On the "Grinding Buttons and Pushing Axes" panel, briefly

[mrissa]

We forgot to discuss an important time when extremely overt message is fine:

When it's really funny.

This is the same principle as when we were sitting in the college cafeteria howling with laughter (on dozens of occasions), and somebody would manage to gasp out, "That's really mean." And somebody else would say, "Yah, but it's funny." And on we'd go.

Really funny doesn't excuse everything. But on the flip side, really funny doesn't have room for everything within it, either. A simple-minded "you suck you suck you suck" is hardly ever really funny.

Okay, back to it.

Comments

[aedifica]

I agree about the distinction between jokes about an aspect versus jokes about a position, but it's not something I had ever noticed. Thanks for pointing that out. And yet, thinking it over, I'm not sure where I draw that line--though I'm pretty sure it's there. This will bear further thought.