Though best-of-the-year lists seem
soooo two days ago, the end of holidays may require a comedy break, and the increasingly excellent Splitsider has produced a really nice review of the
year in humor.
The Year's Best Humor Writing features, in addition to the
best of The Onion, pieces like
Sometimes State Flags,
The Most Emailed New York Times Story Ever, and Roger Ebert's
one star reviews (you may want to check out
last year's list as well). There is also a list of the
17 best comedy web series,
best comedy podcasts,
funniest video games, and
moments in 2011 where comedy made you think (featuring lots of video).
posted by blahblahblah
on Jan 2, 2012 -
26 comments
The "
Benign Violation Theory" posits that for something to be funny, three conditions must be met. First, there must be a violation of the norm. Second, the violation must be perceived to be benign. Last, both these perceptions must occur simultaneously.
[more inside]
posted by cosmac
on Aug 27, 2010 -
106 comments
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].
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on May 29, 2009 -
4 comments
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.
posted by serazin
on Dec 7, 2008 -
27 comments
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."
posted by cthuljew
on Nov 9, 2008 -
82 comments
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.
posted by Gator
on Mar 17, 2006 -
17 comments
THE PRINCIPLES OF JEWISH BUDDHISM --
12. To Find the Buddha, look within. Deep inside you are ten thousand flowers. Each flower blossoms ten thousand times. Each blossom has ten thousand petals. You might want to see a specialist. And there's even a term now:
Jubu
posted by amberglow
on Mar 5, 2005 -
14 comments
"Sushi pants" and other stories... Possibly not the "best of the web", but not political and damn funny. Of late I have been
enjoying a number of "story" sites
recounting the kind of tall tales of questionable accuracy you usually only hear from genuinely funny friends. Many, many chuckles to be had out there. Some of the stories seem
superficially mean but are actually interesting looks into
difficult situations you might otherwise never glimpse.
"A few days later he put a tarantula in my bedsheets while I was sleeping. Thankfully I wasn't bitten, but I was freaked out and still sometimes jump out of bed in the middle of the night for no reason and attack my sheets." - from
thingie.net
posted by soulhuntre
on Dec 21, 2004 -
13 comments
A man, just back from a trip abroad, went to an incompetent fortune-teller. He asked about his family, and the fortune-teller replied: "Everyone is fine, especially your father." When the man objected that his father had been dead for ten years, the reply came: "You have no clue who your real father is."--that's one of the jokes from
The Laughter Lover (Philogelos), an ancient Greek joke book published in the 4th or 5th century AD. The New Yorker commented on it, and other old jokes
here, stating about one of the possible authors:
... there is some scholarly speculation that the Hierocles in question was a fifth-century Alexandrian philosopher of that name who was once publicly flogged in Constantinople for paganism, which, as one classicist has observed, “might have given him a taste for mordant wit.”
posted by amberglow
on Jul 10, 2004 -
12 comments
That's What Friends Are For: Laughing, getting drunk together, telling all...and making celebratory, determinedly silly websites like
this one. Generally, private
jokes are painfully unfunny but, when the vicarious instinct kicks in, other people's gregarious
joie de vivre is contagious, touching - and great fun.
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Nov 9, 2003 -
7 comments
This really hurt me, but it's all worth it for the Panda joke (#316). In fact, you really only need to read the first two sentences for it to be funny. Well, it made
me laugh, anyway.
posted by Annabel.Gill
on Mar 9, 2000 -
4 comments
