humor

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How You Know It's a Crisis: Oprah Is Bailer-Out-in-Chief

Culture11 lists top changes to look for in our new economy

(Newser) - How the Wall Street meltdown will affect our day-to-day existence, per Culture11:
  • Nation's emergency lender: Oprah.
  • Living in sin now OK; sharing a sleeping bag in tent city is new social scourge.
  • Cloning approved to allow for mass creation of Alan Greenspans.
  • Hipsters downgrade their booze from PBR to ethanol.
...

Study: Tell Bad Jokes at Your Own Risk

Breaking social contract with unfunny humor a good way to elicit 'impolite' response

(Newser) - What did the researcher say to the reporter? Bad jokes are a good way to lose friends. A Washington State University linguist found lame humor tends to trigger serious hostility, the AP reports. The researcher had her students slip a bad joke into 207 conversations with friends, and 44% of...

Why Have They Lost Their Sense of Humor?
Why Have They Lost Their Sense of Humor?
analysis
Aug 10, 2008 5:33 AM CDT

Why Have They Lost Their Sense of Humor?

Neither campaign can take a joke, Andersen grumbles

(Newser) - Barack Obama and John McCain can both crack a joke, so why can't they take one this election season? From Obama offending McCain with digs about the race card to McCain's laughable anti-Obama ads, serious matters are being laughed off and bad jokes are being taken seriously, Kurt Andersen writes...

A Shark-Hater Fesses Up
 A Shark-Hater Fesses Up 
OPINION
Aug 8, 2008 12:34 PM CDT

A Shark-Hater Fesses Up

Distaste for 'tigers of the deep' is no longer politically correect

(Newser) - Sharks were once eminently despicable creatures. Remember Jaws? Now, though, perceptions have shifted—they’re seen as endangered, misunderstood animals who chomp humans only when they mistake them for seals. (That's why they take one bite and "sheepishly" move on.) It's a source of great disappointment to Joe...

Dirty Jokes of the Ancients Unearthed

Academics discover 3,000-year-old Sumerian fart joke

(Newser) - Academics studying ancient texts have discovered bawdy jokes that wouldn't be out of place in a Farrelly brothers movie, the Daily Telegraph reports. "What hangs at a man’s thigh and wants to poke the hole that it’s often poked before?" asks a thousand-year-old Anglo-Saxon manuscript. "...

Muppets Spring Back to Life on YouTube

Appearance of Henson's famous puppets online has fans buzzing about comeback

(Newser) - The Muppets, largely in retirement since 1981, have been pussyfooting their way back into the spotlight via YouTube, France24 notes. In the past month, Sam the Eagle, the Swedish Chef, Beaker and others have set up accounts, uploading clips on a regular basis and sharing comments like "Meep meep...

McCain Puts the 'Pol' in 'Politically Incorrect'

Rape 'joke' turns spotlight on candidate's sense of humor

(Newser) - This week's flap over a rape joke John McCain reportedly made 22 years ago inspired Politico to recall the candidate's checkered history of telling jokes. Some examples:
  • A quip about why then-18-year-old Chelsea Clinton was "so ugly.”
  • Calling a young man who asked about his age “you
...

McCain: Skip the Bombs, Send Smokes to Iran

Mac jokes about killing Iranians with cigarettes

(Newser) - Told that cigarette exports to Iran rose tenfold under President Bush’s reign, McCain pondered aloud:“Maybe that's a way of killing 'em." When his wife nudged him, he quickly clarified to Reuters: "I meant that as a joke—as a person who hasn't had a cigarette...

Deepak Chopra: 'Catch God With His Pants Down'
Deepak Chopra: 'Catch God With His Pants Down'
Opinion
Jun 18, 2008 2:24 PM CDT

Deepak Chopra: 'Catch God With His Pants Down'

Lighten up about religion, says new-age fan of 'Love Guru'

(Newser) - Real-life new-age guru Deepak Chopra is a big fan of Mike Myers' movie, The Love Guru, and writes that laughing at God is exactly what we need right about now. "More comedies should cross the line between vulgar lampoon and reckless disrespect. Let's catch God with his pants down—...

'Realish' Sedaris Book Skirts Memoir Scrutiny

Genre 'the last place you’d expect to find the truth,' humorist says

(Newser) - With his new book of nonfiction essays, Engulfed in Flames, David Sedaris finds himself engulfed in questions of truth and accuracy. In America, the recent explosion of memoirs has been followed with one scandal after another, prompting more scrutiny of the humorist’s work. “I do think Sedaris exaggerates...

How to Win the Caption Contest
 How to Win the Caption Contest 
Jun 5, 2008 6:35 PM CDT

How to Win the Caption Contest

Don't be too funny, urges Patrick House in Slate

(Newser) - Want to win the New Yorker's cartoon caption contest? The first rule: Don't be too funny. So says recent winner Patrick House, who lays out his can't-miss strategy in Slate. Keep in mind that reading the New Yorker is an introspective pursuit, one of "lonesome withdrawal." Which means...

SNL Launches Political Satire Site
SNL Launches Political
Satire Site
May 9, 2008 8:09 PM CDT

SNL Launches Political Satire Site

Site serves as storehouse of show's long-running satire

(Newser) - Saturday Night Live has unveiled a new website to showcase the program’s political humor, Broadcasting and Cable reports. Visitors can check out clips of the show’s political sketches and candidate appearances at http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/politics, or vote for their favorite president/candidate impersonator—dating back from Dana Carvey's...

'A Bitter Man Who Clings to His Guns?'

Romney jokes on why he left race

(Newser) - While the Democratic candidates were grinding away at each other last night, some other normally stiff shirts were loosening up at the Radio and Television Correspondents annual dinner in DC. The high points:
  • Dressed in hunting hat and shades (no naked lady), Dick Cheney spoofed Barack Obama’s blue-collar gaffe
...

Letterman, McCain Trade Comic Riffs

GOP hopeful shows up and gives as good as he gets with Dave

(Newser) - David Letterman had his routine McCain-is-old shtick interrupted today with comebacks from the Arizona senator himself, the New York Times notes. In the Late Show monologue that airs tonight, Letterman fired off comments such as, “He looks like the guy at the hardware store who makes the keys”—...

10 Ways to Play the Fool at Work
10 Ways to Play the Fool at Work 
it's april 1
Apr 1, 2008 11:40 AM CDT

10 Ways to Play the Fool at Work

The most memorable April 1 office hoaxes

(Newser) - A good April Fools' prank can really liven up the office, and 32% of us have been on the giving or receiving end. CNN draws 10 of the best workplace gags from an annual CareerBuilder survey.
  1. Put pants and shoes in a men’s room stall to make it look
...

How to Fake a Memoir
 How to Fake a Memoir 
Mar 12, 2008 4:03 PM CDT

How to Fake a Memoir

Embellish the story without getting caught, Slate scribe suggests

(Newser) - Misha Defonseca's memoir left a sticky trail of lies about escaping Nazis and living with wolves. (It turns out wolf saliva isn't an antiseptic.) Tired of careless fabricators, Slate writes a how-to for aspiring fakers:
  • Keep it vague. Dates are verifiable—"awhile" is not.
  • Watch out for tattling
...

Ken Jennings They're Not
Ken Jennings They're Not
Feb 2, 2008 7:15 AM CST

Ken Jennings They're Not

Game show howlers dumb enough to make Miss Teen South Carolina blush

(Newser) - Perhaps there's no sadder commentary on the state of society—or at least society's IQ—than dumb responses from contestants on game shows. Reuters combs a (now-defunct) website for high and low points:
  • Q: What was Gandhi's first name? A: Goosey Goosey.
  • Q: What happened in Dallas on November 22,
...

Green Eggs and Slammer: NH Judge Channels Seuss

Inmate can't keep quiet about his prison diet

(Newser) - When a New Hampshire state prison inmate used a hard-boiled egg to illustrate his grievance with his institutional diet, the federal judge overseeing the case sought lofty counsel—Dr. Seuss. "I do not like eggs in the file. I do not like eggs any style," James Muirhead responded,...

Surrealist Simic Named Poet Laureate

15th national bard known for his dark humor and irony

(Newser) - Charles Simic, a surrealist poet whose style gleams with dark imagery and ironic humor, will be named the United States' 15th poet laureate today. The 69-year-old, who replaces fellow New Hampshirite Donald Hall, has published more than 20 volumes of poetry as well as essay collections, translations and a memoir.

You're Right to Feel Abandoned If...

10 indicators the holiday-week fun has passed you by

(Newser) - The office is oddly quiet, your favorite parking spot is always free and your boss isn't lurking in the usual matter. What's going on? Here, the Boston Globe's list of 10 signs that you've been abandoned.
  1. You've rearranged your manager's office furniture and made a chalk outline of a body—
...

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