NationStates Jolt Archive

Have you ever written a version of it?

NOTE: FOR THE LOVE OF 6.2737, DO NOT POST YOUR VERSION!

Have you ever written a version of it?

NOTE: FOR THE LOVE OF 6.2737, DO NOT POST YOUR VERSION!
No, because I have yet to come up witha way to make the joke (given its "rules") actually funny.

After reading a couple of online collections of the "joke", I have concluded that it would be just as easy to write an alogrthym that pulled off-colour refrences from a database and randomly assembled them "Mad-Lib" style.

I don't have the time.

No, I haven't, but if I did, I guarantee you it would involve a ferret, a drunken dwarf, a video camera, and a copy of "Fletch Lives."

Saw the movie a couple of days ago. Who do you think did the best version? Sarah Silverman's version was creepy-good, I thought.

No, because I have yet to come up witha way to make the joke (given its "rules") actually funny.
I always thought that the point was that it wasn't funny. An anti-joke sort of thing. However, some asshole made that movie and now I am forced to admit that people actually enjoy that sort of shit on face value.
Between this revelation and the success of The Dukes of hazzard, I really am going to have to destroy humanity now.

I have absolutely no desire to see a movie where good comedians do their best to tell a joke that, IMO cannot be made funny. It can be made outrageous, and outrageously obscene, but that is not in and of itself funny. Therefore, to me it is a movie about commedians failing to fulfil their purpose in life - which is to make people laugh.

I would be very interested to see a cross-spectrum survey of the "laugh count" of The Aristocrats. I think the average would rate right up there with a National Geographic documentary about sea slugs. Informative, possibly interesting, entertaining to a select few, but definately NOT funny.

I always thought that the point was that it wasn't funny. An anti-joke sort of thing. However, some asshole made that movie and now I am forced to admit that people actually enjoy that sort of shit on face value.
Between this revelation and the success of The Dukes of hazzard, I really am going to have to destroy humanity now.Can I push the button please? (see my rant about US market surveys and the culling of HomoStupidis...)
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=9452374#post9452374

The point that the film makes, and makes very effectively in my opinion, is that it's not the punch line that makes the joke--it's the journey there that makes it. The idea is that the comics who tell this joke cross into areas where not only angels fear to tread, but where demons say "fuck this--that's some crazy, nasty shit," and then the comic takes another ten steps into the void.

You don't actually laugh at the punch line, because it isn't funny. It's not meant to be. It's a throwaway line that lets you get off the stage. But if you've told the joke right, if you've exposed not only your inner demons but the demons of all the people in the audience, then you've given them laughs that they'll never forget, belly grabbing, falling on the floor laughs. It's like jazz in a way, a basic structure around which a talented comedian can riff for a long time.

The last thing that the film really makes clear is that this is not generally a joke told to a general audience. This is a joke told to other comics, much like jam sessions took place among jazz musicians long after the clubs had closed and the paying patrons had gone home. That's why the punchline is a throwaway--the comics don't need it. They've taken the journey--where they ended up was immaterial.

No, but I have watched The Aristocats :eek:

No, but I have watched The Aristocats :eek:
And strangely enough, jazz plays a pretty major role in that film as well. Not much else in common, though. :)

And strangely enough, jazz plays a pretty major role in that film as well. Not much else in common, though. :)




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