[WikiEN-l] Joke

[Mark Gallagher]

G'day Matt,

> On 7/15/06, Guy Chapman aka JzG <guy.chapman at spamcop.net> wrote:
> 
>>On Sat, 15 Jul 2006 18:36:15 +0200, "Steve Bennett"
>><stevagewp at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>Honestly, I don't really see much need for a reliable source for a
>>>joke. If we say that a joke has a premise, a genre, a punchline etc,
>>>then we give an example that meets the criteria - I don't really see
>>>the harm if we invented the joke on the spot. If a better example
>>>comes along, so much the better.
>>
>>Policy means nothing here, then?  We can allow OR and subjective
>>judgments as to which jokes do or don't represent the genre?

[Guy: a wise man once said, "Fuck policy!"  If we get worked up over an 
action that violates policy, it must be because that action is a Bad 
Thing on its own merits, not merely because "policy says so".  Otherwise 
those of us who care about Wikipedia are looking at a life of enforcing 
bureaucratic nonsense, eventually leading to madness and an early grave.]

> I don't think we require that illustrations need citations to prove
> they're representative, do we?  We do allow subjective judgments on
> Wikipedia.

I'm sure I've seen diagrams filled to overflowing with references, and 
I'm quite heartened that someone's bothered to go to that much effort. 
People like to see virtue in others, so long as it doesn't mean we have 
to do anything ourselves ;-)

> That said, academic citations would be cool - I'm sure there are
> academic papers on jokes.

There was that "scientific survey" a few years back that was all over 
the world's papers, which asked: "What is the funniest joke?  How do 
different countries respond to humour?"  The various articles I read on 
the subject all included examples.  An AP article about that would make 
an excellent source for jokes, if we got to arguing over which ones were 
representative and which weren't.


-- 
Mark Gallagher
"What?  I can't hear you, I've got a banana on my head!"
- Danger Mouse