I've been running my "Era of That's Not Funny" tag for quite a few years. I don't like the suppression of free speech, and putting some topics off-limits for humor is a subcategory of that suppression. But that doesn't mean everyone should have free rein to make any sort of joke about anything to anybody on any occasion. There are infinite considerations of taste, decency, and funniness. There are differences between what can be said by a professional comedian late at night in a club and what can be said by a stepmother at a child's funeral. How much loose talk do we really want? There's also the free speech that comes in the form of telling jokesters that's not funny. Or — because maybe it is funny, really funny — You're an asshole.
Anyway, the issue of the day is all those jokes about the implosion of the Titan submersible. I'm reading a WaPo editorial by Molly Roberts titled — unhumorously — "What internet jokes about the submersible disaster say about society."
[A]cross the internet this week, on Twitter, TikTok and beyond, many people didn’t treat the story as a catastrophe as it unfolded. They treated it as a farce....
This somber editorial presents the opportunity to cherry-pick jokes and repeat them! I'm not going to repeat them. They aren't particularly smart or funny. They seem to present one obvious insight: Rich people paid a lot of money to do something that ended up killing them. People are just pointing at that and saying, essentially, "ha ha." The laughing reflects 2 background ideas: 1. I'm not rich so I was never in danger of having that happen to me, and 2. Rich people must be dumber than ordinary people, because we would know better than to get into that awful contraption.
But let's see what the columnist says:
The crass jokes illustrate how the internet’s gravity pulls us toward extremes. The incentive is to argue or inflame, because it’s gratifying when our allies loudly agree and our enemies loudly disagree — and besides, the algorithm likes it. More clicks, less careful consideration. Especially when it comes to ideology or politics, persuasion appears impossible, so we give up on each other and many of us give up on everything else, too, descending into doomerism: The world is warming, and there’s nothing we can do about it. At best, we’re always looking for a chance to act ironic or provocative. At worst, we’re looking for a chance to be angry with each other, or even terrible to each other. Combine this impulse with the “eat-the-rich attitude” so common among Gen Z and left-leaning Americans of all ages. The belief is that not only is every billionaire a policy failure, but also being a billionaire is a personal failure, because of the immorality and lack of empathy inherent in hoarding that much money while the huddled masses starve and the globe gets hotter. In this context, the deaths of these ridiculously wealthy individuals look like an excellent opportunity for a truly disgusting meme.
So her points are: 1. The dynamics of social media and 2. Real hostility against the super-rich.
What I thought about that wasn't in her column was the psychological tension produced by the predicament of 5 men trapped in a small tube — unable to communicate and running out of air (or already obliterated). It's a vivid image, and it's stuck in your head for days as the mainstream media throw it in your face. Unless you repress thoughts, they arise easily. What would it be like in there (if they are still alive)? What are they saying? Are they arguing? Are they killing the CEO? Are they hallucinating as the oxygen runs low? Do things devolve into a group sing of "My Heart Will Go On"? The psychological tension naturally resolves into humor. Unless you repress yourself, you save yourself from the pain with comedy. You don't have to hate anyone for this to happen. You only need to be human, exhibiting instinctive defense mechanisms.
Of course, it doesn't become an "internet joke" unless you decide to put your little idea up on Twitter or TikTok or some obscure little blog submerged out there in the deep.
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56 comments:
Bad internet! Oh, naughty, wicked internet!
I'd reckon that as soon as the news of the Titanic's sinking broke in 1912, somebody somewhere was making a joke about it.
Humor refresher. A joke needs at least two of these (weak joke but recognizable as a joke) or at least three for a professional quality joke
Clever: "You recognize clever when you see it. It's just combining things that people didn't think you were going to combine, but yet you somehow made it work."
Naughty: "Naughty is usually just sex or bathroom jokes."
Bizarre: "Bizarre just means two things out of place."
Cruel: "Cruelty is a staple in humor. Cruel just means something bad happened to somebody or you said something unkind to somebody. You know cruel when you see it."
Cute: "Cute is usually just kids and animals."
Recognizable: "Humor usually requires that you recognize something about the subject of the joke being like your experience or like yourself. It's either like somebody you know, like you, but has to be familiar. Something you recognize."
Note in particular cruel.
I'd guess cruel and recognizable would be the top two in these unread jokes. Throw in naughty and you get a professional quality joke.
Anthony Jeselnik on thoughts and prayers (the too soon effect)
Thoughts and Prayers
It's people offering sympathy that's worth "fucking nothing."
"A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place."
- Gordon Gecko
The world is warming, and there’s nothing we can do about it.
It’s not, and there’s no need to. If the temperature readings weren’t being carefully “adjusted” the match the models (when it’s the models that should be adjusted to match real data) we might even discover that we’re cooling.
Immediately after hearing Howard Cosell announce John Lennon's death, my girlfriend said, "Does this mean the Beatles aren't getting back together?"
What she said, how she said it, and the way she said it left me no choice: I married her ten months later.
are we still allowed to say..
How many lesbians does it take, to screw in a light bulb?
THAT'S NOT FUNNY!!
???
So Karen walks into a bar.
The bartender sighs and does not ask, "Why the long face?"
She tells him anyway.
I’m in a veteran’s Facebook group, and we have an off-topic music thread a couple of times a week. Yesterday, somebody posted a video of Donovan’s “Atlantis.” I told him that seemed appropriate, and that I’d thought of posting “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie, but that might have been pushing it.
@ cassandra lite - I laughed twice, at her joke and your's.
you want THAT'S NOT FUNNY? i'll Give you THAT'S NOT FUNNY!
https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/20/a-whistleblower-raised-safety-concerns-about-oceangates-submersible-in-2018-then-he-was-fired/
The director of marine operations at OceanGate, the company whose submersible went missing Sunday on an expedition to the Titanic in the North Atlantic, was fired after raising concerns about its first-of-a-kind carbon fiber hull and other systems before its maiden voyage..
The report detailed “numerous issues that posed serious safety concerns,” according to the filing. These included Lochridge’s worry that “visible flaws” in the carbon fiber supplied to OceanGate raised the risk of small flaws expanding into larger tears during “pressure cycling.” These are the huge pressure changes that the submersible would experience as it made its way and from the deep ocean floor.
Lochridge’s recommendation was that non-destructive testing of the Titan’s hull was necessary to ensure a “solid and safe product.” The filing states that Lochridge was told that such testing was impossible, and that OceanGate would instead rely on its much touted acoustic monitoring system.
The company claims this technology, developed in-house, uses acoustic sensors to listen for the tell-tale sounds of carbon fibers in the hull deteriorating to provide “early warning detection for the pilot with enough time to arrest the descent and safely return to surface.”
Of course, what's even Funnier would be a Major aircraft manufacturer designing their new planes to fly straight into the ground.. And then not only Not mention it; declare the planes would need no new training to fly (into the ground). LOL!
They seem to present one obvious insight: Rich people paid a lot of money to do something that ended up killing them.
And poor people spend smaller amounts of money on fentanyl or getting drunk and then driving their cars or pickup trucks off the road, which ends up killing them. I don’t think the deaths of rich people are funnier than the deaths of poor people, and the deaths of poor people due to drugs and/or alcohol are not funny at all.
I’ll be 77 in a few days, and I can easily recall when there was only one (rotary dial) telephone in the house and if Dad missed an important call because you were chit-chatting with a buddy from high school then things were going to get rough for a bit. I remember trying to research things in a small town’s library, taking most of an afternoon and still not getting as good an answer as Google or DuckDuckGo gives high school kids in a minute or two. I remember when there was no such thing as a desktop computer, I remember when green screens hadn’t been invented and we interfaces with a computer via ouch cards, I remember when there was no such thing as the Internet, I remember a time before web browsers, and a time before social media. I don’t mind that some people got ridiculously wealthy creating things we didn’t even realize we needed. But then, I’m a grown-up. Liberals, not so much.
"I'd reckon that as soon as the news of the Titanic's sinking broke in 1912, somebody somewhere was making a joke about it."
I remember on the morning of 9/11 thinking no one will ever make a joke again and then, on that very morning, making a joke myself.
(My joke: "I guess now we can stop talking about Chandra Levy.")
Serious Question.. that's NOT FUNNY
was there ever, Anything, on earth (or in the water (or in the skies)) MORE fitted to VR
than traveling down 12,500 ft to see the Titanic?
WHAT was the point of men going down there? What did they see? (hear? (feel? (smell?))) that they wouldn't have gotten on VR?
Did the sub even have a window? Or were they watching monitors for what was outside?
Seriously though; i guess there WAS one thing they wouldn't have gotten to experience on VR..
Being crushed to death
I guess if the little watercraft didn't implode instantaneously, they may have had time to hold hands, meditate or pray. I was on a plane once that had a mild version of an emergency landing. The pilot wasn't absolutely sure the landing gear was engaging properly. We made a fairly rapid descent at the airport we were all hoping to arrive at. We were told to lean over with our heads between our knees. One old joke has the addition: then kiss your ass goodbye. No, the flight attendants yelled "lean over and brace." The lady next to me said "I thought at first they were saying lean over and pray."
Apparently a father and son were on board the submersible; the father had asked the son to join him for Fathers Day. "Happy Fathers Day, you asshole." How many deaths have been caused by the Hallmark company? Valentines, Mothers, Fathers, landmark birthdays and anniversaries? Parachuting and its variations on special days--so much more romantic if it's the two of us? We wouldn't want to take separate vacations. Whitewater rafting? Everest? Long hikes on the famous fairly remote trails? Keys fastened to railings, bridges and so on. Isn't this more special if it's done on an anniversary, at a dangerous location?
What op-eds in WaPo about jokes say about the decay of formerly serious news outlets
Bob Boyd said...
So Karen walks into a bar.
The bartender sighs and does not ask, "Why the long face?"
She tells him anyway.
LOL (after thinking: hmm Bob’s joke is not at all funny).
With all due respect to the deceased, there's something inherently ridiculous in paying all that money to meet their appointment in Samarra. No need to go to all trouble and expense. Death will kindly wait for all of us and the trip is frequently discounted......The author raises some interesting points about plutarchophobia. The best among us frequently exhibit an unreasonable fear and hatred of the wealthy. We should be more accepting of their foibles and culture....There's a saying that behind every great fortune, there's a great crime. Maybe, maybe not. But certainly behind every great self made fortune, there's someone who took a great risk. Entrepreneurs take risks, and some of them crash and burn (to use the wrong metaphor). Some of the passengers took unreasonable risks for most of their lives and that's how they had the money to pay for their first class journey to Samarra.
T-shirts for sale in 1987:
NASA: Need Another Seven Astronauts
Could have reprised in 2003
The U.S. Navy and Coast Guard knew almost immediately that the sub imploded. I don't know why these people chose to lie to the public about banging noises and diminishing oxygen supplies and the rest of it. But whatever the case is, it's not surprising that tons of people thumbed their noses at this bullsh*t.
What I learned when all the facts came out.
This was a sudden catastrophic depressurization.
I think they said it took 2 nano seconds. The increase in temperature was into the thousands F until the sub zero sea water slammed them at 3 nano seconds.
I said before, I morn their death. That being said, the risk of diving that deep is less than even odds. Adults make their own decisions. (my empathy switch often sticks.)
I had forgotten all about Chandra Levy.
It’s a shame we are losing our history so quickly; not just in our next generations studiously avoiding any disciplined study of it, but in our sensitivity to the history embedded in language itself, in a phrase like “gallows humor.” It perfectly conveys the natural —irresistible— human reaction to the most horrific outcomes. We see the world end for some other person and we are moved to do two contradictory things: to cry and to laugh. I submit that both are necessary as we “process” the experience and try to make sense of it. Rhhardin’s point about the nature of humor is IMHO spot-on.
I don't get why people "hate the rich" enough to wish death on them or celebrate it. It's strictly envy, IMHO.
Take someone you REALLY love. Say, your daughter. She turns 18 and buys her first lottery ticket. She gets lucky and wins a take-home, one-time payment of $48 million dollars. Not a billionaire, but now she's _rich_! It makes the national news and goes viral on the internet. She goes out a few weeks later and buys a $130,000 sports car. Takes it out for the first time and, never having had a car that can go so fast, pushes it up to 150 mph on the interstate in an uncrowded section. No experience and she cannot handle it when a large piece of a semi's tire is in the middle of the road and she tries to avoid it. Loses control and flips multiple times, killing her.
In the next few days, on the internet, people make memes about her "first time luck" and gladly express the notion that she "deserved it" (her death) because money is evil and she should have opened a soup kitchen or donated to a charity rather than spending the money "foolishly" on herself.
Is this okay? Are you okay with people celebrating her death, not because she made foolish choices, but because now there is "one less rich bitch in the world"? Tell me.
MarcusB. THEOLDMAN
gilbar said...
Serious Question.. that's NOT FUNNY
was there ever, Anything, on earth (or in the water (or in the skies)) MORE fitted to VR
than traveling down 12,500 ft to see the Titanic?
WHAT was the point of men going down there? What did they see? (hear? (feel? (smell?))) that they wouldn't have gotten on VR?
Considering that they were sealed in a small, supposedly watertight tube; each other's farts.
In comedy timing is everything.
Meade said...
"Bob Boyd said...
So Karen walks into a bar.
The bartender sighs and does not ask, "Why the long face?"
She tells him anyway.
LOL (after thinking: hmm Bob’s joke is not at all funny)."
She asked to see your manager.
I heard somebody complaining that we're all talking about the handful of wealthy people who died in the sub, but not about the 500 migrants who drowned trying to reach a better life in Europe.
Maybe for the same reasons nobody is making jokes about the migrants.
@gilbar: Of course, what's even Funnier would be a Major aircraft manufacturer designing their new planes to fly straight into the ground.. And then not only Not mention it; declare the planes would need no new training to fly (into the ground). LOL!
Both crews badly mishandled the aircraft. The three steps required to give them complete control would take less time than I have spent writing this sentence.
LOL (after thinking: hmm Bob’s joke is not at all funny).
It's one of them DIYer jokes. Comes in a kit and you put it together yourself.
The 13 best Donner Party jokes. https://upjoke.com/donner-party-jokes
Maybe I missed something but almost all of the jokes and snark memes I've seen have been about the OceanGate CEO's woke stupidity with diverse and young engineers, and very few, if any, about rich people.
Marcus Bressler said...
It's OKAY, for rich people to drive 150 mph on the highways (it's OUR job to watch Out for them!)
If (WHEN) they die in a fiery crash.. Marcus thinks we should ALL have a somber parade for her;
and close down the road she was speeding on.. Because Marcus Truly Believes that we EXIST to support the rich. Do i have that Right, Marcus???
Let's look at a different scenario:
Take someone you REALLY love. Say, your daughter. She turns 18 and celebrates her high school graduation by getting stoned,drunk,high on meth, and tripping on Acid. Takes her car out for the ride and, never QUITE so wasted before, pushes it up to 150 mph on the interstate in an uncrowded section. No experience and she cannot handle it when a large piece of a semi's tire is in the middle of the road and she tries to avoid it. Loses control and flips multiple times, killing her.
These things happen EVERY JUNE, in EVERY state.. And, you know what? NO ONE has any sympathy for her;
Because she's poor
I would not accept $250,000 to get on that thing, much less go underwater in it; wealth would probably make me more cautious, not less.
And as far as drownings go, NPR has been on a drowning migrants in the Med binge all week--their contribution to the Distraction Offensive.
I only know about that because I had few other news options for five days and our local classical station is an affiliate.
https://munley.com/teenage-traffic-fatalities-increase-dramatically-prom-graduation-season/
https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/high-school-students-excited-prom-graduation-parties-safety/509-2d00a8a8-a635-49ba-9352-910d9afa02ee
and finally, of course; we HAVE to post
Speeding Driver Kills 5 Minnesota Teen Preparing for Friend's Wedding: 'Pearls of the Community'
Of course, in THAT case; the drive's father was a Black Lives Matter politician, and RICH; so i guess we're supposed to show sympathy.. to HIM; even though he'd been out of jail for less than 2 months, since his LAST fatal drunk driving hit and run (he was sentenced to 14 years, but was released after about 6 months; because his family were
a) RICH!
b) BLM politicians
"I heard somebody complaining that we're all talking about the handful of wealthy people who died in the sub, but not about the 500 migrants who drowned trying to reach a better life in Europe."
Yeah, "somebody" — Obama.
NASA: Need Another Seven Astronauts
How do we know Christa McAuliffe had dandruff? They found her Head and Shoulders on the beach.
How do we know Christa McAuliffe had blue eyes? One blew this way, one blew that way.
Why is Sprite the official drink of NASA? Because they can't get 7-up.
I used to tell these all of the time, and I literally cried watching the shuttle blow up live on TV.
RE: that's not funny
Ms. Magazine used to have a 'That's Not Funny' column decades ago (1970's I think - they may still have it). It featured cartoons that readers sent in that were horribly sexist. I recall one in which a man is copulating with a woman doggy style. She says, "I hope you have birth control". He says "Don't worry about that" - as he's holding a gun to the back of her head.
Funny? Not funny? Anyone remember this feature of Ms. Magazine?
I didn't hear Obama. The somebody I'm referring to was part of the group at our table last night at a restaurant. Maybe she'd heard Obama.
Speaking of Obama, that's another tragedy we're not supposed to joke about.
"Obama" = 'somebody" for purposes of public concern.
How about, "It's not supposed to be funny. It's serious."
Now what?
lf it were so cogent, so on point, that it caused a laugh--not all laughs are at funny--then perhaps it's pretty on point and not meant to be a joke.
Shortly after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake I read/saw/heard some wag say "You just know that right before the earthquake hit some dad was saying to his son 'Here, pull my finger'".
"So Karen walks into a bar.
The bartender sighs and does not ask, "Why the long face?"
She tells him anyway."
I don't get it. Is Karen a horse?
Marcus: Sorry but I am making fun of your dead daughter for buying a sportscar with no experience driving it.
The first 9/11 joke I heard was "Bin Laden, Done that." from a friend's clever girlfriend on 9/12. The Onion was superb a few days later.
The first 9/11 joke I heard was "Bin Laden, Done that." from a friend's clever girlfriend on 9/12. The Onion was superb a few days later.
Who else are we allowed to laugh at?
"Fun Fact: If they took all of the urinals out of every bus station men's room in America, and laid them end-to-end, you wouldn't want to be there when they did it."
- Johnny Carson
Death and humor often go hand-in-hand.
I'm sure death made sure he didn't have to swim too deep, because, well, who needs that kind of pressure?
"But that doesn't mean everyone should have free rein to make any sort of joke about anything to anybody on any occasion."
Yes it does. It's just that you'll have to deal with the fallout in an equally public manner.
@Andrew - No, she's an ass. Pretty much the same face.
Gilbar doesn't get "it", so let me speak s l o w l y:
We're not talking about supporting the rich or not caring about poor people, we're talking about the common trait of "hating the rich" simply because they are rich.
It's called "Envy" and it's one of the 7 Deadly Sins.
MarcusB. THEOLDMAN
I remember the NYT publishing a different article after the Challenger disaster about the speed in which jokes were made about that ("Why did NASA switch to Pepsi in their cafeteria? Because they couldn't get seven up!"). There is always a touch of cruelty in humor because someone has to be the butt of the joke. Maybe Hollywood needs to reboot "The Miracle Worker" to see if we get a fresh crop of Helen Keller jokes, which were so popular when I was a kid ("Why was Helen Keller's leg yellow? The dog was blind, too!").
The masks of theater are tragedy and comedy, and the latter helps us deal with the former. How many people read the story of the Titan and engaged in some horrifyng projection ndue to their own claustrophobia or fear of dark water? How to deal with that? Human nature for centuries has used good old gallows humor. So I am White . . . but I'm not "go down to the see the Titanic" White.
I hope I can end my life with a laugh but if not, I hope I go quietly in my sleep like my grandfather did.
Not screaming in terror like the passengers in his car.
"passengers in his bus" works too.
If Allah didn't want those believers to drown he would have given them gills.
Obama cares so much, he and Michelle spent the week of 9/11, as with all other weeks at that time, with terrorist Bill Ayers, who got off the official
first 9/11 joke (preemptively) with his editorial published in the NYT that morning, "No regrets for a love of explosives," in which Ayers joked: "I don't regret setting bombs. I think we didn't do enough."
NYT, 9/11/2001. Obama never publicly criticized Ayers for this horrifying coincidence and continued blending his family with Ayers and Dohrn's until they became a political liability for his ambition.
Doubtlessly, some people in the towers died that morning while reading Ayers' lighthearted memories of being a terrorist.
Tellingly, this didn't matter to Obama until it was bad for his career.
ALP, I'm not certain, but I believe that cartoon came from Hustler Magazine.
I've been trying to get someone to put up an historical marker at the Lawrenceville (GA) Courthouse where Larry Flint's genitalia expired prematurely in a botched assassination attempt, but so far, nobody seems to find this funny.
Little Willy limericks. Dead baby jokes. Zippy the Pinhead and Dick Tracy. 1940s to 1960s cartoons rerun on Saturday mornings. All things that have been condemned now, that I grew up laughing at. These gave me the strength of character to avoid being offended by personal attacks or political agitprop or other people, in general, I think because the wide variety of purposefully offensive material pointed out that words are just words, images just images, and jokes are just jokes.
These sorts of things must be the stuff that Nietzsche said would make us stronger, because it certainly wasn't sticks and stones and it didn't kill us.
Parts of the Larry Flint movie were filmed on the UM campus--the set people painted "Dean of Religious Studies" on the door of a former office space in the old library. I never saw the movie so don't know if it made the cut.
Some brief early scenes in The Firm were also filmed on our campus; the charming little yellow house is still there, not far from campus. For a while Memphis was an attractive place for TV and film production.
I'm old enough to have got, and kept, a 1970s world map of ethnic and racial slurs produced by the National Lampoon (? - it's in a pile in my room, but which pile?)
Was it Steve Allen that said Comedy = Time + Tragedy?
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