Post to the Host
Host Garrison Keillor answers your questions about life, love, writing, authors, and of course, A Prairie Home Companion.
Garrison, This morning's edition of
June 13, 2005 |
Garrison,
This morning's edition of the New York Times declared The Joke dead. The consensus among comedians they interviewed was that joke-tellers are not welcome in their profession. As perhaps the sole remaining perpetuator of jokes, how does this make you feel? Isolated or important?
Charles Phipps
Columbia, SC
Mr. Phipps, to hear that the New York Times declares the joke to be dead is sort of a joke, like Jerry Falwell announcing that the sonnet is passé or Michael Jackson deciding that fly fishing is on the wane. When did we look to the Times for humor? The joke is firmly fixed in everyday grassroots American life and it never depended on professional comedians. Knock-knock jokes, for example. I never heard them on TV ever, but they're a lovely little genre, all about slightly off-kilter puns —
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Eskimo Christians.
Eskimo Christians who?
Eskimo Christians and I'll tell you no lies.
It's a small device for communicating a frisson of joyful pleasure from one person to another. The Times writer doesn't have a clue.
|
Previous Post: |
Next Post: |
Post to the Host Archive
- The Lake Wobegon Effect
- Longevity
- Abdication vs. Retirement
- Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility
- Memory
- Sarah Bellum
- Starting Over
- Do you get to laugh?
- Keep Looking Ahead
- Big City vs. Hometown
- Awful Timing for Love
- Write Funny
- Telling a Story
- Fathers and Daughters
- Big City Yearnings
- Performing in Public
- Visiting Denmark
- Breaking into Show Business
- Moving Back with Mom
- Surviving as a journalist
- Advice for a Competitive Campaign
- A Life-Changing Moment
- In Search of a Wedding Poem
- Trying to turn a passion into a profession
- Spring Break
- American Jokes
- Norwegian Immigration to Lake Wobegon
- One thing leads to another
- All Good Writing is Rewriting
- The Goodbye To Childhood You're On Your Own Now Ceremony
- Skiing in the Alps
- Competing against the young
- Finding confidence
- The value of public universities
- Ruining Lutefisk
- A Christmas Blizzard
- Memoirs
- How do I get noticed?
- Poetry and the Fairer Sex
- Developing a natural voice
- Pentecost
- Boycott
- Anonymous in the Big City
- Thanks to Ford
- Offended
- What happened to that "Sweet Biscuit Fiddle?"
- "Tom and Sally"
- NOTE FROM THE HOST
- SFX Lady??
- Missing The Old Scout
- Live in San Diego
- So Where's Sinclair?
- This is my first big trip away from home. Any advice for a first-time traveler?
- How come the house band is called The Shoe Band?
- October 21 Cinecast
- Getting into the Radio Business
- On the 12th Floor of the Acme Building...
- Going to the Big City!
- 73 Days of Summer Vacation
- Help with a Eulogy
- Where Do I Start?
- Fantasy League Whippets
- Clergywomen in Lake Wobegon
- The more you write, the better it gets
- The Voice
- A Note from GK about Retirement
- Low Self-Esteem
- Useless Degrees
- Car Bomb
- The Dog-Ears of Summer
- Dealing with Disappointment
- Rejection Letters
- English Majors Strike Again
- 7th Grade Report
- GK Responds to Cinecast Posts
Complete Post to the Host Archive
