Constructible Comedy
by Kris Weberg on November 22, 2006

It strikes me that one of the great untapped ideas for a Web doohickey would be a Groundskeeper Willie Insult Generator. Given the sheer amount of Simpsons geekery online, you'd think at least one of those Cheeto-gorging leet-speakers would have worked out a word bank and a java program to generate an endless string of phrases in the form "[NOUN]-[VERB]ing [NOUN]-[VERB]er" by now.

Insights Into Failed Comedy, Part 1: Originally, the example insult in this entry was "Cheetoh-munching," but munching really doesn't conjure up the ghastly -- and thus funny! -- spectacle of the fictive "two bags a day" Internet zombie's consumption habits. But gorging? Ah, le mot juste!

Insights Into Failed Comedy, Part 2: Also, "Cheetoh" was misspelled, and poor spelling never helps comedy.

Three Replies to Constructible Comedy

Aaron Shurtleff | November 22, 2006
I think poor spelling can make great comedy. I know people who are still laughing that a (now former) vice-president could not spell potato.

Not that they think the current president is raising the bar...

Kris Weberg | November 24, 2006
Ach! Pipe doon, ye bug-needlin' Quayle-mocker!

Amy Austin | December 20, 2006
"Tomato, Tomahtoe." (Tomater, tamatah, mater... the list could go on -- but I suppose the courteous thing to do would be to resurrect my own dead blog!)

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