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[CCBC-Net] What's so funny?
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From: gravity_rabbit
Date: Thu, 9 May 2002 09:15:08 -0600
I have been interested in hearing all the thoughts on humor. I've often heard it said that humor is only a step away from tragedy. Actually, I think humor is closer to San Bernadino off of Interstate 8. While humor is interesting to discuss from a philosophical/psychological standpoint, I think we would do better to speak in terms of applied atro-physics: in space, no one can hear you laugh, and its corollary, if you tell a joke in the forest will anybody get it.
And on the subject of forests, let's not forget the ecological impact of humor. A current study by the Maltese government suggests that extensive laughter may be contributing to the greenhouse effect. Though unproven, this theory raises troubling issues for the people at National Lampoon.
While humor may be subjective, its effects are obvious. It was humor that brought about the fall of the Roman empire. While the city burned, Nero Youngman played his fiddle, saying, "Take my wife, please." This left the Goths, Visigoths, Demigoths, and Hemi?mi-semi-quaver-goths free to sack the city. They took his wife. This brought about the fall of the Gothian empire.
Dirty words are often considered humorous. Words like masticate, sexagenarian, onomatopoeia, and poop will cause children to roll on the floor emitting gales of laughter. This is a strange phenomenom that occurs only in children and some male graduates of Yale.
As an author, I would love to write something funny, but being ecologically minded, I believe I will try to prevent as much laughter as possible. My first novel is a dry, humourless piece that displays an overabundance of pensive thought and contains a shocking lack of pirates and cowboys. Be Green! Buy my book.
It is said that there is nothing harder than being funny. Actually, the hardest thing I've ever done involved a dentist, a penguin, and a bag of soda crackers.
Randall Wright A Hundred Days from Home (Holt, Oct. 2002) Juffa, Son of No One (Holt, Spring 2004)
Received on Thu 09 May 2002 10:15:08 AM CDT
Date: Thu, 9 May 2002 09:15:08 -0600
I have been interested in hearing all the thoughts on humor. I've often heard it said that humor is only a step away from tragedy. Actually, I think humor is closer to San Bernadino off of Interstate 8. While humor is interesting to discuss from a philosophical/psychological standpoint, I think we would do better to speak in terms of applied atro-physics: in space, no one can hear you laugh, and its corollary, if you tell a joke in the forest will anybody get it.
And on the subject of forests, let's not forget the ecological impact of humor. A current study by the Maltese government suggests that extensive laughter may be contributing to the greenhouse effect. Though unproven, this theory raises troubling issues for the people at National Lampoon.
While humor may be subjective, its effects are obvious. It was humor that brought about the fall of the Roman empire. While the city burned, Nero Youngman played his fiddle, saying, "Take my wife, please." This left the Goths, Visigoths, Demigoths, and Hemi?mi-semi-quaver-goths free to sack the city. They took his wife. This brought about the fall of the Gothian empire.
Dirty words are often considered humorous. Words like masticate, sexagenarian, onomatopoeia, and poop will cause children to roll on the floor emitting gales of laughter. This is a strange phenomenom that occurs only in children and some male graduates of Yale.
As an author, I would love to write something funny, but being ecologically minded, I believe I will try to prevent as much laughter as possible. My first novel is a dry, humourless piece that displays an overabundance of pensive thought and contains a shocking lack of pirates and cowboys. Be Green! Buy my book.
It is said that there is nothing harder than being funny. Actually, the hardest thing I've ever done involved a dentist, a penguin, and a bag of soda crackers.
Randall Wright A Hundred Days from Home (Holt, Oct. 2002) Juffa, Son of No One (Holt, Spring 2004)
Received on Thu 09 May 2002 10:15:08 AM CDT
