1.
Comedy
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In a modern sense, comedy refers to any discourse or work generally intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, television, film, and stand-up comedy. The origins of the term are found in Ancient Greece, in the Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by the political satire performed by the comic poets at the theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a performance which pits two groups or societies against each other in an amusing agon or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a Society of Youth and a Society of the Old, a revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions that pose obstacles to his hopes. Satire and political satire use comedy to portray persons or social institutions as ridiculous or corrupt, parody subverts popular genres and forms, critiquing those forms without necessarily condemning them. Similarly scatological humour, sexual humour, and race humour create comedy by violating social conventions or taboos in comic ways, a comedy of manners typically takes as its subject a particular part of society and uses humor to parody or satirize the behaviour and mannerisms of its members. Romantic comedy is a genre that depicts burgeoning romance in humorous terms. The adjective comic, which means that which relates to comedy is, in modern usage. Of this, the word came into usage through the Latin comoedia and Italian commedia and has, over time. The Greeks and Romans confined their use of the comedy to descriptions of stage-plays with happy endings. Aristotle defined comedy as an imitation of men worse than the average, however, the characters portrayed in comedies were not worse than average in every way, only insofar as they are Ridiculous, which is a species of the Ugly. The Ridiculous may be defined as a mistake or deformity not productive of pain or harm to others, the mask, for instance, in the Middle Ages, the term expanded to include narrative poems with happy endings. It is in this sense that Dante used the term in the title of his poem, as time progressed, the word came more and more to be associated with any sort of performance intended to cause laughter. During the Middle Ages, the comedy became synonymous with satire. They disassociated comedy from Greek dramatic representation and instead identified it with Arabic poetic themes and forms and they viewed comedy as simply the art of reprehension, and made no reference to light and cheerful events, or to the troubling beginnings and happy endings associated with classical Greek comedy. After the Latin translations of the 12th century, the term gained a more general meaning in medieval literature. Starting from 425 BCE, Aristophanes, a playwright and satirical author of the Ancient Greek Theater wrote 40 comedies,11 of which survive. Aristophanes developed his type of comedy from the satyr plays
2.
YouTube
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YouTube is an American video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California. The service was created by three former PayPal employees—Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim—in February 2005, Google bought the site in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion, YouTube now operates as one of Googles subsidiaries. Unregistered users can watch videos on the site, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos deemed potentially offensive are available only to registered users affirming themselves to be at least 18 years old, YouTube earns advertising revenue from Google AdSense, a program which targets ads according to site content and audience. YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, Hurley had studied design at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and Chen and Karim studied computer science together at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Karim could not easily find video clips of either event online, Hurley and Chen said that the original idea for YouTube was a video version of an online dating service, and had been influenced by the website Hot or Not. YouTube began as a venture capital-funded technology startup, primarily from an $11.5 million investment by Sequoia Capital between November 2005 and April 2006, YouTubes early headquarters were situated above a pizzeria and Japanese restaurant in San Mateo, California. The domain name www. youtube. com was activated on February 14,2005, the first YouTube video, titled Me at the zoo, shows co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo. The video was uploaded on April 23,2005, and can still be viewed on the site, YouTube offered the public a beta test of the site in May 2005. The first video to reach one million views was a Nike advertisement featuring Ronaldinho in November 2005. Following a $3.5 million investment from Sequoia Capital in November, the site grew rapidly, and in July 2006 the company announced that more than 65,000 new videos were being uploaded every day, and that the site was receiving 100 million video views per day. The site has 800 million unique users a month and it is estimated that in 2007 YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000. The choice of the name www. youtube. com led to problems for a similarly named website, the sites owner, Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment, filed a lawsuit against YouTube in November 2006 after being regularly overloaded by people looking for YouTube. Universal Tube has since changed the name of its website to www. utubeonline. com, in October 2006, Google Inc. announced that it had acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock, and the deal was finalized on November 13,2006. In March 2010, YouTube began free streaming of certain content, according to YouTube, this was the first worldwide free online broadcast of a major sporting event. On March 31,2010, the YouTube website launched a new design, with the aim of simplifying the interface, Google product manager Shiva Rajaraman commented, We really felt like we needed to step back and remove the clutter. In May 2010, YouTube videos were watched more than two times per day. This increased to three billion in May 2011, and four billion in January 2012, in February 2017, one billion hours of YouTube was watched every day
3.
Barack Obama
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Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician who served as the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017. He is the first African American to have served as president and he previously served in the U. S. Senate representing Illinois from 2005 to 2008, and in the Illinois State Senate from 1997 to 2004. Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, two years after the territory was admitted to the Union as the 50th state and he grew up mostly in Hawaii, but also spent one year of his childhood in Washington State and four years in Indonesia. After graduating from Columbia University in 1983, he worked as a community organizer in Chicago, in 1988 Obama enrolled in Harvard Law School, where he was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. After graduation, he became a civil rights attorney and professor, Obama represented the 13th District for three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, when he ran for the U. S. Senate. In 2008, Obama was nominated for president, a year after his campaign began and he was elected over Republican John McCain, and was inaugurated on January 20,2009. Nine months later, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, during his first two years in office, Obama signed more landmark legislation than any Democratic president since LBJs Great Society. Main reforms were the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, after a lengthy debate over the national debt limit, Obama signed the Budget Control and the American Taxpayer Relief Acts. In foreign policy, Obama increased U. S. troop levels in Afghanistan, reduced nuclear weapons with the U. S. -Russian New START treaty, and ended military involvement in the Iraq War. He ordered military involvement in Libya in opposition to Muammar Gaddafi, after winning re-election over Mitt Romney, Obama was sworn in for a second term in 2013. Obama also advocated gun control in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and issued wide-ranging executive actions concerning climate change and immigration. In foreign policy, Obama ordered military intervention in Iraq in response to gains made by ISIL after the 2011 withdrawal from Iraq, Obama left office in January 2017 with a 60% approval rating. He currently resides in Washington, D. C and his presidential library will be built in Chicago. Obama was born on August 4,1961, at Kapiʻolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu and he is the only President to have been born in Hawaii. He was born to a mother and a black father. His mother, Ann Dunham, was born in Wichita, Kansas, of mostly English descent, with some German, Irish, Scottish, Swiss and his father, Barack Obama Sr. was a married Luo Kenyan man from Nyangoma Kogelo. Obamas parents met in 1960 in a Russian language class at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the couple married in Wailuku, Hawaii on February 2,1961, six months before Obama was born. In late August 1961, Obamas mother moved him to the University of Washington in Seattle for a year
4.
University of Tennessee
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The University of Tennessee is a public sun- and land-grant university in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. It hosts almost 28,000 students from all 50 states, in its 2017 universities ranking, U. S. News & World Report ranked UT 103rd among all national universities and 46th among public institutions of higher learning. Seven alumni have been selected as Rhodes Scholars, James M. Buchanan,41, received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Economics. Also affiliated with the university are the Howard H. Baker, the university is a direct partner of the University of Tennessee Medical Center, which is one of two Level I trauma centers in East Tennessee. UT is one of the oldest public universities in the United States, when Samuel Carrick, its first president and only faculty member, died in 1809, the school was temporarily closed until 1820. When it reopened, it began experiencing growing pains, thomas Jefferson had previously recommended that the college leave its confining single building in the city and relocate to a place it could spread out. Ironically, in the Summer of 1826, the trustees explored Barbara Hill as a potential site, in 1840, the college was elevated to East Tennessee University. Tennessee was a member of the Confederacy in 1862 when the Morrill Act was passed, on February 28,1867, Congress passed a special Act making the State of Tennessee eligible to participate in the Morrill Act of 1862 program. In January 1869, ETU was designated as Tennessees recipient of the Land-Grant designation, in accepting the funds, the university would focus upon instructing students in military, agricultural, and mechanical subjects. ETU eventually received $396,000 as its endowment under the program, Trustees soon approved the establishment of a medical program under the auspices of the Nashville School of Medicine and added advanced degree programs. East Tennessee University was renamed the University of Tennessee in 1879 by the state legislature, during World War II, UT was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission. The campus is headed by a Chancellor who functions as the executive officer of the campus, responsible for its daily administration. The chancellor reports to the president of the university system and is elected annually by the UT Board of Trustees at the recommendation of the system president, jimmy Cheek has been Chancellor of the Knoxville campus since February 1,2009. Joseph A. DiPietro has been president since January 1,2011. Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Susan D. Martin is responsible for the administration of the Knoxville campus. On December 15,2016 the UT Board of Trustees confirmed Dr. Beverly J. Davenport as the next Chancellor of the Knoxville campus and she will begin her role on February 15,2017. Campus policing and security is provided by the University of Tennessee Police Department.4 percent from 2000 to 2009, many doctors and nurses at UTMC have integrated careers as teachers and healthcare professionals, and the center promotes itself as the areas only academic, or teaching hospital. The new UT Medical Center Heart Hospital received its first patient on April 27,2010, in Fall 2016, the university enrolled 21,863 undergraduate and 5,982 graduate and professional students, 50% of students are female, 50% are male
5.
Cheers (Drink to That)
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Cheers is a song recorded by Barbadian recording artist Rihanna, from her fifth studio album, Loud. The song impacted US mainstream and rhythmic radio on August 2,2011, as the seventh, the song also contains samples from Lavignes song Im with You, which is featured on her debut album Let Go. Lyrically, Cheers is a song, with multiple references to drinking alcohol. The song has received reviews from music critics, who praised the interpolation of Lavignes Im with You. Cheers peaked inside the top ten in New Zealand and Australia, the song also peaked at number 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the singers nineteenth top ten song on the chart. The music video for the song, directed by Evan Rogers and Ciara Pardo, shows footage of Rihanna on tour, Cheers was included on the set list of the Loud Tour. The song was sent to mainstream and rhythmic radio in the United States on August 2,2011, in an interview with MTV News in late 2010, Rihanna spoke of how Cheers was one of her favorite songs on the album, saying I love that song. That is one of my songs on the album. It makes you feel like celebrating and it gives you a great feeling inside, like you want to go out and have a drink. People cant wait for the weekend, Cheers is a pop rock, reggaetón and R&B song. It contains samples of Lavignes song Im with You, which is featured on her album Let Go. According to the music sheet published at musicnotes. com. Rihannas vocal range in the song spans from the low note of E3 to the note of B4. According to Ryan Dombal of Pitchfork, the lyrics sum up the sentiment of Loud and theres no tabloid back story. Upon its release as a single, Cheers received positive reviews music critics. Mark Savage of BBC Music described the song as a funky, loping guitar groove for to an out on the town. Jon Pareles of The New York Times commented that Cheers is written for barroom singalongs, according to Leah Greenblatt from Entertainment Weekly, the Jameson-swilling, TGIF-toasting Cheers, folds a left-field Avril Lavigne sample into a crunked party anthem. Sciarretto also noted that Cheers would be popular in bars
6.
Rihanna
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Robyn Rihanna Fenty is a Barbadian singer, songwriter, and actress. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, she first entered the industry by recording demo tapes under the direction of record producer Evan Rogers in 2003. She ultimately signed a contract with Def Jam Recordings after auditioning for its then-president. She assumed creative control for her studio album Good Girl Gone Bad. Its successful lead single Umbrella became a breakthrough in her career. After releasing four consecutive platinum albums, including the Grammy Award winner Unapologetic. Her eighth studio album Anti and its lead single Work reached number-one on the Billboard 200, with sales exceeding 230 million records worldwide, Rihanna is one of the best-selling artists of all time. Widely recognized for reinventing her style, she received the Fashion Icon lifetime achievement award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2014. Forbes ranked Rihanna the fourth most powerful celebrity of 2012, and was named one of Times 100 Most Influential People in the World later that year, Robyn Rihanna Fenty was born on February 20,1988, in Saint Michael, Barbados. Her mother, Monica, is an accountant of African American background. Rihanna has two brothers, Rorrey and Rajad Fenty, and two half-sisters and a half-brother from her fathers side, each born to different mothers from his previous relationships. She grew up in a bungalow in Bridgetown and sold clothes with her father in a stall on the street. Rihannas childhood was affected by her fathers addiction to crack cocaine. As a child, she went through a lot of CT scans for the excruciating headaches she suffered, even thought it was a tumor, by the time she was fourteen, Rihanna’s parents had divorced and her health began to improve. Rihanna grew up listening to music and began singing at around the age of seven. She attended Charles F. Broome Memorial Primary School and Combermere High School, Rihanna was an army cadet in a sub-military programme, the singer-songwriter Shontelle was her drill sergeant. Although she initially wanted to graduate high school, she chose to pursue a musical career instead. In 2003, Rihanna formed a trio with two of her classmates
7.
Born This Way (song)
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Born This Way is a song by American singer Lady Gaga, and the lead single from her second studio album of the same name. Written by Gaga and Jeppe Laursen, who produced it along with Fernando Garibay and DJ White Shadow, inspired by 1990s music which empowered women and the gay community, Gaga explained that Born This Way was her freedom song. She sang part of the chorus at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards in 2010 and announced the song as the single from the album. The record is backed by rumbling sounds, a humming bass and additional chorus percussion. Critics positively reviewed the song, calling it a club-ready anthem, the song reached number one in over 25 countries and was her third single to top the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and the 1, 000th song in that charts history to reach number one. Born This Way has sold 8.2 million copies worldwide, Nick Knight directed the accompanying music video, which was inspired by surrealist painters like Salvador Dalí and Francis Bacon. Gaga is depicted as giving birth to a new race during a prologue, after a series of dance sequences, the video concludes with the view of a city populated by this race. Critics noted the references to the work of Madonna, Michael Jackson, Björk. Gaga performed the song at the 53rd Grammy Awards after coming out of an incubating vessel and it was also performed during the last leg of The Monster Ball Tour and on television shows such as Saturday Night Live, Dick Clarks New Years Rockin Eve and Good Morning America. The song was treated with different remixes, including a Country Road version recorded by Gaga herself, alice Cooper, Madonna, Katy Perry, Maria Aragon, and the cast of the TV series Glee have covered the song. In 2010, Lady Gaga was touring for her world tour. At that time she started developing ideas for her studio album. The first song written and recorded for the album was the track itself which she wrote in Liverpool and Manchester, England. She wrote it in ten minutes and compared the process to an Immaculate Conception, White Shadow, one of the producers of the track, credited Gaga for coming up with the idea and the theme behind the song. We recorded it around the world, on the road, in whatever was available and it sounds like it reads, but not like you think until you hear it, he added. I want it to be an attack, an assault on the issue because I think, especially in music, everything gets kind of washy sometimes. Thats the record going to shake up the industry. Anyone could sing Born This Way, Born This Way is who I am
8.
Lady Gaga
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Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She performed initially in theater, appearing in school plays. From there, Akon noticed her vocal abilities and helped her to sign a joint deal with Interscope Records and her debut album The Fame was a critical and commercial success that produced international chart-topping singles such as Just Dance and Poker Face. A follow-up EP, The Fame Monster, was met with a reception and Bad Romance, Telephone. Her second full-length album Born This Way was released in 2011, topping the charts in more than 20 countries, including the United States, the album produced the number-one single Born This Way. Her third album Artpop, released in 2013, topped the US charts, in 2014, Gaga released a collaborative jazz album with Tony Bennett titled Cheek to Cheek, which became her third consecutive number one in the United States. For her work in the television series American Horror Story, Hotel, with her fifth studio album Joanne, she became the first woman to have four US number one albums in the 2010s. In February 2017, Gaga headlined the Super Bowl LI halftime show which had an audience of over 150 million across various platforms worldwide. With global album and single sales of 27 million and 146 million respectively, as of January 2016 and her achievements include twelve Guinness World Records, three Brit Awards, and six Grammy Awards. She is also the first artist to win the Songwriters Hall of Fames Contemporary Icon Award, in 2013, Gaga finished second on Times readers poll of the most influential people of the past ten years, while in 2015, she was named Billboards Woman of the Year. Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta was born on March 28,1986 and she is the elder daughter of Cynthia Louise Cindy and Internet entrepreneur Joseph Joe Germanotta. Gaga has three Italian grandparents and one American grandparent, as well as French Canadian ancestry, Gagas sister Natali is a fashion student. From age 11, she attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart and she described her academic life in high school as very dedicated, very studious, very disciplined but also a bit insecure. I used to get made fun of for being too provocative or too eccentric. I didnt fit in, and I felt like a freak, in 2014, Gaga said she was raped at the age of 19. She stated, I went through some things that Im able to laugh now, because Ive gone through a lot of mental and physical therapy. Gaga later said that she suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder because of the rape, and that support from doctors, family, and friends really saved my life. Gaga began playing the piano at the age of four, wrote her first piano ballad at 13 and she performed lead roles in high school productions, including Adelaide in Guys and Dolls and Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
9.
Carly Rae Jepsen
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Carly Rae Jepsen is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actress. In 2007, she placed third in Canadian Idol season fives competition, Jepsen independently released her debut album, Tug of War, in 2008. In 2011, she released the single Call Me Maybe, which was followed in 2012 by her debut EP, Curiosity, Call Me Maybe reached number one in 18 countries during 2012 and was the years best-selling single worldwide. Jepsens third album, Emotion, was released in 2015, the album was heavily influenced by songs from the 1980s and received critical acclaim. Its lead single I Really Like You reached the top 5 in the United Kingdom, as of May 2015, Jepsen has sold over 20 million records worldwide. Jepsen was born in Mission, British Columbia, the daughter of Alexandra and Larry Jepsen and she attended Heritage Park Secondary School in Mission, where she pursued her early passion for musical theatre by appearing in student productions of Annie, Grease, and The Wiz. She studied musical theatre at the Canadian College of Performing Arts in Victoria, after graduating from school, Jepsen held several minimum wage jobs, and worked as a barista and a bartender. She placed third in the show and was part of the Canadian Idol Top 3 concert tour, after the conclusion of the tour, Jepsen returned to British Columbia to focus on writing, recording and completing her band. Her demo recording attracted the attention of music manager Jonathan Simkin, Jepsen struck an independent record deal with MapleMusic Recordings and distribution via Fontana North. In June 2008, Jepsen released her single and another single. Jepsens debut album, Tug of War, was released in September 2008 through MapleCore/Fontana North, the album was produced in its entirety by Ryan Stewart and includes the song Sweet Talker, which Jepsen previously performed at her first Canadian Idol audition. Tug of War was re-released via Jonathan Simkins label 604 Records, with distribution from Universal Music Group, and has since sold 10,000 copies in Canada according to Nielsen SoundScan. The title track Tug of War was released the month as the album and received radio airplay in Canada, followed by the singles Bucket and Sour Candy. The former two singles reached the top 40 on the Canadian Hot 100 chart, in early 2009, Jepsen toured western Canada with Marianas Trench and Shiloh. She then went on a tour with Marianas Trench, The New Cities. Jepsen began recording material for her album in 2011 with Josh Ramsay, Ryan Stewart. The release of Jepsens second album was postponed to allow Call Me Maybe to spread in popularity, although 604 Records issued a six-track EP, Curiosity, Call Me Maybe peaked at number one on the Canadian Hot 100, making Jepsen the fourth Canadian artist to top the chart. In the United States, the single spent nine weeks at one on the Billboard Hot 100
10.
Justin Bieber
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Justin Drew Bieber is a Canadian singer and songwriter. After a talent manager discovered him through his YouTube videos covering songs in 2008 and signed to RBMG, Bieber released his debut EP, My World and it was certified Platinum in the U. S. He became the first artist to have seven songs from a record chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Bieber released his first full-length studio album, My World 2.0 and it debuted at or near number one in several countries, was certified triple Platinum in the U. S. and contained his most successful single at the time, Baby. He released his studio album, Under the Mistletoe, in November 2011. Bieber released his studio album, Believe, in 2012. His fourth studio album Purpose was released in November 2015 to commercial success and his U. S. album and singles sales total 44.7 million. He has sold an estimated 100 million records, making him one of the world’s best-selling music artists, Bieber has won numerous awards, including the American Music Award for Artist of the Year in 2010 and 2012. In his career, he has won one Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording for the song Where Are Ü Now at the 2016 ceremony. He has been listed four times by Forbes magazine among the top ten most powerful celebrities in the world in 2011,2012, Bieber also became the first artist to surpass 10 billion total video views on Vevo. Bieber was born on March 1,1994, in London, Ontario, at St Josephs Hospital and he is the only child of Jeremy Jack Bieber and Patricia Pattie Mallette. Pattie raised her son with the help of her mother, Diane and his mother is of French-Canadian descent, his paternal great-grandfather was of German ancestry, and his other roots are English, Scottish and Irish. He has also claimed that he has some undetermined Aboriginal Canadian ancestry, through Jeremy, Bieber has two younger half-siblings, Jazmyn and Jaxon. Pattie worked a series of low-paying office jobs, raising Bieber as a mother in low-income housing. Bieber has maintained contact with his father, Bieber attended a French-language immersion elementary school in Stratford, the Jeanne Sauvé Catholic School. Growing up, he learned to play the piano, drums, guitar and he graduated from high school in Stratford, Ontario, the St. Michael Catholic Secondary School in 2012 with a 4.0 GPA. In early 2007, aged 12, Bieber sang Ne-Yos So Sick for a singing competition in Stratford and was placed second. Mallette posted a video of the performance on YouTube for their family and she continued to upload videos of Bieber singing covers of various R&B songs, and Biebers popularity on the site grew
