Category: humour

Want a break from being rickrolled? Here you are

Tara Hunt recently tweeted that she doesn’t click on links any more, she just assumes that everything is a rickroll. And I have some sympathy with that view: it’s not just the videos that have gone viral, it’s the process itself.

So for Tara and for others amongst you who feel similarly, here’s a link that’s not a rickroll.

Not a rickroll

I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. You know that feeling you get when you think something must be a gag, an April Fool of some sort, and then you slowly realise “maybe not…”.

That’s all I’m going to say. Click away.

Musing about comics and comedians

I’m fascinated by humourists, comics and comedians.  There’s something about them; I sense that a talented comic has a privileged view of the human condition, a perspective unlike any other.  So I feel I learn from watching them.  [More on this later.]

A good comic can make you laugh by a single word or gesture. For example, all I have to do is remember John Cleese goose-stepping or saying “Manuel”, or Rowan Atkinson uttering “Baldrick” and it brings a smile to my face.

If you’re like me, then take a look at this video of Rowan Atkinson, showcased at Spiked Humour.

And while you’re at it, why not spend some time listening to this band, hosted at College Humor? I cannot get over the facial expressions.

“Nobody move! Everybody freeze!”

I loved growing up in Calcutta, and as youngsters we got up to all sorts of things. Much of it was in public, and much of it involved acting. Pretending. Watching reactions. And laughing. A lot of laughter.

From the simplest “pointing up at the sky” scam through to far more elaborate ruses, we enjoyed ourselves as schoolgoing teenagers. There were three rules: Don’t hurt anyone. Don’t pick on the weak. And try and keep within the law.

Watching this video, when people did something on a challenging scale, brought it all back. Also available on my VodPod. Enjoy!

[Thanks to Bruno Litman for the tweet].

thinking about e-mail and colonic irrigation

[This one is dedicated to Stowe, a kindred spirit (at least in the context of e-mail].

A few decades ago, losing a personal name and address book amounted to a major tragedy. A decade ago, losing a mobile phone (with its cache of remembered numbers) amounted to a minor tragedy.

Now everything’s backed up. Or, to put it more accurately, it is possible to back everything up affordably and cheaply.

And by the time you allow for the replenishing powers of social networks, you don’t even need the back-up. e-mail addresses and telephone numbers can be rebuilt from scratch, with the help of the community.

So it makes me wonder. If re-creation costs are low, then possibilities emerge. Maybe, just maybe, we would all become more effective and more efficient, if we treated ourselves to a purge of our electronic lives every now and then.

You know those 1500 e-mails that have remained unread in your inbox for a couple of years? You know those old and outdated contact details you hold for others, details you’ve never bothered to clean up? Zap them, purge them, experience some sort of catharsis.

Who knows, it could become a fad? Colonic irrigation for digital data.

Musing about relief maps and Saturdays

Don’t worry, I am not about to become a sudden expert on physical geography; this is about a different kind of relief map. The Sellar and Yeatman kind. I loved 1066 and All That, loved And Now All This even more. Which brings me to the point of this post.

The extended title for And Now All This reads:

And now all this : being Vol.1 of the hole pocket treasury of absolutely general knowledge in X consoling sections, with numerous memorable diagrams, 1 anagram, 2 test papers (bad luck), 3 relief maps, several pounds of figs, only 5 appendixes

The 3 relief maps they mention in the title are fascinating. Just the kind of thing a schoolboy needs in the middle of a deep textbook. The “maps” consist of box-like diagrams, maybe 3 inches square, inserted at random into the text, with notations like Figure 1: relief map. The authors suggest that readers should stare at the “map” whenever stressed, and thereby gain “relief”.

And that’s the way I wanted this post to go. I wanted to provide some weekend links for you, links that you can enjoy light-heartedly. And today’s choice is Yossi Vardi. Two videos by him, one at TED and one at Le Web 3 last month. I had the joy of watching Yossi give the second one “live” (I have yet to make a TED, not for want of trying).

Here are the links. Do visit them, you won’t regret it. Enjoy.

Yossi at TED: Help Fight Local Warming

Yossi at Le Web: Wi-Fly

Yossi is one of a kind, they broke the mould when they made him. If you don’t know him, don’t assume he is just a comedian. Check him out via Google or Wikipedia or whatever you use to do the checking, or follow the Edge link I provided. Thank you Yossi.