Why net.puns aren't very funny

[Andrew Scott Beals]

Puns in an enviroment like this just aren't funny. Do you know why? Because
people have pun dictionaries ("Crosbie's Dictionary of Puns") and any fool
can leaf thru a reference work and come up with a 1 (or N) liner to add to
the silly >>> tree in net.jokes.

If when you're talking along in class and you make a bad pun, that's a
completely different matter - you just don't have time to thumb thru
a reference and "come up" with them.

---

Now for the obligatory joke:

A fisherman from Maine went to Alabama on his vacation. He rented a boat,
rowed out to the middle of the lake, and cast his line, but when he looked
down into the water he was horrified to see a man wrapped in chains lying
on the bottom of the lake. He quickly rowed to shore and ran to the police
station. "Sheriff, sheriff," he gasped, there's a guy wrapped in chains,
drowned in the lake!"
"Now ain't that jest like a Yankee," drawled the sheriff, "to steal
more chain than he can swim with?"

----

The next one is quite old and "Offensive to Dave Bloom (rot13)"

D. Jung'f gur qvssrerapr orgjrra n wrj naq n cvmmn?
N. N cvmmn qbrfa'g fpernz jura lbh chg vg va gur bira.
--
I'm PROUD to be a CARBON-BASED lifeform!

andy beals
ba...@lll-crg.arpa {ihnp4,seismo,ll-xn,qantel,sun}!lll-crg!bandy
LLNL, P.O. Box 808, L-419, Livermore CA 94550 (415) 423-1948

[Harry Freeman]

[bor...@bucsb.uucp]

In article #4669 (on our system), Andrew Beals writes:
>Xref: harvard net.jokes.d:1148 net.jokes:12096

>
>Puns in an enviroment like this just aren't funny. Do you know why? Because
>people have pun dictionaries ("Crosbie's Dictionary of Puns") and any fool
>can leaf thru a reference work and come up with a 1 (or N) liner to add to
>the silly >>> tree in net.jokes.
>
>If when you're talking along in class and you make a bad pun, that's a
>completely different matter - you just don't have time to thumb thru
>a reference and "come up" with them.
>
>
>---

Well, I don't know about y'all, but *I* don't have one, and even if you
people do, they're still fun to read and to add to. There's such a thing
as the 'n' key if you don't like them; most are labeled as puns.

>
>I'm PROUD to be a CARBON-BASED lifeform!
>

Name a life-form that isn't!

Now for the obligatory addition to the pun chain. . . .

>In article <4...@codas.ATT.UUCP> mi...@codas.UUCP writes:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>What was the first math lesson?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>God told Adam to multiply...
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>If you keep telling old math jokes, I'll have to dis-integrate you.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>How did you derive that line?
>>>>>>>>>>>>Oh, it makes no differential...
>>>>>>>>>>>This is at best a partial excuse for humor.
>>>>>>>>>>When will these math jokes stop? Please give me a sine!
>>>>>>>>>Notice how these jokes tend to send people off on tangents?
>>>>>>>>These lousy jokes keep adding up...and I fear this may be the worst case!
>>>>>>>This seems to be forming an infinte series.
>>>>>>Well, as long as it doesn't become complex, we won't keep going in circles.
>>>>>There ought to be a sin in that!
>>>>This discussion is Polar-izing the net! It is going to divide us!
>>>I can't see anything positive coming out of this.
>>It's all imaginary anyway.
>Actually, I think it at last has become complex.
At least we're all being discrete about it. . . .

---------------------
"Perhaps it was a result of anxiety." -- _Mad_Max_

Michael A. Justice BITNET: cscj0ac@bostonu
elsewhere: ???