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This week: I Pity the Fool Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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"I had thought - I had been told - that a 'funny' thing is a thing of a goodness. It isn't. Not ever is it funny to the person it happens to. Like that sheriff without his pants. The goodness is in the laughing itself. I grok it is a bravery... and a sharing... against pain and sorrow and defeat."
- Valentine Michael Smith
(Robert Heinlein,
Stranger in a Strange Land) |
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Foolishness
Well, another April Fools' Day has come and gone... incidentally, the correct placement of the apostrophe is indeed after the s in "Fools," because the idea is that the day belongs to all fools - thus, the alternate name of All Fools' Day.
Lots of people like to play tricks on AFD. As a comedy guru (picture me sitting on a mountaintop laughing my head off), I don't have a problem with that... per se.
On AFD, though, it's possible that some people take it too far. I'm not talking about little jokes like Staff plays here on WDC - though from what I understand, there was a good bit of negative feedback even for that. Nor do I mean Google's over-the-top product launches , which they've been doing pretty much every year, and which almost always are something that a) you know is an April Fool joke and b) you kinda wish were actually real - especially the Virgle one from 2008. That was classic.
No, what I mean is that there are some pranks that can be harmful - and thereby cease to be funny.
It could be argued, of course, that almost all humor is harmful in some way, to someone or another. Consider this list, cobbed from Wikipedia because I'm lazy:
 Space Shuttle lands in San Diego: In 1993, DJ Dave Rickards told listeners of KGB-FM in San Diego that Space Shuttle Discovery had been diverted from Edwards Air Force Base and would be landing at Montgomery Field, a small municipal airport with a 4,577 foot runway. Thousands of people went to the airport to watch the purported landing, causing traffic jams throughout Kearny Mesa. There was no shuttle in orbit at the time. - could have resulted in death or property damage (though it could be argued that a simple fact-check, or at least date-check, would have been in order).
Death of a mayor: In 1998, local WAAF shock jocks Opie and Anthony reported that Boston mayor Thomas Menino had been killed in a car accident. Menino happened to be on a flight at the time, lending credence to the prank as he could not be reached. The rumor spread quickly across the city, eventually causing news stations to issue alerts denying the hoax. The pair were fired shortly thereafter. - falsely reporting someone's death is a big no-no, no matter how funny you think it would be.
TV license fee evasion discovery: In 1969, the Dutch TV news notified the public of a new device that would be handed out to civil servants tasked with finding TV license fee evaders. This device would be able to detect the presence of a television set in the house from the outside. Asked whether there was nothing that citizens could do about this, the interviewed "civil servant" said 'No', as - he said - it would be unlikely that people would be willing to wrap their TVs in aluminum foil. The next day aluminum foil was sold out in most stores in a matter of hours. - okay, no, that one's actually pretty funny.
President Barack Obama pulls fundings for NASCAR: On April 1, 2009, on the heels of the auto industry bailout, Car and Driver claimed on its website that President Barack Obama had ordered Chevrolet and Dodge to pull NASCAR funding. The article was removed from the website and replaced with an apology to readers, after upset NASCAR fans protested on the Car and Driver website. - come on, look at the main demographic for NASCAR. Most of them have guns. How could this possibly have ended well? (This year, in a classic case of "Life imitates jokes," Congress wanted to pull funding for NPR and not NASCAR, presumably because the NPR demographic is unlikely to foment armed rebellion).
But here's the real problem with April Fools' Day hoaxes: when something real, but crazy, comes along on April 1 - and sometimes it does - no one will actually believe it.
In fact, forget AFD for a minute. It's been estimated that a good 75% of the internet consists entirely of hoaxes [citation needed]. But people believe everything they read, anyway. Like the shit-talking between the activist group "Anonymous" and the utterly obnoxious Westboro Baptist Church, the one led by Fred Phelps (you know, the people who protest at military funerals). A posting appeared purporting to warn Westboro that they were next on Anonymous' target list. Westboro allegedly responded with "Bring it on." Now, I was hoping that one was for real, but I had my doubts - and sure enough, Anonymous denied it, and even went so far as to say that it was Westboro messing with them.
Or back when the "bonsai kittens" website was active, which showed pictures of cats in bottles, along with instructions on how to make the cats take the shape of the bottles. A woman I know was outraged enough to start a campaign against the animal cruelty involved. Of course, there was no actual animal cruelty involved (unless Photoshop counts as cruelty) - the site may have been in poor taste, but it was a joke.
Point is, you read something on the internet, and as much as you'd like to believe it - or disbelieve it, as the case may be - and how do you know that it's real, that it has any basis in reality? Sometimes you can compare it against your inner skeptic - but some people don't have an inner skeptic, as demonstrated by, say, Bernie Madoff's victims. But some things, such as the Landover Baptist website (not to be confused with the unfortunately real Westboro Baptist website), are so over the top that you think they're real.
I gotta wonder what that does to the credibility of everything we read on the internet. This year, on April 1, I made a conscious effort to believe that everything I read on the internet was an April Fools' prank - and you know what? I felt a whole lot less stressed out. Maybe that's something we should all adopt on a day to day basis: don't believe a thing.
I'm sure that's preferable to believing everything. |
So let's see what unbelievable - or not - stuff we can find on Writing.Com this week:
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Last month, in "Comedy Newsletter (March 9, 2011)" , I talked about British humor (or, as they'd have it, "humour.")
writetight:
Mr. Waltz, you left out my favorite British funny dude . . . the risque Benny Hill. His skits were hilarious, even after being sliced and diced by American censors.
I told you I'd leave out your favorite! Funny stuff, but I was trying to concentrate on those comedies that have pervaded the public (or at least the geek) consciousness so thoroughly that all we have to do to get a laugh is to quote a line or two of dialogue.
LJPC - the tortoise  :
Hi Robert!
I completely agree with you that Monty Python cannot be topped. Even Mel Brooks can't compete. However, other British humor generally leaves me scratching my head, and not because of the lice, either.
-- Laura
Well, it is an acquired taste. As with all comedy, no one's going to like everything.
Naomi :
As a Brit, I can say you've picked out some great comedy. The ability to randomly reference Monty Python, Hitchiker and Blackadder are skills worth having. And I can say as a Christian that I have watched Meaning of Life with other Christian friends, and found it very funny. I will always prefer Life of Brian though. And seeing Hugh Laurie as an American doctor is always mildly confusing...
Thanks! Another Brit once asked me how good Hugh Laurie's American accent is. The answer is: so good that at first, a lot of House viewers had no idea he wasn't from the US. (Another Brit who does a faultless Yank accent is Jamie Bamber, who played Apollo on Battlestar Galactica - but that's a discussion for my other newsletter.) As for the Christian thing, at the risk of being not funny, let's just say that religious people are different over here.
laterality101
Strange you haven't mentioned Spike Milligan here....
Contrary to popular belief (fostered mostly by Me), I haven't been exposed to everything. Now that you mention him, though, I'll be sure to check it out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_milligan
Acme :
"It's not, of course, just the comedy, which tends toward the wry, irreverent, silly, and punny." It's the horror, too. We're an odd lot, we Brits 
And only you lot can make horror funny, and comedy horrific. That's part of your charm. 
Lornda  :
I enjoyed reading your entertaining newsletter on British Humor ! I love 'Black Adder' and my favorite is the series you mentioned with Hugh Laurie playing King George. If you want to see more of Hugh Laurie, check out another British comedy series he was in--since you are the 'YouTube' King of WdC, search for 'Fry & Laurie' and see if you can keep up with those British accents! Another funny British series is 'Keeping Up Appearances'. The main character of 'Hyacinth' is just hilarious--she reminds me of my mother-in-law!  Thanks for the funny newsletter and for highlighting one of my stories! 
Good suggestions, there. Glad no one mentioned AbFab, though - far from my favorite, but some people love it.
And that'll do it for me for April - see you next time for some Mayhem. Until then,
LAUGH ON!!!
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Comedy: April 06, 2011 Issue [#4325]
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