BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'

Subject: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Aug 07 - 11:01 AM

In this morning's Washington Post magazine, Gene Weingarten puts into words something I have been grumbling about for some time.... the sad stuff passing for humor & entertainment these days... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/21/AR2007082101716.html


Note: the video is harmless enough by itself, but the phenomenon it illustrates is, in MY learned & erudite opinion, of course... one of many paradigms of the "dumbing down" of the culture

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: SINSULL
Date: 26 Aug 07 - 11:45 AM

I like "The Turtle Boy".

Actually this is the first I have heard of him. So how do you stay so in touch with modern culture, Bill?

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: GUEST,Box Turtle
Date: 26 Aug 07 - 12:23 PM

So, what's wrong with saying something nice about a turtle?

How would you feel if you were constantly being called slow, if people often told stupid jokes about you, or made unflattering comparisons to George Bush. It is no wonder so many of us retreat into our shells. All these negative messages from the dominant culture are really hard to take. Some of us become so dispairing that it seems life is no longer worth living. I've been tempted more than once myself to 'cross the road', as we say.


There are some who would say the risk I am taking in communicating directly to you is too great. I say some things are worth sticking your neck out. LONG LIVE TURTLE BOY!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Aug 07 - 12:35 PM

"So how do you stay so in touch with modern culture, Bill?"

Oh, it hunts me down and sits on my neck occasionally....if I am careless enough to leave a window open.

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: SINSULL
Date: 26 Aug 07 - 02:06 PM

LOL

I was amused at the Turtle Boy. Anyone who has been around kids can see the humor in his focusing on his most recent "adventure" while terrified of being on TV. Hope his family makes enough off this to send him to college.

The inane clips of jugglers, pimple squeezers et al on Youtube annoy me. But so do inane sitcoms like Everybody Loves Raymond and TV commercials which all seem to feature a Dad who is brain dead. SIGH. Thank god for the MUTE button.

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: SINSULL
Date: 26 Aug 07 - 02:08 PM

I had the dubious honor of previewing a sitcom pilot recently. Bad acting, idiotic jokes, hackneyed premise with an unceasing laugh track - either it was all funny or they wanted me to think so. It will probably be a hit.

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: John O'L
Date: 26 Aug 07 - 07:34 PM

Although I don't disagree that there is a "dumbing down" process going on, I don't think it's recent, and I don't think it can be stopped or even slowed down. As communication technology reaches further and becomes faster, a lowest-common-denominator culture must arise, and this probably started with the printing press.

The problem now is that innovations arrive daily, and the cultural ramifications arrive the followiing day, so we see the changes happening right before our eyes. Each incident is nothing, but together it's a tsunami of idiocy. What can you do? Stand on the shore and tell it to go back.

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 Aug 07 - 07:38 PM

(Psst--Bill: it isn't the culture moving dumbwards of your location in the continuum..... No.... You're moving smart'ard.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Aug 07 - 07:46 PM

Yep...I am channeling King Canute!

The 'dumbing down' is a bit like 'global warming' or the paving over of wilderness....it is hard to control, but we can at least document it so we can say "I told you so!" with appropriate smugness.
Some of these are more important than others, though I am not always sure which is which.

The whole point of the article, which was maybe ½ serious, was that disseminating silliness and flat humor has become so easy with new technology that even folks who might not have started one of these whimsical bits of fluff find themselves spreading it.

   Perhaps all *I* want is something to feel superior to!...*wry grin*

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 Aug 07 - 07:48 PM

[eh Bill]

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 26 Aug 07 - 08:03 PM

even folks who might not have started one of these whimsical bits of fluff find themselves spreading it.

For example, by starting this thread...

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: Amos
Date: 26 Aug 07 - 08:57 PM

Perhaps all *I* want is something to feel superior to!...*wry grin*

Bill,

I am sure with your demonstrated talent, you should find no shortage of opportunity!!

Anyway, I agree with the idea that Turtle Boy's burst of popularity is senseless, but it is sort of the kind of senselessness I come to expect from the middle of the modern bell curve.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Aug 07 - 09:49 PM

"Ask not for whom the bell curve distorts...etc."

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: SINSULL
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 11:35 AM

Speaking of "dumbing down"...TV news is airing a clip of a Miss Teenage America blundering through her question (which is supposed to show poise).Asked why over 40% of Americans can't find the United States on a map, she shrugs and babbles about Africa and how it will help people in the United States. Painful. And if Saturday Night Live presented it as a skit, you'd never buy it. Painful.

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 11:41 AM

Jay Leno makes displaying this phenomenon a regular feature in his "Jay Walking" segment....and it is VERY scary.

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 03:45 PM

And while we are at it, what is amusing about the Simpsons?

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 05:19 PM

Plenty, Richard. But that's excessive thread drift.

I just hope Americans get spared "Little Britain".

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 05:31 PM

I cannot watch The Simpsons....there is a big difference between 'clever' and 'funny'.

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: John Hardly
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 05:57 PM

philistines.

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: jeffp
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 06:51 PM

I just hope Americans get spared "Little Britain".

Too late. It's on BBC America. God only knows why.

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: SINSULL
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 07:09 PM

I watched Little Britain last night. So homosexuals and retarded people are prime humor in Britain?

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 08:14 PM

God, I suspect, JeffP, has nothing to do with it....

(If existing)

Subject: RE: BS: Turtle Boy and the 'state of humor'
From: John Hardly
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 07:49 AM

good answer!