Bieber on SNL- Page 5

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 2/17/13 at 6:29pm

Maybe, because so many people use who and whom precisely backwards these days, it's hard to tell when the error is deliberate and supposed to be funny.

The only way the error would work as a joke would be if Myers also donned funny, crooked teeth. His actual teeth may not be perfect, but there's nothing basically wrong with their color or shape, so the grammatical error doesn't have a parallel in his teeth.

(It may kill the humor to deconstruct a joke, SNAFU, but it can be done.)

Thanks for responses, guys. SNAFU, I did finally decide that SOMEBODY at SNL would have said something if the error was inadvertent.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 2/17/13 at 7:12pm

To don funny teeth would have been overkill. Replay the bit and check out Seth's smile/ smirk at the end of that joke! He knows exactly where he was directing it and what he said and how he said it. There is a bit of intellience to the humor that happens up there (at times), no need to hit the veiwing audience over the head. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but that is live TV.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 2/17/13 at 7:45pm

I agree about the overkill, but the point remains that there are two parts to the punchline:

(a) the teeth (Myers teeth are fine/no joke); and

(b) the grammar (Myers employed the usage that most of his audience already and erroneously uses/still no joke).

At least no joke the general public will understand and no joke that doesn't confuse someone like me because of (a) and (b). And hence, you may have noticed, no laugh.

And I might add (c), he had just referred to his girlfriend in the sketch with Richard III's "childhood friends", so it wasn't at all obvious that he was mocking himself as a hapless dater.

I think he miscalculated badly, unless you are telling me his plan was simply to amuse himself.

But that isn't to say I'm not a fan. Unless I love the host, Weekend Update is the only part of the show I watch.

Updated On: 2/17/13 at 07:45 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/17/13 at 8:36pm

HGDMFS, JC

[SNAFU]

Posted: 2/17/13 at 8:41pm

You cannot tie one joke into a narrative thread for Update. They are all separate sketches written by different writers. Myers may say one thing is the first story and controdict himself in a later punchline.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 2/17/13 at 8:41pm

F*ck Mountain Lion! It is causing double posts!

Updated On: 2/17/13 at 08:41 PM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 2/17/13 at 9:38pm

You cannot tie one joke into a narrative thread for Update. They are all separate sketches written by different writers. Myers may say one thing is the first story and controdict himself in a later punchline.

SNAFU, I do understand that Weekend Update is not a three-act, well-made play. But when performed, it creates its own contexts. And, yes, I recognize it's a tad ridiculous to expect continuity from a segment that features characters from the 15th century! (Not to mention the same segment featured the "General Franco is still dead" item for years.)

But you are saying Myers expected us to recognize he was making a joke when his grammatical usage is in fact quite common nowadays, and you are saying Myers expected us to recognize self-deprecation when the joke in question suggested his personal life was diametrically opposed to what he had suggested 30 seconds earlier.

*I* am saying it was all too much to ask, if he wanted the joke to work. And in the end, my proof is the lack of response the joke received.

You and I are just discussing why.

(Again, none of this detracts from my admiration for Myers' writing and delivery of the fake news. I'm just talking about one joke that didn't work. I said I often don't watch the rest of the show, but come to think of it that has been less and less true over the past few years. I actually watch quite a bit of it nowadays and find it greatly improved.

So please don't think I am attacking your show.)

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/17/13 at 9:44pm

OH
MY
EFFING
GOD

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 2/17/13 at 9:45pm

HGDMFS, JC

FindingNamo, your ability to carry on a one-sided grudge for what is it now--18 months? 2 years? Well, it never ceases to amaze me.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/17/13 at 9:52pm

No, this is specifically about watching you flog, fold, spindle, mutilate, burn, slash, draw, quarter, slice, dice, chop, julienne, behead, defenistrate, and blow up this dead horse.

Honest to god, are you for REAL?

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 2/17/13 at 10:08pm

Yes, I am for real. And I don't find endless threads consisting of "That was funny!"/"No, it wasn't!"/"Yes, it was!"/etc. particularly interesting when nobody involved ever hazards a guess as to why something worked or did not work.

In this case I was interested because the comedian in question is someone I normally enjoy and I thought one joke was an odd misfire. I was interested in discussing why. SNAFU, interested or not, was gracious enough to discuss it with me.

And your problem is what? Scroll bar broken again?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/17/13 at 10:18pm

One joke in a barrage of jokes on one segment in one episode of thirty eight seasons of JOKES. Not every joke will work for everybody. And certainly the general public, of which I am a member, does not need you fretting that we won't laugh AT ONE JOKE because we are not as obtuse as you.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 2/17/13 at 10:56pm

And I forced you to join in, how, exactly?

There's no "fretting" here. There isn't even anyone questioning the talent or appeal of the comedian.

I waited until the thread had more or less run its course, then raised the issue because I was unsure of Myers' intention. SNAFU and Theatrediva responded, then I replied to their responses, etc.

It's called a conversation.

Why it triggered a hissy fit on your part, I won't hazard a guess.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/17/13 at 11:06pm

Reading it. When I read it SNAFU was the last poster. Because he's smart and funny I tend to read things he posts. He's a saint for engaging with you as you obsess on this issue, apparently devoid of any self-awareness at all.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 2/17/13 at 11:20pm

Well, we agree on that much: SNAFU is smart and funny. I added "gracious" as well a few posts ago.

Namo, beginning with Plato and Aristotle and continuing through Bergson and Meredith and up to psychologists today, great thinkers have written entire volumes on comedy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theories_of_humor


I don't claim to be a great thinker, but half-a-dozen posts on the subject does not constitute an "obsession". I was merely thinking out loud about why a joke failed.

Your tantrum in response, on the other hand, is inexplicable to me. I would recommend therapy, but a Head Start class might be more emotional age-appropriate.

There! At last you have baited me into giving you a reason for this bizarre grudge you hold against me. Well done, sir!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/17/13 at 11:27pm

Oh my god.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 2/18/13 at 10:13am

"You're travelling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop, the Twilight Zone!"

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 2/18/13 at 12:26pm

Perhaps because my first experiences with internet fora were with true-crime boards--where lower middle class housewives far less educated than posters here pour over complex forensic evidence with a fine tooth comb--I was unaware that an analytical approach was the social equivalent of farting at the dinner table.

I'd promise to reform, but frankly such analysis is a result of both my nature and my training. And I still don't understand why a few ninnies find it so infuriating.

Once again, Namo: the scroll bar is your friend. Myself, I'd be embarrassed to admit that someone who organizes his thoughts and sets them down precisely sends me into such an irrational fury; I'd assume such an admission would reflect badly on he "WHOM" made it.