request to explore a land yet unknown to
mankind was given the green light by the
government. And so, preparations began.

We searched for all the resources we could, took

into account what we might have use of in our
expedition, as well as all the hardships we would
have to overcome along the way. But never
have preparation alone fully equipped explorers
for the journey ahead of them, and we were
somewhat the same.
Once we started writing, we discovered various
troubles such as the scarce sources of

38
reference we had, the difficulty in pinpointing
what exactly dark humor is, or the logical
loopholes that were still present in our
arguments. We realized that dark humor is like a
black sheep in the family - a lot of people know
what it is, but hardly anyone tries to talk much
about it.
It was only through much more meticulous
search and deeper discussions than in the
preparation phase did we finally manage to
overcome these problems. To put it in a novel
style, we got lost in the darkness of this new
land with food and supplies getting scarcer by
the hour, but we kept pushing forward until light
was insight once again.
At our journey’s end, we learned more than what
we expected at the beginning. Even though I
had always enjoyed dark humor and Ngoc was
starting to enjoy it too, we never understood why
it could make us laugh at something seemingly
so sinister before. And now that we know why, it
only makes the experience even more enjoyable
for us and
39
gives us a clearer idea as to who may also find
the charm in it and how best to spread it to them.
We also learned how to organize our thoughts
better as well as how to effectively review and
reconsider them to present the best version
possible.
Last but not least, we would like to say once
again our gratitude to our partner. To me, Ngoc
has been a wonderful partner to have along the
way and despite the difficulties we faced, she
usually laughed them off and tried harder than
before. And most importantly, I don’t think many
people would have dared this risk with me and
seen it through to the end like she did.

Cuong was the person to come up with this idea

and when he explained it to me, I could see the
enthusiasm in his eyes. So when we had to
justify our reasons for choosing this topic,
despite the limited time we had for preparations,
I did my hardest because I was influenced by
him and felt an urge to see this topic of ours to
the end. And now, through all
40
hardships and difficulties, we have finished it
together, and I would like to say that I enjoyed it
more than I had thought at first. So, thank you
Cuong for being my partner in this project.

All in all, this has been a tough yet memorable

experience for both of us as not only has it
helped us grow in various ways but also
deepened the friendship between us. Through
strongest blaze has indeed shown the purest
gold.

NgoChiCuongandN
guyenVoBaoNgoc

41
References
Jaffe, Eric. “Awfully Funny.” Association for
Psychological Science - APS, 30 Apr. 2013,
www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/awfu
lly-funny.
Kolitz, Daniel. “Why Do We Use Dark Humor to
Deal With Terrifying Situations?” Gizmodo, 27
Apr. 2020, gizmodo.com/why-do-we-use-dark-
humor-to-deal-with-terrifying-situat-
1842611642.McGraw, Peter, and Joel Warner.
The Humor Code. New York-United States,
United States, Simon & Schuster, 2015.
Movienaut. “Top 100: Western Cartoons.”
IMDb, www.imdb.com/list/ls046630676.
Accessed 14 June 2020.
Ryan, Standfest. “Black Humor And The
American Comic.” RYAN STANDFEST,
2010,
www.ryanstandfest.com/writings-/black-
humor-and-the-american-comic/1.
42
Wu, Carly. “Fancy Using Mockery for Laughs?
Here Are the Best Cartoons for Adults Who
Enjoy Dark Humour.” Honeycombers Hong
Kong, 6 Sept. 2019,
thehoneycombers.com/hong-kong/best-
cartoons-for-adults-dark-humour/?
fbclid=IwAR0ezmfgOwm9UZS8PtxWIiSrhiPg1
1tvwnRRp79Hnw4P2nHtxgD6JN77F6Y.

“Britain's Got Talent 2018 Lost Voice Guy

Hilarious Comic Full Audition S12E02.”
YouTube, uploaded by Anthony Ying, 21 Apr.
2018, www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Yat1VZzW9FI.
“Cyanide & Happiness (Explosm.Net).” Cyanide
& Happiness, explosm.net.

“The ER Diaries: Dark Humor Gets Us through

– We Save Our Tears for Home.” The Guardian,
12 June 2020,
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/31/the
-er-diaries-dark-humor-gets-us-through-we-
save-our-tears-for-home.
43
In-class writings
Ngo Chi Cuong

How do you use your five senses everyday?

Our five senses are the way for us to connect

and interact with the world around us so it is only
fair to say that we would use them to their full
capability every day. However, I think that there
would be differentiation in the amount of usage
in each sense and that there are things that can
transcend the conventional definition of the five
senses as well.

For me, personally, I would say that my life is

heavily dependent on my sense of sight. Sight is
my channel for information and I have learned
that if you know what to look for, you can see a
whole lot more than what meets the eyes. Let’s
just take a most normal example of a day in
class at university. You come to class early,
choose a seat near the end, and as your
phone’s battery is low, you
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take a look around the class instead. You see
two girls wearing bright T-shirts talking and
laughing and sitting down on the fourth row, with
just that you may have known more about them
then if you are to have a few minutes
conversation with them. So, with this thought in
mind, I build the world mostly upon my capability
of observation and deduction.

My sense of smell would be my secondary

means of taking in the world around me. I have
quite a sharp nose, so I can easily pick up
scents in the air and they stir my world open on
the inside. The smell of freshly baked bread
would always remain as one the best thing to
smell early in the morning while the scent of
seemingly stale wind to others would calm me
the most in the evenings spent on my balcony.
Besides, if you really pay attention, you would
realize how whenever you pick up the scent of
something, the color of it appears to become
more vivid than it had been before. It may sound
strange to you
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but I would really encourage you to give it a try.

About my three other senses, my ability to hear

and taste is only somewhat mediocre and less
impactful. Like an exchange for my heightened
sense of smell, my hearing is rather obstructed
and I can only listen by my right ear. However, I
have only seen it for its perks rather than
limitations. For instance, if I find myself in a
noisy place, I need only cover one of my ears
and have the other hand free to do other things
while most people have to cover both ears and
have no free hand to do anything else. My
tasting is as fine as normal people, but that’s the
extent of it. I cannot, though I wish I could, taste
a dish and name all the seasoning that was used
like my mother and I have always marveled that
ability of hers since it let her learn a great
number of recipes just by tasting them. But I
guess being able to taste the bitter sweet
morning tea on the tip of my tongue before the
start of a new day is already blessing

46
enough on its own, isn’t it?
Lastly and very sadly to say, the sense of touch
is quite foreign to me, especially regarding
human contacts and relationships. I heard that
hugging is a great way to connect to people and
recharge yourself but I have not yet been given
the luxury of many and it has only gotten worse
since the outbreak of coronavirus began.

Nevertheless, that is only half the picture for I

believe that our senses are not meant to be
analyzed in part but in fact should be viewed as
a complete and unified mechanism, something
that goes beyond just the five senses. This is
because we rarely use any of the senses alone
but a combination of at least two of them and
that combination of the senses supplement one
another and create a greater experience as a
whole. When we smell great food, our eyes and
ears immediately join the task of locating where
it is. When we watch a movie, if we feel very sad
when just seeing what is on the screen, we

47
would definitely cry when it is accompanied by
touching music. When we talk to ones we love,
just hearing their voices and seeing their faces
have already made us happy, but the happiness
would multiply if we are able to hold their hands
as well. And in addition to my strange ability to
heighten color with smell, I sometimes ponder
on the idea that I can really “taste color”. This is
because each color has its own meaning in my
personal book of definition about life and so
when something is tasted, everything about it -
be it the taste itself, the texture, the heat, the
smell, the ingredient, or the one who made the
dish - gives it a unique color that I may then feel
on the tip of my tongue and feel it exploded in
my mind as a bombardment of colors.

And that is how I think the five senses should be

used in everyday life - to be utilized to the fullest
and made to work together to deliver a complete
and wholesome experience of the world around
us.
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How has the coronavirus outbreak
changed/ affected your life?

The coronavirus outbreak has left a terrible mark

in the history of mankind and has posed a
pandemic threat greater than any other before. It
surely is one of the bleakest of times, yet that
way of thinking would not at all help us carry
ourselves over it. So instead, we should look for
the rays of light amidst the dark clouds, and in
doing so, I realized that I have actually changed
for the better in quite a few ways.

First of all is my appearance. All my life people

had been going on and on and on about my
striking resemblance to a walking bamboo stick,
how both it and I are so thin that if left on the
ground on a windy day without anything to act as
an anchor, then we will surely be flown away into
oblivion. But the corona virus outbreak and the
lock down that followed had proven to
humankind, or at least the people around me,
that miracles can

49
can happen. And that maybe miracles can
overhappen sometimes as well. In short, I
transformed from a walking stick to a normal and
healthy human being, and sadly again from a
normal human being to a sumo-wanna be. The
reasons for my unprecedented change was my
lack of commuting since the lockdown was in
effect and the love of my mother in her meals.
Being able to have meals with my family
everyday after having to spend most of my time
eating alone in the city was something I
tremendously appreciate. No matter how good
the food is, it would always be better to enjoy it
with my family and it helped me to further realize
how much I truly love them, and that is my
second change.

The second change was to my view of human

contact and interaction. Before the outbreak, I
could always be with other people, be it my
friends at university or roommates in the city or
best friends in my hometown so I didn't pay
much heed to how important these
50
interactions are. However, during the lockdown,
my friends and I mostly stayed at home so we
couldn’t see each other at all. At first, it was okay
but gradually, I felt the urge to connect with
them, to talk to them, to play with them, to go
around enjoying things together and all that. And
I never got used to the urge. Instead, it grew
ever stronger with every passing day. Only
under this extreme condition did I come to
realize just how crucial the bond between human
beings are and how our lives are really
interdependent.
The last change I would like to mention is
actually something I don’t know if other people
would call positive or not, but it brought joy to my
life so I feel like mentioning it here as well.
Before the outbreak, people usually held
negative prejudices towards gaming. But since
the lockdown was in effect, some experts even
encouraged playing games as a good, stay-at-
home kind of way to keep yourself entertained. I
did it, quite a lot actually. But to me, games are
not just things
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to play through but rather an experience to
immerse oneself in and enjoy the emotional ride
that it offers. And I was able to
experience some heart-touching masterpieces
that made me laugh one second and cry my soul
out the next. It was like a mental dose that
kicked my heart back into beating after feeling a
bit under the weather about all that was
happening around the world. I was also in a bad
spot due to some personal matters and was kind
of detached from my feelings. So the surge of
emotions I received from the games helped me
to reconnect with my feelings as well, and I was
thankful for that.

All in all, I believe there can always be the good

in the bad if you search for it and that this
outbreak had provided me an opportunity to
improve my appearance, my love for my family,
my view on the bond between all of us and
finally was a chance to reconnect with my inner
self through means of personal interest.

52
 Nguyen vo bao ngoc

How do you use your five senses every day?

The pandemic Coronavirus forces many schools

to close down and students are given no options
but to stay at home. Looking at the bright sight,
the self-quarantine offers me a great deal of me
time. That is to say, I am able to grasp a chance
to slow down my life pace and enjoy it.

First and foremost, I spend my time reading

some masterpieces of Jane Austen and re-
watching some cartoons that I was so much
interested in high school. Occasionally, I go
to the balcony to look at the street. A lot has
changed since I left home for university, such
as the two houses near my house have
become two food stores in which have always
been crowded but recently no one has come
to buy, of course.

53
Secondly, most of my time is exposed to the
English-speaking environment, so the time I hear
my mother tongue is quite small. But since Tet
holiday, every day I always hear my parents
calling me to come to enjoy meals, my sister’s
giggles while playing with our puppy. Sometimes
I even hear two or three neighbors asking my
mother why I have such a long holiday. I am
happy to revel in my native voice every day.

Staying with my parents also means I do not

have to question myself “What should I eat
today?” The dishes my mother cooks, to me, are
the best of best. Every day I smell the aroma
filling the kitchen. My stomach will suddenly
fumble to make me hungry. I eat home-made
food every day and I think that nothing is ever
happier than being able to eat. If I go back to the
city, Pho will be the thing that pulls me most,
then comes to the image of a table full of dishes
cooked by my mother.

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Last but not least, every morning I wake up
early. In bed I take a deep breath. All at once, I
gratefully feel that all the cells, senses and fibers
inside my body keep healthy. I rub my palms
after that until they get warm, then put them to
my eyes, slowly opening my eyes, looking at my
palms. This is what I have learned in yoga class.
The reason to do this is because we are never to
look at what is happening in the internal body.
With this in mind, I wish to have another part
which is able to observe what happens inside of
me. Thus I look at my hot palms and listen to the
internality. I would love to take time to be silent
thereby its air encourages me to meditate. In
moments of silence, I am doing nothing but re-
contacting my source of pure awareness. If
being forced to name the part, I would call it the
inward eye.

All in all, at those moments, I am grateful to the

universe that I am living, living happily.

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How has coronavirus affected your life?

Since the WHO Director-General declared the

epidemic coronavirus a public health emergency
in terms of international concern, that moment
made a dramatic change in my life. Having too
much time on my hand, I thought it would be a
tough and sad period, but it turned out much
more enjoyable than I could have expected.

First and foremost, it gave me the time I never

had before to excise and improve my physical
health. I was able to go jogging with my dog in
the park and enjoy the outside air, even though it
was through a layer of protective facemask. I
also got time to take yoga lesson every night
and it had done wonder to my body and greatly
enhance my flexibility. Most simply yet
importantly was that I acquired the luxury of
sleeping early and waking up early, a true
treasure for deadline-runners such as us
university students. It is wonderful to say my skin
has
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been cared to a great level, not to mention my
spirit.
Furthermore, I was also able to indulge in
various other things I had been meaning to do
for a long time yet rarely find the opportunity to.
The first of which is cooking. It is always good
for a girl to know how to cook, and I think it is
even better for a girl to know how to cook herself
a real treat as well. So, I learnt how to bake the
delicious buns and make soul-sweetening milk
tea. They are rich in calories, but they enrich my
soul too so I was more than willing to treat
myself correctly once in a while. I also created
my own weird recipes. Bubble dumplings, I
would call them so, for example, are one of the
maddest things I have ever made. However,
looking at those sweet-fragrant-chewing black
tapioca pearls wrapped in a savory white
dumpling crust, I knew that handmade bite-sized
food could coax my taste well enough as a five-
star menu. Secondly, I took to some gardening
work. I

57
surprised even myself for my feat of planting 111
pots of succulents within one day. I also bought
a pot of periwinkle from a shop near my house
and I would tend to water them every evening
before taking my dog out for a walk. Thirdly, I
tried redecorating my room for a change I have
not done much for it since Tet holiday. I bought a
lot of new things and put some away too, saying
goodbye to my little old self and welcome the
present into it. Aside from that, I had me time to
finally catch up on a lot of great films and shows
on Netflix as well, not really too great a feat to
some people, I guess, but it matters to me, so I
should love to mention it as well. Last but not
least, I tried for the first time playing a game
called League of Legends, which I started to
stream when I was in high school, with a group
of boys. One of the boys is my friend from
university and it was kind of refreshing to see
how much of a child he can still be and how
excited he can get when he put all the masks
down and be himself instead of how

58
he usually was in the classroom.
Lastly, this period of time also brought about
some changes in my views of life. I used to go
on a shopping spree, buying things on impulse
but I was able to take time and consider what
really worth purchasing before putting them into
the cart. I must thank the way my mother
chuckled every time I stared intensely at
something useless when we went shopping
together. I also tried to slow down my pace of
living, detaching myself from the busy way of life
in the city I had been coping with the past three
years and taking more information from the
world into me through my five of senses. I also
got the invaluable high-quality time with my
family after having to spend most of my days
away from them and this made me realize how
much better a person can feel while being with
their family and that one’s family is the most
precious thing in life.

In conclusion, we cannot deny the terrible

consequences that Coronavirus has been
59
 marking on Earth. I myself do not stand for it but
I must admit that if we look at the bright side, this
time turns my life at ease more than in a panic.

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