Oh no, that was totally personal because on this thread you are, in fact, being a dick and needlessly singled me out.
I called you out for not even reading the thread you were commenting on, which seemed a pretty fair call to make. But feel free to keep calling me a dick.
― 'what are you, the Hymen Protection League of America?' (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:00 (thirteen years ago) link
FUN FUN FUN FUN
― FUN FUN FUN FUN (gbx), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:01 (thirteen years ago) link
bergson said that comedy is ultimately about recognizing "something mechanical encrusted on the living"
the man's body failing to avoid the lamp-post reminds us that his body is a machine, and that it has failed; jokes guide us towards mental lamp-posts and when we smack into them we laugh.
the entire grand repertoire of "tasteless" jokes (challenger jokes, dead baby jokes) is no different, but provides another meta-level of smack - we know we're reading a joke, we're prepared to laugh but then our laughter runs into the lamp-post of the fact that laughing at something so grim is really not the done thing - but this very recognition of the inappropriateness of laughter itself completes the essential operation of comedy, which is that we recognize how mechanically we've been following the structure of comedy, how we are laughing at the wrong thing
if that makes any sense
― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:01 (thirteen years ago) link
kinda
― FUN FUN FUN FUN (gbx), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:02 (thirteen years ago) link
man this thread
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/managainsttheworld.gif
― I love victorias but I've chosen maidenform (Edward III), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:03 (thirteen years ago) link
― Sheneneh et Caro (Stevie D(eux)), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:03 (thirteen years ago) link
Um actually I read the first couple and decided not to read the rest because I got bored and I've read every other single post on the thread.
It seems to me like you're the one not doing the reading.
― ENBB, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:04 (thirteen years ago) link
i actually like TH's post a lot, so i say we sally forth
― FUN FUN FUN FUN (gbx), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:05 (thirteen years ago) link
like stevie d's post a lot.
― estela, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:06 (thirteen years ago) link
I actually once thought ENBB was a pretty cool poster, but now I'm starting to think she's kind of a bitch.
― 'what are you, the Hymen Protection League of America?' (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:06 (thirteen years ago) link
wtf man
― FUN FUN FUN FUN (gbx), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:06 (thirteen years ago) link
when tracer first mentioned a "lamp-post" i thought he meant a post Lamp made itt
― ℳℴℯ ❤\(◕‿◕✿ (Princess TamTam), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:06 (thirteen years ago) link
nope, not at all
― frogbs, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:07 (thirteen years ago) link
okay I never would have guessed that the "Sally Forth" GIS would be NSFW
― ancient, but very sexy (DJP), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:07 (thirteen years ago) link
jokes are like magic tricks...if you explain why something is funny, it really stops being so
― frogbs, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:08 (thirteen years ago) link
Yup. Exactly what I thought. No one bats an eye when she repeatedly calls me a dick, but its not cool for me to call her a name.
― 'what are you, the Hymen Protection League of America?' (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:09 (thirteen years ago) link
Yup. Exactly what I thought.
http://teslastaging.com/forums/images/smilies/Gestures/userArmsCrossed.gif
― FUN FUN FUN FUN (gbx), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:10 (thirteen years ago) link
bergson also says that sympathy is the natural enemy of comedy; you have to suspend your natural sympathies for the victims of the tsunami in order to laugh at these jokes - and that suspension itself is cathartic, i think (for some)
The comic, we said, appeals to the intelligence, pure and simple; laughter is incompatible with emotion. Depict some fault, however trifling, in such a way as to arouse sympathy, fear, or pity; the mischief is done, it is impossible for us to laugh.
it really is worth reading the whole thing, it's beautifully written - http://www.authorama.com/laughter-1.html
― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:10 (thirteen years ago) link
remember this thread when you get suggest banned, jon
― ancient, but very sexy (DJP), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:11 (thirteen years ago) link
I will. I just think its kind of hypocritical that beloved poster ENBB can call me names, but suddenly its crossing the line when I do it.
― 'what are you, the Hymen Protection League of America?' (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:12 (thirteen years ago) link
How old is that, Tracer?
― JimD, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:13 (thirteen years ago) link
Hope your family gets wiped out by a tsunami.
― frogbs, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:15 (thirteen years ago) link
so who are they going to get to replace him? they're "casting" for a new duck but can you really replace that voice? i mean if his voice was easy to imitate is there any way he'd get the kind of work he did? he only has one voice!
― frogbs, Tuesday, March 15, 2011 11:35 AM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark
they should just go in a completely different direction, maybe Ben Affleck since that's who everybody references anytime Aflac comes up in conversation
― some dude, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:15 (thirteen years ago) link
if that makes any sensenope, not at all
laughter is the recognition of an inelasticity or rigidity in something - the absent-minded professor whose brain is so inelastic that it's not alive to the memory of where he put his glasses (they're on his head); tasteless jokes make us recognize that even the structure of comedy itself is a kind of inelasticity - a clock-work mechanism of setup and punchline - that temporarily makes us un-alive to the real fact of suffering or sympathy - which is ITSELF funny, because it follows the same structure
JimD i'm thinking around 1900 or so
― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:16 (thirteen years ago) link
They should hire Fran Drescher
― ancient, but very sexy (DJP), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:16 (thirteen years ago) link
they should hire diane rehm
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:18 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm not really reading into that too deeply but I guess I kind of see what you're saying, though there is a zillion ways to interpret that
― frogbs, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:18 (thirteen years ago) link
thanks for the link, TH!
i know ~talking about humor~ is something that is Not Done on ILX, but i'm actually sorta fascinated by how humor functions, particularly in the midst of tragedy.
and yr totally right about suspending sympathy---the only joke i thought was actually funny was the real estate/school joke, and that's, i think, because it appealed to me a comic image like "hey school's aren't supposed to do that!" this was followed immediately by the crushing realization of what that image actually means (children may have been in that school), and it's harrowing. and, fwiw, i think that's actually something humor is actually good for---it can serve both as a means of removal or sublimation or w/e (i shall avoid the truth by laughing at it) and as a means of entry (hahahahaha oh god)
xp
that temporarily makes us un-alive to the real fact of suffering or sympathy - which is ITSELF funny, because it follows the same structure
like this
― FUN FUN FUN FUN (gbx), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:18 (thirteen years ago) link
hate the Aflac spots except maybe for the one w/ Yogi Berra in the barbershop
― Fuck bein' hard, Dr Morbz is complicated (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:19 (thirteen years ago) link
i know ~talking about humor~ is something that is Not Done on ILX
wait what?
― some dude, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:21 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah they're not great but they are kinda cute. I think there is definitely a trend towards more obnoxious commercials like the Progressive one with the hyperactive salesman or the Miller Lite "Man Up" ads that everyone tends to hate
― frogbs, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:22 (thirteen years ago) link
I will. I just think its kind of hypocritical that beloved poster ENBB can call me names, but suddenly its crossing the line when I do it.― 'what are you, the Hymen Protection League of America?' (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, March 15, 2011 12:12 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― 'what are you, the Hymen Protection League of America?' (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, March 15, 2011 12:12 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
if only there was some difference in calling someone a "dick" vs calling someone a "bitch."
― jon /via/ chia pet 2.0 (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:22 (thirteen years ago) link
good job getting the thread back on track WGW
― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:23 (thirteen years ago) link
well i mean we actually do it all the time but p much any time ppl start talking ~about~ humor, a bunch of ppl show up and say "hey man w/e it's comedy, you either like it or you don't, there's no accounting for some tastes, etc."
which is all fine and good, but sometimes i like to unpack it, you know?
xp to some dude
― FUN FUN FUN FUN (gbx), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:26 (thirteen years ago) link
nothing like a comedian's twitter huh
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:28 (thirteen years ago) link
((Yeah. I mean thanks WGW but let's drop it. I don't think I said anything that was particularly out of order and it's not my problem if he chose to single me out and provoke me. Sorry to further derail what is now an interesting conversation.))
― ENBB, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:29 (thirteen years ago) link
estelaaaaaa
― goole, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:30 (thirteen years ago) link
does humor belong in tragedy
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:32 (thirteen years ago) link
I was thinking of a replacement for the Afflac ads, and Good Lord, what the hell happened to this guy?
http://www.superiorpics.com/pictures2/6391_goldth72400.jpg
― Pleasant Plains, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:32 (thirteen years ago) link
TH this link is awesome! I am going to try to read it at work today btwn customers
― Sheneneh et Caro (Stevie D(eux)), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:32 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.adamcarolla.com/ACPBlog/wp-content/gallery/2011-03-10-bobcat-goldthwait/08-bobcat-goldthwait.jpg
― Pleasant Plains, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:34 (thirteen years ago) link
bobcat does a lot of directing and spent a few years banging nikki cox. he's doing alright.
― ℳℴℯ ❤\(◕‿◕✿ (Princess TamTam), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:34 (thirteen years ago) link
Woah. I don't think I would have recognized him!
― ENBB, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:35 (thirteen years ago) link
He seems happy. Now where's the audio of his normal voice?
― Pleasant Plains, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:35 (thirteen years ago) link
Whiney is awesome in this thread.
― reggaeton for the painfully alone (polyphonic), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:35 (thirteen years ago) link
thread just makes me wish this was gg allen not gilbert gottfriend. rip gg allen.
― I'm totally kidding. Congrats strangers. (Matt P), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:37 (thirteen years ago) link
kids don't even say these words anymore, they just say japan
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Monday, March 14, 2011 5:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark
― FUN FUN FUN FUN (gbx), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:39 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah stevie it is one of my favorite pieces of writing! that version of it is annoyingly formatted though, let me try to find a better one
― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:42 (thirteen years ago) link
tracer thanks for the link, its pretty great, but sadly keeps reminding me of that king of the hill where bobby became tartuffe the spry wonder dog, don't know if anyone will know what I'm talking about
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:42 (thirteen years ago) link
here it is all on one page - http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/etext03/laemc10.htm
― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:44 (thirteen years ago) link