Just...................whatever

That's scary

Putzar Castle in Germany

Looks like the tree's coming over for a visit.

Its amazing. I can just see him swinging a stubby root of a leg over. Surprised the arch can hold the weight ?

fabulous

https://www.facebook.com/craftworld7/photos/pcb.128820468699137/128819812032536/?type=3&theater

Yeah like an Ent stepping through a gap in Isengard's walls.

{{ Been reading The Road to Mars, by Eric Idle. Its a scifi story about a comedy double act and their robot Carlton who is secretly studying them to try to work out what comedy and humour are.
In terms of story its ok, nothing spectacular, in terms of how its written its very solid and competent without ever risking Douglas Adams place in comedy scifi writting. But where it is really interesting is in its thoughts on comedy itself, given its coming from Idle, one of the Python team and who has made a study of the history of comedy over the years.

Heres an example-

"There are two types of comedian both deriving from the circus, which I shall call the White Face and the Red Nose. Almost all comedians fall into one or the other of these two simple archetypes. In the circus, the White Face is the controlling clown with the deathly pale masklike face who never takes a pie; Red Nose is the subsversive clown with the yellow and red makeup who takes all the pies and the pratfalls and the buckets of water. The White Face represents the mind, reminding humanity of the constant mocking presence of death; the Red Nose represents the body, reminding mankind of its constant embarrassing vulgarities. The emblem of the White Face is the skull, that of the Red Nose is the phallus. One stems from the plague, the other from the carnival. The bleakness of the funeral, the wildness of the orgy. The graveyard and the fiesta. The brain and the penis. Hamlet and Falstaff. Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Laurel and Hardy."

In a later part of the story the robot Carlton has come up with a theory for how humour got started evolution wise, and I dont know if this is Idle's own idea or if he's basing it off any actual science, but I really liked the notion so thought Id share it- }}

'The Basic Chimp Theory is based on the idea of a primal chimp. The genetic father of all comedians, if you like. The chimpanzee has a small but effective language base, which obviously includes sign language. Chimps have a word for "snake". When a chimp says "Snake", they run away. Not all chimps run, however; some continue to play, tempting fate. Carlton posed the idea of a basic comic chimp, an ape who yelled "snake" when there was no snake. The others run away and maintain their fear signals at a safe distance (teeth chattering, barking, laughs), but they have been conned. This, Carlton argues, is exactly what happens to the audience.
So why would the basic chimp do that? The answer, according to Carlton, is (a) food (he can eat whiile they run), (b) power (he has caused their flight) and (c) sex (with power and food comes the reward of the female, with all the advantages for the personal survival of his own DNA)."- Road to Mars

I've never accepted the interrupted defense mechanism theory of humor because in most jokes there's not the faintest whiff if danger. Where's the threat in a pun? Trying to explain jokes based on this is stretching things far beyond the breaking point.

{{ Ah well, in Carltons defence here that last bit he came up with having observed the Red Nose half of his masters, Alex, taking a joke too far, losing control and in doing so risking the wrath of someone with power over them, their careers and very well-being. }}

- 'And he (Carlton) recognizes the danger for the comedian, who, if he makes a mistake, can get eaten. He also risks raising the envy of the physically more powerful in the tribe, which is why this particular moment with Alex so fascinates him. Insulting the powerful fits right in with his general thesis.'- Road to Mars

Pettytyrant101 wrote:So why would the basic chimp do that? The answer, according to Carlton, is (a) food (he can eat whiile they run), (b) power (he has caused their flight) and (c) sex (with power and food comes the reward of the female, with all the advantages for the personal survival of his own DNA)."- Road to Mars

I'll add a 4th reason. Teaching/learning.
I have a fond memory of teaching an inquisitive 2 year old the dangers of rose bush thorns.
I'd reach as if to pick the roses like I knew she wanted to do, but then I'd cry, "OUCH!!!!" and pantomime an injured hand.
Her eyes got huge and she asked "OK???" I smiled, nodded and said,"OK!" whereupon she burst into peels of laughter, and when she recovered she demanded, "AGAIN!"
I obliged, but with even larger comic drama (because who doesn't love an appreciative audience?) and got an even bigger laugh.
This continued for 15 minutes or so until I finally had to stop. I think this was her first joke. The idea of watching me pretend to do something stupid and get hurt never got old!

Mmm, funny how children display this sadistic streak

sadism is all about power - young kids I think marvel at the power they have to get grownups to do things.

{{ Brother sent me this, all bands you have to guess the names. We think we have them all except for no. 8 which has us stumped?

Any guesses?



our guesses-

Spoiler:

}}}

its baffling, is there answers to this ? I bet its something bloody obvious ?

Oh geez, well here's my guesses.

Spoiler:

Yeah I think this has some UK-bias. I looked up number 9 afterwards and it's a British group I've never heard of. Anyway off to read your guys' guesses.

Here I made my own
The emojis got all screwed up when I posted them here, but I deleted the ones that didn't work anymore.

1.
2.    
3. 🧵  
4.
5.
6.  
7. (🧷🪒)🧲
8.
9. ️ ️
10. 🧎
11. 🪑
12.
13. ️
14.

Oh! I think I managed to solve some of those! I'm so proud! Not proud of the spelling tho.

Spoiler:

But Petty's number 8... Got no clue.

Yep got 'em.

{{ Bit weird to watch this one, filmed in San Fransico in 1906- 4 days later the big quake hit killing 3000 and destroying 80% of the city. }}

the original has always been amazing, but that reconstruction is mind blowing. It tends towards purple but still brings things to life even more than the original.

That was eerie, I wanted to shout "get out ! get away as far as you can!" especially when you see the young boys goofing around, all smiles for the camera & not a clue whats coming