Stop it.
If you don’t have anything to add to the debate, why bother? Your lame ass comments usually just hijack a thread and/or discourage any real discussion.
Example This Thread
I’m impartial to the subject matter or the OP. However, it serves as a great example how misplaced attempts at humor have limited a thread’s potential. Don’t you have a spouse/sibling/cat to deliver your one line zingers to?
Good greif.
Naw, that’s what I love about this board. They’re willing to debate the nitty-gritties and get intense about any topic whatsoever, [accent=midwest] but give ‘em a change to make a joke, and there ain’t nothing stoppin’ 'em notime.[/accent]
Seriously? You enjoy that in Great Debates? I don’t know about you, but when I’m having a serious discussion with a friend/co-worker I find anything that makes light of the situation to be a distraction. I’m not uptight, but if i’m talking fiscal earnings I will be quite upset should one decide to randomly interject a humorous anectdote. Scribe our conversation, and the unfortunate reader will have to sift through said hubris to gain any insight.
The Great Debate forum is crawling with would-be comedians. To them I say: leave the talking to those who have substance to add.
So the obstinate pricks and dogmatists aren’t a problem, but the people who make jokes are?
Haha! You said prick!
Look, I know where you’re coming from, but I think it’s nice that the tone in GD is not always one of constant seriousness. Also, you’re being stupid and these people can be funny. 
None of the other forums are serious all the time, so I don’t see why GD should be.
<cough> Isn’t all humor based on absurdity? I appreciate your insult, makes this feel more pit like.
Unfortunately I wasn’t making a joke, rather giving you an example of how annoying a random interjection can be to a serious discussion.
Huh. Well, the OP seemed to think it was funny, so why should we care if you don’t?
heh, ming the merciless… I slay me.
[Sgt Hulka]
“Lighten up, Arthur…”
[/Sgt Hulka]
In the OP, the posters weren’t making “random interjections”; they were riffing on a typo in the thread title. Good times, my friend, good times.
As a general rule, I try not to make attempts at humour until the point of the thread (if there is one) has been seriously addressed, but an opportunity like that one would have been an exception - too good to pass up - I just wish I’d been there in time. Sigh.
There doesn’t seem to be much potential in this thread.
Personally I like the varying nature of the SDMB.
“Lighten up, Francis.”
Mrs. Evil Captor cracked up over “Ming-bling.”
If I have something serious to contribute, I’ll contribute, but really, you can’t go posting threads with titles like “Is ming the only intrinsic good” and not expect a few drive-by jokes.
:smack: I are so stoopid.
Christ-a-mighty. Your complaint comes a mere six hours after that thread was started. And had garnered but five responses (One of them by a mod noting that he’d fixed the misspelling in the title) all of them in the middle of the damned night where most of our posters are. That thread wasn’t derailed by the jokes; it simply hasn’t had enough time to really get underway. Give it some time. If people find the topic compelling enough, the thread will gather momentum.
Not uptight but someone interjecting with a joke is “quite upsetting?” I beg to differ. That’s the very epitome of uptight.
It’s called “Great Debates”. Not “Serious Discussions, No Smiling or Laughing Allowed”.
There are many topics in the world of topics that should be hands-off for levity. But fiscal earnings is not one of them, IMHO.
You can’t expect anything to be serious when you’re posting on a message board.
What if it’s a debate about jokes?
I knew exactly what you were doing and responded accordingly. You don’t honestly think that was too clever for me, do you? 
What he said. lekatt hangs out there, for crying out loud. Humor is a necessity in there.
Don’t you have a ramrod to pull out of your ass?
Or are you just in a pissy mood because you’re sleeping on the couch?
Ummm, Schwa. Have you ever read Cecil? I mean, like, really read Cecil? Cause, as it turns out, he’s a pretty big fan of humor. Depending on your level of reading comprehension. Even when he takes on the weightiest of issues.
And it turns out, this message board? Ya know, this one? Right here? The one you’re reading? Well, it turns out that this message board grew out of a community that enjoyed his columns.
Just a little backgound. To help you out.