A Taiwanese businessmen has put up more than 3bn Taiwanese dollars ($103m; £65m) to establish what are being dubbed the “Asian Nobel prizes”. – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21235618 The newly established Asian Nobel Prizes reward the best in sustainable development, biopharmaceutical science, China studies, and “rule of law”. Americans are eligible to apply, but have about a Chinaman’s [...]
Dying Is Easy. Comedy Is Hard.
Being funny in books, on the big screen, and on the little screens too.Browsing Posts in Being Funny
About This Post I try to be funny, especially here on this blog. I also try to publish some pieces I think are funny, but, as I described over at my other site, I sometimes fail spectacularly. When I wrote the piece that follows, I was certain it was hilarious. I was certain the way [...]
A study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine found that fecal transplants cured 15 of 16 people who had recurring infections with Clostridium difficile bacteria. Meanwhile, only seven of 26 patients in two control groups were cured with antibiotics. Physicians and researchers believe that fecal matter transplanted from a healthy person restores [...]
“Candlelight Vigil Held For Slain Elk — A candlelight vigil was held Sunday night honoring the lost life of a Boulder elk. Residents have been outraged over the elk’s death, which they claim was cruel and unnecessary. Boulder Police Officer Sam Carter shot the elk, which had been wandering the Mapleton Hill neighborhood over the [...]
Steve Kaplan has posted an interview he gave to a German magazine–and God knows that the German’s need help with comedy. We all should pay attention! Watch the interview here.
The best and most effective jokes reveal some inner truth about the joke’s target. In the context of a story, the wonderful part is that they also advance the story, and the audience hardly has a reason to notice it is a “joke” except that they are laughing. These are fifth degree jokes. Fifth degree [...]
Ecclesiastes is the book of the Holy Bible most frequently quoted in popular culture and used as the source for titles of books and movies. Its verses are an absolute treasure trove of beautifully written, insightful, and pithy statements. “The Sun Also Rises,” and “The House of Mirth” are two that stand out. But when [...]
Third degree jokes deal with reversal of scale–something little made big, or something of great value trivialized. The most persistent example I have in my head is from when David Letterman first had a night time talk show, he had a running bit one week with a really large doorknob. It was about three feet [...]
Continuing my earlier post regarding the Five Degrees of Jokes, here now is a brief discussion of second degree jokes. Second degree jokes juxtapose the sacred with the profane. This is fairly easy to explain because it can be shocking, and the shock to the system is what raises tension and elicits laughter. If the [...]
First degree jokes are puns, wordplay, and overly literal use of words. I breathe these kind of jokes because they are mostly innocent, playful, or silly, and I have raised two children to their teen years, and first degree jokes were fairly safe.If my daughter asks me how my day went, I might reply, “fine.” [...]
