acroyear | Do people even THINK about how humor is supposed to work?

I echoed my "I'm Voting Republican" quote (slightly modified to complete the factual accuracy and tightness) to a liberal's blog (he posted a pointer to the youtube vid), and someone decided to "correct it", and did so poorly, i think.

My post:

The first video missed one I thought was sci-blogs important:

I'm voting Republican because I believe that all government science reports paid for by my tax dollars should be reviewed by an 24 year old journalism student who worked for the election campaign and never actually graduated college, before actually being published.

Science should always support the policies of the government we elected, not the whims of the natural world.

Posted by: Joe Shelby | June 13, 2008 12:09 PM

The "correction"

I'm voting Republican because I believe that all government science reports paid for by my tax dollars should be reviewed and edited to agree with pre-approved policy based on a bizarro-world version of reality by an 24 year old journalism student who worked for the election campaign and never actually graduated college, before actually being published.

Fixed that for ya'.

Posted by: ...| June 13, 2008 12:15 PM

And my reply

Fixed? Not necessarily. The key feature of the satire (any satire) is subtlety - the ability to say it with a straight face and keep the impression of being taken seriously.

your write-up: more blunt? yes.

more truthful? usually.

more able to get the point across? rarely. the words like "pre-approved" (when in a non-sales sense) and "bizarro" become instant turn-offs: the focus is on those words and not the whole sentence whose meaning becomes lost, even to those who would agree without having to think about it.

funnier? never.

Seriously, people (especially young people) are so inundated by in-your-face humor that the subtlety required for humor, especially political humor, to have any power is lost to them. As such, it is also lost to them how to write and deliver it. Even those who claim to be Python fans get so lost in the silly accents of "Spanish Inquisition" and "Nudge Nudge" that the REAL humor in Python goes right through them unphased.

Most of Jon Stewart's best material is followed up by one of two things: applause or crickets. Fortunately, the latter hasn't stopped him from holding on to that intellectual edge that keeps his show appealing to me.

Same with Colbert, who got nothing but crickets from the press corp dinner that day, but gave what I believe is the most powerful political satire commentary of the '00s decade.