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06/27/2006: an unprovoked slam at Carrot Top


There's a very funny joke on the always interesting Bob Harris blog today. Put in script format, and adapted into, oh, say… a House spec, it would go like this:

Cutty looks up from reading the newspaper.

CUTTY
Why would Rush Limbaugh take Viagra to the Dominican Republic?

HOUSE
To keep his pants up?

Haw! I love it. And I simply *must* discuss this unusual joke form distinguished by a punchline lifted from another joke. Delightful. I was sure I'd occasionally seen other jokes of this type, but I couldn't recall specific examples.

And yet my mind was fizzing with that feeling of recognized similarity. I finally realized that I was being reminded of the amazing cartoons at Spamusement.com. Have you seen these? They're cartoons fitted to the subject lines of actual spam emails. Just like the Bob Harris joke, these rely on the humor of working around a pre-existing punch line. I love these cartoons. I'm helpless in their grasp.

But what is it that makes this type of humor so irresistible? Personally, I think it's because these jokes have a perceived high level of difficulty. It's like the difference between a prop comic who uses custom-made props, versus an improv guy who has to make funny out of whatever bizarre unexpected object he's handed. You laugh more at the improv guy because you're giving him credit for the harder job of being fast and adaptable. As a script writer, you create the illusion of spontaneity. And a joke like this makes you seem really quick and clever, no matter how long you labor over it to get it just right.

If I were teaching a class, I think I'd give an assignment: come up with a new set-up for "to get to the other side." I bet we'd have some great ones.

Afterthought. After I wrote this it occurred to me that if this were in an actual House script, House's line might very well be prefaced with "Wait. I know this one..." It feels slightly more like him that way, don't you think?

Lunch: eggplant stew over tofu noodles.