Solitary and Mutual Wanking

[WernhamHogg]

I keep meaning to open a pit on the cabal of inside jokers who wander into threads and say things like "Jenna Elfson, You have some 'splainin' to do," or "How old are those potato chips?" We recent members are all really impressed that you have all these old-timer inside jokes so that you can be snarky and opaque at the same time, or perhaps derail a thread with a series of shibboleths and secret handshakes. Well, anyway, here it is. I fully 'spect the usual suspects to wander in and talk about "roast duck" and "danger, Will Robinson!" and "all your base are belong to us." Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're hilarious and obscure and entrenched in smug quasi-masonic rituals of rhetoric. I get it! Perhaps Lynn's next "Put all _____ here" thread can be "The One and Only Wankers Secret Ball" so I can read the intelligent and humorous comments and ignore the SDMB equvilent of whispering, snickering junior high school kids.

[Binarydrone]

I keep meaning to open a pit on the cabal of inside jokers who wander into threads and say things like "Jenna Elfson, You have some 'splainin' to do," or "How old are those potato chips?" We recent members are all really impressed that you have all these old-timer inside jokes so that you can be snarky and opaque at the same time, or perhaps derail a thread with a series of shibboleths and secret handshakes. Well, anyway, here it is. I fully 'spect the usual suspects to wander in and talk about "roast duck" and "danger, Will Robinson!" and "all your base are belong to us." Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're hilarious and obscure and entrenched in smug quasi-masonic rituals of rhetoric. I get it! Perhaps Lynn's next "Put all _____ here" thread can be "The One and Only Wankers Secret Ball" so I can read the intelligent and humorous comments and ignore the SDMB equvilent of whispering, snickering junior high school kids.
When come back, bring pie.*




That’s two annoying things for the price of one! The first post quoting the OP AND an inside joke.

[pravnik]

Where's the beef?

[Shodan]

He only says that because he was circumcized.

Regards,
Shodan

[Ilsa_Lund]

He only says that because he was circumcized.

Regards,
Shodan


I burning your dog.

[ultrafilter]

I suppose you've got a point. I really don't care. Hi Opal!

I swear, I'll never do that again!

[kung fu lola]

OP make baby Jesus cry.

OG SMASH!!!

[Neurotik]

Fucko off!

Gotcha ya. ;)

[Liberal]

I cannot respond right now because I have to give a speech on the fallacies of evolution at our local university, where I hold a prestigious chair. But I shall respond immediately upon my return. Until then, the rest of you will have to do the best you can. I believe that my last post should leave all of you enough to chew on for quite a few hours.

[davidm]

IANAY, but IMHO IIRC TANSTAAFL!

Oh, one more thing...

1920s Style Death-Ray!

[Otto]

Who the fuck is Spalding Gray?

[askeptic]

Who the fuck is Spalding Gray?


He waslong boring inane off topic pointless blather full of mundane details found on Google

[bordelond]

Batman ... if he's prepared.

[bordelond]

"all your base are belong to us."

BTW, that's not a SDMB inside joke. That was an Internet-wide inside joke current about 3 or four years ago.

...

Don't let inside jokes get you down. Start a new thread like "Explain these SDMB inside jokes" (a few like this have been done, if not recently) and get the scoop. People will be happy to oblige.

[Knorf]

Ah, they're 1920s style "death-rays."

[dwc1970]

"Solitary and Mutual Wanking"-- BAND NAME!!!

[Ilsa_Lund]

Ah, they're 1920s style "death-rays."


This post has been bolded-underlined-italicized-sized by the bolded-underlined-italicized-sized-IST!!!!!

[WernhamHogg]

BTW, that's not a SDMB inside joke. That was an Internet-wide inside joke current about 3 or four years ago.

...

Don't let inside jokes get you down. Start a new thread like "Explain these SDMB inside jokes" (a few like this have been done, if not recently) and get the scoop. People will be happy to oblige.

1. I don't really care what the explanation behind the joke is. Really, I don't even care if people make obscure jokes, if at least it's clear what the person feels in regards to the OP and/or quoted post. Often, the joke is all, and what is it? A slam? Agreement? Just some nuetral wanting to get his postcount up? To paraphrase Thumper, if you can't say something meaningful, say nothin' at all.
2. I have asked for explanations, only to receive more jokes and more clearly noxious ones, such as you will find by QuietMan in the current Scientology thread. "Oh well you want me to explain my joke? How about you take your meds! Need that explained?"
3. Hi Opal! Ah cripes, I'm one of them.

[ivylass]

Search for SDMB Anthology.

Many of your questions will be answered there.

And we're not doing it to be elitist. After you've been around awhile you will catch yourself doing it too.

This posts has been Graped by the...oh, forget it.

[bordelond]

1. I don't really care what the explanation behind the joke is. Really, I don't even care if people make obscure jokes, if at least it's clear what the person feels in regards to the OP and/or quoted post. Often, the joke is all, and what is it? A slam? Agreement? Just some nuetral wanting to get his postcount up? To paraphrase Thumper, if you can't say something meaningful, say nothin' at all.

I disagree. I find that most of the time, an inside joke is very much meaningful. But IMHO, establishing a sense of familiarity, humor, and community can be considered "meaning". There's nothing inherently wrong with going off-topic for some effect or another.

Not to say that it can't be done poorly, tactlessly, or tastelessly, because that can--and does--happen.

[CrazyCatLady]

Eh, 98% of the time you don't have to understand the joke to know it's just somebody farting around for the amusement of passersby. It's not approval, it's not condemnation, it's just someone entertaining the troops for the sake of entertaining the troops. There are a few I still don't fully understand, and don't care nearly enough to try to understand, but I simply accept them as the SDMB version of going "badump bump" after a comment. Not exactly meaningful discourse, no, but if we were all restricted to meaningful discourse, this board would pretty much die down to GD and maybe GQ, and that wouldn't be much fun at all.

[Left Hand of Dorkness]

Ever watch a stand-up comic who, upon getting a big laugh out of one particular joke, will refer to it over and over througout the course of the routine? That's what you're seeing here, and it can be both funny and annoying, depending on how it's done.

Repetition of humor can be pretty funny sometimes, especially when it's unexpected yet appropriate. If you haven't been around long enough to catch the hang of the repetition, you can either listen carefully till you get the rhythm, or you can whinge about it and come across like a bratty little kid saying, "C'mon, let ME play, let ME play!"

Daniel

[Chefguy]

This post has been bolded-underlined-italicized-sized by the bolded-underlined-italicized-sized-IST!!!!![/i][/b][/u][/size]

You're not doing the dance...




inside joke from Calvin & Hobbes

[scout1222]

...or perhaps derail a thread with a series of shibboleths and secret handshakes.

Please, please do not drag my dear ShibbOleth into this. He really is a wonderful man.or so I hear, anyway

:D

[WernhamHogg]

I disagree. I find that most of the time, an inside joke is very much meaningful. But IMHO, establishing a sense of familiarity, humor, and community can be considered "meaning". There's nothing inherently wrong with going off-topic for some effect or another.

Not to say that it can't be done poorly, tactlessly, or tastelessly, because that can--and does--happen.

When you post either in a thread started by someone, or in response to a post you quote in your own, and make a vague comment that you know full well is meaningless to the thread starter or quoted poster, it's an elbow in the ribs and a snicker to your fellow cliquers and not familiar, humorous, or otherwise meaningful to the person you are supposedly directing the comments to.

Also, I've seen the series of these inside jokes, even amongst people who "get it", derail a thread... in a recent thread, somebody who actually posted to the OP was chastised for not posting in the "direction" of the thread, as if we've all got to sit quietly in our seats and let the hijackers navigate.

[Exgineer]

I'd respond to this, but I'm posting from a laptop in my car and I have to log off and parallel park.

[WernhamHogg]

you can whinge about it and come across like a bratty little kid saying, "C'mon, let ME play, let ME play!"

Don't be an asshole. I'm not a "bratty little kid," and I don't want to "play." I just want people responding to me directly or in my threads to either say something I get or shut the fuck up.

[Max Carnage]

ItShut up!

[Munch]

Don't be an asshole. I'm not a "bratty little kid," and I don't want to "play." I just want people responding to me directly or in my threads to either say something I get or shut the fuck up.
Wow, get over yourself.

[WernhamHogg]

Wow, get over yourself.

I'm not currently under myself, but thanks for the advice.

[askeptic]

... in a recent thread, somebody who actually posted to the OP was chastised for not posting in the "direction" of the thread, as if we've all got to sit quietly in our seats and let the hijackers navigate.


Ooops, guess that was me. I think my "S" key is going to get warn out from all the times I type "Sorry". But sometimes an OP is so stupid that it only seems right that it gets "Hijacked" and when somebody chimes in without haveing read what has gone before it seems appropriate to make fun of them.

[Left Hand of Dorkness]

Don't be an asshole. I'm not a "bratty little kid," and I don't want to "play." I just want people responding to me directly or in my threads to either say something I get or shut the fuck up.

Well, too bad, because they ain't your threads, and anyone can post in them.

If a thread is being really badly hijacked, then you can try to steer it back on course, using the "more flies with honey than vinegar" principle. Or you can start a new thread.

Significantly, you're not complaining about jokes in a thread: you're complaining about jokes you don't get. Essentially, you've come into an existing community of people with existing traditions, and rather than accommodating yourself to those traditions, you're insultingly telling everyone else to knock it off with traditions that you don't like.

Ain't gonna work. You may not like it, but it ain't gonna. The board's traditions are ingrained, and everyone won't change their sense of humor because you've not been around long enough to catch all the jokes.

Daniel

[rjung]

Since when was "You have some 'splainin' to do" an SDMB in-joke?

That's I Love Lucy, fer Primus' sake!

[askeptic]

Don't be an asshole. I'm not a "bratty little kid," and I don't want to "play." I just want people responding to me directly or in my threads to either say something I get or shut the fuck up.

Yea, and I want a billion dollars to. The net is a big place, and it is full of idiots and assholes. You can't expect all of them to abide by you wishes. Also once you submit your thread it ceases to be yours, read the disclaimer. It is fair game, anyone may make whatever comments the mods allow. In the annoying words of so many assholes, settle down and get over yourself. Nothing you, or I or anybody says here is important enough to get so indignant. (sometimes mad, maybe, but not indignant)

[Smeghead]

Darmok and Jilad at Tanagra.

[WernhamHogg]

I think it's funny that Left Hand's post is preceded by askeptic's about reading a thread. I'm not pitting inside jokes in general, however dumb and boring they are, but specifically either quoting a post and replying to it with a smug cryptic remark and/or a thread by a new member and shitting all over it. Enjoy your inside jokes all you want with people who get them. There's a big difference between sharing an old joke with old friends and saying them to people who don't get it so you can snicker with your friends at the newby's blank look and confusion, perhaps believing you've outsmarted them because you have some private language. I have inside jokes with coworkers and other old friends, but I don't use them out of that social context. I can tell Diogenes to eat snow, and it's all in good fun, but if I call you a snow-eater and nudge Dio I'm being an arse.

[Cervaise]

I'd respond to this, but I'm posting from a laptop in my car and I have to log off and parallel park.Cervaise is pleased that you do not drive an SUV.

[Dead Badger]

Since when was "You have some 'splainin' to do" an SDMB in-joke?

That's I Love Lucy, fer Primus' sake!
Well yeah, this is what I thought, too. And Jenna Elfman is a moderately prominent Scientologist. So what we have is not so much an "in-joke" as a "joke". Will these be pitted in future?

What am I saying, "in future"...

[Diogenes the Cynic]

Take it easy, skutir, the Jenna Elfman reference was posted in agreement with you. The "s'plainin'" was demanded of the IRS and the CoS, not you.

I have no idea what the "meds" thing was about, though.

I've been here for a year and a half and I still don't get all the jokes either but usually the intention is not to snicker at newbies but are just general bada boom quips for the community at large.

If someone posts a cryptic remark in direct response to one of your own posts just ask them what they meant. They'll usually explain it or somebody else will. 99 percent of the time it's perfectly benign.

[tdn]

All your burning dog are belong to pie.

1. I don't really care what the explanation behind the joke is. Really, I don't even care if people make obscure jokes, if at least it's clear what the person feels in regards to the OP and/or quoted post. Often, the joke is all, and what is it? A slam? Agreement?

Oh, sorry.

All your burning dog are belong to pie, dumbass.

:D

[Left Hand of Dorkness]

There's a big difference between sharing an old joke with old friends and saying them to people who don't get it so you can snicker with your friends at the newby's blank look and confusion, perhaps believing you've outsmarted them because you have some private language.

Yes, just like there's a big difference between learning the culture of a community you're coming into, and getting totally paranoid about that community and thinking that you're somehow the center of their malevolent attention.

Dude. Rather than assuming that the jokes are at your expense--rather than assuming anyone knows who you are, even--why not pick up that knife Occam left behind and figure that maybe, just maybe, the jokes are jokes?

Trust me. When you're being laughed at around this place, you'll know it. Like right now, people are laughing at you because you're being paranoid and shrill. Take your lumps, laugh sheepishly, quit being paranoid, and in two hours everyone will have forgotten about it.

Daniel

[belladonna]

I'm not pitting inside jokes in general, however dumb and boring they are, but specifically either quoting a post and replying to it with a smug cryptic remark and/or a thread by a new member and shitting all over it. Enjoy your inside jokes all you want with people who get them.
Well that's the thing, SDMB threads are open to any and all members who choose to read and/or reply to them. Way more people will be reading them than just you, and if a poster wants to make a joke targeted towards those readers what the fuck does it matter to you? If you don't get the joke and want to, ask and it'll be explained. If you don't care about the joke and don't want to get it, ignore it.
Or maybe everyone should just stay out of all newbie threads so that we don't violate their precious niavete. But then of course we'd probably have to listen to all the bitching about how the "clique" is ignoring the newbies. Wah!

[coffeecam]

No no no... this thread is Shaka when the walls fell.

c

[The Great Sun Jester]

Well, too bad, because they ain't your threads, and anyone can post in them.

If a thread is being really badly hijacked, then you can try to steer it back on course, using the "more flies with honey than vinegar" principle. Or you can start a new thread.

Significantly, you're not complaining about jokes in a thread: you're complaining about jokes you don't get. Essentially, you've come into an existing community of people with existing traditions, and rather than accommodating yourself to those traditions, you're insultingly telling everyone else to knock it off with traditions that you don't like.

Ain't gonna work. You may not like it, but it ain't gonna. The board's traditions are ingrained, and everyone won't change their sense of humor because you've not been around long enough to catch all the jokes.

Daniel


:golf clap:
:in heavy Victorian Major accent: "Bra-vo Lefty, auld chap! Sit down and have a brandy!...have I showed you my death ray...?"

[coffeecam]

No no no... this thread is Shaka when the walls fell.

c

Crap... wrong button. That was, of course, for Smeghead

c

[askeptic]

in two hours everyone will have forgotten about it.

Does that mean I can dump this stupid sig now?

[Left Hand of Dorkness]

Does that mean I can dump this stupid sig now?

Huh? Sure. I mean, when I saw it, my first thought was, "who the fuck is askeptic?"

I slay me!
Daniel

[askeptic]

Sure it was...

[bordelond]

If someone posts a cryptic remark in direct response to one of your own posts just ask them what they meant. They'll usually explain it or somebody else will. 99 percent of the time it's perfectly benign.

Agree totally. True, an earnest question about an inside joke will get a bunch of jokey replies. But someone eventually will help you out. I've done so many times myself as kind of a public service. This board gets exponentially more interesting when the in-jokes make sense.

...

Diogenes -- for some reason, it seems you have been here since the beginning. Only a year+1/2?

[Left Hand of Dorkness]

Naw, I know who you are -- you're the guy that told me not to talk out my ass, and who I completely blew up at in an obnoxious manner, and who I exchanged apologies with immediately thereafter, and who everything's cool with now, right?

Honestly, we're all like a bunch of five-year-olds sometimes, fighting at the drop of a hat but making up just as quickly. :) But I *did* have to think about it for a moment to remember that interaction I had with you all the way back in Monday.

Daniel

[Munch]

Does that mean I can dump this stupid sig now?

askeptic, I've noticed you posting in the Pit a ton lately. A bit of extremely non-mod, non-Pit advice: sloooooow down. Also, it's customary to just post your sig once per thread - it cuts down on bandwidth or somesuch.

[WernhamHogg]

1. Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean you're not all out to get me.
2. Just because I can't take a joke doesn't mean the joke was funny.
3. Who's Opal?

[Otto]

Also, it's customary to just post your sig once per thread - it cuts down on bandwidth or somesuch.
The boards are now set to display sigs automatically, and sig display is being touted as a benefit of membership. I think this custom has been scuttled.

[Left Hand of Dorkness]

1. Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean you're not all out to get me.

TO THE CABAL:
Shit, that one almost always throws 'em off the scent. Anyone got a backup plan? oh wait, I know.

HEY, LOOK OVER THERE--IT'S ELVIS!

Daniel

[Munch]

The boards are now set to display sigs automatically, and sig display is being touted as a benefit of membership. I think this custom has been scuttled.
Huh. Didn't notice that. Thanks!

[Morbo]

My next post will contain my evidence.

[Bippy the Beardless]

Now now, lets just all give a warm sticky hand to skutir for starting this thread.

[askeptic]

askeptic, I've noticed you posting in the Pit a ton lately. A bit of extremely non-mod, non-Pit advice: sloooooow down. Also, it's customary to just post your sig once per thread - it cuts down on bandwidth or somesuch.



Munch, while I could understand a criticism about something I posted, why should the fact that I feel compelled, out of politeness or orneryness, to respond when somebody addresses me, be the focus of your complaint. I have every confidence that the administration does not need your unsolicited help. If my posts are out of line or in violation of the rules the mods will handle it. I readily admit that I oftent make comments I regret, but I must say if the worst complaint you have is "You post to often" I can't say I really care..

[Finagle]

I keep meaning to open a pit on the cabal of inside jokers who wander into threads and say things like "Jenna Elfson, You have some 'splainin' to do,"

Sadly, there's a difference between an "in-joke" and an obscure or even witty reference that goes right over your head. In the case of the "Jenna Elfman" reference in a Scientology thread, someone who didn't want to be extremely embarassed might do a quick Google search for "Jenna Elfman Scientology" and check out the 1600 or so hits.

Skutir, to put it bluntly, this was not an in-joke, unless you consider "in" to mean "several million people in the U.S." It was a semi-humorous pop-culture reference that you weren't clever enough to catch.

[don't mind me]

Yeahyeahyeah. All's I know is, I wanna go to the Secret Wanker's Ball.

[WernhamHogg]

Sadly, there's a difference between an "in-joke" and an obscure or even witty reference that goes right over your head.

This was neither, then. It was not an "in" joke, merely a stupid one, and certainly not a "witty one." And a littany of quasi celebrities who belong to the Church of Elron are better over my head than in it.

[don't ask]

If a thread is being really badly hijacked, then you can try to steer it back on course, using the "more flies with honey than vinegar" principle.

Are you certain about this principle? From my observation cow turds work better than honey.

[NoClueBoy]

Don't blame me. She's the one who brought up the odd potato chips in the first place!

[MoodIndigo1]

Cites, people?!

[pencilpusher]

My cat just coughed up a hairball. :(

HI OPAL!! :D

[Michael Ellis]

Remember the magical properties of Phi. Especially Pumpkin Phi.

Small unexplained anomalies!!

[cheddarsnax]

ItShut up!
That's not funny. ;)

[Green Bean]

Perhaps this would be a good time to request that someone PLEASE direct me to or just explain the origin of the 1920s Style Death Ray thing? Thank you.

[WernhamHogg]

It's really not that funny. (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=202225)

[CrazyCatLady]

My cat just coughed up a hairball. :(

HI OPAL!! :D

Does that mean his breath smells like puke now, instead of cat food?

[askeptic]

I would think, if anything, it would now smell like hair. :D

[kambuckta]

Does that mean his breath smells like puke now, instead of cat food?

I would have thought it smelled like Opal.

:D

[Green Bean]

It's really not that funny. (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=202225)
Thanks for the link.

With all due respect, dude, I think you need to grow a sense of humor.

1920s Style Death Rays. Heh.

[Dijon Warlock]

Yeahyeahyeah. All's I know is, I wanna go to the Secret Wanker's Ball.I've got a pair of 'em...

...On second thought, maybe that's not what you meant...

Paging Emily Letilla, paging Emily Letilla!!

[WernhamHogg]

With all due respect, dude, I think you need to grow a sense of humor.

But I'm cultivating a humorless persona. Everyone here has a sense of humor. I'll be the humorless guy.

[GrizzRich]

Wow...

This thread's gotten to two pages and no one's once mentioned "twin body-powered prostheses with matching Dorrance #5X stainless-steel hooks".

Whodathunkit?

[Green Bean]

But I'm cultivating a humorless persona. Everyone here has a sense of humor. I'll be the humorless guy.
Well, then, where's your "Ask the Humorless Guy" thread? Huh?


This thread's gotten to two pages and no one's once mentioned "twin body-powered prostheses with matching Dorrance #5X stainless-steel hooks".
Nobody's mentioned the Tug-AhoyTM either. This board's really gone to shit since the switch to paid subscriptions.

[WernhamHogg]

Well, then, where's your "Ask the Humorless Guy" thread? Huh?

At least there's no danger of Lynn mistaking it for a joke thread and locking it.

[Hey, It's That Guy!]

Worst. Thread. Ever.

[Michael Ellis]

Underpants.

[Ponder Stibbons]

[QUOTE=skutir]I keep meaning to open a pit on the cabal of inside jokers who wander into threads and say things bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla ...QUOTE]
Whatever you say, Skippy Tits.

[chattywine]

My post is my cite!

[Green Bean]

At least there's no danger of Lynn mistaking it for a joke thread and locking it.
You owe me a new keyboard.

[Algernon]

Sheesh. Where is our collective memory folks! As far as SDMB catch-phrases go, I haven't yet seen the Invisible Pink Unicorn or the Winter Of Our Missed Content.

You all must be goat felchers.

(I hope I haven't fallen victim to Gaudere's Law in this post.)





Go ahead. Ask me. I'll explain them all. (grin)

[Richard Pearse]

Can I play?