# About humor impaired people **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 18, 2002, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-humor-impaired-people/124518 "2002-08-18T22:36:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2002, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-humor-impaired-people/124518/61 "2002-08-20T23:11:21Z")
. . . Which seems to be reinforced by the fact that OPAL apparently has no objections. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2002, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-humor-impaired-people/124518/62 "2002-08-20T23:20:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by OpalCat \* > \*\*I don’t think that this qualifies even in the same neighborhood as “amusement at the outrage of others”… it is just a silly play on words. \*\* Isn’t this the point, though? I asssumed, based on what I know about you that your **intent** wasn’t to ‘outrage others’, however, it’s obvious, based on the reaction, that others mileage did in fact vary, they did in fact, seem to be outraged. IOW, you thought of it as a silly, amusing, play on words. They didn’t. Now, I don’t think that means that we must always conform/comply w/other’s sensabilities, however, it does mean that they’re not necessarily ‘humorless fucks’ if they take offense at what you considered to be a joke. ---
**Author:** ![Syzygy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Syzygy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syzygy)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2002, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-humor-impaired-people/124518/63 "2002-08-20T23:25:24Z")
One of my favorite bumper stickers was on my friend’s car - for years, he wore his hair long, and had a beard. His sticker - “Honk if you think I’m Jesus.” Now _that_ was funny. ---
**Author:** ![BottledBlondJeanie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/0ea827/32.png) [@BottledBlondJeanie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BottledBlondJeanie)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-humor-impaired-people/124518/64 "2002-08-21T00:06:14Z")
For goodness sake, after reading the screaming trainwrecks of a couple of other threads with these two posters, I thought maybe a “let’s try not to let this one get out of control” would be good. CALL IT FUCKING CAUTION AS I LIKE BOTH OPAL AND COLDIE. If two posters rub each other wrong and threads involving them them have become fucking nightmares, I think maybe it WOULD BE PRUDENT with or without me popping in to stay away from that person’s thread unless you’re being supportive or you feel really damn strongly re the issue. It’s called being polite. For instance, after several meltdowns with \*\* Jar \*\* we interact in only a congenial, pretty much nonconfrontational way. It isn’t worth it, I think, for either of us to do that again. For anyone who would like to criticize me, I have only to ask if you’ve read the previous trainwrecks; I’m not sure if we lost any due to the great conflagration. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-humor-impaired-people/124518/65 "2002-08-21T01:31:34Z")
Take it for what it’s worth, **Opal** , but I agree with **Ice Wolf**. The people who sent you hate mail were way, way out of line, but they weren’t humor impaired. If I may paraphrase the esteemed philosopher and Pulitzer Prize winner [Dave Barry](http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/dave_barry/): There are two major reactions to a joke, say, about how noted humor impairment sufferrer Richard Nixon had a set of electrified underpants to allow aides to signal him that a joke was being made, and that occasionally a really witty guest would have him jerking around like a fresh-landed mackerel. One is, “Ha, ha, that Nixon sure was a creep!” and the other is “That is no way to talk about a deceased elder stateman and former President of the United States!” If you had either of those reactions, you are not humor impaired. You understood that the comment was intended to be funny. On the other hand, if your first thoughts were, “They didn’t use electric underpants! They used hand signals!” or wondering where you could buy a pair of those underpants, you have at least a mild, and possibly terminal case of humor impairment and should seek counseling from a mental health professional or humor columnist immediately. Those people had reaction #2, and though they may have a corncob stuffed up their respective butts (hopefully not the same corncob) they “got it” enough to understand that it was intended as a joke. The ones who sent you email asking where you found the body so they could document the actual Tomb of the Holy Sepulchre, they were humor impaired. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-humor-impaired-people/124518/66 "2002-08-21T05:27:11Z")
**Beagledave** , I said that someone who feels the need to send hatemail over a t-shirt making a joke that doesn’t actually say anything bad about Jesus was analagous to people who declare a fatwah over a book that doesn’t actually say anything blasphemous about their religion. **Coldfire** then made the comment that “designing a juvenile t-shirt that pisses people off is completely analogous to writing The Satanic Verses” As he subsequently clarified, he made that comment, and he is not suggesting that I did. You are on your own in this respect, **Beagledave** I said the similarity lay in the offence at nothing. He seems to think that designing a t-shirt is like writing The Satanic Verses. But apparently **my** analogy is the comment that is dumb and unfortunate. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-humor-impaired-people/124518/67 "2002-08-21T12:37:27Z")
Let it go, Prin. The subject matter isn’t important enough to sustain hurt feelings and endless analysis of “I meant _this_, why did you read it as _that_?” But I’ll agree with one aspect of the_Stanic Verses_ analogy: being reflexively outraged is easier than thinking, so no wonder many people embrace it, be it from a t-shirt or because some Iranian Mullah said so. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-humor-impaired-people/124518/68 "2002-08-21T13:11:07Z")
Ayatollah. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-humor-impaired-people/124518/69 "2002-08-21T13:29:43Z")
Yes. Thanks **Bryan**. In a way I disagree with the basis of the OP. The people who sent the hatemail aren’t actually humour impaired as such (well, at least I don’t think so, from what Opal says). It’s not as if they wrote to Opal saying “I don’t get it, was that supposed to be one of those joke things that other people laugh at?”. They are not humour-impaired they are disrespect-paranoid. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-humor-impaired-people/124518/70 "2002-08-22T00:02:23Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Bryan Ekers \* > But I’ll agree with one aspect of the_Stanic Verses\* analogy: being reflexively outraged is easier than thinking, so no wonder many people embrace it, be it from a t-shirt or because some Iranian Mullah said so. Ah yes, the _Stanic Verses_, that great tome of wisdom about our great pal, Stan. ;D Maybe I was naive in thinking that those who didn’t find it funny would at most roll their eyes over it, but I certainly think that a few (ok, 2) people went rather overboard. I think they collaborated, too. Probably one of them showed the other and said “let’s send her a message about how we feel” or something based on the emails arriving the same day. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-humor-impaired-people/124518/71 "2002-08-22T00:09:49Z")
you got **two** emails complaining about it? ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-humor-impaired-people/124518/72 "2002-08-22T00:11:04Z")
Actually they are _The Stannic Verses_ and they are an ode to the wonders of tin. They are considered very controversial, and a ferricwah was declared by the Ayatollah Khomirony, and his steel-fisted followers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-humor-impaired-people/124518.md?page=3)