The Funniest Thing Ever Pt. 1

Recently I asked a few people the question: what is the funniest thing ever, in your opinion, and what about it makes it so funny? These were all people of taste, and occasionally refinement, but certainly people who thought about what they liked and what they didn't like. Had they thought about what they did and didn't like in comedy? It's not something we usually do--at least not to the extent we do for, say, movies or music, those genres that launched a million lists--maybe because laughter is a much more involuntary reaction than appreciation or enjoyment. We can laugh at things we don't agree with, or think we don't agree with, so provoking this reaction doesn't necessarily coincide with being liked. "Sense of humor" is a broad and often unitary term: you have a sense of humor or you don't. But don't different people have different senses of humor? Just as we might prefer electro-pop to jambands, can't we prefer satire to pratfalls, or offensive humor to puns, or camp to parody? Or do we all basically find the same kind of thing funny?

Here's what they had to say.

Dave Moore:

The best humor blindsides me. Often it provokes an initial, intense feeling of dislike or aversion, slowly it grows on me until I just boil over into maniacal laughter (sometimes just on the inside, or metaphorically or something). I FEEL like the guy in the Napoleon XIV song, but the NXIV song itself also blindsides me with how funny it is, given that it makes me shudder when I listen in headphones (I was a big Dr. Demento geek as a kid thru tapes compiled by a friend my dad made on an early comedy music chat group -- most of my favorites simulatenously scared the SHIT out of me, like the story of the guy who gets anchovies on his pizza and his wife ends up being turned into a bowling ball..."that's not a bowling ball...THAT'S MY WIFE!!! ...So the next time you order a pizza, remember to say..."Noooo aaaaanchovies, pleeeeeease...") .

Or I can be "blindsided by pathos," which is what I said about Margaret Berger's "Robot Song," which only gets funnier as it gets sadder. Ditto Aly and AJ, whose music (and fans) constantly challenge me along "funniest" and "weirdest" and "most affecting" lines simultaneously.

Things that are profoundly sad and profoundly funny are very much linked for me. If I want to get pop-psychological about it, I could attribute it to growing up watching a parent fighting cancer and countering the painful aspects (which truthfully don't arise all that often, what with living yr life and such) with a fairly twisted sense of humor (from an old home video, opening a birthday card: "From my own long lost sick mommy!" and my father, minutes earlier, with crash zoom on a truly disgusting piece of pizza, "How's yer appetite?" These films were essentially performances for my mother, and I bet she thought they were hilarious. One of the last things she ever wrote before her death was "I'm feeling better, my strength is returning -- I've got a lot of Christmas shopping to do!!" which makes me laugh and cry, and frequently one precedes the other, and that's how I know the humor has really "clicked." (I wish that the Fiery Furnaces album we were talking about a few weeks ago, Rehearsing My Choir, was just a LITTLE bit sadder, a little less self-conscious and on the nose narrative-wise (maybe a little less cutesy?) because I love love love it, but it never sucker-punches me in the gut like I want it to.)

I watched "AI" again recently and was moved, though I'm not sure in what way, except to say profoundly. It might be one of my very favorite films. There's the sadness, the humor, the maniacal laughter. Fargo is maybe the Rehearsing My Choir of fiction film in this vein -- just a touch too on-the-nose, but still moves me (to laughter).

But that's only a small part of it, because you can't be PROFOUNDLY MOVED at all times, even though I really do think that's where the most affecting ("deepest") humor comes from. I also like comforting humor, funny ha-ha, Lil' Mama's "Lip Gloss" and "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road" and "My Humps" and Toy-Box. Y'know, STUPID. A few degrees from "Ow! My Balls!" even (come to think of it, the first Jackass movie was kind of profoundly funny). They Might Be Giants are more often clever than profound, and I like them about the same for both tendencies. But I hate hate hate it when clever seems unnatural or forced; it might be the least funny thing EVER. It must appear/feel effortless, regardless of how much effort it took (easiest place to spot this is in decent-to-pretty-good stand-up comedy; the greatest stuff finds room for the pathos, outrage, etc., though on a "safe day" I'll probably listen to a Steve Martin routine). I've been semi-railing against Avril's new "Girlfriend" single for trying way too hard to sound "fun."

Re: political humor, I have similar problems with it that I have with "political music" -- used too explicitly, politics is too often reduced to bumperstickerism, jingles, tag lines, punch lines, nudge-nudges. For me, the best political humor is usually *implicitly* political; if Paris Hilton's album is political (whether she intends it to be or not -- and in the music-plus-conversation-about-it sense, it certainly is), it's political humor. (A political carnival or circus or freak show, maybe.) Which isn't to say I don't laugh at the Daily Show, but at their most effective they let reality play against itself, and the jokes act merely as punctuation. Somehow this doesn't get tiring after five or so years, maybe because there's no dearth of material to play against itself (so I guess I'm saying the Daily Show, particularly through the Bush admin, has been *sadder* than it is funny, hence very often profoundly funny. Compare to the late-90s Craig Kilborn incarnation, which relied way too much on weirdo human interest stories about giant stinking plants -- which I seem to remember vividly for some reason -- and kind of mean-spirited pre-recorded segments). (Funny -- er, not -- I *don't* usually laugh at the "Colbert Report." He's like Avril, yanking me out of my chair all the time. Ditto the Borat movie.)

What's the funniest thing ever? Easy -- I'm five years old, I visit my uncle in Pennsylvania, I immediately ask him if he has any toys for me to play with. Sure, he says, and he reaches into a bowl on the counter and hands me a wooden banana. Wooden banana, funniest thing ever, end of story.

kungfuramone:

I find unexpected left-turns in pop-culture-related humor to be the funniest things ever. I like the ambient level of hilarious to already be at a high level, then have a brutal funny twist drop out of nowhere. Two examples:

1. The third episode of Metalocalypse (Birthdayface) when Dr. Rockso the rock and roll clown does a power-slide out onto stage and delivers his trademark "G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-YEEEAH! I'M DR. ROCKSO, THE ROCK N' ROLL CLOWN! I DO COCAINE!" The first time I saw that, I fell off my chair.

2. This morning's strongbad e-mail, at the very end, in the easter egg (when Strongbad is asleep on the couch and "Dartmouth" comes on the tv.) A kind of routine homestarrunner level of funniness is suddenly punctuated with absolute genius ("I know what to do! BLAAGH!" "Ow, Pokey!")

I think what makes metalocalypse so great is that, yes, for one, it respects the genre. The songs themselves are awesome (Spinal Tap's songs were great parodies, but Dethklok's songs actually rock) and the technical proficiency of the two guys who do the show is such that they can employ hyperbole without it undermining the effect. What I mean is that the wailing guitar solos and lyrics can be completely over the top (see: summoning a troll, chanting "die die die!" in most songs, the insane guitar noodling of "crush my battle opponent's balls") but it still sounds like *real* metal. The other thing is the genius plot device of having them already be the most famous band in the world; unlike every other rock show, it isn't about a bunch of losers trying to get famous, it's a bunch of losers who are the 12th largest economy in the world. (Famously, they just passed Belgium.) It's been so long since hair metal actually did propel anyone to super-stardom (I think of your long-ago blog post about how the American Idol "rocker" contestants represent a kind of rocking that never existed) that it makes the whole thing just surreal enough to be endlessly funny.

Nick Sylvester:

Difficult question since what's funny is more/less tied to the element of surprise, i.e. the funniness evaporates once the surprise is reached. Even retelling funny stories has that dramatic tension built into the performance of telling, which salvages what it can of that original surprise. Then again there are definitely things i do go back to, more replenishably funny than other things, possibly because they're not ironic, just slapstick, so I don't know. It might involve my landlord in italy 02 sitting on an eight-foot pile of bedsheets.

The funniest thing ever for now at least was last Halloween, when my friend rob threatened his girlfriend that he was going to dress as something he called youngsanta. It was going to involve a closely shaven beard and like a hat. This was a pretty great idea so i don't know why she was so upset. Anyway he didn't end up doing this--I think they did one of those"combo" costumes instead--but she was really nervous he was going to.

Sean Michaels:

I find a lot of things funny. I find arbitrariness very funny. I could be vaguer and say I find surrealist and absurdist exclamations, images, convergences to be funny - but really it's the arbitrariness that makes me laugh, and there needn't be any kind of subtext. The ridiculous, random and forceful. I find 'extreme' jokes funny - racism, antisemitism, homophobia, pederast priests, dead babies, holocaust gags. The word "lollercaust" is very funny. I don't find the scatalogical funny - just kinda gross. I like puns, especially arbitrary (and strange) puns. I'm very sarcastic, and I think I'm funny. I like suddenness in comedy. I like contrast. And I really like funny faces.

The funniest thing I can think of is a scene from the UK version of The Office, where David Brent points out a stuffed yellow monkey when he's giving someone a tour of the office. He does this a few times over the course of the series. It's the third time that made me laugh harder than anything I can remember. Partly the call-back -- the recollection of that strange, early, awkward, funny-face moment. But something in the moment itself, the truth and absurdity of it at once, and the silly expression.

A better example (since I can't find that clip online) is this photograph.



I find this photo ridiculously funny. Not because it's George Bush and "George Bush is a moron". No - because his expression and indeed his whole pose is hilarious. Look at him! Blow the picture up big and get a look at it! It makes me laugh every time. It's such an awesome face. It's seriously one of the most hilarious faces I've ever seen. It's also funnier if you don't know why he's making that face. The explanation kind of ruins it. The arbitrariness of this ridiculous face. And the fact you're not used to seeing this man with this face on. And finally, that knowing the president, this is a -real- face. A face caught in a moment. The ridiculous come to life: not fake, not 'goofy', not an impression to make the kids smile. This is a spirit coming alive in this man's face, occupying it totally: the clown bubbling to the surface and assuming the visage of an awkward, terrified, nude turtle.

Daniella:

My answer would be simple and telling. Dave Chappelle's R. Kelly 'Piss on You' video. It will never stop amusing me. Ever.

Maura Johnston:

This, which always makes me laugh, because of the juxtaposition of music + text + internet lolz:

http://omgitsomg.ytmnd.com

The music is apparently from a Japanese game show.

Thanks, everyone, for your answers! Another edition will be along soon, but in the meantime, feel free to put your own answers in the comments.

Labels: blogtalk, funniest thing ever

posted by Mike B. @ 7:45 AM