tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post2406447977189324766..comments2023-11-03T06:02:02.128-07:00Comments on By Ken Levine: The single most important truth in comedyBy Ken Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17305293821975250420noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-56749139564501404632010-06-10T23:35:39.911-07:002010-06-10T23:35:39.911-07:00Couldn't agree more with what you wrote in thi...Couldn't agree more with what you wrote in this blog. Comedy is Offensive. Simple as that. And the more funny it is the less offensive it is. :-) I have a friend Tristan that always jokes around and his jokes are offensive but they're funny so I never get mad. But whenever he makes a joke and I'm not in a joking mood. I end up biting his head off for it XDKatlyn Tillmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-60143896300351624112010-06-06T11:51:47.892-07:002010-06-06T11:51:47.892-07:00If you really want transgressive humour, look at h...If you really want transgressive humour, look at http://www.sickipedia.org/ - there's a lot of unfunny offensive "jokes" there, but there's some incredibly witty ones too. No topic sacred, the only common theme is that they're in screamingly bad taste.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-34294888457661202402010-06-03T19:52:50.482-07:002010-06-03T19:52:50.482-07:00Just to give props to the writer, the VW-Ted Kenne...Just to give props to the writer, the VW-Ted Kennedy ad - which I find laugh-out-loud funny - is credited to Anne Beatts.Tom K Masonhttp://comics.gearlive.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-20668805132050337242010-06-03T15:28:54.902-07:002010-06-03T15:28:54.902-07:00This is great. It's something I already know, ...This is great. It's something I already know, but-- it's good to be reminded of this simple fact.. to push that boundary a litte...The Kid In The Front Rowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11284758898483746863noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-38867940572386075682010-06-03T12:58:04.611-07:002010-06-03T12:58:04.611-07:00Let's go back to Larry Gelbart's point and...Let's go back to Larry Gelbart's point and look at it again:<br /><br />"If what you're writing isn't likely to offend or annoy anyone at all, go back and start again."<br /><br />Is this "the single most important truth in comedy?"<br /><br />Let's see, if it is, then we might as well dump all of P.G. Wodehouse. Who can get offended by Wooster and Jeeves?<br /><br />Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men in a Boat"? Sink it. It must suck.<br /><br />Bill Cosby's monologues about growing up, including the classic album "To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With." Fugetabout it.<br /><br />Well, except for "The Chicken Heart that Ate New York City." That probably annoyed New Yorkers, so maybe that should be disallowed.<br /><br />Ah, is "Tom Sawyer" funny? Twain's "Huck Finn" got a lot of grief from the moment it was published (did you know an engraver etched a penis in the illustration of Uncle Silas 'presenting' himself before Huck? It actually made it into print, but not to the readers, before it was discovered. Twain was able to get rid of every copy so that even now an example doesn't exist.)<br /><br />Anyway, "Tom Sawyer" must not be funny, since no one is offended by it.<br /><br />And didn't you run some scenes from "Frazier" that this crowd loved? Were the manufacturers of irons offended when Niles burned his pants?<br /><br />Or maybe we should admit that Roger Rabbit nailed it on the head when he got out of those handcuffs, and explained that he could only do it "when it was funny."Bill Peschelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15257587479467531187noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-30777180505873886502010-06-03T09:40:27.529-07:002010-06-03T09:40:27.529-07:00As my late friend Jimmy Pearson liked to say, &quo...As my late friend Jimmy Pearson liked to say, "If you can't be offensive, why bother?"sprenghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10889061538449897071noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-29013316013279004502010-06-03T09:39:02.400-07:002010-06-03T09:39:02.400-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.sprenghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10889061538449897071noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-13234271831989899802010-06-03T07:24:27.608-07:002010-06-03T07:24:27.608-07:00Canned laughter is an insult to comedy on TV. The ...Canned laughter is an insult to comedy on TV. The constant laugh track trys to portray the lame dialogue on the equally lame sitcoms as something highly hilarious.<br />One can just imagine an audience being paid to provide laughter, and being unable to laugh at a truly funny and clever satirical program because they just don't get it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-3171563059530778882010-06-03T06:22:47.002-07:002010-06-03T06:22:47.002-07:00Hey, wasn't it actually one of your jokes abou...Hey, wasn't it actually one of your jokes about...<br /><br />"yeah, and they said Thomas Edison was nuts too!" <br />"well...they also said that about a lot of NUTS!"<br /><br />Just saying, people being offended is not a good guage of quality. Whether they are or are not.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-6760369974868581712010-06-03T03:50:17.292-07:002010-06-03T03:50:17.292-07:00Whatchu talkin bout, Willis?Whatchu talkin bout, Willis?Tom Clendening - General Manager, KSER Foundationhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02060796626687186682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-8734553496234905192010-06-02T22:23:42.952-07:002010-06-02T22:23:42.952-07:00@ Gary: Glenn Beck makes $20 million a year! Now i...@ Gary: Glenn Beck makes $20 million a year! Now if I have ever heard anything so unfunny and offense, AND never to be repeeated again ...<br /><br />On a lighter note, at least AI is done for a few months, and the oil spill is almost capped.<br /><br />Greed and pop culture rule America. I think we should all take a time out and visit the nearest museum. Just a thought.<br /><br />Peace to all you fledglings and nominally paid talents.Patricknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-3025046856010676732010-06-02T22:21:19.064-07:002010-06-02T22:21:19.064-07:00More offensive than that VW ad was Kennedy's l...More offensive than that VW ad was Kennedy's long senatorial career after showing such cowardice.<br /><br />That Vaughan Meader joke shows shows how funny Bruce was even without the controversy. Brilliant.The Milner Coupehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04615531012474374223noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-67052429297003349592010-06-02T22:05:29.910-07:002010-06-02T22:05:29.910-07:00All good stuff, but the correct expression is &quo...All good stuff, but the correct expression is "champing at the bit."Cap'n Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11783977137812876489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-64537544198613151612010-06-02T21:50:32.363-07:002010-06-02T21:50:32.363-07:00Tragedy plus time equals comedy. So sooner or late...Tragedy plus time equals comedy. So sooner or later there will be some decent jokes about Obama...brickbenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02976216085653924376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-11757930253288091372010-06-02T21:38:51.873-07:002010-06-02T21:38:51.873-07:00I don't remember anything offensive, except ma...I don't remember anything offensive, except maybe political statements, but I think you made only one in the last five years. So here's mine: "Maybe we need a couple of oil men in the White House - they'd know what do do with the spill.Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00760229533287495672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-20110709548577044782010-06-02T20:24:04.819-07:002010-06-02T20:24:04.819-07:00Well, not yet today anyway.Well, not <i>yet</i> today anyway.D. McEwannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-76634587077979009782010-06-02T20:21:41.958-07:002010-06-02T20:21:41.958-07:00"Richard J. Marcej said...
Well, nice can be...<i>"Richard J. Marcej said... <br />Well, nice can be funny if it's so extreme that it's absurd, like Ned Flanders from The Simpsons."</i><br /><br />There's nothing "nice" about Ned Flanders. If he were my neighbor, I'd hate him more than Homer does. He's busy warping his two poor kids' minds with his sick, anti-pleasure/anti-brains/anti-Life religion. In this season alone, when given access to a citywide surveillance system, the real Ned Flanders came out, as he tried to micro-manage the lives of the whole town according to his warped views from his stupid Bible and idiot church, turning of course, into the religio-Fascist he's always been at root.<br /><br />Ned Flanders is Evil. There's a very good reason that, whenever Satan appears in a <i>Simpson</i>'s episode, it's always Ned with horns and goat hooves. I've known a <i>lot</i> of "Ned Flanders" over the years, am related to tons of them, and they are <i>all</i> <b>Evil!</b><br /><br />Well fortunately, I never offend anyone, and no one ever takes me to task for my more-outre japes.<br /><br />Well, not today, anyway.<br /><br />I've been fighting this battle for years, since the time, 40 years ago, when the administration of my college tried to get the editor of the school paper to kick me off the staff for my weekly humor column, in which I often rather savagely went after the administration. (My editor stuck up for me, and my column ran for four years, and was HATED by the administrators for its entire run.)<br /><br />As I've told everyone who ever tried to censor me, those that failed and those that succeeded: "I offended someone? GOOD! If they're offended by what I've written, then they were SUPPOSED to be offended. It's good for them"<br /><br />And I do enjoy the irony that the book I dedicated to my parents is full of jokes that attack the religion which killed them (and is the reason they didn't live long enough to read it themselves), and that there is much in it that would have offended its dedicatees. Good Heavens, if something I'd written hadn't offended Mother, it would be lousy indeed. Mother actually understood this, and would ask permission before coming to see me in shows, particularly if they were improvised shows, because she knew I might be inhibited by her presence. In my younger days, I would ask her to stay away for that very reason. By my mid-30s, it was a dead issue. I would no longer censor myself onstage for any reason (and seldom offstage either), and if my parents WERE in the audience, I would then use that to give a shocking joke a caper twist. "Look, my mother there in the second row just turned scarlet!"<br /><br />WV: dergree: Der third is der worst.D. McEwannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-51898775284736754302010-06-02T18:26:50.975-07:002010-06-02T18:26:50.975-07:00On the weekend, a friend of mine told me a story a...On the weekend, a friend of mine told me a story about his aunt who received a copy of a magazine that both my friend and I each had a story in (two separate stories). His was first and being a story about construction workers, contained the f-bomb. The aunt, a staunch Catholic, refused to read it and moved on. To my story. Which was about cloning.<br /><br />The aunt was SO incensed, she called the publisher and told him she was NEVER going to read his magazine again and to cancel her subscription, even if it was a gift. <br /><br />Some people are going to be upset about your writing, no matter what.Rebeccanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-53993554584741152312010-06-02T18:25:52.709-07:002010-06-02T18:25:52.709-07:00Steve Martin - Comedy is not pretty.
Mark Bennett...Steve Martin - Comedy is not pretty.<br /><br />Mark BennettAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-58611102480183041402010-06-02T16:58:33.168-07:002010-06-02T16:58:33.168-07:00I would rather you go too far than be Gallagher.
...I would rather you go too far than be Gallagher.<br /><br />Question for Friday: There is an episode of MASH where Hawkeye walks around camp in the buff. The episode is very well shot and very funny. How did the idea come up? Did the censor people have an issue with it? Did anyone think the idea overwhelmed the story?<br /><br />wv: likert - a scale used in psychographic research where respondents select from numerical anchors such as a 1 to 5, 1 to 7 or, 1 to 9.<br /><br />Folks, I am not making that one up.bevonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-81386377939915976102010-06-02T16:54:53.056-07:002010-06-02T16:54:53.056-07:00@Mel: Who's taste? Yours? Mine? The FCC's?...@Mel: Who's taste? Yours? Mine? The FCC's? And that envelop? Who gets to say how big it is or how much it can hold?<br /><br />If I'm not offending someone, then I'm not doing my job. Somebody famous said something like that anyway. It applies.Sally creeping down the alleynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-32842205732821473092010-06-02T16:35:12.059-07:002010-06-02T16:35:12.059-07:00Just curious what you think of shows like South Pa...Just curious what you think of shows like South Park and Family Guy that seem to exist solely to push the envelope of taste.Melhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17933349506129495734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-54556046421089380902010-06-02T16:28:15.931-07:002010-06-02T16:28:15.931-07:00Comedy is cruel... it's always at someone'...Comedy is cruel... it's always at someone's expense.<br /><br />How funny do you want to be?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-77701463242892145892010-06-02T13:57:44.778-07:002010-06-02T13:57:44.778-07:00Is it too soon to hit on Tipper Gore?
w.v. - &quo...Is it too soon to hit on Tipper Gore?<br /><br />w.v. - "britcha" - Term used by someone who is going to force you into trousers, e.g., "I'm gonna britcha."Charles H. Bryanhttp://twitter.com/charleshbryannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-83803240130335676392010-06-02T13:23:36.029-07:002010-06-02T13:23:36.029-07:00Right -Dyslectica: the #1 crippler of assbackward ...Right -Dyslectica: the #1 crippler of assbackward commenters. <br /><br />That VW isn’t out to see. Just getting an oil change, and by way of apology for that to Mary Stella. here's the actual beginning.<br /><br /><b>AQUAMAN PART 1 (OF 3)</b><br /><br />[<i>In 3 parts – attempting reverse order posting for continuity -- because blogger apparently has the 60 votes to cut this short.</i>] Gee, thanks <b>Mary S.</b>, just what I needed. While your cohorts are no doubt out in skiffs and trawlers laying oil booms, you’ve got me off on two-masted tangent. I don’t know if the same spots are airing where you are, but here in Texas, <b>Red Lobster</b> commercials are assuring all that the <b>$11.99 “Festival of Shrimp”</b> is proceeding on schedule. Gulf Stream be damned.<br /><br />With one minor qualification. The spots are careful to allude that the chain is featuring <b>“Chesapeake”</b> shrimp – apparently not only to the casual diner but to the fear of anything emanating the slightest bit west of Tampa. Thereby also subscribing to the old nautical adage not to put anything in your mouth until you know where it’s been. (I say nautical, because I believe this was stressed in a Pamela Anderson video aboard some sort of small pleasure craft.)<br /> <br />But Mary, I’d like to offer some reassurance to you and everyone in the Keys – Largo, Plantation, Marathon, Alicia…. Having once before gifted <i>byKenLevine</i> with an overly comprehensive foray into cetacean mating rituals, I’ve been chomping at the bit to once again trot out the old marine biology credentials. And no guff about mixed metaphors – what you never heard of a seahorse? (That turning sound you hear is Bennett Cerf in his grave.) Pay no attention to that man with a propensity for the arcane behind the curtain.<br /><br />From what I know, there are basically <i>two</i> kinds of shrimp inhabiting Chesapeake Bay and the immediate Tidewater region – although others are rumored to visit during Fleet Week.<br /><br />1) You basic <b>Grass Shrimp</b> - generally <i>known</i> as “grass shrimp” until making an appearance on the Red Lobster plate as “Popcorn Shrimp.” In other words shrimp shrimp – in culinary terms, a redundancy.<br /><br />2) The more formidable <b>Mantis Shrimp</b>, generally approaching 12” in length and in rare cases up to a yard (always order the <i>footlong</i> – they’re meaty enough). Not a true shrimp, but a crustacean so called because of their uncanny resemblance to the terrestrial <i>praying mantis</i>. Realizing that the praying mantis analogy might prompt the local chicks to literally cap off a meal by biting their date’s head off, the ancient Assyrians referred to these creatures as <b>sea locusts</b>. (As you may have gathered, the concept of a focus group was unknown to Chaldean culture. See also, Pamela Anderson.) At any rate, hardly a competitor for America’s palateA.Buck Shorthttp://roger-burke.dailykos.com/noreply@blogger.com