Apparently not everyone thinks crude jokes about Star Wars geeks are funny
About a week ago, I had this to say about a rather amusing set of pictures and comments from a Star Wars convention. Although the humor was biting and hit a little close to home as far as this former Star Wars/Star Trek/Doctor Who/Dungeons & Dragons geekboy goes, I was still amused enough to post it. However, not everyone agrees, particularly Andrew, who thinks it is an exercise in comic laziness and clumsily going after too-easy a target (after which he makes the admission that he once dressed up as Doctor Who at a convention, something even I've never done). Personally, I still find them fairly amusing, albeit a bit nasty.
Perhaps I should get a consult from an expert (the Cranky Badger, for example) on this one! Was this an example of comic laziness? Was it an example of hack? Or was it legitimate low comedy, like Triumph the Insult Comic Dog's glorious skewering of the Star Wars crowd around the time the last movie came out? (A comic bit that I'm really hoping Triumph does a sequel to this year, given that the third Star Wars prequel is coming out in May.)
Perhaps I should get a consult from an expert (the Cranky Badger, for example) on this one! Was this an example of comic laziness? Was it an example of hack? Or was it legitimate low comedy, like Triumph the Insult Comic Dog's glorious skewering of the Star Wars crowd around the time the last movie came out? (A comic bit that I'm really hoping Triumph does a sequel to this year, given that the third Star Wars prequel is coming out in May.)
While i did find it comically lazy, my main point was that making a homophobic D&D reference while skewering a Star Wars fan is seemingly an act of 'Foxworthy-esque' masturbation, akin to someone with Downs syndrome picking on someone who's full blown retarded.
ReplyDeleteMost of the insults weren't that funny... but oh, the pictures!
ReplyDeleteOK, points taken.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it was the pictures I was amused by more than the insults (although one comment, "Siegfried goes on his solo tour entitled 'Ziggy Stardust: Jedi Magician,' did crack me up, mainly because of my Bowie fandom). I'll wait for the Cranky Badger to weigh in (and I'm sure he'll eventually find his way to this post--just a hunch). It could well be that he will banish me to Slappy's Hacky Shack for a comedy reeducation and reorientation about what is hackneyed and what is not.
Or maybe it was just an uncomfortable recognition of my former self...
Sorry it took me so long to weigh in. Didn't see the "Badger Beacon" in the night sky until tonight.
ReplyDeleteThere is a tendency to critique comedy with a sucks/doesn’t suck point of view. I see Andrew struggling against that impulse, which immediately earns him some respect.
It's odd, but comedy is one of those areas where we sometimes expect a pro performance from every schmuck with a knock-knock joke. Can’t do that. Some people are just goofballs out for a chuckle. That’s what this critter is. To critique this site with a pro sensibility misses the point entirely.
The point is “Dorks dress up and look gay. And a bunch of them are fat.”
And I admit, I laughed. Out loud. At the very thing that Andrew found the most offensive, which blows the “homophobic” thing right out of the water, believe me. Sure it’s a cheap shot, but again, the guy isn’t a pro.
So why did I laugh? Because I think farts are funny. A well-timed dick joke cracks me up. A clever turn of phrase about poo-poo makes me giggle. It doesn’t make me stupid or narrow minded. It just means that I was at one time an adolescent boy, and sometimes it’s fun to remember what that feels like.
That, more than anything else, is the mindset that created this site. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, provided you aren’t charging me money to see it. That makes a badger very, very cranky. Someone will lose a kneecap over that.
He did bring out one major truth in his work. Nobody likes ventriloquists. Creepy little bastards.
The Cranky Badger's input is appreciated. He's also right about ventriloquists...
ReplyDeleteBattlestar Galactica* rules!
ReplyDelete*The new Sci-Fi channel series, not the original although the original was kinda cool in an ultra geeky, campy, 70's disco sort of way, if you like that sort of thing.