Tuesday, July 17, 2012

ROW80 DAY 7 WHAT'S FUNNY AND WHY I AM NOT


I know there are scads of articles and studies that have been written on what is considered humorous and what is not. I really don't think that can be quantified, like a² + b² = c² , you can't assign any sort of value on what's funny, but boy, you sure know when it isn't. And it's different for everyone. Oh, you can take it so far as to classify types of humor I guess. I read or heard about how humor and funny was all broken down once, sort of a sui generis type of thing. 


Doing that just turned what I expected a half hour of rollicking talk radio into a boring class lecture. I tend to look for my entertainment in odd places. This of course explains why I have a severe case of out-of-itness now. Sort of like Chance the Gardner at times, in "Being There." Actually, I cultivate that. Well, sort of. But, we'll get to that in a moment. Researchers (?) discovered that (gasp!) different things were funny to different people! Really! Really? Who would have ever guessed? Some people go wild for puns (personally, I wish they would all go to pun Hell,) some love Adam Sandler ( ditto, but Adam Sandler Hell. and I REALLY loathe him.) 


Some appreciate the fine wine of a shaggy dog story (snore,) some appreciate slapstick (mild interest; Jackie Chan does this very well. 3 Stooges? I'm there.) Sophisticated comedy and wordplay has always amused me and there was lots of it at my house. P.G. Wodehouse, H.L. Mencken, James Thurber were all writers I read as a small girl. Fine stuff. The confusion that Thurber writes about in "The Night The Bed Fell" is some of the most hilarious and memorable, still and I haven't read that story in 40 years. His idiot hypochondriac of a cousin and the crotchety grandfather live on in my head.


I am an only child. Only children tend to spend lots of time alone. Not that we necessarily mind. We tend to be lone wolves, I think. I am eminently suited for my position now and that's good. No living (close) blood relatives. Just the ones that I am not wild about. I have a huge and very, very loving non-blood family. The plus side? We all chose each other. Anyway, I've had to rely on my own resources throughout my life and that's a good thing. So I read tons, played my viola and when the time came, programmed computers and did lots and lots of algebra and calculus and trig. Fun stuff, all. I also amused myself, in what anyone who is not inside of my head would say are lame ways. I am lame and out of it. I have never been au courant. I had (have) red hair, wore glasses and carried a viola case in junior high; ripe pickings for the bullies. Now, I eat bullies.

With all that in mind, I think I can sort of understand my current, or not so current behavior. I have developed a new "hobby."  I've become a "cyber-vandal." It works like this. Firstly and most importantly, ONLY do this to people who know you well. Secondly, do NO lasting damage to anyone's web page. It works in Twitter, Chat rooms and on Walls in FB. I'm sure it works on other Social Media sites. It's not trollilng, either. Trolling is being really mean, and then taking off. I put 24 entries on my friend Bryan's FB wall, when he was working one night. Stupid stuff. In response to a poster for the TMNT running under the Pizza Party, I posted "Now you're talking. None of those other parties are doing anything that's worth a shit. Vote me in for the Pizza Party. President Pepperoni!" 24 entries of that kind of bullshit. He sent me a private message the next morning, "you crazy bitch! I thought I'd been hacked! lol." I knew he'd appreciate it. 


I guess it's the old equivalent of t.p.'ing the teacher's house. I regularly pop up in odd places, strew around some confusion and leave. I think part of the reason is I am confused, literally a lot of the time. I didn't used to be like this. As I've become more comfortable with this state, I guess I'm learning to celebrate the weirdness. 




The cyber equivalent of a whoopie cushion?


This shit is even more fun to do on Twitter. Poor JO; I'm not sure he understood right then that I was just messing with the language. Tee hee. Just a bit of an apology today, too. This is not one of my better efforts. I wanted to do justice to this topic because this is close to my heart. I think it's fucking hilarious, and I laugh like a goon every time I do it. My roommates think I'm nuts; they're right. I do a lot of "cyber-vandalism;" no one has complained and I haven't been banned from a website yet. Sorry I didn't make this funnier and if I ever, ever offend any of my many (okay, my 3 readers) please let me know. I'll go bother some people I hate.

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