How to Retroactively Ruin a Joke [COMIC]
Basic Instructions is a twice weekly updating web comic that offers absurd advice on how to live your life. Some of those updates will be happening here on Cracked.
Previously Scott has taught us How To Make The Most Of Working the Early Shift and How to Describe Food So It Doesn't Sound Gross.
Could someone email this to Seth McFarlane, please?
ReplyI always ruin knock knock jokes. I don't even know I'm doing it.
ReplySomeone comes up and says
"Knock knock.
And I say
"Yeah?"
I feel sad now knowing that there are people out who do this.
ReplyNice bit of meta humour there
Replyaww poor scott :/
ReplyH8erz beware it's a trap111!!!1!1!!!1!!!
ReplySo the bald guy is Scott Meyer?
ReplyYep. The other characters are tracings of his wife and friends.
There are lots of ways to ruin a joke, like taking a phone call in the middle of one, or saying, "I'm sorry, I wasn't following you, or just flat old changing the subject midstream. Also handy are: "I've heard that one before" which can be applied liberally whether or not you really have, or saying, "Is that the same stupid joke you told me before?" I like these comics very much. They make me enthusiastic.
ReplyThose are certainly valid, but I think the point was how the teller can ruin the joke, not the listener.
HAHAHA! He's not a doctor!
ReplyI like how people think "people with opinions" = "trolls". Hey guys, I don't like a certain food. Oh wait, I must be a troll, because we obviously all have the same opinions. Anyway, I liked this comic.
Reply Hide All See All 6 RepliesYou must be a troll, because your opinion is that people with opinions are not necessarily trolls! HA. I just subverted your completely reasonable thought in an incredibly obvious, and perhaps ironic (depending on how you define irony) way! No, see it's funny because...with the...f**k it.
Well, there is a point when an opinion seems so perfectly polarized or so ridiculous that it's hard to believe they actually hold that opinion. In these cases I think it's perfectly OK assuming they're trolls.
But you're right that a lot of people take it too far and basically call anyone who doesn't agree a troll, even when it's perfectly plausible someone would have that opinion.
My definition of a troll. 1. Someone who states an opinion online and if you're opinion does not agree with theirs, they mock you're intelligence. 2. An imaginary creature. 3. A character in World of Warcraft.
@SethTaylor
+4. a incessantly belligerent anus. intelligible, "polarized", or not.
what does this have to do with the comic that you are commenting on? i thought the very definition of a troll was someone who was able to shoehorn their opinions in on completely unrelated subjects to the point that the discussion is only about them, in which case you are pretty succesful. ]
Problem?
I think a lot of people nowadays just like to type the word "troll" when conversing online. Personally, I thought "asshole" worked just fine all these years but I guess not.
That last panel screwed with my brain a little.
ReplyThe best way to ruin a good joke is to tell it over and over.
Reply Hide All See All 16 RepliesThe best way to ruin a good joke is to tell it over and over
The best way to ruin a good joke is to tell it over and over.
The best way to ruin a joke is shove it up your ugly ass.
The best way to ruin a joke is to shove it up your ugly ass.
Haha, shove it up your ass. Man I'm good.
See, I repeated a joke someone replied to another joke about "Repeating jokes", therefore I'm funny
Now, let's check if someone replied enthusiasticly to my joke...
Damn, Gaidenrider's good...
The best way to ruin a good joke is to tell it over and over.
TO YOUR MOM.
No further replies necessary.
The best way to ruin a good joke is to BREAK THE COMBO. For the third time.
But there's a combo of breaking combos.
The best way to ruin a joke Is to tell it over and over
The over best to tell a joke ruin is to way and over
The best way to ruin a good joke is to tell it over and over.
c-c-c-c-combo breaker
BREAKER! I had to use up 2/3 of my special bar for that.
The best way to ruin a good joke, is in a manner where the joke is repeatedly told, on multiple occasions, more effective if the repetition occurs within a short time frame.
The best way to ruin a good joke, would actually be to have it told to you multiple times. If you are telling the joke for the first or second time, but the person you are telling the joke to is hearing it for the proverbial milionth time, it is more likely for the recipient, or 'jokee', to find the joke which was once humourous is now lacking any hilarity. May be subverted with a modification or altering, so as it doesn't resemble the original as closely.
The best way to ruin a good joke is what? I'm sorry, I didn't get that.. Can you please repeat it?
I come from the school of thought that the more you explain a joke, the funnier it becomes... to the person explaining the joke.
Reply Hide All See All 5 RepliesJokes aren't meant for the audience. Unless you happen to mean that jokes are meant to be at the audience's expense.
hmmmm....
Sadly, I agree completely.
Indeed. I agree with that "hmmmm...." completely.
So you're the unfunny one in your group of friends, I see...
Yeah, Tofubot is the guy this article was written for. A master of comedy, he ain't.
Why does everyone hate this comic so much? I understand it's not the funniest thing out there but this one is pretty good. At least he's willing to take a knock at himself.
Reply Hide All See All 3 RepliesI love this comic, it is the best one out there.
Willing to take a knock at himself? Hah, he must have been reading TVTropes!
Though if he was actually reading Tropes, he would have never finished the comic...
Dry humor isn't for everyone, I guess.
So meta, it hurts the head.
ReplyTrolling, counter-trolling, counter-counter-trolling, is there anything this strip dose not inspire?
ReplyCorrect spelling of "does".
Suppression of motivation to correct people's grammatical errors. Suppression of motivation to agree with a comment we like, enjoy reading, or relate to, by manner of clicking the 'thumbs up'. Suppression of motivation to stop visiting cracked as often.
I'm incredibly confused at people think that this somehow qualifies as "ownage" of "trolls", if anything it's self-deprecatory .
ReplyEh, at least they know their audience.
I really like Basic Instructions. I've liked pretty much all of them and I'm always puzzled at the negative comments. I'm glad he poked a little fun at the trollz.
Reply Hide All See All 4 RepliesI find them funny too..I guess if it's not dick jokes, making fun of Gary Busey, and glorifying Teddy Rosevelt (sp?) it doesn't fit on cracked ;)
what about Hasselhoff? How come he hasn't been made fun of recently?
he got lost in his own chest hair
u mad?
-inb4rage
Funny one
ReplyTrolls got owned.
Reply