joke analysis

[Mr. Tea]

I often find things funny that leave me with the distinct feeling that I must be a Very Bad Person Indeed. Things like the idea of a certain famous diary reworked as a Twitter feed:

@annefrank > still hidin in da cupboard lol
@annefrank > omg dis is soooo boaring!!! o_0

 

[Papercut]

I often find things funny that leave me with the distinct feeling that I must be a Very Bad Person Indeed. Things like the idea of a certain famous diary reworked as a twitter feed:

ha, no thats good. i like it.

For a few years i've been trying to pull together a sort of New York Times style review of her book thats completely oblivious of the context and is just savaging the narrative from a technical point of view. Accusing her of solopsism and having a limited world view and the like. Oh, and talking about how the end seemed just too rushed and incidental.

 

[Mr. Tea]

ha, no thats good. i like it.

For a few years i've been trying to pull together a sort of New York Times style review of her book thats completely oblivious of the context and is just savaging the narrative from a technical point of view. Accusing her of solopsism and having a limited world view and the like. Oh, and talking about how the end seemed just too rushed and incidental.

...but then I realise there are much, much worse people than me out there.

(great idea btw!)

 

[grizzleb]

let me add professions which deal with a lot of really heavy stuff. one of the classes I'm taking this semester is an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician - what you guys refer to as an AT) course. the guys who teach it are all paramedics and/or firefighters and there is quite a lot of gallows humor, I get the feeling it's even stronger out in the field. I think it's very much in the order of "have to laugh to keep from crying" when confronting fairly awful stuff on a regular basis. as well the camaraderie that going through stressful situations together engenders. soldiers as well, in that regard. my own sense of humor has always been as bleak and deadpan as it comes so it works for me. tho one problem is that if you're not careful it can impart a kind of deadening cynicism to everything.

I used to work in the CICA, a government body that helps compensate victims of violent crime. Our process involved getting first hand accounts of the incident, so you read at least 5 rape cases a day, maybe one or two child abuse etc. Not nice, but it did mean you had old ladies sitting about howling with laughter at someones bizzare description of a rape or the like. Was the same thing, properly sick humour but it was the only way you could cope with the daily bombardment...

 

[marxbert]

i think it's time to lock this thread before no-one can make any more jokes ever again.

there's an asimov story about that. but anyway

i think asimov wrote a short story--or maybe just an editorial--about jokes and their origins. the story began by asking why there are so many traveling salesmen jokes when there haven't been traveling salesmen for decades.
i think they figured out all jokes came from aliens. except the worst jokes--puns--which people made up. maybe it was arthur c clarke.

i also don't think that intention needs to be part of a joke. to explain, an example:
there was a black adder episode where hugh laurie looks like he makes a legitimate mistake and combines Black Adder's name into "Bladder." Rowan Atkinson takes it in stride and incorporates the mistake into the show. I think we can all agree that calling Black Adder "Bladder" is a good joke. Regardless of intention, the joke "works" the same way. Is the joke more funny if it was written into the script? Or is the joke funnier if it really was an accidental slip up by Laurie? If it was written, the actor/director/editor made the slip up seem as unintentional as possible. intention has nothing to do with this joke, and i don't think it solves any of the potential problems of joke analysis.

a lot of the humor mentioned in this thread doesn't come down to "jokes." laughing about the way someone describes a rape/assault/death isn't a joke at all--it has to do with humor and comedy, but not jokes. about a decade ago, i listened to Loveline with Adam Carolla and Dr Drew--a show that could sometimes be full of inappropriate humor. when this lady described a sexual assault as "dry anal rape"....well, it sounded much funnier than it reads. it certainly is not a joke, but it is comedic.
turning anne frank's life into a twitter feed--now that's a joke.

 

[woops]

i think asimov wrote a short story--or maybe just an editorial--about jokes and their origins. the story began by asking why there are so many traveling salesmen jokes when there haven't been traveling salesmen for decades.
i think they figured out all jokes came from aliens. except the worst jokes--puns--which people made up. maybe it was arthur c clarke.

Poor old Arthur doesn't deserve that kind of blame, lmao

Seriously though folks I think Marxbert and I are on about the same Asimov story. Scientists figure out that aliens are running humour on humans as an experiment. The story ends, memorably for me, with the scientists realising that nothing will ever be funny again (bit like after reading this thread lol), and the image of rats in a lab, with one maze being lifted, another about to be imposed.