[HN Gopher] Why Is That Funny?
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Why Is That Funny?
Author : gmays
Score : 38 points
Date : 2022-10-22 16:57 UTC (6 hours ago)
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| 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
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