Thank you Laodicean. May as well jump to the punchline. I had considered that contributions here would potentially represent a looking glass into the dark heart of the ri membership, the cultural insiderness of RI. Unsurprisingly, the RI membership is savvy enough to fear revealing what they find funny about the darkness that resides in all of us, or at least that's one possibility for the dearth of responses. Probably only a partial explanation. As Critchley says of the relief theory, "The inhibition of affect is revealing". Only related as there is no context absent an audience. We cannot see each other laugh or suppress laughter.
Pulled a few things out on the first viewing:
"Perhaps one laughs at jokes one would rather not laugh at. Humor can provide information about oneself that one would rather not have. It reminds one that one is a person one woud rather not be."
I'm very fond of parody and pretending to be what I despise and find laughable. Doesn't work so well on a message board so my sense of humor doesn't translate well here. I'm also keenly aware that I am doing self parody when I pretend to be a christian or a homophobe or a racist. That resides in me in some measure. My superego suppresses it and keeps it in check, but I know it's there. What we laugh at not only marks our cultural background, but also how much of our cultural background we have managed to unpack and shed. Is there any more wonderful way to meet a fellow traveler than to meet eyes and share a wry smile over some profoundly subtle inside joke. There is a kindred spirit!
"Who can you laugh at in the united states? The mormons."
See the Mormons are Wack thread. I think he's wrong of course. There's just about no one that is out of bounds for me. But it is interesting to ponder who and what and in what context is out of bounds. In reference to seamus above, it seems to me that for the dead there is some waiting period that has to be observed, generally. If however cheney had died under those circumstances, let the jokes begin immediately.
"the popularity of monty python in the united states?"
Critchley is puzzled by the popularity of Monty Python in the states. Interesting. There's probably a dissertaion in answering that question. In my experience Monty Python (generally speaking the movies) is a hate or love it sort of thing amongst Americans.
I once picked up a hitchhiker, a very drunk young woman with long black hair and black leather jacket and green cowboy boots; a stripper by trade as I came to learn. I noticed on looking at her in my rearview mirror that she had dropped a pack of cigarettes and had not noticed. I decided to turn around and tell her (I was single at the time) and then I asked her if she needed a ride. She assented. One thng lead to another. I got her number and we went on a dinner and movie date. At the time Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was playing and I had not seen it yet. The theater had only about a dozen or so people in it. I laughed my ass off, only occasionally feeling discomfort with the material (such as the scenes with the runaway). No one else in the theater was laughing, including my date who did not seem to so much as chuckle even once. It was a sort of litmus test. That was our one and only date.
Reminds me of this:
I wrote:For a time when I was a young man in my twenties I would show this poem to women that I met. If they sided with the woman then I knew not to waste my time. If they acted perplexed then maybe it was worth trying to get laid. If they laughed then I knew we had some potential.
Rift
“I can’t live with you anymore,”
she said,
“look at you!”
“uuh?” I
asked.
“look at you!
sitting in that god
damned
chair!
you belly is sticking out
of your
underwear,
you’ve burnt cigarette
holes in all your
shirts!
all you do is suck
on that god damned
beer,
bottle after bottle,
what do you get out of
that?”
“the damage has been
done,” I told
her.
“what’re you talking
about?”
“nothing matters and
we know nothing matters
and that
matters…”
“you’re drunk!”
“come on, baby, let’s get
along, it’s
easy…”
“not for me! She screamed,
“not for
me!”
she ran into the bathroom to
put on her
makeup.
I got up for another
beer.
I sat back down
just had the new bottle
to my mouth
when she came out of the
bathroom.
“holy shit!” she screamed,
“you’re
disgusting!”
I laughed right into the
bottle, gagged, spit a mouthful of
beer across my
undershirt.
“my god!” she
said.
she slammed the door and
was gone.
I looked at the closed door
and at the doorknob
and strangely
I didn’t feel
alone.
Charles Bukowski
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=17456&p=183228&hilit
"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." - Martin Luther King Jr.