Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site hou4b.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!hogpc!houti!ariel!hou4b!ams From: ams@hou4b.UUCP Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Re: Geez people! Message-ID: <1110@hou4b.UUCP> Date: Mon, 20-Aug-84 20:24:01 EDT Article-I.D.: hou4b.1110 Posted: Mon Aug 20 20:24:01 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 21-Aug-84 03:31:47 EDT References: <459@houca.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Holmdel, NJ Lines: 30 Well, I haven't learned any new words in school last term, so I am really having a hard time trying to express myself on this one. But please, bear with me... A joke is supposed to be humorous: it is supposed to make people laugh. That is what a *joke* is. Now, there are other forms of humor. A witty remark, for example, or a *pleasantry*, might make one's listners chuckle. There is also *black humor* (cf Evelyn Waugh, taught in many schools): this is intended to shock people with the realisation that they are finding amusement in something that offends their sense of ethics. Now, in which form of humor was the President indulging? Did you laugh? Was there some unexpected punch-line that caught you off balance? Or was it a very *witty* remark in response to some situation? Or was the president trying, through black humor, to get us to realize that the spectre of nuclear war is very horrible and that we should do everything in out power to avoid it? Somehow I can't really buy any of these alternatives. Actually, I think that the man just does not think about what he says. This can be called unaware, or if you prefer, insensitive. Another alternative might be that he thought the remark was truly amusing. In which case I wonder. When *I* think about bombing I think about dismembered bodies and people screaming. What do you think about? Andrew Shaw AT&TISL 834-4085 HO 1C-412A houx[a-z]!hou4b!ams