Thursday, August 20, 2009

inherently comedic objects

on a lighter note, a list of objects that are inherently funny, just for being themselves. please add anything I forgot in comments.


banana peels
accordians
platypi
unicycles
fancy hats
venus flytraps
badminton
sloths
bowties
electric can openers
cream pies

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

female chess players

Anonymous said...

The French Defense

X said...

"female chess players"

...Oh no he didn't!!

Anonymous said...

check out miguels rating

Elizabeth Vicary said...

oh my goodness, my student Miguel Garcia is now 1923. unreal.

Anonymous said...

Children with animals
Church Choirs
Naughty Bits
Papal Clothing
Adolescent Poetry
Bad Speling
Dr. Savielly Tartakower

Anonymous said...

Elizabeth,
I was curious as to your opinion since I have a lot more respect for NY coaches than those we have locally. What do you think the limit is for teaching someone? For example, is it reasonable for a 2100 to coach a 1900? I understand that teaching is very different from playing, but I still wonder about that.... No offense intended.

Liquid Egg Product said...

Penises

es_trick said...

there's some pretty funny stuff here

http://failblog.org/

Priapus said...

Eggs.

Granny O'Doul said...

In re es_trick above, some of it is even on topic.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous asked: "What do you think the limit is for teaching someone? For example, is it reasonable for a 2100 to coach a 1900?"

Tiger woods has a coach. Michael Phelps has a coach. Roger Federer has a coach. The greatest athletes have teachers, not to outperform them, but to guide their continued learning.

Anonymous said...

Noses. And loud things.

Anonymous said...

a man jumping over his own shadow with the intention of hurting it (i know this is a very old one)

Anonymous said...

Also buttocks. Especially when referred to as "buttocks."

Rowan Atkinson once said that the essence of comedy lay in being unable to adapt effectively to a new situation.

Anonymous said...

This comment has nothing to do with "inherently comedic objects."

I am using this form to request you to post a picture to this blog:

You were once an Amateur Team East teammate of Ron young. The name of the team was "Being J Fedorowicz." There is a great picture of you, Ron and some others, as you pose, trying to look like John Fedorowicz.

I was looking for the picture recently, however, it seems to have disappeared from the internet. I find that odd, and a bit mysterious, as things that posted 10 years ago are still findable via Google.

In any event, you must have a copy of that picture in your personal archives. Your fans request that you post the picture. If there is a story behind the disappearance of the picture, we would like that story as well.

Thank you

gary grice said...

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=being+john+fedorowicz

Rifat said...

your blog is nice. My blog is about Online Newspaper Site

Anonymous said...

Anyone know when the Bermuda open is this year and have contact info?

-Justagirl

Apparatchik said...

inherantly comedic object w.c. fields

Anonymous said...

Here are some I thought of:

chopsticks,a cheese grater an Aardvark, The Pink Panther, Male chess players (especially their tendancy to have delusions of grandeur towards their opponent during or after the game).

Elizabeth Vicary said...

re August 21, 2009 6:18 PM

I am definitely not good enough to be Miguel's private coach, but I'm not (he doesn't have one, although his dad is about my strength and has great understanding). I'm just his (public) school teacher. Conventional wisdom says you should be at least 400 points higher than someone to teach them, but of course that's just an estimate-- things like availablity of coaches and personal dynamics play a big role.

If anyone is looking for a recommendation for a private coach, I can't say enough good things about Dave Vigorito. He got me from being stuck at 2000 (for 10 years!) to 2160 in 7 months. He does online lessons for very reasonable rates. he's "fluffy" on icc, or you can email me for his email.

Temposchlucker said...

Sportrims

Philip Sells said...

The letter q.

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to get something off my chest, figured I'd post it here. I feel sorry for Jen Shahade. She posts those Chess Videos on USCF, and not one goes by without some creepy guy making comments about her outfits and style, or others complaining about the production value - on the public forum where everyone can see. Not a surprise that most people don't bother trying to advertise the game, there are too many weird/dysfunctional people in chess.

Anonymous said...

Hey, I'm the one who comments on the production values, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. If I want to watch a home video, I'll take out the camcorder and follow my cat around and maybe post the results on YouTube. I think Jennifer Shahade and Dim Mak should be aspiring to produce something that would be watchable and compelling even for someone who isn't already pre-sold on the content. If the audio sounds like crap, you're not going to get anyone to watch it except die-hards. If that's all you care about, by all means, throw an amateur-quality video up on the web. If you want to promote chess to a larger audience, make something that will impress a larger audience. Weird? Dysfunctional? No, just common-sense marketing.

For the record, I totally agree with you about Lafferty.

Anonymous said...

anjiaoshi,

I actually agree with your position that production value should increase with the intended audience you are trying to reach, especially to grab the attention those who aren't naturally attracted to the game. However, I am not sure that is the current intent of the Shahade videos - if you did post a video of your cat on Youtube you'd get a much bigger and diverse audience than if you posted it on USCF.
I see them as a way to provide chess news to chess players - like the (admittedly better - for now) ones you can find on ChessVibes. Just as it doesn't make sense to write a letter to Ford every time you drive one of their minivans, complaining that it isn't fast enough, I don't think you should criticize the Shahade videos for not being what you want, when that's not what they are meant to be.

But I do want to apologize for insinuating you are as dysfunctional as Lafferty. Not even close. If creepiness was a chess rating, he'd be a grandmaster.

Elizabeth Vicary said...

They seem pretty good to me, in basically all areas: technically, content-wise, and presentation-wise. But even if you disagree -- and I admit I have maybe unsophisticated standards in audio-visual recording—but just imagine all the insane, terrible, incoherent people who could be doing it.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps Brian Lafferty should make a weekly video on chess fashion.