Humour, Act 1
Ever seen something that's probably not meant to be funny and probably isn't to anyone else? Take this sentence, for instance, from the Wikipedia article on Duke Nukem Forever:
Get the joke? A sequel at the end of forever? I honestly believe that whoever wrote this is either a comic genius who has somehow made his humour slip under pickier editors radars or it's a huge coincidence. I'd prefer the former but the latter still works because it's humour that I can laugh at and very few others can, until I explain the wordplay, explain the vapourware nature of Duke Nukem Forever and even then it may only get the merest chuckle.
I love humour like this. There's such a natural-ness to it. I don't really know how else to describe it. It's being funny not because you're expected to be, or because you're trying to be, it's just being funny because you think of something that makes you happy and you say it and if other people laugh then that's good and if they don't then it doesn't matter. It's humour without a message, funny without being forced.
I can't stand fake humour. I can't stand laugh track humour or with-a-gag-a-second-we-don't-need-a-plot TV shows. It's why I no longer find Family Guy funny and why I love stuff like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the Discworld books. It's humour that, it seems to me at the very least, the writers don't care if you find funny. It's not gags and one-liner comebacks that could be in any show, any book, any plot. It's funny people writing funny things because they can, because they enjoy it. Sure, it might be a job, but you like to think that they'd do that job whether they had to or not.
I've been thinking for a few minutes about what it is I'm trying to say here and to be honest, I'm really not sure myself. I'm just tossing thoughts out there and seeing where they land and what they hit. I have many thoughts on humour just waiting to be hurled at random passers by. Maybe I'll write about them another day. For now, I leave you with this garbled mess and tell you that I have to go do a presentation for Computing tomorrow. I've said before that I like having a hectic schedule. Can't get much more hectic than homework at half... heleven.
“On March 21, 2006, 3D Realms CEO Scott Miller stated that when Forever was finished, 3D Realms would begin work on a sequel.”
Get the joke? A sequel at the end of forever? I honestly believe that whoever wrote this is either a comic genius who has somehow made his humour slip under pickier editors radars or it's a huge coincidence. I'd prefer the former but the latter still works because it's humour that I can laugh at and very few others can, until I explain the wordplay, explain the vapourware nature of Duke Nukem Forever and even then it may only get the merest chuckle.
I love humour like this. There's such a natural-ness to it. I don't really know how else to describe it. It's being funny not because you're expected to be, or because you're trying to be, it's just being funny because you think of something that makes you happy and you say it and if other people laugh then that's good and if they don't then it doesn't matter. It's humour without a message, funny without being forced.
I can't stand fake humour. I can't stand laugh track humour or with-a-gag-a-second-we-don't-need-a-plot TV shows. It's why I no longer find Family Guy funny and why I love stuff like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the Discworld books. It's humour that, it seems to me at the very least, the writers don't care if you find funny. It's not gags and one-liner comebacks that could be in any show, any book, any plot. It's funny people writing funny things because they can, because they enjoy it. Sure, it might be a job, but you like to think that they'd do that job whether they had to or not.
I've been thinking for a few minutes about what it is I'm trying to say here and to be honest, I'm really not sure myself. I'm just tossing thoughts out there and seeing where they land and what they hit. I have many thoughts on humour just waiting to be hurled at random passers by. Maybe I'll write about them another day. For now, I leave you with this garbled mess and tell you that I have to go do a presentation for Computing tomorrow. I've said before that I like having a hectic schedule. Can't get much more hectic than homework at half... heleven.
posted by Alasdair Corbett at
11:32 PM
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