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November 20, 2014 11:41 AM   Subscribe

1.6 “Sodom and Gomorrah” N.S.F.W. glitch identified and removed. Bible now free of “Homosexuality” virus. . .
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"Bible System Updates" by Megan Amram for Shouts & Murmurs (The New Yorker)
posted by Atom Eyes (14 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
Hey, awesome to see 4chan memes have made it all the way to the New Yorker.
posted by cthuljew at 11:45 AM on November 20, 2014 [2 favorites]


This type of humor has been around since at least the early days of Usenet. They were already old hat by the time I read them on the Wiretap Spies gopher. I don't think 4chan gets to claim this.
posted by kmz at 12:27 PM on November 20, 2014 [2 favorites]


I consume just about anything and everything, including the listings (even though I have no plans to go to New York any time soon), in my weekly copy of the New Yorker. I read every word. Except for the "humour" section.

I have noticed that the New Yorker is publishing younger, more hip writers. A number of them seem to be coming from McSweeney's, a publication that has always been a bit too twee for me.
posted by Nevin at 12:35 PM on November 20, 2014


Well, it may have been done before, but certainly nobody else could ever do as thorough a job as Shouts & Murmurs of surgically removing all of the humor from the conceit and leaving behind its dry and bloodless corpse.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 12:37 PM on November 20, 2014 [7 favorites]


This reminded me of The IRC Bible, which I greatly enjoy and haven't thought about in a while.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 12:48 PM on November 20, 2014




another worthy Bible update
posted by psoas at 1:03 PM on November 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


This definitely predates 4chan. I swear I saw this on bash.org

Like almost word for word the exact same jokes.
posted by emptythought at 1:07 PM on November 20, 2014


strangely stunted trees: "Well, it may have been done before, but certainly nobody else could ever do as thorough a job as Shouts & Murmurs of surgically removing all of the humor from the conceit and leaving behind its dry and bloodless corpse."

Yeah Shouts & Murmurs breakdown is:

Actually funny 5% of issues
Mildly funny 30% of issues
Anti-humor 65% of issues
posted by Chrysostom at 1:10 PM on November 20, 2014


Was Shouts & Murmers ever supposed to be funny? I thought it was supposed to be slice of life about town in the aloof New Yorker house style.
posted by tychotesla at 1:19 PM on November 20, 2014


Well, my mother thinks it's funny most of the time. But then, she listens to Prairie Home Companion every week (all the way through), and as we know from another thread this makes her existential state somewhat dubious.
posted by Quasirandom at 1:24 PM on November 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


These are sub-lazy jokes.

I think this piece is to religion or theology what "The Big Bang Theory" is to nerd culture. It's only funny to people who don't have any respect for the source material it's referencing in the first place; the writer clearly feels no compunction to actually understand the references. If you already think the reference material is hi-larious, the jokes are nothing but point-and-laugh non-sequitors.

This could have been a funny piece, but it would have to be done by an author(ess) whose work evinces knowledge of the actual Christian Bible, and can tell the difference between source texts and the orientations toward them (denominations, theologies) which develop over time in human culture.

I was really sad to see this linked, but I *am* pleased to see what a poor reaction it's getting.
posted by Poppa Bear at 1:46 PM on November 20, 2014 [6 favorites]


(Never mind! I'm thinking of the Talk of the Town... totally different. I haven't read an issue in too long apparently)
posted by tychotesla at 1:48 PM on November 20, 2014


Color me out of it, but I thought that was mildly amusing.

But as long as there are fellow "Shouts and Murmurs" haters in the crowd, I've been trying to track down the source of this (misquoted from memory) for a while:
It was funny in that New Yorker "Shouts and Murmurs" kind of way… which is to say, rather tedious and not very funny at all.
If anybody knows where that comes from (I'm pretty sure I didn't come up with it), please point me to the source. I would be most appreciative.
posted by Lexica at 7:27 PM on November 20, 2014


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