Answering a question with a joke, then the "well, seriously.."

July 14, 2005 10:05 AM

The "Hollywood Squares Thing": Answering a question with a joke, then the "well, seriously.." bit. Is this bad? In defense, you are providing some "signal"...
posted by RikiTikiTavi to Etiquette/Policy at 10:05 AM (27 comments total)

I'll take quonsar to block...
posted by wendell at 10:12 AM on July 14, 2005

quonsar is no JM J. Bullock.

he is, however, a decent Paul Lynde.
posted by keswick at 10:17 AM on July 14, 2005

Do you mean bad "bad" or bad "good"?

This situation is the compromise given the 'rules'.
posted by mischief at 10:33 AM on July 14, 2005

It depends on whether the joke is really all that humorous. Most people, including that strange-looking dude in my mirror, are not as funny as they imagine themselves to be.
posted by Ryvar at 10:36 AM on July 14, 2005

I remember when, on "The New Hollywood Squares" (the one hosted by Chuck Woolery in the '80s), one of the guest "stars" was cut-rate Madonna wannabe Stacey Q (the fact that she has a website was quite startling to me), and they made her lip-synch the lyrics to her semi-hit "Two of Hearts." I felt a powerful surge of empathetic embarrassment for her.

Then, later, she allegedly went on to appear in dirty movies.

Moral of the story: the "Hollywood Squares Thing" can only lead to a crash-and-burn music career and rumors of pornography. Don't do it, kids. Stay in skool.
posted by Dr. Wu at 10:44 AM on July 14, 2005

I now have that song stuck in my head. I hate you.
two of hearts... two hearts that beat as one... ineedyouiloveyou
posted by keswick at 10:47 AM on July 14, 2005

How about embedding a serious answer within a joke?

Or worse still, when the question itself is already a joke, like most medical questions have proven to be (including my own)?
posted by mischief at 10:49 AM on July 14, 2005

Wait! Wait! I was wrong! It wasn't her super-smash "Two of Hearts" that Stacey sang on the Squares! It was her follow-up non-hit (with extremely explicit lyrics!) "We Connect"! I actually remember it very very clearly, for some reason.

Do you now hate me more or less, keswick?
posted by Dr. Wu at 10:52 AM on July 14, 2005

So, is there anyone that wants to answer this question presented in MetaTalk?

I said it was kind of annoying, because you have to wade through the joke to get to what they really wanted to say. I hoped it wasn't some larger trend.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 11:00 AM on July 14, 2005

I use the following criterion:

If the comment/answer is 50% or more signal, and the noise portion doesn't take more than an average of 1-2 seconds to read, a-ok. All others, cut 'em.
posted by ハッカー at 11:15 AM on July 14, 2005

Oh, s***! I wanted to post that on my regular account. Oh, well. I'll leave you guessing.
posted by ハッカー at 11:17 AM on July 14, 2005

So I sez to him, I sez, I sez... sometimes personality gives context to the answer but most of the time, it's noise.
posted by 517 at 11:19 AM on July 14, 2005

Dr. Wu: I hate to pile on, but the '80s "Squares" was hosted by the illustriouts John Davidson, not Chuck Woolery (then of "Scrabble" fame).

This comment is either 100% noise or 100% signal. My apologies in either case.
posted by TPIRman at 12:27 PM on July 14, 2005

D'oh! You are right, of course. (I'm 0 for 2 - arguably even worse - in this thread.) Somehow these two great hosts melded in my mind into some sort of unholy Juck Woolerson amalgam. I beg for forgiveness at the altar of Paul Lynde.

Man, talk about yer noise. Sorry for the ludicrous derail.
posted by Dr. Wu at 12:49 PM on July 14, 2005

:: ponies up his $5 to register Juck Woolerson ::
posted by kindall at 12:52 PM on July 14, 2005

It depends on whether the joke is really all that humorous. Most people, including that strange-looking dude in my mirror, are not as funny as they imagine themselves to be.

Amen. I can't remember the last time I laughed reading someone's "joke" on AskMe. They're never funny (though, admittedly, I'm a tough audience for jokes).

I read AskMe for Qs and As. I don't want to wade through jokes. So please only add a joke if (a) you really think it's deeply, truly, madly funny and (b) if it's a seamless part of your answer. (In other words, if it actually answers the question and is a joke at the same time.)

If those rules are too hard, don't joke.
posted by grumblebee at 12:53 PM on July 14, 2005

You guys are a barrel of laughs. I bet those meetups must be raucous events.

:-|

^^^^official MeFi emoticon?
posted by keswick at 1:28 PM on July 14, 2005

It's not impossible for one to be fun at a social event but to answer questions on a website without joking around.
posted by grumblebee at 1:40 PM on July 14, 2005

I said it was kind of annoying, because you have to wade through the joke to get to what they really wanted to say. I hoped it wasn't some larger trend.

Well, I do it often. Am currently reconsidering.

So, is there anyone that wants to answer this question presented in MetaTalk?

Well, Matt, you know those times when nobody answers the question and still manages to answer it perfectly? Yeah. I guess the humor goes.
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 1:55 PM on July 14, 2005

posted by keswick at 2:17 PM on July 14, 2005

:-| <-- mefite on recumbent bike
posted by quonsar at 3:06 PM on July 14, 2005

I think I'm an offender...It doesn't annoy me too much, even when it isn't funny. One reason I like MeFi is for the personalities, and people joking are expressing those personalities. All joke responses are, I agree, simply noise.
posted by OmieWise at 3:18 PM on July 14, 2005

Personally, I think "Squares" went out in a true blaze of self-conscious glory after Whoopi quit and Martin Mull became our generation's Paul Lynde. (Add the contributions of Penn "YOU FOOL!" Jillette, French "I'm not an educaed man..." Stewart, and Gilbert "ME, AGAIN!?!?" Gottfried, and you had a pretty funny chunk of television)

And that's why I don't even try to give answers at AskMe most of the time...
posted by wendell at 3:21 PM on July 14, 2005

I like MeFi for the personalities.

I like AskMe for the information.

I don't see there's any need to mix the two. Keep your jokes to MeFi, and keep AskMe low-noise.

I'm in full support of a tyrannical no-jokes moderation of AskMe. It's too valuable a resource to allow it to disintegrate.
posted by five fresh fish at 5:00 PM on July 14, 2005

My answer to Mathowie's question is this: I find AskMe far more useful if the jackassery is kept to a minimum. I hate the Hollywood Squares-Style-"but seriously, folks" schtick and find it annoying beyond belief. Keeping a light tone is one thing, and it's welcome, but jackassitude is more in place here, doncha think?
posted by Lynsey at 6:17 PM on July 14, 2005

As long as the comment addresses the question in a serious way, who cares what else it includes? I'd rather have a good answer with a bad joke than a bad answer by itself any time. You might as well delete those too if you're worried about noise.
posted by euphorb at 10:06 PM on July 14, 2005

Providing content is for people who aren't sassy enough.
posted by darukaru at 7:52 AM on July 15, 2005