MEMETICS: Humor (was The Good, the Bad and the Ugly)

T0Morrow@aol.com
Thu, 23 Jan 1997 15:06:41 -0500 (EST)


Sunah.Caroline.Cherwin@pobox.com writes:

>>You might enjoy the experience of making more challenging jokes.
>to a more curious crowd.

I don't get it. What do you mean?

I've given some more thought to humor, and posted a revised version of my
essay, "On the Importance of Silliness" off of the T0Mpage cited below.
Here's the punchline:

I suggest that <EM>humor, like inoculation, generates anti-memes</EM>.
Though the exact causal mechanism remains unclear (as do the causes of humor
itself) I theorize that making a meme the butt of jokes transmits it in
enfeebled form. Just as inoculations prepare our immune systems for
potentially worse things, silliness can introduce a meme while simultaneously
stripping it of authority.

(Heh. Get it, Sunah.Caroline.Cherwin?)

T.0. Morrow
V.P. and Director, ExI
t0morrow@aol.com
http://members.aol.com/t0morrow/T0Mpage.HTML