From: fsbrn@brl.mil (Fred S. Brundick)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Humor subjects (was re: Torturing Politicals)
Date: 10 Nov 92 17:56:44 GMT
Reply-To: fsbrn@brl.mil
Organization: Army Research Laboratory

In article <BxGDJw.4GL@acsu.buffalo.edu>, pscchris@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Christopher Holoman) writes:
|> In article <WARKENT.92Nov9131714@ltisun14.epfl.ch>, warkent@ltisun14.epfl.ch (Ken Warkentyne) writes...
|> >>>There are things that can't be laughed at?  Topics that contain no
|> >>>raw material for humor?  Like what?
|> >> 
|> >> Torturing political prisoners to death. To name one thing.
|> > 
|> >Definitely not funny.
|> > 
|> >Other topics not suitable for humourous treatment:
|> > 
|> >  Rape
|> >  Incest
|> >  Hitler
|> >  Cannibalism
|> >  Genghis Khan
|> >  The Spanish Inquisition
|> 
|> Arrgh, not the comfy chair!
|> 
|> Sorry, I couldn't resist.
|> 
|> >--
|> >Ken Warkentyne - warkent@ltisun.epfl.ch
|> 
|> Chris
|> 

I disagree that there are humorless subjects.  It may be taboo or bad
taste, but we're talking about cultural and personal opinions.  At
least 4 of the topics listed above were used in humorous skits by
Monty Python (as Chris obscurely pointed out).  Mr. "Hilter" ran
for office in a quiet country town (complete with cheering crowds on
the gramaphone).  Some men adrift in a lifeboat argued over who they
were going to eat ("I want to eat Johnson.") and an undertaker
suggested a man eat his dead mother (admittedly, the TV version had
the audience storm the stage in protest).  A fictitious TV show
featured Attila the Hun and his family (close enough to Genghis?).
And the zealots from the Spanish Inquistion kept breaking in on people
and making weird threats, like sitting a woman in the comfy chair.

Ok, maybe MP was a radical humor group (like The Not Ready For Prime
Time Players and Second City) but people still laughed at their
routines.  How about the knight in _MP and the Holy Grail_ (a funny
movie about searching for a major holy relic, hmmmm) who gets his arms
and lets cut off with gallons of spurting blood.  I think the scene is
too graphic, but I still find it funny.  Ditto for the killer rabbit.

In (fairly) recent years we've had _Sweeney Todd_, _Eating Raoul_,
_Rocky Horror Picture Show_, and _Little Shop of Horrors_.  Were none
of these shows funny, or don't black humor and camp count?

Sure, you can argue that there is a deeper, underlying meaning behind
any humor.  When Swift wrote his article suggesting people eat babies
it was intended as satire to point out something or other (it's been a
while since I took a lit class :-)  Is satire humorous or not?  How
about the idea that humor lets us discuss topics that we consider to
be taboo?  Joking about a subject makes us admit that it exists, and
then perhaps we can do something about it.

On the other hand, there are the faddish tasteless jokes, and jokes
used as weapons.  I know someone who tells nasty racial jokes.  If I
look through his eyes and see the common stereotypes he's alluding to,
the jokes are funny.  But I know he takes them seriously, and that
makes the jokes scary.  Maybe that invalidates my argument.  Then
again, a lot of people like to watch slasher movies while I prefer the
Hitchcockian unseen terror and suspense.

                                        dsw, fferd
                                        Fred S. Brundick
                                        USARL, APG, MD.
                                        <fsbrn@brl.mil>

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