Archive for Hall Of Humor

09.22.08

Misspelled Scriptures

Posted in Hall Of Humor at 7:07 am by admin

One way to confirm that cyberspace is the great equalizer is to observe the quality of editing that exists …

I am truly amazed at the mangling endured by the English language on a significant number of sites. It’s fair to assume that this malady has its roots in short attention spans during the school years. As a result, accuracy is often the first victim of poor spelling and grammar.

Still, if we’re going to cite examples of this averral, let’s do it with a touch of humor. Here are some responses by younger students from a secular school when asked to expound on various teachings of the Bible. Their words are unedited:

“In the first book of the Bible, Guinessis, God got tired of creating the world, so he took the Sabbath off.”

“Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree.”

“Noah’s wife was called Joan of Ark.”

“Noah built an ark, which the animals come on to in pears.”

“Lot’s wife was a pillar of salt by day, but a ball of fire by night.”

“The Jews were a proud people and throughout history they had trouble with the unwympathetic Genitals.”

“Samson was a strongman who let himself be led astray by a Jezebel like Delilah.”

“Samson slayed the Philistines with the axe of the Apostles.”

“Moses led the Hebrews to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread which is bread without any ingredients.”

“The Egyptians were all drowned in the dessert. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten ammendments.”

“The first commandment was when Eve told Adam to eat the apple.”

“The seventh commandment is thou shalt not admit adultery.”

“Moses died before he ever reached Canada.”

“Then Joshua led the Hebrews in the battle of Geritol.”

“The greatest miracle in the Bible is when Joshua told his son to stand still and he obeyed him.”

“David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. He fought with the Finklesteins, a race of people who lived in Bibical times.”

“Solomon, one of David’s sons, had 300 wives and 700 porcupines. When Mary heard that she was the mother of Jesus, she sang the Magna Carta.”

“When the three wise guys from the east side arrived, they found Jesus in the manager. Jesus was born because Mary had an immaculate contraption.”

“St. John, the blacksmith, dumped water on his head.”

“Jesus enunciated the Golden Rule, which says to do one to others before they do one to you.”

“He also explained, ‘a man doth not live by sweat alone.’”

“It was a miracle when Jesus rose from the dead and managed to get the tombstone off the entrance.”

“The people who followed the Lord were called the 12 decibels.”

“The epistles were the wives of the apostles.”

“One of the opossums was St. Matthew who was also a taximan.”

“St. Paul cavorted to Christianity. He preached holy acrimony, which is another name for marriage.”

Now, while we pause for a moment to wonder which of these authors will be filling our prescriptions and writing our wills when they reach adulthood, let’s also consider that some of them could have a great future in punditry. Here’s a likely candidate:

“A Christian should have only one spouse. This is called monotony.”

Ba-da-boom … or however a rimshot is spelled.

J Square Humboldt is the featured columnist at Longer Life’s website, which provides information designed to improve the quality of living. He’s at longerlifegroup.com/cyberiter.html

09.21.08

Opposites Attract Laughter

Posted in Hall Of Humor at 3:19 pm by admin

Continuing from my last article on association, let’s see how this technique generates hilarious result. By association means by pairing or combining thoughts, images or even words together.

The most popular and obvious form of association in comedy is
INCONGRUITY; by pairing of opposites or contrasts. Like fat and thin, black and white, new and ancient and the list goes on. By juxtapositing two opposites it creates incongruity. This premise can whip up endless potential humorous ideas. Examples like a tall reek-thin man standing beside his rotund wife, a caveman using a handphone, a smart-talking donkey with a dumb owl or a devil having a friendly round of poker with an angel. As I’ve said before “anything goes”. But of course not all incongruities will produce funny result.

Another obvious source of incongruity is the OXYMORON. Oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two seemingly contradictory words are combined. Examples like: open secret, good grief, original copies, small crowd or alone together.

Similarly to the technique of incongruity, is the REVERT. Here you take a normal situation and reverse it into its opposite. The most popular example is the bride carrying her groom into the room. Just take any ordinary situation and turn it around and see whether it can engender laughter. Like instead of having a bird in a cage, have a man in a bird cage, with the bird watching outside. “Anything goes”!

Use the association technique to light up your creative fuse and set it ablaze with ideas. Spur your brain to make new connection or new associations with opposities that will attract laughter.

A freelancer from Malaysia who dabbles in both visual and performing art. Cartooning, script-writing, acting in TV and movies, doing voice, sound and singing impressions under the stage-names: Wacky Willy and SFX-Man.

Read more articles and free tips at: http://funny-ideas.blogspot.com/

Reach me at: kertoon@yahoo.com