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[Nic]

“Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the frog dies in the process.”

--E.B. White

Here, E.B. White is using a metaphor comparing a joke to a frog. Much like frog dissection leads to greater understanding of the frog, albeit at the cost of the life of the frog, explaining a joke, while it will aid in understanding, undermines the elements of the joke that typically lead to the desired comedic effect such as timing, wording, anticipation, and unexpected connections.

Edge case to E.B. White; the joke gets funnier when you metajoke it.

In case anyone doesn't get Witherweaver's comment, the quote by E.B. White could be considered a joke in it's own right due to the somewhat clever analogy. In my reply I did the very thing E.B. White's analogy warns against; I explained his joke. However, far from undermining the efficacy of his (i.e. E.B. White's) joke, the subversion of his analogy creates a humorous irony, which Witherweaver calls a 'metajoke' as it is a joke predicated on another joke.

Furthermore, Witherweaver refers to this subversion as an 'edge case' which is a common term used by members of this community to denote situations in the game of Dominion where general strategic guidelines or rules of thumb are less effective than usual. By applying this term, one which the audience is sufficiently familiar with, to a situation not relating specifically to the common usage, he creates a humorous comparison.

I just wanted you to know that I read both those posts in Lt. Commander Data's voice, and it'll probably stick for anything you write in the future.

[GendoIkari]

“Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the frog dies in the process.”

--E.B. White

Here, E.B. White is using a metaphor comparing a joke to a frog. Much like frog dissection leads to greater understanding of the frog, albeit at the cost of the life of the frog, explaining a joke, while it will aid in understanding, undermines the elements of the joke that typically lead to the desired comedic effect such as timing, wording, anticipation, and unexpected connections.

Edge case to E.B. White; the joke gets funnier when you metajoke it.

In case anyone doesn't get Witherweaver's comment, the quote by E.B. White could be considered a joke in it's own right due to the somewhat clever analogy. In my reply I did the very thing E.B. White's analogy warns against; I explained his joke. However, far from undermining the efficacy of his (i.e. E.B. White's) joke, the subversion of his analogy creates a humorous irony, which Witherweaver calls a 'metajoke' as it is a joke predicated on another joke.

Furthermore, Witherweaver refers to this subversion as an 'edge case' which is a common term used by members of this community to denote situations in the game of Dominion where general strategic guidelines or rules of thumb are less effective than usual. By applying this term, one which the audience is sufficiently familiar with, to a situation not relating specifically to the common usage, he creates a humorous comparison.

I just wanted you to know that I read both those posts in Lt. Commander Data's voice, and it'll probably stick for anything you write in the future.

And now so did I.

[Jimmmmm]

In my experience, one of the best ways to make a non-funny joke funny is to explain it.

[SirPeebles]

In my experience, one of the best ways to make a non-funny joke funny is to explain it.

Best of all, you can iterate.  If they don't find the explanation funny, then you can explain to them the humor of having explained the bad joke.  Iterating this technique sufficiently many times will almost surely earn you a smile.

[sudgy]

There's a friend of mine that we've made this joke about:

"When you tell him a joke, he laughs four times.

1. When he hears it.
2. When you explain it to him.
3. When he tells it.
4. When he gets it."

Now, the funny thing is, we told it to him, he laughed, then said he didn't get it.....

[StrongRhino]

There's a friend of mine that we've made this joke about:

"When you tell him a joke, he laughs four times.

1. When he hears it.
2. When you explain it to him.
3. When he tells it.
4. When he gets it."

Now, the funny thing is, we told it to him, he laughed, then said he didn't get it.....

Mint?

[Witherweaver]

In my experience, one of the best ways to make a non-funny joke funny is to explain it.

Best of all, you can iterate.  If they don't find the explanation funny, then you can explain to them the humor of having explained the bad joke.  Iterating this technique sufficiently many times will almost surely earn you a smile.

Now there is a question of the returns of the humor in iterative explaining.  If the humor function is monotone increasing as the number of explanations increases, does the image have a finite supremum?  If not, then every joke is inherently infinitely funny.  Since we know this a priori to the joke itself, we should be infinitely amused before even knowing the joke.  We should therefore be laughing all the time.

In fact, even if the humor function is bounded, we still know this ahead of time independent of the joke itself.  Thus we should always be going around at that level of amusement.

[WalrusMcFishSr]

Possibly a theory of "humor renormalization" is required to physicalize these divergent amusement pole artifacts.

[Kirian]

I'm pretty certain this thread's humor function has been asymptotically approaching zero for a while now.

[werothegreat]

I'm pretty certain this thread's humor function has been asymptotically approaching zero for a while now.

In other words, the limit, as thread post count goes to infinity, of humor content in said thread, is equal to zero.

[mail-mi]

I'm pretty certain this thread's humor function has been asymptotically approaching zero for a while now.

In other words, the limit, as thread post count goes to infinity, of humor content in said thread, is equal to zero.

lim (humor)_{thread post count-->8 on its side}=0

[ConMan]

Jokes, explained.
Jokes explained, explained.
Jokes explained explained, explained.
I'll let you figure this one out for yourself.

[jonts26]

I really hope this becomes a ryan north thread now.

[qmech]

I'm pretty certain this thread's humor function has been asymptotically approaching zero for a while now.

In other words, the limit, as thread post count goes to infinity, of humor content in said thread, is equal to zero.

lim (humor)_{thread post count-->8 on its side}=0

I can live with that as long as the sum goes to infinity.

[ashersky]

I'm pretty certain this thread's humor function has been asymptotically approaching zero for a while now.

In other words, the limit, as thread post count goes to infinity, of humor content in said thread, is equal to zero.

lim (humor)_{thread post count-->8 on its side}=0

I can live with that as long as the sum goes to infinity.

...and beyond?

[jonts26]

I really hope this becomes a ryan north thread now.

I hope so too. I recently got his choose your own adventure version of Hamlet. I highly recommend it.

[Titandrake]

uhhhh jonts you know you just quoted yourself right

[SirPeebles]

uhhhh jonts you know you just quoted yourself right

This is why their name is plural.

[jonts26]

uhhhh jonts you know you just quoted yourself right

I was just fulfilling that handsome gentleman's wishes.

[jonts26]

I really hope this becomes a ryan north thread now.

I hope so too. I recently got his choose your own adventure version of Hamlet. I highly recommend it.

To Be or Not To Be: That is the Adventure is indeed great. I've also read some of his adventure time comics, which I actually like better than the cartoon. You should read those if you like the show and/or ryan north's humor and/or rad adventures.