Gilbert Gottfried: Funniest man alive

good job getting the thread back on track WGW

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

nothing like a comedian's twitter huh

((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.))

estelaaaaaa

does humor belong in tragedy

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

TH this link is awesome! I am going to try to read it at work today btwn customers

http://www.adamcarolla.com/ACPBlog/wp-content/gallery/2011-03-10-bobcat-goldthwait/08-bobcat-goldthwait.jpg

bobcat does a lot of directing and spent a few years banging nikki cox. he's doing alright.

Woah. I don't think I would have recognized him!

He seems happy. Now where's the audio of his normal voice?

Whiney is awesome in this thread.

thread just makes me wish this was gg allen not gilbert gottfriend. rip gg allen.

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

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

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

here it is all on one page - http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/etext03/laemc10.htm

at version of it is annoyingly formatted though, let me try to find a better one

― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, March 15, 2011 11:42 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

ooh find a complete one (ie 1 page) so i can instapaper it

xp :D

hugh kenners "counterfeiters" touches on many of the same points, but its more j/o lit critty than bergson's piece

wow project gutenberg have a hell of a preamble to their docs, don't they...I think I sprained my scrollfinger lol

xxpost gbx, nice analysis. The real estate one was the only one that made me laugh too and I hadn't thought through why that one was provocative and strange and the others weren't. Most of them don't stand up to the sick-joke-as-catharsis defence at all. Even back in school I felt that most disaster jokes were more about making the teller look dangerous (ooh, he went there) than any kind of communal coping mechanism. (although obviously I didn't call it a "communal coping mechanism" when I was 12)

jon, it pains me to see a seemingly OK guy steadily piss away every bit of goodwill. Calm down.

i think if you asked bergson he'd say that [sick] jokes work as a communal coping mechanism regardless of the intention of the joke-teller

just found this passage which i think has some particular bearing on jon in this thread -

Indifference is its natural environment, for laughter
has no greater foe than emotion. I do not mean that we could not
laugh at a person who inspires us with pity, for instance, or even
with affection, but in such a case we must, for the moment, put our
affection out of court and impose silence upon our pity. In a
society composed of pure intelligences there would probably be no
more tears, though perhaps there would still be laughter; whereas
highly emotional souls, in tune and unison with life, in whom every
event would be sentimentally prolonged and re-echoed, would neither
know nor understand laughter.

i don't know why that came out looking like blank verse!

just fyi:

Joan Rivers
Joan_Rivers Joan Rivers
That's what comedians do!!! We react to tragedy by making jokes to help people in tough times feel better through laughter.
4 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply
»
Joan Rivers
Joan_Rivers Joan Rivers
Oh come on people-this is just outrageous! Gilbert Gottfried was FIRED from Aflac for making jokes about the tsunami in Japan.
4 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Most of them don't stand up to the sick-joke-as-catharsis defence at all.

agreed. i think, to me, it's because they invoke "the japanese" and/or unspecified japanese people. which is crass. and also they're not really funny. whereas the floating school is easier to envision as a comic object, you know? like, i can't help but think that the absurdity of seeing boats and houses and cars all floating together is something that has struck the ppl actually there.

highly emotional souls, in tune and unison with life, in whom every event would be sentimentally prolonged and re-echoed, would neither know nor understand laughter.

kill the humorless

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, March 15, 2011 4:15 PM (21 minutes ago)

idk, i feel like "the town" was a far worse crime against the hearts and minds than gg jokes

you'd think Joan Rivers would understand the concept of independence in private commerce, being such a desperate old whore

To take Joan Rivers' version of the CCM theory: "We react to tragedy by making jokes to help people in tough times feel better through laughter."

I would buy this more if the joke teller had some emotional investment in the tragedy. I don't see Gottfried or the people who RT'd the jokes overcome by horror and grief and desperate to laugh again - I see them as people in another country cracking wise about a news event which doesn't affect them in the least. It feels like punching down.

lol

i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot

gottfried really brings it out in people i guess

i don't know much but i'll always remember how the world discovered that christa mcauliffe had dandruff

xpost, good thing gottfried didn't tell any jokes about the car commercial with darth vader kid in it

i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot
i never knew j/v/c was such a retarded sexist idiot

jon via chi wondering why there's no WHITE history month

I don't see how it's appropriate to have a child depict a man who used the Death Star to blow up entire planets of people!

jon via chi wondering why there's no WHITE history month

Where in the fuck did this come from?

in terms of emotional investment in the tragedy being made light of, the onion's 9/11 article remains a high watermark for this style of humor i think (eg "life resembles bad jerry bruckheimer film", "woman bakes american flag cake", etc)

Jon, you did introduce gendered insults into the conversation. It's fair to call you out on that.

article = issue

the jokes-as-catharsis argument mainly falls down because this particular trauma has nothing to do with him and he has no emotional tension to purge. i would also imagine that people who have been genuinely affected by this disaster would fail to be cleansed of their trauma by reading his tweets, since they are lazy unfunny shite. if you have to be that guy who gets in there first with the jokes at a time like this, you should really have the decency to put some effort in.

jon doggie you need to make yourself some chamomile tea and go for a walk

man lotta trainwrecks around here lately

xxxxxxxxpost dorian otm basically

jon is this more or less offensive to you than the jokes about kevin smith choking on a whopper

Funny about people offended by sexist terms throwing around "retarded" though.

oh i didnt realize you were actually a retarded person

you did call an actual woman a bitch tho

you didn't realize that?!

if u keep trying to reach the moral high ground you will definitely get there, kiu

keep striving, its within reach!!!!