Kieran Healy’s Weblog Sociology and other distractions

Second Lowest Form of Wit

Jean Baudrillard (Apologetic): I’m sorry I’m so late for dinner, dear, I got stuck at the office. Have I missed everything?

Mrs Baudrillard (Annoyed): Welcome to the dessert of the meal.

I know there’s a genre of these jokes waiting to be born.

hehehehheee!

Boom-tish!
I got a million of ‘em.
Toilet won’t flush? It’s the violins inherited in the cistern.

Sorry, this joke is actually a lousy example of the “shaggy dog story” genre. To be a proper sds it needs a couple of paragraph setup—the story of Mr. B’s day, with Mrs. B constantly reminding him of the date they have that evening and to show up on time for “the meal”…

I am reminded at this juncture of the anecdote concerning Herr Marx and M. Toulouse-Lautrec walking through the streets of London when they spot a group of revellers—Karl suggests to Henri that they would make a lovely subject for a painting, and Henri says well, sure, but they are dressed so casually—I prefer to paint scenes that are a bit more formal… Karl walks over to the group and asks if they have anything they could change into, that his friend might paint their picture—rebuffed, he returns to Henri and announces, “They have nothing, Toulouse, but their jeans.”

ba-dum-bum

Here’s another one (ripped off from Martin Rowson)

Engels to Marx: “Hey! Those Stradiverius’s my great-aunt left me – I found them in the tank above the bog!”

Marx to Engels: “So, Frederic, we have discovered the violins inherited in the cistern.”

Fans of awful puns based on obscure 20th leftists and slogan might want to check out Martin Rowson’s “Scenes from the lives of the Great Socialists”, available for 5 quid at http://www.politicos.co.uk/item.jsp?ID=2736

Here’s another one (ripped off from Martin Rowson)

Engels to Marx: “Hey! Those Stradiverius’s my great-aunt left me – I found them in the tank above the bog!”

Marx to Engels: “So, Frederic, we have discovered the violins inherited in the cistern.”

Fans of awful puns based on obscure 20th leftists and slogan might want to check out Martin Rowson’s “Scenes from the lives of the Great Socialists”, available for 5 quid at http://www.politicos.co.uk/item.jsp?ID=2736

Here’s another one (ripped off from Martin Rowson)

Engels to Marx: “Hey! Those Stradiverius’s my great-aunt left me – I found them in the tank above the bog!”

Marx to Engels: “So, Frederic, we have discovered the violins inherited in the cistern.”

Fans of awful puns based on obscure 20th leftists and slogan might want to check out Martin Rowson’s “Scenes from the lives of the Great Socialists”, available for 5 quid at http://www.politicos.co.uk/item.jsp?ID=2736

Indeed, I own “Martin Rowson’s “Scenes from the lives of the Great Socialists”, available for 5 quid at http://www.politicos.co.uk/item.jsp?ID=2736“, nor do I need to profess this fact three times in order to make it true. Indeed, I have it through the great and good generosity of Mr. David Langford.

I’m not sure which is my favorite—the “eighteenth brown mare of Louis Napoleon,” or “Zinoviev and Kamenev fatally misinterpret the nature of the Moscow show trials” …No, it’s “LENIN IS THE VICTIM O A DREADFUL MUDDLE AT THE GERMAN HIGH COMMAND.” “The Kaiser’s compliments, Herr Lenin, and here is your trained seal!”

Oh dear Kieran.

If your tenure committee ever gets to read that one, it might count against you…

“Indeed, I own “Martin Rowson’s “Scenes from the lives of the Great Socialists”, available for 5 quid at http://www.politicos.co.uk/item.jsp?ID=2736“, nor do I need to profess this fact three times in order to make it true.”

Sorry, server was slow. I got impatient.