Humor is a subjective matter. What makes one person crack up may fall flat with others. That's why there are so many different types of comedy -- satire ("Dr. Strangelove"), parody ("Airplane"), slapstick (The Three Stooges), etc. -- as well as different forms of comedic wordplay -- puns, hyperbole, non-sensism. What Mr. Lightbeer enjoyed could be defined as sarcastic repartee -- brief retorts that were clever, amusing or insulting, depending on whether it was your ox being gored.
I am far from humorless. I have studied and performed improvisation and comedy writing at The Second City. I wrote, produced and performed in my own sketch-comedy revue. I have also performed stand-up comedy and written jokes for other stand-up comedians. I've even had my material picked up by a fellow you may have heard of: Jay Leno. I've written numerous humorous articles that have been published in major newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, The Milwaukee Journal, Houston Chronicle, The Dallas Morning News, Los Angeles Daily News, The Globe and Mail, The Wall Street Journal and many, many others. On occasion, I have written articles that poked fun of Disney (gasp!).
My only purpose in laying out my credentials is so anyone who's interested in this Mr. Lightbeer ordeal understands that I am not some wet blanket. Nor is anybody else who didn’t enjoy Mr. Lightbeer’s posts. By the same token, it doesn’t mean that people who did like his posts are mean-spirited, vulgar or offensive, though a couple people seem to think they have a superior sense of humor because they liked Mr. Lightbeer. Whatever.
My philosophy is that there are no inappropriate places or subjects for a well-executed joke. Many of us, I'm sure, have laughed during funerals. Mr. Lightbeer's problem, however, was a frequent inability to execute a good joke in the inappropriate places, such as the non-chit-chat boards of this site. He disparaged others for trying to engage fellow members in what he deemed to be lame threads and for actually loving Disney. Well, duh! Who'd he expect to find on this site? I think the worst thing was when he attacked a teenage girl over a thread she started. Forgive me if I don’t respect a 37-year-old man who picks on kids. Now, if he were a couple years older and she were a bit younger, I’d say it’s completely appropriate. (See, that’s a little joke there.)
After being subjected to Mr. Lightbeer's "humor" myself, I created Mr. Brightcheer as a practical joke in order to give him a taste of his own medicine. I'm glad so many people were amused by Mr. Brightcheer, even some of those who had joined Mr. Lightbeer in accusing me of being humorless and "too precious" about Disney. But I'm even happier that Mr. Brightcheer helped in some small way to pave the way for Mr. Lightbeer's demise. I think Steve demonstrated remarkable patience and goodwill, but was forced by Mr. Lightbeer himself to pull the kill switch.
So now's the time for Mr. Brightcheer to say goodbye to all our company (and "good riddance" to Mr. Lightbeer). Cheers!
p.s. now i can go back to typing normal.
I am far from humorless. I have studied and performed improvisation and comedy writing at The Second City. I wrote, produced and performed in my own sketch-comedy revue. I have also performed stand-up comedy and written jokes for other stand-up comedians. I've even had my material picked up by a fellow you may have heard of: Jay Leno. I've written numerous humorous articles that have been published in major newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, The Milwaukee Journal, Houston Chronicle, The Dallas Morning News, Los Angeles Daily News, The Globe and Mail, The Wall Street Journal and many, many others. On occasion, I have written articles that poked fun of Disney (gasp!).
My only purpose in laying out my credentials is so anyone who's interested in this Mr. Lightbeer ordeal understands that I am not some wet blanket. Nor is anybody else who didn’t enjoy Mr. Lightbeer’s posts. By the same token, it doesn’t mean that people who did like his posts are mean-spirited, vulgar or offensive, though a couple people seem to think they have a superior sense of humor because they liked Mr. Lightbeer. Whatever.
My philosophy is that there are no inappropriate places or subjects for a well-executed joke. Many of us, I'm sure, have laughed during funerals. Mr. Lightbeer's problem, however, was a frequent inability to execute a good joke in the inappropriate places, such as the non-chit-chat boards of this site. He disparaged others for trying to engage fellow members in what he deemed to be lame threads and for actually loving Disney. Well, duh! Who'd he expect to find on this site? I think the worst thing was when he attacked a teenage girl over a thread she started. Forgive me if I don’t respect a 37-year-old man who picks on kids. Now, if he were a couple years older and she were a bit younger, I’d say it’s completely appropriate. (See, that’s a little joke there.)
After being subjected to Mr. Lightbeer's "humor" myself, I created Mr. Brightcheer as a practical joke in order to give him a taste of his own medicine. I'm glad so many people were amused by Mr. Brightcheer, even some of those who had joined Mr. Lightbeer in accusing me of being humorless and "too precious" about Disney. But I'm even happier that Mr. Brightcheer helped in some small way to pave the way for Mr. Lightbeer's demise. I think Steve demonstrated remarkable patience and goodwill, but was forced by Mr. Lightbeer himself to pull the kill switch.
So now's the time for Mr. Brightcheer to say goodbye to all our company (and "good riddance" to Mr. Lightbeer). Cheers!
p.s. now i can go back to typing normal.
