I Must Have Needed the Laugh

Spoiler Alert. I will tell you all the scene ending joke, and why it's so funny.

But before that, let me say  I got the this vid clip  from a google search about why people hate rednecks. 
And on the Internet, one thing leads to another.  Now I think I saw the first  Scary Movie  all the way through, eventually.  But I haven't seen the sequels.  This clip is  hilarious, no so much because the racial, socio cultural stereotype.  That's just the set up.  The hilarity is when the straight looking straing talking  old guy goes into gangsta speak:

"These men died for their country.  Send flowers to their bitches and hos."

Leslie Nielsen.  King of the dead pan delivery.

Follow Up re Comedy. The Rule of Three.

Now I can not swear I never read about the Rule of Three  ever before, although I googled it for the first time today.  I can't swear I never heard some comedy writer in some interview, or other kind of filmed or recorded convention, mention the Rule of Three.  But I seem to have known it all my life. It came to me, because I was replying to a text to a dear friend.  She like my funnies.  Anyway  I deliberately  set up the list of three, making sure the third phrase had the twist, and made sure to build the twist around a couple funny words, and a funny  image.

For more on the Rule of Three, go here.

(Ya, I have a good list of jobs I would rather have.  Writing comedy  or at least doing some kind of ent. writing, producing is top of that list.)

When You Are Right, You Are Right.

And this week marks one of those times Ann Althouse is right.  Now I don't do this every time, but I do believe, generally, in the idea of giving kudos for thinking  things through to the natural, logical, and correct  conclusion.  In other words,  what I said!

Ok  the matter is this twit who cracked a joke about having explosives, while in the TSA line at an airport.

Go here for that.

Althouse's best line,"What idiot doesn't know not to joke about bombs in the airport security line?"

Apparently  THAT idiot.


But this story brings up one of my pet peeves.  And I am sure I have mentioned it before.  And as it touches on a frequent  and far too often  repeated stupid human  trick, I think it's worth a little redundant re publication.  My BA is in Theatre.  I have been employed in sho biz  both as a technician, and at least did work on stage in summer stock.  And I have been an Emcee.  Doesn't mean I am some comic genius.  It means  I know the rules.  

Perform comedy, try to be funny at your own risk.  When ever a human tells a joke or tried to be funny, they are, whether they realize it or not, shouting  at the top of their lungs  (metaphorically   speaking,)  "Yo!  World!  Here I am.  Fucking JUDGE ME!!!"

And there always is that unfunny asshole who gets surprised that the world does not find him as funny as he thinks he is. 

Fuck people like that.

Shit! My Fault! (Not Really!) I Did Not Know She Was Trying to be Funny!

Ok.  I had hoped to get to the new year with out feeling so compelled to mention silly person Ann Althouse  again.  But this post is not only about her.  It is a re iteration of one of my favorite themes.

Try being funny at your own risk, bitches! And if you fuck it up, it's your fault, not the audience.

Now for the set up.  Althouse generally does this totally fucked up shit all the time, where at one level she plays devil's advocate, and sorta seems to advocate fucked up ness, by virtue of not then and harshly condemning such fucked up ness.  She will post quotes and links about issue  X, Y, or A, and not comment.  Or she will comment, and it's supposed to, I am guessing maybe, be tongue in cheek.  And apparently sometimes  she thinks she is being funny, and says shit that she thinks is funny and people lo and behold, don't get the fucking joke.  And according to her, sorta, it's yours  it's our fault for not getting the joke.

Case in point.  She (again with the fucked up ness in not being clear about what she actually thinks about the issue) posted some quote and link (go here  if you must) about  whether or not that racist piece of shit Ron Paul is a racist.  And her  own commentary, in the comment thread after  was . . . . let me just post that as a quote:

"Let's be fair. I think he made a lot of money on those newsletters. That's a completely separate motivation for publishing that stuff. Do you think everyone who publishes porn loves exaggerated, promiscuous sex?"

 Now to me, that in of itself is much fucked up.  Doesn't matter if he was cynically publishing racist homophobic shit to make money.  According to my rule, which is the same rule they told us runs the world, when we were in grade school, that all that shit goes on your permanent record?  Well using that kind of rule, if you run around pretending to be a racist and homophobe just to make money, you are showing yourself to the public as a racist and a homophobe.  That's the part that goes in your permanent record.  And ya can't blame people for judging you and harshly, if you run around acting all racist and homophobic.  I mean really?  As if it is everyone else's job to do the impossible and be able to figure out your fucked up motivations and fucked up inner self?  People can only judge based on what they see.  And if they see you acting like a racist homophobe, that as they say is that!

I went long there, but that's really my take on the whole  Did He Mean It, question.  I say it doesn't fucking matter.  Moving on  though, someone later takes her to task for seeming to defend Paul by talking about the alternative motivation for his racist seeming  behaviour.  Her reply to that?

"Sorry if my humor is too dry for you."

Now we get away from the racism shit and back to comedy theory.  I have said it before.  I will say it here again.  Try to be funny at your own fucking risk.  It is NEVER the fault of the audience for not getting your fucking lame assed  attempts at humor.  It is 100% the responsibility of the humorist/comedian/joke teller.  Professionals know this.  Fucking amateurs oftentimes  don't.  And I know.  Trying to be funny is something a lot of people do.  And I am not saying there should be some sort of law that says, only trained professionals should be allowed to attempt this.  But if someone is so reckless that they attempt to be funny in public, and don't pull it off?  It's their failure, not the audience.

And while I am at it.  There's a difference between a novel and a play.  And there is a difference between telling a joke (trying to be funny) in person or for tape/vid/film  and doing that in text only.  Text only is actually harder.  Why?  Because all the human communication parts are missing.  There's no physicality, no tone of voice, no facial messaging, and usually timing is off as well.

Now I have to admit that back when people still emailed jokes to me, I would often hack them  to make them read better as a joke, because  usually they were badly formatted.  And that all goes to my next point, and that is that it is one kind of recklessness to try to be funny in public, but trying to do it in text only communications?  That's really fucking hard to do.  Particularly when someone really does not get the core idea of comedy.  It's less about what the joke teller thinks is funny.  It's more about whether or not the joke teller successfully figures out what will be funny to the audience, and successfully  entertains the audience.

But again.  Unlike Althouse, who has her undergraduate degree in a narrow visual arts field,  I have mine in Theatre.  I did not exactly take a class in comedy theory.  But I did a little acting, and I know, it's the performers job to sell that shit.  It is not the audience's job to buy it. 

Edit to add:

I could have let it slide.  But ya know?  My argument is inferred in there when I talk about comedy theory, and permanent records.  But now that I have thought about it, I do not want to let it go.  Her fucked up remark about pornographers?  How fucked up is her thinking there?  I mean, really!  It doesn't fucking matter if a pornographer loves their work.  All that matters,  and all that is going on their permanent record is that they actually produced and marketed smut.  So that whole analogy was very much fucked up.

And in that vein, I will add the following image.  Sorta sums up my feelings, here.

Last (I am guessing) Nontroversey of the Week: Sarah Silverman's Masshole Gate.

With that clear an intro, I should get right to it. Apparently someone with more mischief in their heart than smarts in their brain let my favorite comedy Bad Girl into the Fox Sports broadcast booth for a recent Yankees vs Red Sox game. And she called Red Sox fans "Massholes."

Now if forced to name a team at gunpoint or face immediate death, I'd calll myself a Yankee fan. Whatever. But the thing for me (and I checked) is that Ms. Silverman is originally from the Granite State. New Hampshire. And the favorite way for Granite Staters to refer to their neighbors just to the south of their state line, is to call them "Massholes."

So that's it. Nothing to see here. Move along. (But I have to wonder if I ever met her before she was famous? At least I could have walked past her on Main Street in Concord, or down at the Mall back before she got her first real gigs? Who knows!)

Non Story of the Week. TrigGate.

This one is percolating more on the wing nut blogosphere. And it's sorta a tag along to another Palin family story. But the rude bastids at Wonkette really dumped on Trig Palin. And some of these wing nuts are acting like the sky has cracked open and the demons from another dimension are pouring through. Or some other catastrophic imagery will do, if you prefer.

Here's a taste of it:


Papa Johns, Huggies Pull Ads from Wonkette After Despicable Trig Palin Post.


Ok. Let me break it down.

Ya, the piece was rude. I saw it the day it went up. But ya know? And when I say ya know, I mean if you know what kinda shit they routinely do over at Wonkette, you should not be surprised. They deal in not only bad taste there, they revel it it.

Oddly (or perhaps not) some GOPers really don't get what that site is about. (It must really suck to be that stupid.) It is not a serious thing. It's not trying for even the slightest bit of professional newsyness. It's like Mad Magazine, but it's a different flavor of rude. They are trying for funny and sometimes I think they nail it. Sometimes I think it's a swing anda miss for them. But that is what they are about.

But hey, if some people wanna throw a fit, have at it. I am reminded of a discussion I had with some pecker headed wing nuts on that message board I used to frequent. And I think it was over some allegedly rude joke about one of Mrs. Palin's other kids. In any case, I made the simple argument, based on the vile inside joke comedians love, "The Aristcrats," that in theory nothing is too rude, for comedy. Trick is in being rude and being funny at the same time, but not be offensive. It's the risk of comedy. That's why I am so much more critical about people who have day jobs who get caught telling a lame, dumb, or offensive joke. I have no problem putting the screws to amateurs. What's that old line from the commercials and such? "These are trained professionals. Don't try this at home."

Ya. And here is the difference between a trained professional, and an amateur. An amateur will get all defensive, and blat about not meaning to insult. That whole pathetic routine. But a professional will take that swing anda miss attitude. That joke bombed? Ok, I got another one for ya . . . So even if Wonkette loses some ads I don't think they are going to stop being rude, and trying to be rude and funny at the same time.

Let's see what they got going on today. Under the description: DUMB PEOPLE TAKEN SERIOUSLY, a piece "Ayn Rand Sucks." It links to this on going net comix that really has it out for Rand and her cult. It's not a home run but it might have promise.

Also, under the description KOCHSUCKERS, a piece about the Koch brothers' voter guides for their employees.

And further down the page under the description, ARGHH MATEY is a piece titled "Obama Is Actually a Somali Pirate Child."

Whether they are funny? Eh. But do they intend to be serious? Not in the least!


And before I head for the exit, I did mention that TrigGate is sort of a tag along to another story. And that's the Trig Birther Trig Truther "movement." That is, if you think a few nit wits who are still stuck on that shit counts as a movement. Personally, with all that is wrong with Mrs. Palin, whether or not she is the mother of the wee one is not really important. In an odd way, I think that was in the back of the minds, at least, of the Wonkette writers. Swing anda miss on that one, guys.


Edit to add:

It gets weirder. The writer has been "disciplined."

But hey, now that this particular non story is dying down, we can guess at the next non story. P. Obama and his fundraisers in Cali should give the wing nuts something to go batshit over.