The New York Times thinks my sense of humor is broken.

[trinityvixen]

This article posits that the following joke is not (and should not be) funny:

So there are these two muffins baking in an oven. One of them yells, “Wow, it’s hot in here!”

And the other muffin replies: “Holy cow! A talking muffin!”

I smiled, re-read, and now I'm giggling. I'm sorry, that shit is funny, NYTimes. Screw you!

Pretty interesting bio-history of laughter though.

Comments

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

That muffin joke never gets stale.

[shell524.livejournal.com]

Mr. Stillman says he got so used to the laughs that he wasn’t quite prepared for the response at a conference in January, although he realizes he should have expected it.

“It was a small conference attended by some of the most senior researchers in the field,” he recalls. “When they heard me, a lowly graduate student, tell the muffin joke, there was a really uncomfortable silence. You could hear crickets.”

I bet there were plenty of people in the audience thinking "Man, if I laugh, everyone will think I'm an idiot."

=-þ

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

*Looks for a repair kit for your sense of humor*

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I love that joke! It's right up there with another one of my favorites:
What's the difference between a rhinoceros and a piece of paper?
You can't make a spitball out of a rhinoceros.

Re: =-þ

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

So, you don't think it's funny either then. Oh well, more giggles for me.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Jokes about muffins are funny. Puns about muffins less so.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what I thought. "Yeah, they weren't laughing because next you were gonna tell them they were subordinate if they did. THEY READ YOUR BOOK! THEY KNOW THE SECRET."

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

!!!!!!!

That's fantastic! I love it! Woo!

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

On reading the article, I agree with a lot of their premises--I often notice that I use laughter to punctuate sentences that are in no way funny, and it really is mostly a social thing.

But the premise that that joke is absolutely not funny--we're the New York Times, we know--is pretentious and ridiculous. Who made you the gods of humor? How dare you state an opinion as fact and tacitly include my agreement? What a brat!

[hslayer.livejournal.com]

Based on the rest of the article, I'd guess your laughing at that joke means you see yourself as a pretty low rung on the ladder of society. :P

[happyelfling.livejournal.com]

haha, i thought that too! and i love that joke.

though really it's all about the delivery.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

How dare you state an opinion as fact and tacitly include my agreement?

In other words, how dare they be a news outlet with an agenda! Next up on the NYTimes' hit list: THE FUNNY.

I also found the article to be rather, hrm, correct or at least indicative of behavior. Doesn't mean they're right about the muffins.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Yes. Clearly, my breadth of sense of humor is inversely proportional to my social status. Woe.

[umeyard.livejournal.com]

Okay i am still laughing
i love those jokes
they always make me laugh

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

I tend to laugh to fill silences when I'm nervous. Surprised that wasn't mentioned in the article.

[cbreakr.livejournal.com]

The experiment they set up really didn't seem to be measuring humor in any way, only whether people laugh in a very contrived situation.

This is also one of those jokes which suffers from censorship. A good "holy fuck!" really steps it up.

Personally, I love humor which attempts to destroy its own context. It's why I love Aqua Teen.