Truly pathetic attempts at humour

[bgmnts]

A new offender

I think they gave me cancer.

[phantom_power]

There seems to be this new thing, that I will call "LinkedIn Humour" that is just transcriptions of conversations where bosses "pwn" bad employees and vice versa. Most of them are presented as having really happened when in reality I imagine they are prime candidates for /r/thathappened or whatever it is called. I don't have any examples because they are so shit they made me smash my computer and delete my account

[Ferris]

There seems to be this new thing, that I will call "LinkedIn Humour" that is just transcriptions of conversations where bosses "pwn" bad employees and vice versa. Most of them are presented as having really happened when in reality I imagine they are prime candidates for /r/thathappened or whatever it is called. I don't have any examples because they are so shit they made me smash my computer and delete my account

They offend from both a professional and comedic sensibility. "Oh, I'm not going to accept this job because there were too many interviews and your offer was too slow and 2 of the interviewers asked me the same question, ahh, do you not see"

If you weren't going to accept the position, why did you keep going to interviews? And why are you attempting to humiliate your prospective new employer in such a way that they never bother you again if a better position comes up? Sorry our HR team was slow - did it occur to you that nobody's HR department is any good? And that you won't be working for them, you'll be working for me - and we're a completely separate entity you cretin.

If you want the job and like the offer but won't take it because you thought it took too long, you're not being oh so smart, you're an idiot. If you don't want the gig, but want to get shots in at a prospective future employer, you're also an idiot. If you had no interest in the job or didn't like the offer then negotiate and stop wasting everyone's time. You're also still an idiot. Grow up.

And as an FYI: sometimes I ask people the same questions as previous interviews because I read interview notes that say candidates gave a shit answer and I want to see if they've self-reflected and come up with something better (or if they're making shit up and the answers are self-contradictory). It may appear that I've not done any research, but that's the appearance I want to give you, to lull you into a false sense of security so I can do my job more effectively and better assess you. I'm also giving you another chance not to fuck it up, you plum.

Long post rant.

[Bennett Brauer]

Fairly recent SNL sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv6FMEvNiWo

They can't all be gold.

[Bronzy]

Fairly recent SNL sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv6FMEvNiWo

They can't all be gold.

Fucking hell, that's like a sketch that The Two Ronnies would reject in the 1970's.

[Chriddof]

They can't all be gold.

[H-O-W-L]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS00xWnqwvI

This SNL one continues to make me just baffled by its existence. It's beloved by a lot of people too and I just don't get why people think it's funny. It's like an alien scanned the word "funny" and this is what came out of his Universal Constructor.

[Twed]

SNL is mainly for the huge majority of Americans who have no taste.

[fucking ponderous]

I think David S. Pumpkins is mildly funny. The thing that ruins the sketch imo (and almost every SNL sketch) is that the writers seemingly aren't confident with their ideas. They have to undermine them with characters constantly commenting on how absurd the premises of the sketches are, basically explaining the jokes over and over again. It's like they're saying "hey, you think Tom Hanks in a suit covered with pumpkins is stupid? UHH THAT'S OKAY WE DO TOO", like a child trying to appeal himself to those more popular.

Anyway, the (most recent) absolute nadir of SNL is this: https://youtu.be/HG9Z961mhXU
I cannot tell if they support or are against the people they're ostensibly caricaturing, I don't think there's a single actual joke in there at all.

[confettiinmyhair]

Josh Widdicombe.

[H-O-W-L]

I think David S. Pumpkins is mildly funny. The thing that ruins the sketch imo (and almost every SNL sketch) is that the writers seemingly aren't confident with their ideas. They have to undermine them with characters constantly commenting on how absurd the premises of the sketches are, basically explaining the jokes over and over again. It's like they're saying "hey, you think Tom Hanks in a suit covered with pumpkins is stupid? UHH THAT'S OKAY WE DO TOO", like a child trying to appeal himself to those more popular.

Anyway, the (most recent) absolute nadir of SNL is this: https://youtu.be/HG9Z961mhXU
I cannot tell if they support or are against the people they're ostensibly caricaturing, I don't think there's a single actual joke in there at all.

Honest to god I think if the sketch was just three solid minutes of Tom Hanks in a pumpkin suit in some kind of hideously bizarre stare-dance then I think I'd love it for the uncomfortable absurdity but as it stands the sketch is atrocious to me. The closest it gets to anything near good is the ending when Pumpkins appears behind them in a show of near-malevolence.

[Ornlu]

Josh Widdicombe.

Lay off, he's barely out of sixth form.

[Twed]

Cunt's older than I am.

[Ornlu]

That's genuinely shook me to the core. THIRTY-FUCKING-FIVE? He's still got the chubby, rosy cheeks of a seven-year-old.

That's probably the funniest thing about him.

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

There seems to be this new thing, that I will call "LinkedIn Humour" that is just transcriptions of conversations where bosses "pwn" bad employees and vice versa. Most of them are presented as having really happened when in reality I imagine they are prime candidates for /r/thathappened or whatever it is called. I don't have any examples because they are so shit they made me smash my computer and delete my account

Better or worse than the "Tinder Humour" that regularly pops up on the cesspit that is the Reddit homepage?

https://www.reddit.com/r/tinder

[St_Eddie]

SNL is mainly for the huge majority of Americans who have no taste.

The likes and dislikes ratio on those YouTube videos is a testament to that.

[Twed]

I think David S. Pumpkins is mildly funny. The thing that ruins the sketch imo (and almost every SNL sketch) is that the writers seemingly aren't confident with their ideas. They have to undermine them with characters constantly commenting on how absurd the premises of the sketches are, basically explaining the jokes over and over again. It's like they're saying "hey, you think Tom Hanks in a suit covered with pumpkins is stupid? UHH THAT'S OKAY WE DO TOO", like a child trying to appeal himself to those more popular.

I agree with every ounce of this. I think the key to American humor versus British humour is that (generally) the Americans need things to be explained, and to have meaning. That means that in the worst comedy you get characters pretty much explaining to the camera what is going on.

I don't mean this as a slight against all American humour. It's very much a generalisation, and I think that when American comedy does have the confidence to not root itself in immediate, explainable logic it's divine, as its practitioners are the cream of the crop who have filtered out that tick. Similarly, it does mean that a lot of British humour gets away with being simple easy whimsy, because there's no real accountability. In Britain this manifests as things like This Is Jinsy, which is just not on.

I cannot tell if they support or are against the people they're ostensibly caricaturing, I don't think there's a single actual joke in there at all.

It's fun to watch Hollywood liberals cope with AOC and Ilhan Omar etc., because they are very comfortable with their identities but often very perpendicular to their ideals.

[Replies From View]

Josh Widdicombe.

Yes, he always comes across as friend-of-James-Acaster and nothing else, to me.

[St_Eddie]

Yes, he always comes across as friend-of-James-Acaster and nothing else, to me.

Is that code, like a friend-of-Dorothy?

[Mr Banlon]

I remember Ring of Fire being used in this exact same context in an advert for loo paper or supermarket curries or Mini Milks (for putting up the anus for comfort) or something years back.

The Mini Milk thing does work.

[Prison Biscuits]

Josh Widdicombe.

He's just nothing, isn't he?

Josh Widdecome's ubiquitous banality would make me really angry but there's nothing there to even really get angry about - it would be like getting angry about the shape of a cloud. What does he do? Is he a stand-up? He just seemed to slowly appear and multiply, turning up on panel shows laughing at other people's jokes in a shrill cackle like a child watching its mate do a headstand in some dog shit.

Seeing Josh Widdicome on TV is like seeing someone's foot - unremarkable, slightly repulsive and only funny if it was stuck up someone's arse

Josh Widdicome is so dull I can't be bothered to creatively swear about him. I can't even bring myself to check how to spell his name. Certainly can't be arsed to check if that foot analogy is funny or makes sense.

Seeing Josh Widdicome is like noticing that your gran has hung a watercolour of a sparrow on her wall.

Like a regional news report about a coat someone left on a bus.

He's everywhere

[momatt]

Fairly recent SNL sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv6FMEvNiWo
They can't all be gold.

Made me laugh!
Perhaps overlong, but I liked  it.

[Jockice]

Any of mine.

Close thread.

[The Lion King]

That David Pumpkins thing is the sort of thing that might show up on Tim and Eric but without any of the surrounding sketch

[Twed]

He's just nothing, isn't he?

Josh Widdecome's ubiquitous banality would make me really angry but there's nothing there to even really get angry about - it would be like getting angry about the shape of a cloud. What does he do? Is he a stand-up? He just seemed to slowly appear and multiply, turning up on panel shows laughing at other people's jokes in a shrill cackle like a child watching its mate do a headstand in some dog shit.

Seeing Josh Widdicome on TV is like seeing someone's foot - unremarkable, slightly repulsive and only funny if it was stuck up someone's arse

Josh Widdicome is so dull I can't be bothered to creatively swear about him. I can't even bring myself to check how to spell his name. Certainly can't be arsed to check if that foot analogy is funny or makes sense.

Seeing Josh Widdicome is like noticing that your gran has hung a watercolour of a sparrow on her wall.

Like a regional news report about a coat someone left on a bus.

He's everywhere

Something I've noticed is that Avalon likes to fill entire programmes and podcasts etc. with their talent, and encourage them all to laugh extra hard at each other. This is how they promote a new person. You can sense it when there's somebody vaguely new on Cats Does Countdown or something. The new person will say something mostly shit, and then all the air will leave the room and the camera does a wide pan of established stars laughing unnaturally hard.

Josh Widdicombe is very good at laughing at the others. His purpose is to make them all look good. That's why he doesn't do much alone.

[DrGreggles]

He's just nothing, isn't he?

Josh Widdecome's ubiquitous banality would make me really angry but there's nothing there to even really get angry about - it would be like getting angry about the shape of a cloud. What does he do? Is he a stand-up? He just seemed to slowly appear and multiply, turning up on panel shows laughing at other people's jokes in a shrill cackle like a child watching its mate do a headstand in some dog shit.

Seeing Josh Widdicome on TV is like seeing someone's foot - unremarkable, slightly repulsive and only funny if it was stuck up someone's arse

Josh Widdicome is so dull I can't be bothered to creatively swear about him. I can't even bring myself to check how to spell his name. Certainly can't be arsed to check if that foot analogy is funny or makes sense.

Seeing Josh Widdicome is like noticing that your gran has hung a watercolour of a sparrow on her wall.

Like a regional news report about a coat someone left on a bus.

He's everywhere

I saw him as the support act for someone quite famous* about 8-10 years ago.
It was decent enough stuff, I suppose. Nothing hilarious or ground-breaking, but greatly preferable to another 20 minutes of empty stage anyway.
Cut to last September at a charity gig. First 4 acts are all good, and Kitson's on fire as compere - really good vibe in the room.
Then Widdicombe appears. Fuck me, he kills the atmosphere stone dead within a couple of minutes with his piss poor sixth form level comedy stylings.
Give me an empty stage every time now.

He was OK on Taskmaster though.


*can't remember who or where at the moment, but it was a big venue

[Bennett Brauer]

That David Pumpkins thing is the sort of thing that might show up on Tim and Eric but without any of the surrounding sketch

You wouldn't have the pay-off without the sketch though. I like it anyway, but it's odd that it became so popular.

Jimmy Carr finds the level of Jonathan Ross's house as David S Pumpkins:

[BeardFaceMan]

You can sense it when there's somebody vaguely new on Cats Does Countdown or something.

Hearing Jimmy Carr do his insane laugh at some of the truly appalling 'acts' they have on dictionary corner is vomit-inducing.

[Bennett Brauer]

Made me laugh!
Perhaps overlong, but I liked  it.

An earthquake affecting people in a legal change of name office isn't a great idea on paper, but the worst thing about it is the captions sucking any life out of puns that are crap in the first place. Actually no, the worst moment is Pete Davidson's "nanu nanu", closely followed by Bryant misdelivering her line, then Davidson walking across the scene clapping his hands. Please don't make me watch it again.

[jonbob]

Is that code, like a friend-of-Dorothy?

its a code for the sort of bland middle of the road comedy  designed to appeal to a broad mass of TV panel show audiences