[1555] in Humor
HUMOR: Sources of humor on the net
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (abennett@MIT.EDU)
Mon Aug 12 11:32:08 1996
From: <abennett@MIT.EDU>
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 11:24:10 EDT
Date: Sun, 11 Aug 1996 23:54:56 -0800
From: connie@interserve.com (Connie Kleinjans)
From: "Jim Pellmann" <jgp@Rational.COM>
Internet Web Offers A Virtual World of Comedy
By James Romenesko, Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Minn.
Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News
Aug. 5--When Twin Cities comedy guru Scott Hansen isn't onstage, he's probably
online.
Sometimes he checks out humorous Web sites for fun and inspiration he
especially enjoys the Monty Python pages -- and other times he just hangs out
in chat areas to try out new material.
"A lot of times when I'm bored, I'll hook into a basic chat area and start
blabbing some lines and try to make people laugh," says Hansen, who owns the
Comedy Gallery in St. Paul and does his own standup comedy. He recently
announced that he would close his club to concentrate on standup, which
probably means he'll spend more time online trying out material.
Obviously he can't hear the chuckles from his online audience, but Hansen says
he watches for "LOLs" -- the online acronym for "laughing out loud" -- to see
how he's doing.
He knows all too well that an empty screen means he's bombed.
For Hansen, cruising the Net means trying out jokes, e-mailing contracts and
confirmations for comedians he's booked, and tapping into the vast resources
of online comedy.
The Web is filled with satire, parody sites, one-liners, timely and timeless
gags and other good humor. But there's also a lot of bad stuff out there,
although no politician has yet to propose a Comedy Decency Act.
Perhaps never before in history has so much humor been available so freely --
whether for professional comedians like Hansen, speech writers looking to add
a laugh or just folks hoping to be a bit funnier around the water cooler
Monday morning.
Here's a look at 15 of the more popular sites -- an eclectic mix of humor on
the Web -- that are entertaining millions daily.
1. Lawyer Jokes
Oh, there are so many of them! What is it about attorneys that make them so
detested? Their $350 per hour fees, perhaps? One of the better lawyer-joke
pages is maintained by a man who gives this preface: "This page is dedicated
to my father, the only honest lawyer I know."
OK, so the site isn't a loving tribute to the profession, but at least it's
funny. Samples, with apologies to the attorneys out there:
Q: Why don't snakes bite lawyers?
A: Professional courtesy.
Q: What does a lawyer use for birth control?
A: His personality.
These gems are at:
==> http://www.math.harvard.edu/jeremy/lawyer.html
A less mean-spirited site that makes fun of lawyers, maintained by a law
student, is at:
==> http://student-www.uchicago.edu/users/krlearne/humor/humor.htm
2. O.J. Jokes
Will we ever tire of them? Judging by the quantity of Simpson slams on the Net
(and they continue to be updated), probably not. One of the largest
collections is found at:
==> http://www.main.com/saint/jokes/oj3.txt
Sample of a joke acceptable for publication: What do O.J. and Michael Jackson
have in common? They're both missing a glove.
3. Redneck Humor
Jeff Foxworthy made a few million on it -- here's your chance to see what you
can do with a little Bubba-bashing. This page analyzes backwoods redneck
qualities. For example, you're probably a redneck if your home has more miles
on it than your car. Or: You're probably a redneck if you think Dom Perignon
is a Mafia leader. A site that's especially funny for people wearing flannel.
Found at:
==> http://cs1.angelo.edu/csimmons/redneck.htm
4. Bumper Snickers
Radio commentator Paul Harvey's not the only one on the lookout for humor on
car bumpers. Try these at:
==> http://onyx.pvcc.cc.va.us/mwood/joke1.txt
Maybe tomorrow you'll be telling other drivers: "My karma ran over your
dogma."
5. Strange News
Who has to make up stories when Chuck Shepherd grabs them from today's papers
in his popular "News of the Weird" columns, available online in an unsexy
all-text format at:
==> http://www.nine.org/notw/latest
6. Bill Gates and Windows Jokes
A disheveled billionaire and an frequently crashing operating system are easy
humor targets, as this site proves:
==> http://www.hevanet.com/vanrees/windows/gates.html
7. The rec.humor.funny Home Page
This is the Web page for the newsgroup that delights in humor. There's a
searchable joke archive, a joke-of-the-day, and the story behind
rec.humor.funny being the first newsgroup to be banned on the Net.
==> http://comedy.clari.net/rhf
8. Politically Incorrect Jokes
Nobody is spared here, and those who don't relish ethnic, sexist and similar
humor should stay away. There are barbs about gays, geeks, lawyers, men, women
and ethnic groups of all sorts. You've been warned!
==> http://www.waite.adelaide.edu.au/pclarke/jokes.html
9. Blonde Jokes
Why don't they ever go after people with auburn hair? Maybe they just don't
behave like blondes. That's not a joke, really, but there's lots of blonde
humor at:
==> http://plains.uwyo.edu/bishwa/blonde.html
Some samples, which we repeat disapprovingly:
What do you call a blonde mother-in-law? An air bag.
What do you call a blonde golfer with an IQ of 125? A foursome.
10. Kathie Lee Gifford Quotes, Digs and One-Liners
Sweatshop buster Kathie Lee isn't a favorite on the Net, as this page proves.
This site has barbs tossed at her by comedians and jokesters like Jay Leno,
who offers this: "Kathie Lee Gifford was given a humanitarian award for her
efforts to improve the human condition. Then she got up and sang so they took
the award away." This and more are found at:
==> http://psg.com/mimi/personal/kill-klg/oneliners.html
11. Rodney Dangerfield's Web site
Talk about not getting any respect -- the comedian had to put up this page
himself. It's vintage Rodney, with a joke-of-the-day, pictures of Mr. No
Respect and his pals and an online bio. With RealAudio, you can hear Rodney
crack this one: "I tell you, this girl was fat. I hit her with my car. She
said, 'Why don't you go around me.' I told her I didn't have enough gas." And
there's a new one tomorrow at:
==> http://www.rodney.com
12. 101 Uses for AOL Disks
Many Netters with a few extra America Online disks in their junk drawers have
e-mailed page-creator Pam with their suggestions on what to do with them. She
posts the ideas here. A disk as a coffee table conversation piece? There have
to be better suggestions here.
==> http://www.safari.net/pam/aoldisks/index.html
13. Insults.com
The folks at:
==> http://www.insults.com
brag that now you can put an obnoxious person in his place with a clever line,
using material lifted from here. See if this will do the job for you: "Nice
suit. Somewhere there's a Pinto without upholstery." That's just a start.
14. Why Coffee is Better Than Women (or Men?)
Warning: This site at:
==> http://www.me.mtu.edu/loew/coffeewomen.html
offers an example of crude college humor, but it's incredibly popular on the
Net. Don't even guess what that says about society or Web culture. A tamer
offering found here: "You can always ditch a bad cup of coffee."
15. The Nerd Humor Archive
People who find humor in UNIX will appreciate this site. Programming jokes
galore can be found here in this all-text, seemingly ancient site. The
material has been sitting around for a while, yet it doesn't seem that stale
- -- to nerds, of course.
==> gopher://wiretap.spies.com/11/Library/Humor/Nerd
ONE-LINERS FOUND ON THE WEB :
"The gene pool could use a little chlorine."
"He who laughs last thinks slowest."
"When there's a will, I want to be in it."
Good one-liner sites:
==> http://www.detour.com/cwang/oneline.html
==> http://www.eeeek.com/oneliners.htm
Roseanne's one-liners:
"The day I worry about cleaning my house is the day Sears comes out with a
riding vacuum cleaner."
==> http://www.earthchannel.com/comedymg/editorl/rosean02.htm
Ellen DeGeneres' one-liners:
"Stewardesses have the power. They have the peanuts."
==> http://www.earthchannel.com/comedymg/editorl/ellen02.htm
HUMOR ON USENET: These are Usenet newsgroups on the Internet, which you can
access through a "newsreader" program or using the "news" function of a
browser such as Netscape.
alt.jokes.limericks: While a few of the postings could be repeated at a family
gathering, a good number of the limericks here fall into the
"there-was-a-girl-from-Nantucket" category.
alt.humor.puns: There's a regular crowd of pun-lovers who hang here. Visitors
are welcome, though.
alt.tasteless.jokes: 'Nuf said.
rec.humor: A nice variety of funny stuff, from vanity license plate yucks to
specialty jokes.
alt.tv.comedy-central: Discussion of the cable channel that airs "Kids in the
Hall," "Absolutely Fabulous" and other treasures.
alt.comedy.improvisation: Talk about instant humor!
alt.comedy.standup: Discussions about the work and the main players.
OTHER NEWSGROUPS:
alt.fan.jay-leno
alt.fan.conan-obrien
alt.fan.letterman
alt.fan.dennis-miller
alt.fan.davebarry
alt.fan.monty-python
THE BEST HUMOR WEBZINES
The Onion
A publication based in Madison, Wis., that hilariously satirizes the news in a
no-holds-barred fashion. (One recent tame but funny article: "Clinton forgets
to hit 'save' on Federal budget.") Nicely designed, too.
==> http://www.theonion.com
Citizen Poke
A college humor magazine that's smart-alecky without being pompous. They're
funny kids with a talented HTML designer behind them.
==> http://www.amherst.edu/poke
The BrouHaHa Online
This is the online version of Tulane University's student humor magazine. Not
only humorous, this site is journalistic; recent issues have featured solid
interviews with Politically Incorrect's Bill Maher and deadpan presidential
candidate Pat Paulsen.
==> http://studentweb.tulane.edu/fcolby/main.html
The Yale Record
This is the nation's oldest college humor magazine, and it appears they have
fun with some of the oldest humor themes: dorm food, premature hair loss and
other topics that collegians may or may not care about. There are flashes of
wit here.
==> http://www.cis.yale.edu/record/frames.html
The Badminton Journal
Another magazine that takes what's in the news and twists it a bit, The
Journal lampoons Bill Clinton, Rush Limbaugh and other usual suspects.
==> http://www.tufts.edu/dpashman/tbj.html
END
