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May 25, 2008 10:12 AM

How to ruin a joke. A concise and surprisingly astute explanation of how referential humor works on the web and why it kinda sucks. (Warning: somethingawful.com)
posted by es_de_bah (68 comments total)

This was kinda played already, in the Weezer thread a few days ago.
posted by chococat at 10:15 AM on May 25, 2008

No, this is.

(Also gleaned from an earlier MeFi thread.)
posted by jinjo at 10:23 AM on May 25, 2008

Wait oh I lied I didn't make sure that was the right link before I posted it agh fail.

Here
posted by jinjo at 10:24 AM on May 25, 2008

How to ruin a joke or anything else on the internet:

Read about it on boingboing 80+ times.

RIP LOLcats.
(Steampunk's condition appears to be terminal as well, which is a god damn shame because I'm a fan of steampunk in small doses.)
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 10:35 AM on May 25, 2008

Dinosaur Comics via Dresden Codak explains it here.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 10:38 AM on May 25, 2008

"I started a joke
Which started the whole world crying
But I didnt see
That the joke was on me
Oh no..."
posted by ZachsMind at 10:39 AM on May 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

LOL MOARS LAW.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:47 AM on May 25, 2008 [7 favorites]

i thought i'd read that humor on the web sucks 4 years ago - or was it 5 - or hmmm ...
posted by pyramid termite at 10:50 AM on May 25, 2008

Interesting link Jinjo, but it would help if the writer was actually funny.

Couldn't help but notice he ruins his first right turn joke by returning to the leprechaun and scorpion and thus giving it a surprise ending instead of a straight up absurdist one. Also, I really enjoy right turn jokes, but if you drag them out too far they just turn into a shaggy dog joke. For a really good right turn joke, check out this video called Knock Knock. The one I'm thinking of is about 1:30 in but it's best to just watch the whole thing.
posted by CheshireCat at 10:52 AM on May 25, 2008

We have reached Peak Comedy.
posted by never used baby shoes at 10:54 AM on May 25, 2008 [5 favorites]

Yeah, I meant his writing was How To Ruin A Joke, not an insightful analysis of humor. I didn't communicate that very well in my haste to post it.
posted by jinjo at 10:57 AM on May 25, 2008

How to ruin a joke post.
posted by fixedgear at 11:05 AM on May 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

This will wendell!
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 11:07 AM on May 25, 2008

I CAN HAS INTARNETS REFURINS?
posted by fuq at 11:09 AM on May 25, 2008

"How to Ruin A Joke" or "How to Bite the Hand That Feeds". Somethingawful complaining about over-using/capitalising on memes? How very meta.

This just reads like a big whinge about how things were better/funnier when other people didn't know about them.
posted by slimepuppy at 11:14 AM on May 25, 2008 [2 favorites]

Catch phrases, much like fashion, are ways to satisfy people's needs of conformity and individualism, at the same time. A shared joke shows you to be part of an in crowd, and having it as a t-shirt is a way of showing this off.

Previously. most trends slowly dissipated into the greater culture, as people generated new trends to define themselves and their peer groups against the culture. The Internet has accelerated this. Memes are propagated down ever faster, and the space between when you and your cool friends know about something, and those annoying jackholes that you don't like, is but a hair's breadth of time. It destroys the illusion of individuality. As the article said, it happened before, but as the Internet makes the process much faster.
posted by zabuni at 11:14 AM on May 25, 2008 [4 favorites]

MetaFilter: Because you're on the Internet, it's very likely that you're ruining something right now.
posted by sdodd at 11:16 AM on May 25, 2008 [4 favorites]

If an article uses the word "rape" multiple times, but isn't actually about rape, then that really tells you something.
posted by [NOT HERMITOSIS-IST] at 11:22 AM on May 25, 2008 [5 favorites]

Read about it on boingboing 80+ times.

There's a solution for this that doesn't even require boingboing changing anything.
posted by DU at 11:25 AM on May 25, 2008 [8 favorites]

I loved the notion that normal people aren't allowed to try to be funny...remember kids, it takes years of failure and bitterness and drinking to be truly funny on the internet! Comedy isn't born from humor and irony, but rather from a dark place of dispair and smug feelings of superiority!

The author needs to stop drinking his own Kool-Aid, methinks.
posted by StrangeTikiGod at 11:26 AM on May 25, 2008 [3 favorites]

FILM AT ELEVEN, YOU HUMORLESS DRONES
posted by BeerFilter at 11:27 AM on May 25, 2008

... Stop taking humor so seriously, damnit!
posted by bettafish at 11:39 AM on May 25, 2008

In the past you had a limited social group with which to share humorous anecdotes. The beauty of the internet is that basically you've expanded your social circle to exponentially greater numbers of people who probably share your sense of humor. More likely than not what I find humorous other mefites (or at least a significant portion of them) will find humorous as well and why shouldn't things be shared? It's human nature to try and share knowledge with others.
posted by Octoparrot at 11:42 AM on May 25, 2008 [2 favorites]

Wait. This infinitely self-referential stuff was supposed to be funny? What else have I missed?
posted by dhartung at 11:45 AM on May 25, 2008

Honestly, I didn't read the article I just watched the clip of the turtle kid like 50 times.
posted by PostIronyIsNotaMyth at 11:46 AM on May 25, 2008 [2 favorites]

I'm in yur MetaFilter ruinin' yur jokes?
posted by odi.et.amo at 11:56 AM on May 25, 2008

The ruination of humor is most oft-shown in the presence of a second line on Cheezburger pics.

In other words, PUNCHLINE. U DOIN IT WRONG.
posted by katillathehun at 12:06 PM on May 25, 2008

What the article seems to have missed is that there can be contexts in which the same old meme can produce real laugh-out-loud humor. Part of what keeps memes going is the joy of finding a tired old reference in a context where it's completely recast, and is so oddly appropriate that it's once again funny. The shared knowledge base of these phrases allows this particular type of humor to flourish.

In other words, if there hadn't been several million unfunny Ceiling Cat jokes, the one time that an ironic Ceiling Cat reference is actually hysterical wouldn't be possible.

We owe a debt of gratitude to our unfunny brethren in their fleetingly trendy sweat-stained t-shirts.
posted by MrVisible at 12:21 PM on May 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

How to squeeze the absolute last drop out of lolcat humor: write an article claiming how much you hate lolcat humor when the funniest thing in your article is the sarcastic/fake lolcat humor you created.

Though maybe all you need is the undercurrent of "they're all losers, fools, pedos, fatties, and whores, amirite?" to provide comedic nourishment to yer SA pals, what do I know.
posted by fleacircus at 12:22 PM on May 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

tl;dr
posted by grouse at 12:24 PM on May 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

I too like turtles.
posted by blue_beetle at 12:32 PM on May 25, 2008

I know people like to blame the internet on everything, and that's easy to sympathize with, but it seems to me that--to pick just one example--Saturday Night Live was ruining humor by wringing it dry years before anyone used anything more than Gopher.
posted by Drastic at 1:15 PM on May 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

Or so the Germans would have you believe.
posted by grouse at 1:17 PM on May 25, 2008

That's what she said.
posted by blue_beetle at 1:30 PM on May 25, 2008

"I know people like to blame the internet on everything, and that's easy to sympathize with, but it seems to me that--to pick just one example--Saturday Night Live was ruining humor by wringing it dry years before anyone used anything more than Gopher."

You read the article too?
posted by klangklangston at 2:18 PM on May 25, 2008

Actually a decent article that raises an interesting point without really answering it: why does the Internet spawn lowest common denominator, brainless humor in such abundance? And funny -- I'm not sure if the excessive har-har'ing in this thread with inane quips and tired meme references is a joint ironic effort to prove its thesis, or just business as usual on MetaFilter.
posted by decoherence at 2:19 PM on May 25, 2008 [2 favorites]

from jinjo's link...
J: How many frogs does it take to screw in a light bulb?
L: How many?
J: Five!
[long pause]
L: Why five?
J: [shrug shoulders and mumble "I dunno."]Well, only four if it's a small bulb.

I have this terrible compulsion to attempt to 'punch-up' unfunny humor. The result: slightly less unfunny humor.

We have reached Peak Comedy.
never used baby shoes nails it. When the sources of information are increasing geometrically, one of the first things to suffer overload is humor. There are a limited number of kinds of jokes (but I avoid the discussion of what that number is) and every 'new' joke consists of fitting different 'things' into the funny-making structures.

This will wendell!
Hey, look! An inside joke! Thank you MPDSEA. You obviously are overthinking a plate of beans.
So this joke, it vibrates?
This comedy thing, is it something you need a sense of humor to know about?
I, for one, welcome our joke ruining overlords.
I did not fix this for you.

BTW, there is no spork, and the cake is a pie. No slaw for you!
posted by wendell at 2:23 PM on May 25, 2008

On the Internets, fourth wall breaks you.
posted by aihal at 2:36 PM on May 25, 2008 [7 favorites]

This beef, it is where?
posted by blue_beetle at 2:46 PM on May 25, 2008

LOLcats was never funny. I'm serious. It was a spec of humor that "intarweb" rookies latched onto because nerd and internet humor has become mainstream "cool" somehow. It has become the "Friends" of the internet in popularity and is just as obnoxious. GET OFF MY LAND!
posted by hellslinger at 3:02 PM on May 25, 2008

where is neil hamburger when you need him?
posted by Hat Maui at 3:10 PM on May 25, 2008

Metafilter: An Echo Chamber Where the Internet's Shared Sense of Humor Runs Everything Right Into the Fucking Ground
posted by neckro23 at 3:39 PM on May 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

In the future, enjoyment and laughter will be exclusively the domains of the critically lame and unclassy. Us smart cool people will take pleasure only in identifying flaws, but even that pursuit will be sharply criticized.
posted by TwelveTwo at 3:39 PM on May 25, 2008 [5 favorites]

A one-link post to a mediocre SomethingAwful article? Sorry, this isn't working for me. SA used to be side-splittingly funny, but either it jumped the shark, or I just got tired of reading bitter rants by snarky, undersexed nerds.*

I find most Internet memes to be lame, incomprehensible, or both (I'm looking at you, Zero Wing and Turtle Kid), but I actually like lolcats. I mean, c'mon—cute widdle animals + surrealism + gratuitously bad typography = good stuff.

*Except on MetaFilter, of course. I love you guys.
posted by greenie2600 at 3:42 PM on May 25, 2008

*buys PLATE O' BEANS t-shirt. stare at it, overthinking*
posted by jonmc at 3:51 PM on May 25, 2008

Jesus christ, this is from SA. I think it might prove that Charlie Kaufman is still alive.

If it isn't inside jokes from the internet, it's inside jokes from television or movies. The internet just increases the number of ways and the speed at which the joke can be referenced and reinterpreted. If you don't understand that, you don't understand humans.

hellslinger writes "LOLcats was never funny. I'm serious."

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to fetch a stake, some strong rope and firewood.
posted by mullingitover at 3:53 PM on May 25, 2008

OK, I consider myself fairly internet savvy, but that's the first I've heard of the zombie kid and I just laughed for five minutes straight. Are there any more articles like this that conveniently compile internet memes together so that by the end of a day of hilarity I can already know about them, too?

Hahahahahahaaaa "I like turtles."
posted by granted at 3:55 PM on May 25, 2008

"Captain of the Chuckleboat" made my day.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 3:58 PM on May 25, 2008

im in ur internetz, wearin' out ur lolz
posted by martinX's bellbottoms at 4:17 PM on May 25, 2008

(sorry)
posted by martinX's bellbottoms at 4:18 PM on May 25, 2008

Trapped in his own limited horizon, accompanied by people afflicted with a smug sense of superiority derived from recognizing every single meme there is, I suppose his jadedness is on point. The only cure, however, is more cowbell actually producing something funny himself, and not spreading it on the 'tubes to get Run Into the Fucking Ground by way of some twisted form of entropy. Paradoxically, that wouldn't play well with the above mentioned smug sense of superiority - I mean, he did write an article that essentially and in unambiguous terms spells out "Your Funny Sucks", so he definitely qualifies for Attention Whore status.
posted by flippant at 4:32 PM on May 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

This is one of those threads where I went to the trouble of reading the posted article first, found myself pretty solidly in agreement with the author, and then came to the discussion to find--once again--that everyone's a fucking critic. Lighten up, it's just commentary.*

*See how I made that reference to that two-year-old episode from that show with the people and the catchphrases and basic-cable coolness factor?
posted by kittyprecious at 5:00 PM on May 25, 2008 [2 favorites]

We put the Meta in Metafilter!

Analyzing humor isn't funny. Let me tell you why.
posted by Bokononist at 5:17 PM on May 25, 2008

As soon as the first person says something isn't funny any more, it stops being funny.

The problem is that the internet is fucking chock full of people in an unseemly hurry to be the first person to say something isn't funny any more.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:57 PM on May 25, 2008 [2 favorites]

This article sums up why I can no longer hang out with most of my college friends.
posted by limeonaire at 6:32 PM on May 25, 2008

I dont know if I can take an article about the degradation of humor by a man who takes his nick name from an esoteric satirical movie show in the early nineties.

Pot calling the kettle black indeed.
posted by subaruwrx at 7:05 PM on May 25, 2008

Is this something you need the Internet to have heard of?
posted by starman at 7:27 PM on May 25, 2008

Dumb memetic internet humor is like those damn Garfield with the suction cups on its feet, that everyone put in their car window. It's sort of funny at first, but it quickly becomes annoying, though you just end up tuning it out rather than ramming into cars with those stuck to them. At least for now.
posted by krinklyfig at 8:39 PM on May 25, 2008

From today's XKCD article in the NY Times:

Mr. Munroe believes that analyzing a joke is like dissecting a frog — it can be done, but the frog dies.

posted by msittig at 9:04 PM on May 25, 2008 [2 favorites]

Fucking funny!

/no irony
posted by telstar at 10:49 PM on May 25, 2008

On the Internets, fourth wall breaks you.
posted by aihal at 6:36 AM on May 26 [2 favorites -] Favorite added! [!]

Brilliant.
posted by saysthis at 1:35 AM on May 26, 2008

Matt Bianco are a bunch of wankers
posted by fullerine at 2:31 AM on May 26, 2008

I am a alien.

It's funny because it's true.

Or, as Too Much Coffee Man would say, let's put a kaloogiefalooba on it!
- What's that from?
TMCM - It's not from anything. I just said it.
posted by asok at 3:30 AM on May 26, 2008

I am a alien.
Now with added linkage!
posted by asok at 3:31 AM on May 26, 2008

TAKE IT ALL, BITCH!
posted by kcds at 5:37 AM on May 26, 2008

ZOMG!! MONKEY CHEESE CLOWNS!
posted by Xoebe at 8:10 AM on May 26, 2008

Proof positive that it doesn't take MeFi to overanalyze a plate of beans.

People come on the Internet for a diversion. Meaning something funny. And they find it, and it becomes popular. So there's lots of least common denominator humor on the web. Wow. Go fig.
posted by graymouser at 8:43 AM on May 26, 2008

Funny, I never even knew about the whole turtles kid until just recently, but I got this ill diplo album a long time ago.
posted by mullingitover at 11:38 PM on May 26, 2008