Really, because when I was in first grade, my friend Charlie Brown and me would laugh hysterically over “poo poo bottoms”. And we got into real trouble when we were in a church pageant dressed as bees, and we were supposed to sing a song about Bizzy Buzzy Bees, but instead we changed the words to “bizzy buzzy poo poo bottoms”, and I got my mouth washed out with soap for that.
Then I got older, and I was too mature for that. But some time later, poo poo humor started to infiltrate popular culture, and childishness became rampant. Now it’s on TV and inescapable.
I don’t find it gross in itself; though it can certainly cause a gross mess in the wrong place, but so can all sorts of things which nobody laughs at the mention of. I think it’s because I don’t find shit in itself to be something too gross to talk ordinarily about that I don’t find most joking about it to be funny. I think the perception of humor comes from thinking of it as a taboo subject; it’s the violation of the taboo which causes laughter.
To me it’s kind of like laughing about the mere mention of menstruation. It’s a thing that happens; why snicker at it?
Exactly. Because small children have only recently been taught not to shit themselves, and need to reinforce the taboo.
From my perspective, I am not laughing at poop, per se. I am laughing at the often clever wordplay and unexpected juxtaposition of previously unrelated phrases and concepts.
I mean, come on…
Five Easy Pieces? The Firm? The Remains of the Day?
I admit, sometimes it’s unavoidable. I mean, what were Outback Steakhouse thinking when they decided to serve a dessert called “Chocolate Thunder from Down Under”?
The first time I’d heard Amazing Grace was on Star Trek II. It worked then.
It hasn’t worked anywhere else. Amazing Grace is an English song. I’m sure a million Scotts hit the roof whenever they hear an English song played on a Scottish instrument.
Ditto. Or at any rate, I know a lot of people think it’s a fine song, but I disliked it the first time I heard it and have not changed my opinion since.