Althouse: The Andrew Sullivan Award.

October 4, 2007

The Andrew Sullivan Award.

For humor deafness.

26 comments:

Laura Reynolds said...: An award with many receipients and aptly named. Just kidding. Get it?; 10/4/07, 8:23 AM
rcocean said...: "I think it was her strategy to make us talk about that instead of substantive problems she has. It's a distraction. She's deliberately laughing in a way designed to derail us from going in a direction that would hurt her. (So was the cleavage.)"

Suggest you start using smiley faces. Or what about "HA!HA!HA!" at the end? Then even Sullivan will understand.; 10/4/07, 8:52 AM
marklewin said...: Ann, How clever.

Of course your loopy (and not in an intelligent, funny, "I Love Lucy" way or even a Suzanne Somers, "3's Company" fashion).

The following sentence recently came from Ann, who holds herself out as an arbitor of clear cogent writing: "As a young girl she was used to make money by adults who used her to express what they thought would amuse people to see a young girl express."

Did the South Carolinian Teen Beauty Queen help you write that sentence?

Your writing makes Glenn Greenwald seem like Hemingway.

Loopy....Mr. Sullivan is giving you the benefit of the doubt.; 10/4/07, 8:57 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "your loopy" what?; 10/4/07, 9:20 AM
Justin said...: rcocean said...

Suggest you start using smiley faces. Or what about "HA!HA!HA!" at the end? Then even Sullivan will understand.

Maybe a disclaimer appended to every post: "The preceding post may or may not have been intended to convey humor. I reserve the right to mock any reader who does not "get" the humor. I also reserve the right to define "get" with respect to the humor that may or may not exist in the preceding post. In addition, I reserve the right to reserve any and all other rights I determine to be necessary for the reserving of any and all other right."; 10/4/07, 9:28 AM
marklewin said...: "your loopy" what?

In a rush..... "you're" instead of "your". I could use an editor!; 10/4/07, 10:01 AM
T.F. said...: For what it's worth, I'm a regular reader and didn't read your comments as sarcastic either.

Maybe it's me, but I think it entirely believable that you would so interpret the laugh.; 10/4/07, 10:03 AM
Ann Althouse said...: It wasn't sarcasm. It was hyperbole. I'm vicious and I know all the tricks — irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody...; 10/4/07, 10:15 AM
AllenS said...: "...and I know all the tricks"

I'll bet you know a few old Apache tricks, as well.; 10/4/07, 10:31 AM
titus22 said...: He called you loopy. I think being referred to as loopy is a compliment. You could be called worse things.

Last night my Haitian cab driver called me a sissy and we got in a big fight about being gay. He told me it is a choice and that they didn't have gays in Haitia.

I was really dramatic I told him to shut up or pull the cab over. He shut up. When he left me off he talked to a couple on the street about the gay in his cab. I was like hello, your in NYC bitch.

He sounded just like Almajmoveon.orgdad (I got that from Stephen Colbert); 10/4/07, 10:46 AM
marklewin said...: You left out sneezy, sleepy, and loopy.; 10/4/07, 10:48 AM
MadisonMan said...: Please don't nail my head to the floor. Or to a coffee table.; 10/4/07, 11:04 AM
Henry said...: It wasn't sarcasm. It was hyperbole. I'm vicious and I know all the tricks — irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody...

Now, THAT made me laugh.

You all are a cheery lot. Cheerful and violent.; 10/4/07, 11:58 AM
rcocean said...: Althouse, Sarah Silverman has the same problem. Sullivan probably thinks this is racist:

"Relations between black and white would be greatly improved if we were more accepting of our fears and our feelings and more vocal about it."

I think its funny.; 10/4/07, 1:13 PM
Ruth Anne Adams said...: Sullivan must have been scrounging for something to hit you with because he had to dig for a comment you made deep in the thread. The original post only said you wanted to bang your head.

Didn't you write or podcast about finding the author's quotes in the comments threads being fair game but poor form?; 10/4/07, 2:06 PM
Anonymous said...: I've seen grown men pull their own 'eads off rather than read Sullivan.; 10/4/07, 2:07 PM
JimM47 said...: Count me as one of the many people who habitually doesn't get jokes in the genre of Althouse-on-Clinton even when told that they are jokes.; 10/4/07, 5:55 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Well, Jim, "jokes" just isn't really the right word for what I do. I'm playing with words and ideas and toying with you a lot of the time. The fact that you don't get it and Andrew doesn't get it... that's how I have my fun. As I said, I'm vicious. The fact that you and Andy can't understand where the daggers are is part of how I have my fun. I'm not here for the partisan and the ideologues. My core readers come from a different place. You can be here too, but you have to think and you have to look at things from different angles. It's not a normal political (or legal) blog. Something is happening here, but you don't know what it is.; 10/4/07, 6:06 PM
marklewin said...: Althouse writes... "that's how I have my fun. As I said, I'm vicious. The fact that you and Andy can't understand where the daggers are is part of how I have my fun."

......and she's obsessed with the Scandinavian death metal movement of the early 1990's.; 10/4/07, 6:34 PM
JimM47 said...: Not a criticism, just a statement. You're allowed to write about whatever you want, and in whatever style. Just, some people don't get it.; 10/4/07, 10:35 PM
Unknown said...: How many Andrew Sullivans does it take to change a light bulb?

"that's not funny"; 10/4/07, 11:47 PM
Trooper York said...: There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

(Music from the Professor's youth); 10/5/07, 12:16 AM
bill said...: JimM47 said...
Not a criticism, just a statement. You're allowed to write about whatever you want, and in whatever style. Just, some people don't get it.

Yeah, well, who the hell cares what you think. Look, I think this Althouse thing has fallen in the crapper and I only hang around for those few fleeting moments when it's almost like the early days. But that's a me problem, not an Althouse problem. Sometimes jokes are written and spoken for the sole benefit of the person telling the joke. Audience of one. Screw the bystanders. If you get it, great. If you don't, no problem, it wasn't meant for you. The only time there's a problem is when people act like an ass because they feel left out of a club they were never in.

Pete Townshend, Misunderstood (streaming audio)
Just wanna be misunderstood
Wanna be feared in my neighborhood
Just wanna be a moody man
Say things that nobody can understand

I wanna be obscure and oblique
Inscrutable and vague
So hard to pin down
I wanna leave open mouths when I speak
Want people to cry when I put them down

I wanna be either old or young
Don't like where I've ended up or where I begun
I always feel I must get things in the can
I just can't handle it the way I am

Why am I so straight and simple
People see through me like I'm made of glass
Why can't I deepen with graying temples
Am I growing out of my class

I always feel I should be somewhere else
I feel impatient like a girl on the shelf
They say that I should live sera sera
But I am such an ordinary star

Coolwalkingsmoothtalkingstraightsmokingfirestoking
Coolwalkingsmoothtalking, yeah

Just wanna be misunderstood
I wanna be feared in my neighborhood
Just wanna be a moody man
Say things that nobody can understand

Coolwalkingsmoothtalkingstraightsmokingfirestoking
Coolwalkingsmoothtalkingstraightsmokingfirestoking
Coolwalkingsmoothtalkingstraightsmokingfirestoking
Coolwalkingsmoothtalking, yeah; 10/5/07, 7:48 AM
Trooper York said...: Bill, nice.; 10/5/07, 12:28 PM
Trooper York said...: Saying sorry
Would mean I've apologised
And you know I was good to you baby
There were very few lies
Now that you ask me
I'm no saint inside
The same things you feel little darling
I don't try to hide
When I think about the laughter
Directed at me
I don't give a damn anymore
If they don't see what I see
We've got the right to love
We've got the chance
To make it work
We've got the right to love
Yes we got the right
Don't put the blame on me
I won't tell you no lies
Don't put the blame on me
Got no time for compromise

(Boy George Culture Club 1987); 10/5/07, 12:34 PM
bill said...: As I said, I'm vicious

Trooper York and I missed an obvious opportunity to run off the tracks:

Stripes:
Psycho: The name's Francis Soyer, but everybody calls me Psycho. Any of you guys call me Francis, and I'll kill you.
Leon: Ooooooh.
Psycho: You just made the list, buddy. Also, I don't like no one touching my stuff. So just keep your meathooks off. If I catch any of you guys in my stuff, I'll kill you. And I don't like nobody touching me. Any of you homos touch me, and I'll kill you.
Sergeant Hulka: Lighten up, Francis.

Billy Joel
She cuts you once, she cuts you twice
But still you believe
The wound is so fresh you can taste the blood
But you don't have strength to leave
You've been bought, you've been sold
You've been locked outside the door
But you stand there pleadin',
With your insides bleedin',
'Cause you deep down want some more
Then she says she wants forgiveness
It's such a clever masquerade
She's so good with her stiletto
You don't even see the blade; 10/6/07, 1:04 PM