I read this and expressed confusion to a colleague. She said "It's humor." and my only reply is - "Are you sure?"
Asimov once wrote[0] that it's possible to try to write suspense, miss and be slightly suspenseful, you can try to write horror, miss, and be slightly horrific. But try to write humor and miss, and what you get is of no value at all.
[0] This is badly reconstruct from memory - I'll try to find the reference[1] ...
[1] This isn't the exact reference I had in mind, but it's close:
"There is no way of being almost funny or mildly funny or fairly funny or tolerably funny. You are either funny or not funny and there is nothing in between. And usually it is the writer who thinks he is funny and the reader who thinks he isn't."
-- Buy Jupiter and Other Stories (1975), p. 33 (in my copy).
Asimov is wrong because if he were right it would mean that being funny is just about the only human capability that is not comparable in relation to other examples of that capability.
If you are either funny or not and if Louis CK is either funny or not then are you as funny as Louis CK?
Anyway it was mildly funny while also somewhat true.
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[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 22.0 ms ] threadAsimov once wrote[0] that it's possible to try to write suspense, miss and be slightly suspenseful, you can try to write horror, miss, and be slightly horrific. But try to write humor and miss, and what you get is of no value at all.
[0] This is badly reconstruct from memory - I'll try to find the reference[1] ...
[1] This isn't the exact reference I had in mind, but it's close:
"There is no way of being almost funny or mildly funny or fairly funny or tolerably funny. You are either funny or not funny and there is nothing in between. And usually it is the writer who thinks he is funny and the reader who thinks he isn't."
-- Buy Jupiter and Other Stories (1975), p. 33 (in my copy).
If you are either funny or not and if Louis CK is either funny or not then are you as funny as Louis CK?
Anyway it was mildly funny while also somewhat true.