[HN Gopher] Why Is That Funny? ___________________________________________________________________ Why Is That Funny? Author : gmays Score : 38 points Date : 2022-10-22 16:57 UTC (6 hours ago) (HTM) web link (nautil.us) (TXT) w3m dump (nautil.us) | adhesive_wombat wrote: | > he caught you at recess or lunch moving after the freeze bell, | he would blow his whistle and run at you--his tall and skinny | form gliding in a way that resembled an ostrich--then blow his | whistle again, signaling you, and everyone else, to unfreeze and | go back to class. | | I had never heard of this, but it's quite amazing what strange | rules we impose on children. | scotty79 wrote: | I never understood what's funny about Loch Ness monster wanting | "tree fiddy". | | I was sure it must be reference to something but apparently it's | not. It's funny to people all by itself. | gtech1 wrote: | One of the lesser known stories from Asimov, but entertaining | nevertheless. | | https://archive.org/details/isaac-asimov-jokester | nonrandomstring wrote: | "It's funny because it's true" -- Homer J. Simpson | throwamon wrote: | Two plus two equals four is true, but not funny! | | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4Ph02gzqmY | neilv wrote: | > _But, noticing I had the eyes of the whole class, I felt a grin | take form on my face, and, looking at the disgruntled Mr. Reagan, | I heard myself say with a shrug, "My waffles wouldn't cook fast | enough!" That was the first time that I can remember making a | room of two dozen or so people (not including Mr. Reagan) bust up | laughing. No one knew that was coming, including me._ | | As a social but introverted person, moments of the right funny | words coming out at just the right moment, without consciously | thinking about it, don't happen nearly as often as I'd like. | | One memorable moment for me was maybe 15 years ago, at an event | for prospective law students in Boston (kinda like a job fair, | but all the tables are reps from law schools rather than | companies). | | So I'm introducing myself to these two law school reps, and it's | going well, including my interest in technology policy. But when | I say I want to represent the public interest, I sense sudden | awkward. One of the reps says they have a research center that's | an industry partnership, and my immediate thought is that I'm not | sounding like a fit for that. | | In that instant, I was making eye contact, and the words came out | without conscious thought -- I felt a beaming grin, and heard a | very clear and confident and determined tone of myself saying, | "Know thy enemy." They crack up, and, as I joked to others | afterwards, it felt like suddenly the application process was a | mere formality. :) | tsol wrote: | I'm also an 'ambivert'. I'll have some months where I keep | making clever little jokes during conversations that come out | of nowhere, sometimes that even impress me. And then there are | other months where I can't be humorous and light for the life | of me. I really have no idea what it is. It's like that part of | my brain only boots up once in a while. | brianscottgzzle wrote: | Love this. I consider myself a mix of social and introverted as | well. Thanks for sharing! | MollyRealized wrote: | I have heard the term "ambivert" coined for that mix. | labrador wrote: | A lot of the humor I like is about hearing something unexpected | and laughing in surprise A man was golfing with | his friend on a fine Sunday morning A hearse with a | funeral procession of cars passed by The first man stood | at attention with his hat over his heart The second man | said "Did you know them?" The first replied, "Know them? | She was my wife!" | | In a real world case, I shared a cab with a stranger. We didn't | speak a word. I was let out first. As I got out he smiled and | said "Keep in touch!" | | It was such an unexpected thing for him to say that I burst out | laughing. | theturtletalks wrote: | This is called misdirection and you see it used is stand-up | often | RealityVoid wrote: | Can't blame you, that line was hilarious. That being said, not | all people react the same to the same kind of humor. | labrador wrote: | Right. Then there's dark humor, which I sometimes like. | Picture of Stalin.jpg Top line: Dark humor is | like food Bottom line: Not everyone gets it | dvh wrote: | Few years ago I wanted to invent something. I didn't have any | idea what, so I thought I let computer decide. | | What is the most simple way to describe something? A noun. Ok but | that already exists, I need adjective too. Still too common, | let's add another adjective. I used English corpus and generated | random triplets in the form of adjective-adjective-noun. | | Most of it was gibberish. Occasionally there was something | plausible or even viable, even more rarely something interesting. | As I was reading this long list, I stumbled upon this gem: | | Creepy wet uncle | | And I laughed. As I continue reading the list, every once in a | while there was something funny. But not once have I found words | that would make me cry. Before, I thought that laughter and | crying are equal but opposite emotions, but they are not. Crying | requires much deeper emotional connection while all it takes to | make me laugh are 3 random words. | | That day I also realize why Craig Ferguson was funny (this was | back when he still had the late late show), he just say or do | something random. That was his secret. I felt cheated, the | cheapness of laugh was exposed. | Elof wrote: | I think being able to make people laugh in as few words as | possible is a skill, and one that's very difficult to master. | It's like poetry, constraints require creativity. Creepy wet | uncle, to me at least, isn't very funny, but it was likely | funny at the time because of the context. Unexpected things can | be funny, and it's a common way to form a joke, but coming up | with novel ideas that lots of people find funny isn't an easy | thing to do for most people. If it was, we probably wouldn't | find it that funny. | | FWIW, I think this is what has made Twitter so popular. The | original 140 character limit with out the ability to do tweet | threads in the form we have now put a lot of constraints on | people. Being thoughtful or funny in 140 characters is | difficult, but a lot of folks came up with some pretty amazing | insights and quips. | rzzzt wrote: | The Prior-Art-O-Matic has all the ideas for hilarious | inventions: https://thesurrealist.co.uk/priorart | | (There was also someone featured on HN who wrote a daily post | containing 3-4 product/service ideas for a while; those had a | bit more thought put into them than a RNG can provide.) | smcameron wrote: | Reminds me of the half-bakery: https://www.halfbakery.com/ | CharlesW wrote: | > _That day I also realize why Craig Ferguson was funny (this | was back when he still had the late late show), he just say or | do something random._ | | This may be the most reductive thing I've ever read. It did | make me laugh, though! | tejohnso wrote: | Yeah Craig Ferguson was unbelievably quick witted, | intelligent, and courageous on that show. | bin_bash wrote: | Analyzing humor is a bit like dissecting a frog: You learn how it | works but you end up with a dead frog. - EB White | legrande wrote: | Humor is mixing the real with the absurd ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-10-22 23:00 UTC)