playa hatin' (or, let's get a few things straight)

[rone]

Penny Arcade is not funny.
Dave Barry stopped being funny around the time Reagan left office.
Achewood is not funny.
The Onion was funny until they started repeating themselves sometime around `97.  They'll occasionally have a good zinger, but most of their stuff is telegraphed to hell and back.
Jerk City is not funny.
Sinfest is funny until you realize it's a adolescent ripoff of Bloom County with the main character being two-thirds Milo, one third (Watterson's) Calvin.
Something Positive is not funny.
David Letterman is funny only when compared to Jay Leno.
McSweeney's is not funny.

Comments

[urbeatle.livejournal.com]

however, this (http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/filing.009.html) is funny.

I pretty much agree with all those assessments, with two caveats:

1. The Onion's headlines are still funny, sometimes, but you can pretty much skip the articles


2. Jerk City was only really funny in the basic concept, never in the actual content

oh, and early Letterman was kind of funny. but then he just began repeating himself.

[baljemmett.livejournal.com]

however, this is funny.

... *blink* OK, that is indeed funny, in a "what the fuck?" kinda way. Cheers for the pointer!

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

You really gotta hand it to the Onion for their post-9/11 pieces though. And I disagree about Dave Barry as well, I would place his funny to not-funny transistion somewhere in the first Clinton administration.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I concede that the exact point of Barry's transition is disputable.

[stoat.livejournal.com]

has this been bugging you the entire time since dinner the other night, or only in fits and starts?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

It's been bugging me for years, pretty much whenever someone links to a PA or AW "OMG LOL" cartoon.

[j4.livejournal.com]

OOI, what is funny?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Robot Chicken is funny.
The Venture Bros. is funny.
South Park is still funny, which stuns the hell out of me whenever i think about it.
Ray Ratto is funny.
The Perry Bible Fellowship is funny. And sick.
Terry Pratchett is funny.

Oh, i forgot the unfunniest of the unfunny above: Seinfeld. Both Jerry and the show. If you live in or were born in New York, you get a temporary pardon. But really, this "it's funny because it ISN'T funny" fad has dragged on long enough.

HT Sez ...

[(Anonymous)]

A minor addition to every single note of your work is necessary here, mon ami. You need to add the words "to me" after "not funny" in every one.

Why? Because fat, bon bon sucking housewives in Kansas think Hope and Faith is the funniest thing in the world. Because beer-swilling truck drivers in Nebraska think Jay Leno is about the funniest man to ever live.

Also because I think bot Seinfeld and Letterman are freaking hilarious, and if you've got a problem with me saying it, you're well aware of my willingness to make my points heard with a baseball bat. >8^)

That said, I can agree with a lot of what you said, but with humor (like all value judgements) being so idiosyncratic, unless you're _finally_ gonna get off your butt and take over the world with your brother, as you could have done before this "world wide web" thing took off, you really only have this teensy pedestal with which to put forth your views, and ... well, you're better than that, man.

Or you can just toss an "IMNSHO" on it and call it a day. Which would probably take less time.

>8^)

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Oh, for the love of pete, "to me" and "IMNSHO"? This isn't some sissy-pants mailing list, this is MY FRIGGIN' JOURNAL.

And you're talking bats? Bring it, milquetoast. I'll introduce you to Opie.

Re: HT Sez ...

[dagbrown.livejournal.com]

Astonishingly enough, using words that denote judgements have an implied "this is my opinion" in them. Saying "I think that X is funny" is merely being redundant. Of course that's what rone thinks: he was the one saying that!

Sheesh.

addendum

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

..Userfriendly is so un-funny that it makes all of the above look fucking hilarious in comparison.

(And I'm not realy sure that Achewood is supposed to be funny, in any kind of ha-ha sense.)

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I liked UF for a while but it got old.

[mskala.livejournal.com]

Where do you stand on Pokey the Penguin?

[frosch.livejournal.com]

The only part of Pokey the Penguin that I find at all amusing is the cartoonist's difficulties with the English language, and even that is not very funny.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

It's random and it's crap... i dunno. There's just not a lot there to work with.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

I don't stand on Pokey. I jump up on down on that fucking penguin's skull, until it's all mooshy. Then I turn on the blender and make a penguin smoothy.

[jwgh]

Jokes aren't funny.

[kerri9494.livejournal.com]

Ha ha ha ha ha!!! Now THAT is FUNNY! Tee hee!

[nixzusehen.livejournal.com]

I always thought McSweeney's was meant to be ironic, not funny.

It is terminally hip. I only bought the first six editions. :-|

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's definitely terminal.

[andrewhime.livejournal.com]

I'm sure somebody'll jump my ass for it, but I think Achewood is funny when it's actually trying to be, and a lot of the time, it isn't.

[mdyesowitch.livejournal.com]

Diesel Sweeties had the most brilliant comic ever on Friday.
Sluggy Freelance is still funny.
Scary Go Round is somewhere between insane and funny.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

DS: funny
SF: not funny

[dwenius.livejournal.com]

Agreed on all comments but Jerkcity. Since when is copious dick joke humour not funny? Keep in mind that I am allergic to the cinema these days, so I haven't had all the fun wrung out of that particular trope.

What do you think of Leisure Town? I would have assumed that "Q.A. Confidential" would have had you rolling in the BOFH aisles.

Agreeing also with whoever pointed out that McSweeny's isn't supposed to be funny. It's so postmodern, you could create a concordance of any single issue and it would be accepted for submission. Dare ya!

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Jerk City is spastic. I guess it's funny if you find spastics funny.

Leisure Town is firmly in the "fucked up" niche.

[merovingian.livejournal.com]

Okay, um, now I gotta ask. I can never tell, because I usually think everything's funny.

Bob the Angry Flower - http://www.angryflower.com - Funny?
Death to the Extremist - http://www.zole.org/extremist - Funny?
Arrested Development - the TV show, not the upbeat progressive mainstream hiphop group - Funny?
Macbeth - the play, the drunken porter comic relief scene - Funny?
The Heuristic Squelch - http://www.squelched.com/ - Funny?
Staring At A Wall For Nineteen Hours Straight - Funny?
A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible - http://www.alessonislearned.com - Funny?
Denis Leary - Funny?
Bill Hicks - Funny?
Bill Hicks - the "Goober Dad" sketch - Funny?
Lewis Black - Funny?

[merovingian.livejournal.com]

Oh, and one last webcomic:

The Parking Lot Is Full - http://www.plif.com - Funny?

[benchilada.livejournal.com]

The Onion was funny until they started repeating themselves sometime around `97. They'll occasionally have a good zinger, but most of their stuff is telegraphed to hell and back.

I usually read the headline and the first paragraph or two. Even their A/V CLUB section just tends to piss me off with its pretentiousnessosity.

Something Positive is not funny.

You realize that saying that will get you killed in some parts of the world, yes? I mean, not anywhere I'm at, but still...

David Letterman is funny only when compared to Jay Leno.

Yet I find Craig Ferguson oddly soothing.

McSweeney's is not funny.

I have found that, on occasion, a very short piece in McSweeney's is funny. The only issue I've ever purchased was the one with TMBG providing the soundtrack...

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Hey, i was certainly expecting threats when i wrote these up. It's been rather tepid. I feel like a bit of a failure.

[kodi]

The truth, Binkley, is that you look like a carrot.

yeah, it took me all week to come up with that. what of it?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Pear pimples for hairy fishnuts!