There’s an old video sort of making the rounds again that I’d like to share with you — it’s embedded below. However, I’m not sharing it with you because I find it funny. In fact, I don’t find it funny at all. But, if you’ve seen this video and any posts surrounding it, including the comments on the video itself, you’ll find that there’s a good portion of people on both sides of the fence: some find it side-splittingly hilarious, while others are simply enraged at it and hope the producer involved dies in a fire.
The reason I’m sharing the video with you is because I wonder what kind of people think it’s funny, and what kind of people think it’s not. If I were to classify the people who find it funny, it would be “asshole,” but then I’d be shocked to find out a good portion of my family and friends think it’s funny as hell. But I don’t routinely (or ever, as a matter of fact) think of these people as being assholes. So, when they find something like this funny, and I can’t understand why, is it because I lack a sense of humor, or that there’s a hidden personality to these people that comes out when something like this presents itself?
I know I’ve got an odd sense of humor. Many times I’d even classify my sense of humor as infantile or, hell, non-existent. There are times I just don’t get certain types of humor, because it just goes right over my head. This, however, I don’t get at all. I recall a point in the incredible book Stranger in a Strange Land, where Valentine Michael Smith believes he groks the idea of humor:
“I had thought — I had been told — that a ‘funny’ thing is a thing of goodness. It isn’t. Not ever is it funny to the person it happens to. Like that sheriff without his pants. The goodness is in the laughing itself. I grok it is a bravery … and a sharing … against pain and sorrow and defeat.”
Maybe people like me don’t find the video funny because, instead of sharing what the producer might be feeling at the time of this “joke,” we’re sympathizing with the weather girl. Maybe people like me just need to chill the hell out and just laugh for the sake of laughing, or maybe there’s a little bit of asshole in everyone, and it just takes something like this to make it rear its ugly head.
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Aug 03, 2009 @ 17:00 EST5EDT
I only watched part of it, but yeah assholes. The news makes mistakes all the time, the weather is never right. Just last week I saw a high of 64 and the low of 87.. opps!
Not a funny video to me. Hard to watch. Watching seemed liked participating in the verbal abuse.
Not funny.
I will, however, endorse any excuse to bring up Stranger is a Strange Land. One of my favorites.
LOL
What the Hell is wrong with you, that’s just freaking hilarious!! And don’t you guys realize that it could happen, Hurricane Katrina was real, okay!!? lol
PS: I’m curious though, do you also watch SNL’s Weekend Updates seriously, with no second degree whatsoever, and wonder why people laugh?* Gee…
* please consider this about SNL from a few years back, when it was actually funny…
I agree the producers were assholes -
It’s not funny, but I wouldn’t call it cruel, because it’s obviously a setup. This was someone’s attempt at making a funny video, and the problem is it’s just poorly conceived and doesn’t work. Comedy is hard.
Interesting that you bring it up in the way that you do though, with the references to Stranger In A Strange Land and using the word grok. I hate that word, because it reminds me of that book, which I consider the dullest, most over-rated book I’ve ever read.
That’s not to start a fight about Stranger In A Strange Land. Rather, to illustrate that people have wildly varying tastes. If we all liked the same books, and laughed at the same stuff, things would get dull. Either that, or I’m a literature asshole.
He made her cry. How is that funny?
I found it pretty funny up until the very end, when the girl looks like she’s about to cry. That final rant tipped it over the edge for me. But there were definitely a few lines that had me laughing pretty hard. The whole stint about polar bears escaping and having to defend yourself, lol.
One of the sole votes for funny. I’m not sure if it was real, only the producer was acting, or if they both were, but it worked.
It would have been incredibly mean if the weather trainee had been dumb, but she seemed intelligent, reasonable and able to think on her feet. It was the contrast of the normal person being harangued by the increasingly unhinged and stupid producer that made me laugh. Of course, I did feel bad for the woman, as well as the crewperson who was trying hard to remain still, lest he catch some of the flak. And I despised the producer, but then you’re supposed to.
Even more than the sketch/video itself, I’m starting to find people’s reaction to it even funnier!
Seriously people, is it just because you didn’t know it was a skecth? (How can you not see it?!?) Or did you also not laugh at Demetri Martin’s sketch in his Important Things series premiere, when he started yelling at everyone (co-star Amanda Peet, the director, etc), because he was mean and being an asshole??
PS: the original video, in much better quality:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0p0wywooMU
And if you’re still somehow not sure, here is “Jessica” in another sketch of “Action Pals”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FouVt-diCZA
Maybe you’ll start laughing now… and remember, Hurricane Katrina happened! It happened, okay?! So we have to be prepared to fight polar bears!!
*POST AUTHOR*
b0B — Can you honestly say you knew it was a sketch without knowing about it beforehand or the actors involved? You seem to know an awful lot about it, so I’m not sure you went into watching the video with a clean slate.
To me it really appeared that the weather girl was being set up by the producer into thinking he was a lunatic, and it went on too far. I don’t see where it was painfully obvious that it was all a sketch that everyone was in on.
I had never heard anything about it, first time I saw the video was here, and I was pretty sure it was a sketch, yes. Did I “knew” it, obviously not, but I would have had a hard time believing it wasn’t.
It seemed obvious to me, because the guy was obviously doing an act, and she kept doing exactly what was required to keep the comedy going. She did not blow him off and leave, get mad, or just give him what he wanted to get out of it, instead she kept making jokes and fueling the guy’s rant, and I just couldn’t believe anyone would react that way in such a situation.
And I don’t think I was alone seeing it, at least your very own Brett Love said as well that “it’s obviously a setup” which I take as that he, too, was able to see it wasn’t real.
As for knowing about it, reading all those comments and seeing how much people seemed not to see that it was a sketch as I did, I just got curious and googled “Action Pals” (logo at the end of the video) and ended up on the YouTube channel, where I found the links I put the links I mentioned. Amazing what google can do for you… ;)
Yeah, I’ve got to say that I didn’t catch the fact that it was a sketch until after the fact. Honestly though, I doubt I even made it half way through before I got irritated enough.
Its just not my kind of funny. It was believable because we live in a world with Bruno and Borat, which are just feature length versions of this, if you ask me.
I watched until he Starts to correct her. It was Funny up until then and I knew what was Coming.
I don’t like Schadenfreude Humor. People who find this funny thrive on the misfortune of others, or better: the abuse of others. I find that sickening…
I found it exactly like one of those scenes from The Office (U.S.), where it’s funny at first, then goes on so long that it becomes uncomfortable, then keeps going until it pushes the dial all the way back around to hilarious. YMMV.
On The Office UK maybe and maybe on the first Season of The Office US but not in the recent years of the Office US.
I didn’t manage to watch UK. It was too cruel for me. I hate this kind of humor.
I understand that people can find this funny but it’s just not for me. I don’t really want to judge anybody but I really think you have to lack a certain empathy gene to laugh about this.
Then again I don’t watch Slasher movies either and don’t think people have to be sick or weirdos to enjoy those. It’s just not for me. To be honest I judge people who laugh because of Schadenfreude more than I do judge people who like splatter. Dunno why…
By the way nice Tachikoma :-)
Do you really think so? I find a couple scenes each season where someone (usually Michael, less often Dwight or Andy) says something horribly embarrassing or inappropriate, then continues to ramble on for several more minutes, digging a deeper hole for himself, and the camera just will not cut away to spare him the humiliation. And when it finally, mercifully ends, I’m both laughing and cringing out of sympathy, not malice. To quote Homer Simpson, “HA HA HA HA HA… Ahh… It’s funny because it’s not me.”
Thanks! It took a fair amount of Googling to decide upon an image of a Tachi that was both cute and recognizable when shrunken in size. My metallic-blue iPod Shuffle is also named after them.
Gee. That guy seems really upset about Hurricane Katrina. Although, I think referring to her as a “dickhead” was a tad extreme. No reason to denigrate the poor girl.
Then again, maybe his loyal dog of ten years named Rex was swept away when the levees broke. Rex, who used to sleep at his feet every night. Rex, who was a loyal companion to the very end.
If Rex did in fact perish in the fierce waters of Katrina, then I can see why the guy would be upset with this girl’s insensitive antics. In my opinion, she deserved to be punched in the face. She got off easy. Bitch.
Really wasn’t that funny, but not cruel since it’s not real. It went on for way too long. In real life you wouldn’t just stand there while some producer just yelled like that during an audition. Would you want to work at a place with some unprofessional psycho? Good idea, not so great execution.