Martin Lawrence's Runteldat

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Martin Lawrence's Runteldat
Runteldat, which is a hip hop contraction of “run tell that,” is a standup comedy act in which Martin Lawrence explores many themes such as suffering and tribulations people, especially celebrities, encounter in their daily lives and how society judges them. Humor is a form of art fashioned using reality and absurdity with surprise and exaggeration. In the nearly two hours long movie released in 2002, Lawrence uses humor and runs through a number of topics such as drug abuse, drinking, childbirth, marriage, child-rearing, divorce, relationships, aging, his own personal catharsis, and movie critics. There is suffering in Lawrence’s Runteldat when he says, “here goes the rumors writin’ about me. I see on the paper, one of’em says ‘Martin tries to jump out of a plane using his jacket as a parachute.’ Now ain’t that some bullshit! As am trying to get my life together, they’re gonna write that bullshit. I know damn well you can’t jump out no plane using your jacket as a parachute.” (Lawrence 1:20:09 mins) and this conforms to Mark Twain’s assertion that the secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow. Lawrence uses Runteldat to bash the media for their insensitivity to the plight of celebrities, with this concert coming in the aftermath of his tribulations (Lawrence, 2002).
Runteldat seems to be a self-critical account and personal confession of the tribulations he has faced, what with arrests and being hospitalized for breakdown due to heat exhaustion. In 1996, he was found wandering in the middle of Ventura Boulevard while disoriented with a loaded gun in his pocket, and he was also arrested three months later at Burbank airport for carrying a loaded gun and served three months on probation. Later in 1997, he was arrested for punching a nightclub patron, but the scary episode in his life was when he lapsed into a coma due to heat exhaustion. All these events were sensational covered in the media, and it seems Lawrence was not happy about that. In Runteldat, Lawrence says that no one is immune to trials and tribulations of life as he takes a less aggressive approach to appeal to people and the media in particular that pain an...