Gina in Albequrque New Mexico writes: Why is this blog called What Is Funny when it so seldom is funny?
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We get this question a lot. Probably one of the biggest misconceptions about this blog is that its intention is to be funny. In fact that has never been a brand promise this blog has been comfortable delivering on. For the most part, we prefer to dwell in the theory of comedy, that being the state at which something could or would be funny given better material and enough alcohol intake on the part of the reader.
In fact, the blog’s name may on a surface reading imply humor (as in, this blog is what is funny), but a close reading of punctuation reveals this is not a direct statement, but in fact a question of existential crisis. What could be funny in a world where more people will die of Syphilis than experience the joy of watching animals play musical instruments on Youtube?
Still, the origins of this blog name have been much debated. Careful reader Delmore Matzen from Rancho Cucamonga, CA asks if there is any connection between the title and the famous line of dialog in the Sophocles’ play Philoctetes, wherein Neoptolemus cries out, “How treacherous are the ways of Gods, what is funny to them pains my groins!” This right before his brutal rape at the hands of his mother’s Mahjong group.
A good guess Delmore, but that would be a little cliché, wouldn’t it?
In truth, like all good magicians, we at WIF prefer to keep its origins mysterious, like the secret sauce on McDonald’s Big Mac whose name shall never be revealed other than the fact that it rhymes with Mousand Miland.
Though, the fact that bigboobs.org, hotcoeds.edu, barelylegal.net, and foxnews.com were all taken at the time of this blog’s creation certainly limited the possibilities.
(p.s. Dear readers, please do not attempt to go to any of these sites–)
Tags: the e-mail bag
“Delmore” HA HA HA HA HA