excerpt of conversation about polar bears

[mrissa]

Some people say that puns are the lowest form of humor, but sometimes I think surrealism is.

Comments

[voidmonster.livejournal.com]

The lowest form of humor is -- without doubt -- teenagers with video cameras.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

What do the polar bears think?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

We have not asked them. It was a conversation about polar bears, not with polar bears.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Darn.

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

I saw polar bears today. They were very wet, as were we.

Amusing fact: Polar bears do not have white fur. Each of their individual hairs is actually clear.

[fmsv.livejournal.com]

We don't make sense, but we do like pizza.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Surrealism, puns, and a fanatical devotion to the Pope. No, wait, I'll come in again.

Besides, two guys whomping each other with pig bladders has to be in there somewhere.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Here we have no fanatical devotion to the Pope. We have a phonetical devotion to the Poh-pay.

[writingortyping.livejournal.com]

amongst our weaponry...

[the-flea-king.livejournal.com]

I don't know about high or low, but surrealism is my favorite form of humor.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think the lowest form of "humor" is Andrew Dice Clay.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

I have never understood why puns are called that. They require a good vocabulary and an agile mind, and are generally only made by the well-educated.

I had a conversation with Julian about this a while ago, and came to the conclusion that the reason puns are in such general disrepute is that it is inherent to their functioning that they make the audience feel very briefly foolish. You interpret the word one way, realize there was something odd about the presentation, review it in your head, and realize that A: there was a second meaning that you missed the first time (even if 'the first time' was a millisecond before the second), and B: the word probably wasn't actually used for its own meaning, but chosen for its utility in facilitating the pun.

Or, you know, not. But it's an odd definition of 'low,' anyhow.

The thing about surrealism is that, while it *can* be clever or interesting, it can also be one of the laziest forms of humor going.

[thorintatge.livejournal.com]

either puns or surrealism can be lazy, and they can both also be very good. I think that it makes a fair amount of sense to talk about high and low forms of humor, because a lot of humor dervies from unexpected elements, and that means if you've heard a type of joke so often that you can predict where it's going, it's funnier if it doesn't go in that direction, but pulls a U-ey on you, so to speak. That can be considered a higher level of humor. In that model, puns can be found anywhere, from the dumb jokes in children's Sunday Funnies features to subtle multi-level Shakespearean puns.

The internet has brought out the visualual aspects of punning, where the appearances of letters and words are just as relevant as their sounds. I suspect this was rare before online chat rooms became popular. Even punctuation marks are fair game. :-! I have to say, I love how when I roleplay online, we're always inventing new words, like 'splorfle' and 'CRINCHcrunch'. Rather Carrollian.