I learned something new today. Thanks for the link, Alex.

Analyzing humor is like taking apart a rose to find out where its beauty button is.

I didn't find the muffin thing amusing - to me it was too much a one trick pony. I know some people like absurdism; it would appear that NA, Alex, and I (and probably others) do not. Although I do love me some Monty Python and Mel Brooks, so maybe I do love absurdism - who knows.

Unless, this was an attempt at humour, I find statement comparing apples and carburetors. In the thread that you linked to, you specifically made a racist statement and declared yourself a racist. Unless I missed something, Alex never once stated that he completely lacked a sense of humour. And to be honest, I love his dry, albeit sometimes hard to follow, sense of humour.

Hmmm, I didn't find the Slate article to be very revealing about the (previously unbenownst to me) drag king culture ... but I did love this quote from the gal who was experimenting with it for the purpose of writing the article:

I disagree. While I don't sit back after every funny movie I watch and deconstruct it, I find it very helpful, as a writer, to understand what makes people laugh. That same film class gave me a basic understanding of what are, to me, the funniest jokes. That humor comes from setting something up so that the audience thinks they know what's coming, and then yanking it out from under them. For a fine example, please refer to just about everything Tref has ever said, particularly his message to Cindy in her birthday podcast from BDBopper.

And while we have little control over the beauty of a rose, humor is man-made. And yes, it's often unexpected, unplanned, unconsciously put out there, and it's wonderful when it is. It isn't, always, so - for instance - Groundlings or Second City or Upright Citizens Brigade classes help people to discover humor kinesthetically... but they're certainly talking about why something is or isn't funny so as to capture and re-capture that firefly.

And yes, Kevy, you missed something.





Because I'm not a racist ... i just play one on the LoT.



Um, for laughs.




Not funny, you say? Well, humor is very subjective.

Any excuse to watch "Shoes" again is good enough for me.

For the record, I got what he was trying to do in "Muffins", but I only actually laughed briefly. I did get it, though.

Drag is funny to me in comedy due to the "imposter" aspect discussed above. The more ridiculous the better. I don't get drag queens at all though.

First, if you consider racist slurs to be funny, then yes, I don't have your sense of humor.

Second, I certainly do have a sense of humor. The above mentioned Arrested Development and 30 Rock are frequently hilarious. In a similar vein so is The Office, Flight of the Conchords and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

I wouldn't have said anything in this thread at all about whether I found this muffin video funny and why/why not (and in fact, did not for almost a day after the conversation started) except that the talking had already moved into that realm with NA's and 3894's posts.

So, to recap:

This video, not funny to me.
The shoes video, not funny but still interesting.
You "playing" a racist ass, not funny.
Other things, funny.

From a theoretical standpoint, are drag queens and drag kings really two sides of the same coin?

I'm guessing that drag kings are mostly politically motivated, whereas drag queens just want to dress like Cher.

As a writer, I could see that. But hearing a joke and then wondering about it and trying to figure out every nuance of it when one is not a writer or comedian or whatever is too Vulcan for me.
I also believe a sense of humor is innate.