Digital Humor by Alleen Pace Nilsen and Don

Digital Humor by Alleen Pace Nilsen and Don L. F. Nilsen 1

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Computer Trouble Shooting 6

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Emogies 8

Brian Willams Raps on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=-YCe. Igt 7 h. Ms&feature=youtube_gdata_player 9

And look how far we have moved away from books, 10

MY BLACKBERRY’S NOT WORKING: http: //www. flixxy. com/my-blackberry-is-not-working. htm 11

The First Digital Communication— With Real Digits 12

Evolution of the Cell Phone 13

The QWERTYUIOP Principle It is commonly believed that the QWERTYUIOP keyboard was invented in order to slow down the typist and keep the keys from jamming. Actually, only the first part of this belief is true. QWERTYUIOP was invented not to slow down the typist but rather to speed up the keyboard by keeping the keys from jamming. When typewriters were first invented, the letters that were used most often frequently jammed together, so the QWERTYUIOP keyboard was designed to separate these letters from each other. Nevertheless, today, whenever something is designed to slow us down rather than speed it up, this design is said to be following the QWERTYUIOP principle. 14

Millenials and Beyond 15

Intentional Cell Phone Humor: 16

Accidental Cell Phone Humor 17

Everybody is now a news photographer for Hurricanes, Meteors, Floods, Police Actions… 18

and how far we’ve come with photos. 19

Texting With a cell phone, we are able to escape the moment. This increases our social audience, and allows us to transcend. But is it always a good thing? 20

We’ve gone from talking to texting --at the game --and at dinner 21

--at the Art Museum --and in the car. 22

BRB: Be Right Back! 23

Memes allow us to combine pictures with text. The text in the top part of the meme gives us the historical context. The text in the lower part of the meme gives us the ironic spin. 24

Memes give new meanings to old events 25

“Lazy College Student” meme 26

Philip Fry from Futurama 27

Philosoraptor Memes are named after Velociraptor dinosaurs. 28

Photo Bombing 29

A New York Times photo of students in BYU’s computer animation program Can you spot the photo-bomber? 30

Is this a photo-bomber? 31

Changes in society, religion, and technology cause anxieties that inspire new movements. • FRANKENSTEIN became popular when scientists began experimenting with real bodies. • In the 1800 s American “Tall Tales” were humorous extensions of the strange things people found as they moved west. • And in the 1970 s, urban legends made fun of people facing new and scary technologies, including microwave ovens, organ transplants, and a lack of privacy. • Zombies are now popular because of medical advances, aging populations and fears of biological warfare and pandemics. • 32

The Vine Application • Vine is an application that allows users to take and post short video clips. • The teller of verbal jokes has the luxury of taking their time in order to provide the information needed to understand the joke. This is especially true in a shaggy dog story. • But Vines are 7 seconds long, so they require careful cutting and editing. • They also require the use of stereotypes, so that the information can be presented quickly. • Editorial cartoons also follow the 7 -second rule for the same reasons. 33

• http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=f. Hc. Xm. R 5 f-_4 • http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=h. FL 9 omud 1 h. Q • http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Cpo. WTc. LOfh. I 34

Selfie! 35

Selfies at Oscars, Tour de France & Running of the Bulls 36

Selma, Alabama, 2015 Selfies on the Edmund Pettus Bridge 37

As new concepts emerge, we recycle old words and phrases from fantasy and science fiction. Godzillagram = a huge packet Munchkins = teenage techies Wabbit = a mischievous program Sorcerer’s Apprentice Mode = an indefinitely repeating program 42 = the meaning of life, truth, and everything A Trojan Horse = a program infiltrating a computer UTSL = Use The Source Luke (from Star Wars) Obi-Wan-Error = Off by One code from HAL (IBM) in 2001, A Space Odyssey Tree Killers = paper wasters from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Code Police or Net Police = thought police from Orwell’s 1984 38

Millennials and Their Careers: 39

People can be addicted to Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Tumblr and especially Video Games. 40

Call and Response on Facebook 41

More Call and Response on Facebook ELLEN DEGENERES: “In Your Facebook”: http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=tvj. Is-f. BFok MARK ZUCKERBERG FACEBOOK AD: http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=ls 7 w. Cgbm. XYM 42

Texting 43

Example of a gender-based computer joke: “No wonder you can’t write. You’re not plugged in. ” (Eschholz-Rosa-Clark [2009]: 105) 44

• Peter Steiner’s 1993 cartoon in the New Yorker showed two dogs in front of a computer. One is remarking “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog. ” • Even Steiner was amazed at how popular it became. • It not only reflected, but helped shape world-wide attitudes. 45

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We like making fun of computers. I have a spelling checker. It came with my PC. It plane lee marks four my revue Miss steaks aye can knot sea. Common spell-check mistakes include: Untied States, Worth nothing that, and Fraud for Freud. 47

THE IMPOTENCE OF PROOFREADING (TAYLOR MALI): http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=p_rw. B 5_3 PQc 48

Importance of the “Rule of Three” 49

Because headlines are so short, they often contain ambiguities 50

These sentences are ambiguous; computers don’t provide “real world knowledge” • A cheesecake was on the table. It was delicious and was soon eaten. • SIGN IN A CHURCH: For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs. • NEWSPAPER AD: Our bikinis are exciting; they are simply the tops. • It’s time to make smoking history! 51

The Nilsen family enjoying a Power. Point or a Video Clip 52

Challenges in the Digital World • People want to create and post their own material. • What goes out on the Internet has probably not had an editor, a director, or a producer. • This results in originality and spontaneity, and also in questionable materials. 53

Grammatical “errors” are common as in this “Success Kid” meme. 54

Internet Shows INTERNET SHOWS: “EQUALS THREE”: http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=4 Ew. SAz. Hj 8 VM INTERNET SHOWS: “JAKE AND AMIR”: http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=o. HIWsvfwc. Rw 55

Recent firings because of the digital broadcasting of inappropriate humor… • In October 2013, White House staffer Jofi Joseph was fired for posting “snarky” and mean-spirited tweets under the handle of @natsecwonk. • These tweets were a mix of leaking sensitive national security information, criticizing the White House policies, and insulting the personalities and appearances of national security officials. • In his own “apology” or maybe “defense, ” Joseph called it a “parody account, ” and said he was only “saying what everyone else…thought. ” 56

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Tumblr • Tumblr is a website that is part social network and part microblogging. Tumblr’s Mighty Pixie (Teh Mighteh Pixeh) • On Tumblr can be found list jokes, puns, parody, sarcasm and call and response. 58

Tumblr Humor 59

Pinterest Snow Humor 60

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Pinterest Haiku 62

Video Game Inconsistency 63

Video Game Irony: Smiling Children as Villains 64

Compare Cartman on Southpark 65

Video Game Glitches: Photoshop & Sorcerer’s Apprentice Mode 66

A Vine for Old People: http: //www. youtube. com/embed/qteu 4 ld_SCE? rel=0 67

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Marilyn Martin and Jack Dunning 69

In conclusion, Steiner’s joke is no longer true. Today, if you’re a dog on the web…, someone will find out. 70

MOOCS & Viral Videos “Gangnam Style” has been viewed by over 2 billion viewers on Youtube 71

Which of these countries do we call for tech support? School Bus in Japan School Bus in India 72

Digital Humor Websites ANIMATOR VS. ANIMATION II: http: //www. metacafe. com/watch/689540/animator_vs_animation_2/ BYU Computer Animation Team: http: //nyti. ms/Zf. AFon CLEVERBOT: http: //cleverbot. com/ THE MATHEMATICS OF HUMOR: https: //uofa. ualberta. ca/science-news/2015/november/thesnunkoople-effect MONTY PYTHON “SPAM”: http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=anwy 2 MPT 5 RE TOP 50 POPULAR TEXT & CHAT ACRONYMS (NETLINGO): http: //www. netlingo. com/top 50/popular-text-terms. php 73