Pixels make better comics
By Pixel. Filed in thought experiment |
Quoth the Sethular: “atheists produce better humor than theists”
At some point in the not-too-distant past, I would say that I agreed with this. I argued that half of what is funny is irreverence towards what others deem to be reverent. How can one be funny if one still maintains this reverence?
But then when we follow this claim to its logical conclusion, we are left with rape, incest, pedophilia, and the Ninja Turtles being objects of humor (not that I’m saying they’re not. I’m just hinting at the fact that ‘proper irreverence’ is an oxymoron).
After all, why does irreverence just end at religion?
And what does irreverence have to do with humor? In my day, I’ve met almost as many sheerly unfunny atheists as I have flat-out hilarious theists.
Personal beliefs have nothing to do with objective hilarity, so much as with intended audience. In other words, atheists are funnier for other atheists.
Similarly, theists are funnier for other theists, Kenyans are funnier for other Kenyans, and child molesters are funnier for other child molesters.
After all, the comics have the same reverence for the same things their audiences have reverence for and the same irreverences for the same things that their audiences have irreverence for, so the possibility of alienating the audience is minimized. And not alienating your audience is the first step towards making them laugh (Comedy 101).
It is just as false to speak of objective ‘good jokes’ as it is to speak of objective ‘good chocolate.’ Perhaps you can get people to agree that it is good qua chocolate or good qua this quality or that, but in the end each person has to make his own decisions about what they like and don’t like.
(Whether humor and personal beliefs go hand-in-hand biologically is another thing. Perhaps the same thing that makes a person conservative will make the person like knock-knock jokes. That is a different question, however, and I don’t have the time or drive to apply the Pepsi Challenge to comedians to determine whether there is a greater correlation between belief and humor than with lack thereof.)
Sunday, December 11th 2005 at 19:59 |
Damn you and your right-ness.
However, I should point out that many of the 20th Century’s most successful comedians (Douglas Adams, Monty Python, etc.) are godless. Obviously, some theists found them funny.
Monday, December 12th 2005 at 18:18 |
I thought these two things would interest you. The first is appropriate for the topic, and the second just reminds me of you.
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2005/12/humor_formula.html
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2005/12/the_problem_wit.html