Possumblog

Comedy U. UPDATED

Just saw this story--What Is Britain's Funniest Accent?--which, oddly enough, belongs to the Magic City's namesake.

What I found so odd about the piece?

One--that this guy gal actually exists:

[...] The research, led by comedy expert Dr Lesley Harbidge from the University of Aberdeen [...]

and second, the fact that if indeed he she DOES exist and DOES actually consider himself herself a comedy expert, he she should know better than this:

The test joke was chosen by Dr Harbidge for reflecting traditional British stand-up comedy.

With no notion of cleverness on the part of the teller, the listener's concentration is focused on the lilt of the words themselves.

The joke goes: Workmen are eating sandwiches, balancing on a girder miles above the ground.

"You ever get that urge, Frank? It begins with looking down from 50 storeys up, thinking about the meaningless of life, listening to dark voices deep inside you, and you think, 'Should I?... Should I?...Should I push someone off?"'

Friends, scholars--THAT is NOT a joke! At least by itself--it is a CAPTION, proceeding from the comedic gold mine found inside Gary Larson's bulging head.

Captions rely on the artwork and in most cases the artwork relies on the caption to be funny. In the original cartoon, without the caption, it's just a cartoon of two guys sitting on a girder. With only the caption, you miss the subtle bulging of Frank's eyeballs as the words sink in and he realizes he's sitting beside a psycho. In any event, I find it difficult to see how any of this is "reflecting traditional British stand-up comedy."

But then again, I am from Birmingham.

(I do wonder what it takes to get a gig at a college as a humor expert.)

UPDATED 12/14/06 Well, it turns out that such peoples as Doctors of Comedy do exist! Just got a note in the comments below from the Dr. Harbidge HERself, who says that in the research it was noted that the Far Side cartoon was used as the basis for the joke, so it's not like she just heard it second-hand as a joke and then decided to use it. SO, as I noted below, my regrets for relying upon a news report for facts.

Along with my apologies for mistaking her for a he. But it's just that all those fancy-pants British university guys have girl names like Lesley and Ashley and Pamela, so I just assumed. And we know what happens when one assumes, right? OF COURSE we do!

As always, though, we are happy to correct ourselves in the unlikely event we are ever mistaken about something.

Also, it is a great pleasure to report to you that we have decided to confer upon Dr. Harbidge the Axis of Weevil Distinguished Chair of Comedic Studies, and will call upon her often to weigh in on matters of a funny nature. (Funny 'ha-ha,' not funny 'strange'.)

Posted by Terry Oglesby at August 22, 2006 12:45 PM