# The "Why was that funny?" thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 8, 2013, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672 "2013-10-08T12:52:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672/21 "2013-10-09T00:02:09Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Me, too, but I always wondered if it was partly because Bailey was “obtainable” for someone like me who wasn’t old, rich and loaded, like the ones that Jennifer dated. > > And Bailey’s shyness and lack of confidence was an attraction to some males who thought they could “teach” her; Jennifer was unteachable and unreachable to all but the elite. Nah. Jan Smithers was always just simply more pretty than Loni Anderson. Loni was all tarted up and at the time we were supposed to believe that bleach blonde hair was synonymous with sexy. Jan Smithers is a beautiful woman. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672/22 "2013-10-09T01:26:30Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Nah. Jan Smithers was always just simply more pretty than Loni Anderson. Loni was all tarted up and at the time we were supposed to believe that bleach blonde hair was synonymous with sexy. Jan Smithers is a beautiful woman. C’mon, both Smithers and Anderson were Hollywood pretty, which is to say absolutely gorgeous knockouts. Same with Mary Ann and Ginger. You may prefer one over the other, but to say any of them were not gorgeous is just silly. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672/23 "2013-10-09T04:33:55Z")
From what I recall about TV at that time, whenever a pretty girl referenced the number 2, it was an innuendo about breasts. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672/24 "2013-10-09T05:31:16Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > You had to have been there. > > I had a neighbor about that time who had several VCRs in a stack, and was busily making illegal copies to sell. Video stores didn’t exist, commercial tapes were costly, but people were starting to buy players. My first VHS deck cost $1500. _Blank_ VHS tapes were $25. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672/25 "2013-10-09T10:58:06Z")
> [@WreckingCrew](#): > > My only guess is that episode aired in 1981, when VCRs were new and cost a lot, maybe $800-$1000. So for Jennifer to have two of them was a sign of her extravagant lifestyle/the types of gifts her suitors gave her. Still not really funny though. Probably. I remember thinking “Uh… we have two VCR’s… what’s so funny about having two VCR’s?” Anyway, you’re likely right. \<\\> ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672/26 "2013-10-09T11:47:18Z")
There’s some crazy talk going on in this thread. I get Marry Ann over Ginger, nut Bailey over Jenifer? :dubious: That’s just crazy talk. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672/27 "2013-10-09T12:00:39Z")
Another vote for Bailey (and Mary Ann). AFAIC, beautiful, shy, and demure beats hot, slinky, and cock-teasing any day! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672/28 "2013-10-09T13:01:09Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > There’s some crazy talk going on in this thread. I get Marry Ann over Ginger, nut Bailey over Jenifer? :dubious: > > That’s just crazy talk. Well, it’s not as if I’d turn down a roll in the hay with 1970’s Loni Anderson! But in a bizarro universe where I would have my choice between the two ladies… Bailey’s personality wins over Jennifer’s, hands-down. (Says a guy who hasn’t seen an episode in 25 years…) ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672/29 "2013-10-09T13:18:14Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > The one that comes to mind for me is the “Puffy Shirt” episode of _Seinfeld_. Jerry explains to Kramer that he doesn’t want to wear the ridiculous shirt on TV and Kramer tells him it will be cool because he’ll look like a pirate. Jerry cries, “But I don’t want to be a pirate!” and there’s a big laugh. I never got it because it wasn’t a particularly funny line - I always assumed it referenced something, but I never knew what. I don’t remember if it came before or after that episode, but there’s another episode where Kramer is wearing an eye patch. Someone says he looks like a pirate and he replies, “Well I wanna be a pirate!” ---
**Author:** ![planetcory](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/planetcory/32/1032_2.png) [@planetcory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/planetcory)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672/30 "2013-10-09T13:28:04Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > The one that comes to mind for me is the “Puffy Shirt” episode of _Seinfeld_. Jerry explains to Kramer that he doesn’t want to wear the ridiculous shirt on TV and Kramer tells him it will be cool because he’ll look like a pirate. Jerry cries, “But I don’t want to be a pirate!” and there’s a big laugh. I never got it because it wasn’t a particularly funny line - I always assumed it referenced something, but I never knew what. I think it was just his childish petulance. At least, that’s what was funny to me. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672/31 "2013-10-09T13:35:30Z")
> **[The Puffy Shirt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Puffy_Shirt)** > > "The Puffy Shirt" is the second episode of the fifth season of the American NBC sitcom Seinfeld. It was the 66th episode and originally aired on September 23, 1993. The episode centers on Jerry having to wear an ostentatious "puffy" shirt on The Today Show after he unwittingly agreed to promote it for Kramer's girlfriend because she spoke too quietly for him to understand what she was asking. > This episode popularized the term "low talker". Larry David, the co-creator of the show, came up with th... 'That night at dinner, Kramer tells Elaine and Jerry that Leslie is a clothing designer and has designed a new puffy shirt “like the pirates used to wear.” ’ Jerry’s line is a reference to something Kramer said earlier in the episode. The other episode (mentioned by **FordTaurus** ) with Kramer’s line about [wanting to be a pirate](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scofflaw) actually aired 2 seasons after the Puffy Shirt episode. ---
**Author:** ![edwards\_beard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@edwards\_beard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwards_beard)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672/32 "2013-10-09T15:41:06Z")
Spaceballs…love the movie, laugh really hard throughout the whole thing, especially the Light Speed is too slow scene… “Prepare for Light Speed” “No Light Speed is too slow” “Too Slow” “Yes, Go straight to Ludicrous speed” However…The typical Star Wars star stretching occurs, and then the outside goes to a plaid scenario. Once they are in Ludicrous speed, they overshoot the Winnebago and Barf says “They’ve gone to Plaid”. I assume it is a joke based on “faster than light speed”…or something to that effect…but is there something else to it, or it is just a dud of a joke in an otherwise great scene? ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672/33 "2013-10-09T15:50:27Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > nnifer was unteachable and unreachable to all but the elite. Ironically, and trivially, Loni Anderson was a teacher. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672/34 "2013-10-09T16:05:55Z")
> [@Sam\_A.Robrin](#): > > From what I recall about TV at that time, whenever a pretty girl referenced the number 2, it was an innuendo about breasts. This was my first guess. Back then, an answer of “two” from certain women would have elicited laughter. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672/35 "2013-10-09T16:07:04Z")
> [@edwards\_beard](#): > > Spaceballs…love the movie, laugh really hard throughout the whole thing, especially the Light Speed is too slow scene… > > “Prepare for Light Speed” > “No Light Speed is too slow” > “Too Slow” > “Yes, Go straight to Ludicrous speed” > > However…The typical Star Wars star stretching occurs, and then the outside goes to a plaid scenario. Once they are in Ludicrous speed, they overshoot the Winnebago and Barf says “They’ve gone to Plaid”. I assume it is a joke based on “faster than light speed”…or something to that effect…but is there something else to it, or it is just a dud of a joke in an otherwise great scene? There isn’t a lot to get. It is just making fun of the typical ‘going to warp speed’ scene in other sci-fi movies. Those usually show a light distortion pattern forming as they speed up. Mere light speed isn’t enough in this case. Only ludicrous speed will do and they need a visual pattern associated with it. They chose plaid simply because plaid is one of the more inherently funny color patterns in the same way a duck is an inherently funny animal. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672/36 "2013-10-10T09:01:42Z")
This is something I noticed going all the way back to “Tiny Toons”. Whenever somebody imitates Jerry Lewis they’ll say something like “yadda, yadda…FLAVEN” is this a specific reference to something Jerry actually said or just a silly made up word that sounds like something he might say? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672/37 "2013-10-10T09:05:57Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > This is something I noticed going all the way back to “Tiny Toons”. Whenever somebody imitates Jerry Lewis they’ll say something like “yadda, yadda…FLAVEN” is this a specific reference to something Jerry actually said or just a silly made up word that sounds like something he might say? > **[Urban Dictionary: flaven](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=flaven)** > > The word flaven is a most wonderful and amazing word. A flavorful word meaning a nerd, a person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept, or a person with an unusual or odd personality;... ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672/38 "2013-10-10T09:09:44Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > This was my first guess. Back then, an answer of “two” from certain women would have elicited laughter. I think the “I have several” variant is the only way the joke is really funny. Back around 1980, I’d’ve committed numerous intolerable acts for just one VCR! ---
**Author:** ![Snerky\_Snerk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Snerky\_Snerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snerky_Snerk)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672/39 "2013-10-10T12:10:53Z")
> [@edwards\_beard](#): > > Spaceballs…love the movie, laugh really hard throughout the whole thing, especially the Light Speed is too slow scene… > > “Prepare for Light Speed” > “No Light Speed is too slow” > “Too Slow” > “Yes, Go straight to Ludicrous speed” > > However…The typical Star Wars star stretching occurs, and then the outside goes to a plaid scenario. Once they are in Ludicrous speed, they overshoot the Winnebago and Barf says “They’ve gone to Plaid”. I assume it is a joke based on “faster than light speed”…or something to that effect…but is there something else to it, or it is just a dud of a joke in an otherwise great scene? Warp speed is just warp speed. I’m not a trekkie, so don’t know the conversion to get light speed. Plaid speed is warp speed plus weft speed. As stated in the movie, this is ludicruos. A couple of links to wikipedia that might help - [Warp and weft - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warp_(weaving)) - [Twill - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twill) By the way, this is a guess. I don’t know what the writer was thinking. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672/40 "2013-10-10T13:05:42Z")
> [@Snerky\_Snerk](#): > > By the way, this is a guess. I don’t know what the writer was thinking. That’s clever, but I’m pretty sure there’s nothing to explain here. They don’t mention the word warp, so there’s no room for a pun, and I struggle to imagine Mel Brooks making a weaving joke anyway. The plaid coloring is just a silly take on the visual effects you see when spaceships go to light speed in sci-fi movies and TV. Barf’s line just calls attention to the goofiness and I guess it’s a button on the scene, because the real jokes are the plaid color and the fact that the Spaceball 1 totally overshoots Lone Star’s ship, which never seems to happen in these movies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-why-was-that-funny-thread/670672.md?page=3)