Old Friends

Mardi Gras this weekend, and i am not in much of a state to post. Even though it is sunday night, i have not yet fully recovered. I thought i would just do a quick post about something i noticed this weekend that pertained to humor. My friend Jason, who i have known since kindergarten, came down to visit me from UW-Madison this weekend. We spent the whole time laughing about stupid stuff, making fun of commercials and the contestants on "Press Your Luck" and just having a great time. It made me think of how much does familiarity matter to humor? My thought is that it allows the participants to be more focused on jokes, because they already know their audience, so therefore better, but that you can get tired of hearing the same kind of jokes over and over again. sorry for the short post, maybe i'll edit it when i don't feel like i was tied in a bag and smacked with sticks.

Pun, this one is pertinent!

Why is the internet going so slow?

There is a blog jam!

Comedy or Philosophy Lecture?

I am a huge fan of George Carlin, and also, maybe unrelated, Socialism. Carlin made a name for himself as an edgy comic who was upset with the way America worked in some areas, and tailored his jokes to point out the flaws in the system, and to "attack the man." However, in the "Fat Americans" section of his HBO special we watched in class, what started out as a comedy act turned into a philosophical lecture right out of the notes of Herbert Marcuse. I have read Marcuse, i love his way of thinking and the arguments he used to reach his philosophical points. He used Aesthetic philosophy to point out the flaws in the American system, much like Carlin. And the two were just about as funny. Granted, Marcuse was known for his one liners against arch-nemesis Ronal Reagan, but he was a philosopher who could be funny. It appeared as though Carlin wanted to be a comedian would could be philosophical, but the effort fell flat on its face, comedy-wise. The tirade may have been 100% correct, and i agreed with much of what he said, but it wasn't comedy. After watching it, another student and i traded words of agreement on the subject as we left class, and judging by the crickets around the room (and even in the theater on the DVD) we were not alone. I can't really think of another comedian who does things like this except for Lewis Black. However, at the core of Black's comedy is that we can laugh about how worked up he gets, and he still throws punch lines in his jokes. Carlin seemed like an experienced person who was genuinely upset, but more along the lines of the uncle who has a few too many at the family Christmas party, not a man who people pay to watch preform comedy. Anyway, those are my two cents, what about you, did you find the piece funny?

Another pun, because i am not feeling very little kid like this week.

Two guys are fumigating a house:
Guy One: "I hate fighting termites"
Guy Two: "Yeah, they are such a bunch of gnaw-it-alls"

A Modest Proposal

Jonathan Swift, a man ahead of his time. What in the world was that? The thing i thought was interesting was that i never laughed out-loud the entire time i read the piece, yet still came away thinking it was funny. In satire that i am familiar with, i am constantly laughing, be it "The Colbert Report" or "Kissing Suzy Kolber" (a sports blog). This piece was meant to draw attention to a situation that is up there with the most awful treatment of any humans ever. The way the english treated the irish (the potato famine did not eliminate all the food in ireland, they still had other crops, but all they were allowed to eat were the potatoes, so they were dying of famine while the english owners sold the other crops to the highest bidder) bordered on genocide, but without the dignity of actually killing the irish, just letting them die.

I really don't know what to make of the piece, i thought it was mildly commical, well written, but i don't know if it did its job of actually convincing people that this kind of thing needed to stop. It seemed like those who agreed with Swift's ideas and knew about and hated the way the irish were treated would have gotten a good laugh, but i don't know how the ones whose ideas Swift were attacking would have reacted. It seemed to me they would have gotten indignant early on, and then just cast it away. I know that whenever i read satire that is directed at one of my beliefs, i am more insulted then encouraged to change my views. So, i don't think i agree with the thought that satire can be used to transcend humor and alter social conscience. Maybe that's just me, and my hatred of being mocked that i don't find anything beyond humor in satire. What about you guys, how do you feel about it?

JLKJOTW has been suspended until i can remember some other good ones, so in it's place ill drop a pun.

Guy 1: "So you hit the fortune teller just because he was smiling?"
Guy 2: "Yeah, i always wanted to strike a happy medium"

Laughing At Failing

So, this time i am going to try to tackle something that is prtty widespread, and see if there is anything i might have missed along the way. Why is it not only funny to watch other people fail, but when i fail spectacularly, i am even laughing.

First example was last wednesday, my night class had a quiz. I am thinking, ok, a quiz, i go to all the classes, i know kind of what's going on, so i'll study with my buddy Rob for an hour and a half (an eternity in my world) and get it done. What we had there, was a failure to communicate. This "quiz" was really a "test" that counted for 15% of my grade, and took an hour and a half to finish. Oooopppsies. We were pouring over books, trying to read at superhuman speeds, thinking of ways we could get out of taking it, whether or not we could drop the class and still graduate. You name it, we thought of it. So we get to the test, a slide ID test, mind you, of things i have only seen once in my life. I am failing at a superhuman pace. So what do i do? i start telling jokes on the test. I called one of the pre-columbian pieces of art "a fantasia looking hippo trying to give me a high-five" (thats the goofy looking dude you see at the top).

So here i am, taking a very important test, trying to get off not knowing something by telling jokes, by laughing so throughly, that i cant even attempt to take myself seriously.

This morning, i lost a intramural soccer game 12-0. I don't even feel bad, because after their 5th goal, and we had 0 shots on goal, it just became really funny. I was playing goalie, getting scored on left and right, and i can't even muster up enough self-respect to call out defensive assignments to my defenders who would prefer not to be anywhere near the ball.

So why do i laugh at myself and my situation in these instances. I have lost basketball games to eleven 11-9 and been livid with the world, but when i lose 11-2, i don't care at all. Is it a defensive reaction? do i do it because i can see the ridiculousness, even though it is happening to me? What are your guys thoughts, it would be interesting to hear your opinions.

JLKJOTW

How can you tell if there is an elephant in the fridge?

Footsteps in the Butter

Eddie Izzard

It was interesting watching this routine again in the context of this class. My dad has always thought Eddie was hilarious, so i have seen the special before, but by not just listening along and laughing, rather looking into his style and the construction of jokes.

The part that really got me in class on Wednesday was the Englebert Humperdink (i really don't want to look up how to spell that, sorry). The whole story of the change of name was great, but when he talked about how he died in a car crash, and then didn't let anyone know whether or not it was true, that just killed me. But wait, why? This man was a popular singer, not someone that anyone thinks about that often any more, and for some reason, there are an entire theater full of people laughing because they don't know whether or not he is dead. I doubt most of the people there could have told you with certainty when they walked in whether or not he was dead.

So the facial gestures of Eddie Izzard had an arena full of people nervously laughing about a man who might be dying or dead, who these people really don't care about, and without making a freakin' sounds for almost 2 min. That kind of virtuoso performance is why he remains one of the top comedians around today.

John's Little Kid Joke of the Week:

Why can't you tell if there is an elephant in the cherry tree?

He is wearing red sneakers

Laughing in the Bar

This friday night i was hanging around Humphrey's (well, i am hanging around Humphrey's every friday night, but stay with me here), and was talking with some girls that were sitting next to my friend and me at the bar. It was relatively slow, being as it was early in the night, so the bartender was talking with us as well. Over the course of the next half an hour, everyone there was just busting a gut, when i took a step back later to think about it, it was almost unreal, i haven't laughed that hard in a long time. It all started when we were talking about how one of the girls is a nanny, and how girls are across the board far better nannies then guys. I said, "of course they are, if they ask me to feed their kids something healthy, all i can think of is lean pockets." Over the next half hour, people were making jokes about gushers (the candy), we did at least 15 more min. on hot pockets, and we even poked fun at the dollar shot, and how its insane we pay a dollar for raspberry Kool-Aid.

I am not sure why all of this was so funny, the material wasn't much better then when my friends and i were sitting around making jokes about an "S" themed costume party, and all of the different stupid costumes we would use if we were to go (it helped the sting that we weren't invited). And then tried to make every other word start with an S for 45 min. It was a good time, we laughed, but we weren't busting up like i did when i was at the bar.

Reflecting now, i think there were several factors that led to the higher level of hilarity. 1st, we were all drinking at the bar, but it was early yet, so none of us were drunk, just feelin' a little good. 2nd, we were around people we didn't know all that well, so we were enjoying the new company. 3rd, the bartender, a pretty solid role to play in bar conversations, was there with us so it gave us a feel of belonging. 4th, the girls were cute, so it encouraged our jokes, and our laughing at theirs.

I fell like that isn't even all of it, but it was very interesting when i thought of the event in light of this class.

John's Little Kid Joke of the Week

How can you tell if you are sleeping in the same bed as an elephant?

Monogramed PJ's