Cunningham Muffins Commercial

[3894]

Originally Posted by Alex

As for women as men. Slate recently had an article on the underground drag king scene in D.C.

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

[Gemini Cricket]

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

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Alex

Ok, what am I missing? It was pretty stupid after the third absurd muffin type. Is this making fun of something I'm unaware of?

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

I never get from nonsensical and stupid to funny. I go straight to irritated instead.

Yes, comedy is very subjective.

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Um, well, we all love Lisa .... but, psssst ... she finds no humor in either Mel Brooks or Monty Python. She's missing a gene.

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.

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

To which I might retort - I don't understand why (in this thread) you're so damn eager to flaunt your lack of sense of humor (pretty ironic considering the above-quoted remark of your's from that other thread was apparently a result of the same lack).

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.

[innerSpaceman]

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:

Originally Posted by Johnson Manly

In the 20th lecture in A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud writes, "Of little girls we know that they feel themselves heavily handicapped by the absence of a large visible penis and envy the boy's possession of it; from this source primarily springs the wish to be a man. …" I don't want to say the much-maligned Herr Doktor was right, but there was something revelatory about walking around with this cotton appendage. I suddenly felt I wasn't alone in the world. I now had a secret friend nestled by my leg, giving me strength and encouragement.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

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

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.

[innerSpaceman]

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.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

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.

[Alex]

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.

[3894]

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.

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by LSPoorEeyorick

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.

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.