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malkahttp://roflrazzi.com/2010/08/09/movie-pictures-inception-funny/
Transcript: scene from Inception, with captions.
Panel 1: Cobb says urgently to Fischer, "We need to go deeper." (If I remember the movie correctly, this was actually said, as part of the constant and ongoing discussion of dreams that is central to the whole movie.)
Panel 2: Fischer replies, "That's what she said."
Panel 3: Cobb has no productive reply (and an expression that doesn't quite fit, because the person doing this had to pick from what was actually filmed and "stymied" is not an emotion that Cobb displays in this movie).
End.
I don't know who Michael Scott (referenced in the title is), and I don't care. The point I think is reinforced by this graphic is that cheap-shot hurr-hurr-hurr jokes completely derail whatever is actually going on. Yes, they defuse tension, but they defuse tension by changing the subject to a very generic topic that is usually irrelevant to the conversation at hand.
Sometimes I want to go back in time and smack 16-year-old me for firmly living by Tom Lehrer's lyric "When correctly viewed, everything is lewd" and sharing those views with those around me. More often, though, I want to smack 30-year-olds who are bound and determined to interrupt interesting conversations with "Your mom [verb phrase picked at random from recent conversation]!"
Transcript: scene from Inception, with captions.
Panel 1: Cobb says urgently to Fischer, "We need to go deeper." (If I remember the movie correctly, this was actually said, as part of the constant and ongoing discussion of dreams that is central to the whole movie.)
Panel 2: Fischer replies, "That's what she said."
Panel 3: Cobb has no productive reply (and an expression that doesn't quite fit, because the person doing this had to pick from what was actually filmed and "stymied" is not an emotion that Cobb displays in this movie).
End.
I don't know who Michael Scott (referenced in the title is), and I don't care. The point I think is reinforced by this graphic is that cheap-shot hurr-hurr-hurr jokes completely derail whatever is actually going on. Yes, they defuse tension, but they defuse tension by changing the subject to a very generic topic that is usually irrelevant to the conversation at hand.
Sometimes I want to go back in time and smack 16-year-old me for firmly living by Tom Lehrer's lyric "When correctly viewed, everything is lewd" and sharing those views with those around me. More often, though, I want to smack 30-year-olds who are bound and determined to interrupt interesting conversations with "Your mom [verb phrase picked at random from recent conversation]!"
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-23 08:43 am (UTC)What I hate is that I have gotten into the habit of faking laughter at "your mom" jokes. Sigh.
AND ALSO I similarly hate "that's what SHE said!" Hate.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-23 02:55 pm (UTC)I think the funniness people find in "your mom" / "that's what she said" is a combination of incongruity-funniness and taboo-"funniness".
The first is a real sort of funniness, but it's a funny-once sort of funniness. Really good jokes of this sort sometimes fade into fond smiles -- I still enjoy seeing the shirt that says "Haikus are quite cool/But sometimes they don't make sense/Refrigerator", but I'd hate to be expected to laugh at it again.
The second is the basis of all potty humor by small children. It's usually most of the punch behind any discriminatory joke. It's not actually funny, but it contains words or concepts you're not supposed to say, so it's charged. This is really best exemplified by my niece's knock-knock joke ("Knock-knock." "Who's there?" "Poopy! *shriek of laughter*"). People who have gotten over the whole concept find it wearying; people who are still trying to understand the taboo at a basic level find it infinitely funny.
I hate the levels of social pressure that cause people who have grown beyond whatever taboo to respond to these sorts of jokes as if they were real jokes. I also hate how much of adult humor is this equivalent to potty humor -- can't we do something more interesting with our time?
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-23 03:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-24 11:14 am (UTC)For me, the feeling that I should be laughing at these sort of jokes comes largely from trying to get along with other people at work, which seems even more backwards and dumb than if it just came from random people in my social environment. (More at my last job than my current one.)