May 23, 2012
YouTube’s idea of personal relevance
Here’s the queue of videos YouTube suggested for me when I watched a Louis CK segment of the Comedy Awards:

May 23, 2012
Here’s the queue of videos YouTube suggested for me when I watched a Louis CK segment of the Comedy Awards:
May 18, 2012
Rob Burnett, executive producer of Late Night with David Letterman is finishing up five hours of IAMA at Reddit, and 27 seconds ago posted a response to the question “Why is number 5 always the funniest out of the top 10?” What a dumb question! It’s always been obvious to me that #2 is the funniest.
And, well, I don’t mean to brag, but I’m right and gregorkafka (if that’s his real name) is wrong. Here’s Rob’s response to the question:
Don’t get me started. Every headwriter has their own approach to the Top 10. Here was mine:
10 Funny, but also straight forward. Reinforce the topic.
9 Medium strength. Start with two laughs. Get a tailwind.
8 Can be a little experimental. Maybe not everyone gets it, but ok.
7 Back on track. Something medium.
6 Crowd pleaser. One that will get applause. Will help bridge the first panel to the second.
5 Coming off #6, time to take a chance.
4 Starting to land the plane. Gotta be solid.
3 For me always the second funniest one you got.
2 Funniest one you have.
1 Funniest one that is short so the band doesn’t play over it.
I always tried to never give Dave two in a row that didn’t get a laugh. Of course you want all 10 to be killer, but you don’t always have that going in.
Number 2! We’re Number 2!
May 8, 2012
The DSM — the psychiatric tome that lists diagnosable (and thus billable) disorders — is being overhauled. Famously, in an earlier edition, homosexuality stopped being counted as a disease. I have some hopes that some illnesses of the Internet will be formally recognized:
Internet Conceptual Infantilization: Sufferers believe what they read on the Internet simply because it is on the Internet.
Wikiperfectionism: Sufferers engage in pitched battles over small questions to which there is no conceivable right answer. Also known (rarely) as “Disproportioniki.”
Narcissistic Hypothetical Opportunism (“Craig’s Disease”): Sufferers believe more than 50% of Craigslist Missed Connections ads apply to them, even when they refer to someone of a different body type, hair color, race, or time zone.
Blogger’s Phantasm: The unsubstantiated belief, exhibited in a writing style characterized by heightened expression, that a lot of people both read and care about your blog. It’s true, my dawgs!
April 6, 2012
April 1, 2012
Reddit’s Timeline lets you see reddits from the past and future. This is crowd-sourced humor, and whole bunches of it are pretty damn funny. Of course, some, not so much.
Many of the posts are in jokes about Reddit — e.g., in the ’30s, someone posted “Ron Paul born – Great Depression to be ended soon?” Or in the Victorian Era: “We did it Ladies and Gentlemen! After 8 years of making our voice heard in every decent publication the empire has to offer, we did it: Arthur Conan Doyle is bringing back our hero!” But most are not directly about Reddit.
To explore it, go to Reddit and look for the column towards the right called “reddit timeline.” Click on any of the periods, or on the up and down arrows to scroll more epochs. The 1920s is a pretty good one. Also, the Year Zero, and 1558.
Actually, browsing anywhere will lead you to something funny. IN MY OPINION.
January 17, 2012
January 8, 2012
Megan Ganz is a writer for the TV show Community that I started out not much liking until I had seen a few episodes and now sort of love. Except that it’s on “hiatus,” never a happy word in TV land. Megan is undergoing community interrogation over at Reddit, and one of the comments linked to her “meeting notes.” You should take a look.
January 7, 2012
This photo (via Reddit) made me laugh:

(Here’s some context.)
This comment, from lerxstlifeson also at Reddit, made me laugh louder:
At my school there is a four way intersection with high foot traffic where “free hugs” people stand. One day on the opposite corner, a kid walked out with a sign that read “Premium Hugs $1”.
January 1, 2012
Here’s my top ten list of top ten lists of top ten lists:
Come on, people! If just nine more of you compile top ten top ten top tens we can take it up a level!
Bonus: The media can’t get enough of top ten lists. When they run out, they write about why they write about top ten lists:
[Later that day:] I’ve removed one from the list so that there are actually ten, not eleven. Oops. (And again, later, because I am a @#$%ing moron.)
December 17, 2011
“Hey, it’s very very very very very very nice to see you!”
“Yeah, it’s been a very very very very very very long time.”
“How’s Jan?”
“She’s very very very very great, but very very very very very very very very very busy.”
“Well, better that than bored.”
“That’s so so so so so so true.”