Saturday, July 3, 2010

Dinosaur [chat]

23 comments:

_J_ said...

Yes to Dan Telfer.

"First of all, Allosaurus? It's latin for 'different lizard'. See you at lollapalooza.

Ankylosaurus IS the best dinosaur. I had a toy of one; it was awesome.

_J_ said...

So, I have only been to one comedy club, ever, and that which irritated me about that comedy club seems to apply to the comedy club in the clip as well: People keep laughing at shit which is not funny.

Towards the beginning of the clip? People are laughing at non-jokes. When the guy states a fact about a dinosaur? People laugh, and then they stop laughing at the end of the explanation, when the joke is presented, and then fail to laugh at the joke itself. That this guy knows things about dinosaurs is not funny; the jokes he crafts out of that knowledge are funny.

But people are laughing at the knowledge, rather than the jokes. They're laughing at the setup.

"A rabbi and a nazi walk into a bar..." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Oh man, tha could totally not happen!

They're laughing at the fucking premise. And that, I think, is weird.

My theory is that persons go to a comedy club with the intent to laugh, and so laugh at any bit of sense data which they consider to merit a reaction. They are not there to discern the humor so much as they are there for the sake of laughter, itself.

It's akin to those people who go to concerts with the intent to be an asshat, so they attend a Guster concert and start crowd-surfing during Diane. They're simply there to perform an activity independent of that which occurs.

Roscoe said...

Wait,... J.. the joke is that the bar is a plank of wood they just cracked their heads open on, innit?

_J_ said...

No, that's the setup to a joke which results from a comedic situation within an establishment which primarily serves alcoholic beverages.

Roscoe said...

... it.. occurs to me after watching that..

one, some of the folks laughing at the beginning? Are aware that it's a recurring semi-improv bit he does. So, you know.. they aren't laughing at the set up, but because they know what's coming, which puts them squarely in laughing at the joke category.

and two.. a lot of the laughs before the joke builds are at the absurdity of being asked the question.. the humor of the scenario as opposed to the humor of the punchline.

Caleb said...

Roscoe's got you there.

_J_ said...

"So, you know.. they aren't laughing at the set up, but because they know what's coming, which puts them squarely in laughing at the joke category."

That is either laughing at a recognition of the potentiality of a joke, which I think silly, or, better, laughing at a meta-joke in the entire bit being, itself, a joke.

"a lot of the laughs before the joke builds are at the absurdity of being asked the question.. the humor of the scenario as opposed to the humor of the punchline."

Alright, so the whole bit is a joke, within which there are sub-jokes. So we have the meta-joke of the bit, within which are found other jokes.

_J_ said...

"Roscoe's got you there."

No one has me, anywhere.


...

I am so alone.

Hold me?

Mike Lewis said...

also, there is a certain momentum to humor. when someone starts laughing, they continue to laugh even when there is no joke.

an audience member begins to anticipate the punch line before the the set up is complete. A good comedian will understand this and take advantage of it. Watch old steve martin bits on youtube. he will spend several minutes setting setting up a joke, taking time to build tension, whenever it seems like he is about to complete the jokes, than pulls back. When he does come to the punch line, it is almost as if it does not matter. its a non-factor.

An example: In King Tut there is all of this set for the guitar solo, only for it to be a single cord. All set up, little-to-no-punchline.

_J_ said...

I have spent one hour and 20 minutes trying to write one paragraph, which has turned into four paragraphs, all of which are trying to explain one sentence:

"a true idea must agree with its object"


I fucking love / hate philosophy.

_J_ said...

And, for some reason, the only thinking helping me to maintain my sanity is listening to Just Dance on repeat.

This is pretty damn awesome / terrible.

_J_ said...

Well, it took one hour and 50 minutes, but I explained the fucking sentence.

Woo-fucking-hoo.

_J_ said...

Things which are awesome:

“A thing necessarily exists if there is no reason or cause which prevents it from existing."
-The Ethics, 2P11D2

There are reasons and causes for all things.

Because fuck you that's why.

Andrew said...

MST3K is on Hulu

_J_ said...

Ebert HATES the Last Airbender

Mike Lewis said...

as he should. the cartoon is fantastic.

Andrew said...

Facebook has informed me that others hated it as well.

_J_ said...

Man, this Penny Arcade is pretty funny.

_J_ said...

Facebook is full of lies and date rapists.

_J_ said...

Holy Hell.

Alicia Menendez be bangin'!

She could lecture me on immigration reform forever.

Rawr.

_J_ said...

bar bar bar

_J_ said...

If you go through the international trailer for Scott Pilgrim at 1:59 you can see the first evil ex shooting fire with his demon bitches.

_J_ said...

I just wrote 40 god damned mother fucking shit-ass pages in 9 and a half hours.

I am going to crawl into a hole and die now.

They're really fucking good pages, though. Woo pages. Woo sleep.