MetaFilter posts tagged with Jokes

King of the one (maybe two) liners

Potomac Avenue — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:31:24 -0800

Joshua Green Allen, who has been posting great internet for more than 15 years, if not longer, merges seamlessly with a new technology. If any twitter account is worth being renowned far and wide for hilarity: His Is. Also starring in: Diary of a Copywriter One stop shopping. Previously: 1, 2, 3

Recession over in France and Germany

malapropist — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 08:18:13 -0800

The economy is abjectly terrible, right? It's so bad that nowadays, a picture is only worth 200 words. On the other hand, the recession is over in Germany and France, and in the United States, the unemployment rate dropped just a smidgen last month. To be fair, the recession wasn't as severe in France and Germany, and didn't start so early. Still, this seems a far cry from talk of a second depression.

Comedy 2.0

Horace Rumpole — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:00:38 -0800

A minister, a priest, and a rabbi walk into a bar. The bartender says, "What is this, some kind of joke?" Warning: autoplay on first link. A smidgen of background information here and here.

Excellent fiddlesticks for the insolent rascal, and other ways to while the days

filthy light thief — Fri, 29 May 2009 13:32:57 -0800

As a belated tribute (of sorts) to Victoria Day, may you find interest in a variety of Victorina era literature, short and long. In the short category, there is Chit-Chat of Humor, Wit, and Anecdote (Edited by Pierce Pungent; New York: Stringer & Townsend (1857), who has written quite a bit of such work) [via mefi projects], and Conundrums New and Old (Collected by John Ray Frederick; J. Drake & Company Publishers Chicago, 1902) [via mefi projects] This publishing house also published The Art of Characturing, copyright 1941. If you prefer your antiquated humor with a twist, take a gander at bizarro version of Conundrums New and Old [via mefi projects]. In the category of longer works, behold the The Lost Novels of Victorian New Zealand [via an older mefi projects]. The lost novels is a free online archive of New Zealand and Pacific Islands texts and heritage materials, provided by the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre, which is part of the Victoria University of Wellington. The content of the online archive ranges from novels written or set in New Zealand to shorter fiction that appeared in local pamphlets and newspaper supplements, and covers a broad range of topics. The long list of archive projects are available under various licenses, and where the original text is out of copyright it is our policy to provide the digitised version under a New Zealand Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License (CC BY-CA).

Surprise!

jbickers — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:15:11 -0800

April 1 is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 274 days remaining until the end of the year. April 1 is most notable in the Western world for being A p r i l F o o l s' D a y. Oh yeah, I almost forgot ... Skynet becomes aware on April 1.

Jewish Jokers.

gman — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:02:01 -0800

Old Jews telling jokes.

Could you please explain why it is

Potomac Avenue — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:59:19 -0800

The bottom of Slate's Explainer mailbag. Part of their Holiday Tradition. Perhaps, as in previous years, the Hive Mind would like to take a crack at some of them?

Some Jewish Humor

serazin — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 23:14:43 -0800

Sadie tells Maurice, "You’re a schmuck! You always were a schmuck and you always will be a schmuck! You look, act and dress like a schmuck! You’ll be a schmuck until the day you die! And if they ran a world-wide competition for schmucks, you would be the world’s second biggest schmuck!" "Why only second place?" Maurice asks. "Because you’re a schmuck!" Sadie screams. Some Jewish humor.

Two mathematicians walk into a bar...

cthuljew — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 08:09:25 -0800

A math professor was explaining a particularly complicated calculus concept to his class when a frustrated pre-med student interrupts him. "Why do we have to learn this stuff?" the pre-med blurts out. The professor pauses, and answers matter-of-factly: "Because math saves lives." "How?" demanded the student. "How on Earth does calculus save lives?" "Because," replied the professor, "it keeps certain people out of medical school."

"How can you tell when a violist is playing out of tune? .... The bow is moving. "

fearfulsymmetry — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:56:24 -0800

Why are viola players always the butt of the joke in the orchestra? Some viola jokes. Are you still laughing now?

The oldest joke in the book - really!

blahblahblah — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:18:23 -0800

Humor goes back a long way. The oldest recorded joke in the world was told 4,600 years ago to Pharoh Snefru by the magician Djadjamankh: "How do you entertain a bored pharaoh? You sail a boatload of young women dressed only in fishing nets down the Nile and urge the pharaoh to go catch a fish," and there's lots more ancient Egyptian humor (some quite dirty) as well. Humor really got rolling with the Greeks, however, and the Philogelos (Laughter Lover) a joke book from the 4th century. A representative joke: “An intellectual was on a sea voyage when a big storm blew up, causing his slaves to weep in terror. ‘Don’t cry,’ he consoled them, ‘I have freed you all in my will'." In addition to jokes about intellectuals, ethnic stereotypes were popular, but to see the full range of ancient humor, this collection of over 100 ancient jokes from various sources (with explanation and original text) is available, though only in PDF. But be warned that if you travel back to ancient Rome, your Henny Youngman joke could result in severe punishment. Compared to the documents of Egypt, Rome, and Greece, the lack of the humor in the Bible and Koran has been noted, though some people that there are actually some intentional jokes. See also this lovely article from the New Yorker on the history of jokes, from this post.

Babies are jerks, am I right?

Caduceus — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:01:49 -0800

As we were talking about Joke Theft, here's an interesting case. It appears that the Daily Show may have stolen a joke from Penny Arcade. Certainly, the similarities are there. I personally suspect that it was an unconscious joke theft on the part of one of the writers, reusing something they forgot they saw elsewhere. Assuming it's theft at all; certainly, I only punch babies when they're being dicks, so it's not that much of a stretch.

Philosophy and Comedy

anotherpanacea — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 15:23:06 -0800

Henri Bergson's "On Comedy"
Helene Cixous's "The Laugh of the Medusa"
David Chalmer's Philosophical Humour
Monty Python's "Philosopher's World Cup" Inspired by this, posted previously:

Philosophy is a funny business and some philosophers are funny people. The philosopher asks you to look at the world awry, to place in question your usual habits, assumptions, prejudices and expectations. The philosopher asks you to be sceptical about all sorts of things you would ordinarily take for granted, like the reality of things in the world or whether the people around you are actually human or really robots. In this regard, the philosopher has, I think, a family resemblance with the comedian....

Simon Critchley's "Did you hear the one about the philosopher writing a book on humour?"

Men from Nantucket need not apply

kyleg — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:27:18 -0800

The man who runs xkcd
has created the LimerickDB.
Though often quite dirty
There are more that are nerdy;
If you check out the best ones, you'll see.

A joke walks into a website ...

scottreynen — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 06:59:37 -0800

Comic Wonder is a new joke telling and rating site. With jokes as audio, would-be comics are able to capture the timing and tone that make many jokes funny.

Demetri Martin - Some Jokes

jonson — Mon, 28 May 2007 00:41:28 -0800

Fans of the late & much missed comic Mitch Hedberg might enjoy the stand up routine of Daily Show correspondent Demetri Martin: Some Jokes, Some More Jokes, Other Jokes & These Jokes.

B3ta Bumper Book of Sick Jokes

srboisvert — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 11:56:42 -0800

B3ta Bumper Book of Sick Jokes (flash) on Scribd, a youtube for pdfs. For extra weirdness listen to the mp3 (the link is at the bottom of the pdf display).

The "Mind" of Mencia

dhammond — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 21:03:43 -0800

Joe Rogan vs. Ned Holness What do you do when a famous comedian is stealing jokes? If you're Joe Rogan, you climb onstage, embarrass him in front of his audience and post the entire exchange to your MySpace page.

Praising Abel, Raising Cain

jonp72 — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 14:30:21 -0800

Alan Abel is a self-described "professional hoaxer" active since 1959. His classic hoaxes include the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals, the 1964 presidential campaign of Jewish housewife Yetta Bronstein, a topless string quartet (slightly NSFW), and the wedding of Idi Amin. He also released two mockumentaries long before Spinal Tap was a gleam in Christopher Guest's eye. Now Abel's daughter Jenny has released a documentary tribute to her father, Abel Raises Cain, which has some great You Tube clips, including 1970s talk show staple, Omar's School for Beggars. (some clips may be NSFW)

In Communist Russia, joke tells you!

Tomatillo — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 06:06:44 -0800

Three prisoners in the gulag get to talking about why they are there. "I am here because I always got to work five minutes late, and they charged me with sabotage," says the first. "I am here because I kept getting to work five minutes early, and they charged me with spying," says the second. "I am here because I got to work on time every day," says the third, "and they charged me with owning a western watch." via BoingBoing.

FlapArt

Gator — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 13:54:00 -0800

Must-haves for your coffee table, lavatory reading, or just killing time on the subway: The Nutritional Benefits of Nose Picking; Perfecting the Art of Fart Projection (NEVER be blamed again!); How to Murder a Complete Stranger (and get away with it) [paging scarabic]. These and other eyebrow-raising books can be yours, assuming you already have a book that you can put these dustjackets on. FlapArt: The Alternative Book Cover.

Blonde joke

Steven C. Den Beste — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 22:14:49 -0800

How's about a good blonde joke?

Dissecting Humor

Falconetti — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 20:54:35 -0800

Nothing is funnier than an academic or scientist explaining humor .

Wikipedia's Bad Jokes And Other Deleted Nonsense

Gator — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 11:22:42 -0800

Wikipedia's Bad Jokes and Other Deleted Nonsense category is a veritable goldmine of...well. I had never heard of a Mushroom Tattoo, for example, nor did I know about the tragic exploitation of the Gnomish Nation or the truth about the American Revolution. Towards the end, Ronald Reagan's condition was even sadder than I thought. And why shouldn't we believe in Atlantis, or for that matter the bearatross or Alphonse W. Turkeyman?

Best Holiday

Urgo — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 22:24:23 -0800

Today by far is my favorite holiday. It's the one day that webmasters get to be creative and do things that normally wouldn't fit with their sites general themes. For example, Google attempts a high tech way of quenching peoples thirsts, Wikipedia sells out to Britannica, a RFC is written on Morality, and much much more!