forsyth | On Humor, thanks to Douglas Adams

So, I'm reading Salmon of Doubt, (Footnote 1) and besides revealing the fact that Douglas Adams was a very wise and awesome man, it also made me realize why I can't stand Seinfeld. Because his humor, along with a lot of other people's, lately, requires people to be ignorant (at the very least) to find it funny.

There's two kinds of humor, I figure. Smart humor, which assumes that you're smart, and know things, and the humor relies on this. So they're funny when you know things, and they get funnier when you learn more. This is more generally the kind of humor that survives time well (Footnote 2). Then there's the other kind. Dumb humor. Things that rely on people being dumb and/or ignorant, and are only funny because you DON'T know things. Like "Well, if the black box is indestructible, why don't they make the whole plane out of the same stuff?" Because the "same stuff" is titanium, which would make the plane a) hideously expensive, even for an airplane and b) too heavy to fly. If you know anything about construction, airplanes, physics, or aerodynamics, that's not funny. Or the "Why do they call it a rhinoplasty when they work on your nose, isn't it bad enough without comparing your nose to a rhino?" Dude. Rhino means nose. Rhino = nose, Ceros = horn. Nose horn. Fitting description, yes? So, when they do surgery on your nose, it's called Rhino, because Rhino = nose.

Jerry Seinfeld and lots of other comedians and especially TV shows these days rely on dumb humor, which is why so much of TV seems insulting to your intelligence, because well, it is. Is there a solution? I dunno. Dumb humor's easier to do, because a lot of it basically involves making fun of people who know more than you do, which is always easier. It's easier to make people resent and feel jealous toward people who know more, rather than teach them. Hell, everybody reading this probably already knows that, if you went to public school. So, I think I'll just, well, keep supporting all the cool stuff I can find, and try and help there be a little bit more smart cool stuff, if Windwaker doesn't keep distracting me.

(Footnote 3)

Footnote 1: Yes, I know it's been out for a long while, I've been lazy.

Footnote 2: Besides fart jokes and sex jokes, anyway. A little bit of everybody is always twelve.

Footnote 3: Apropos of nothing, but "A Word About my Pants" is one of the greatest titles for a blog entry ever. Go read Kaja Foglio's blog here: http://www.studiofoglio.com/crew/kaja/diary.html . And read Girl Genius. Trust me. It's smart, you'll like it.