California in Texas

[JesterSurvivor]

Title to this thread is a bit of a head fake to throw off any aggy that may be checking the main page.

I know I should be over our former off-balanced rivalry with Texas A&M, but I could not help myself, and I checked TexAgs to read the chatter about Patterson.

I am not a thin-skinned guy. You give me a topic - no matter how controversial - and I will likely find some joke about it to be funny. I think it is all about context though. You have to know your audience. Which makes the inter webs tricky. The world can be your audience. You can make a joke about aggy and sheep on this forum and maybe some New Zealand sheep farmer who has had his prize ewe violated by an overzealous kid in a Manziel jersey stumbles across the joke and suffers some kind of traumatic flashback. And there is also a concept of telling a joke too soon.

So back to TexAgs (Motto: "I'm Squeezing 'Em For Sumlin!"): some Poet Laureate of BCS composed a post-comparing the UT Athletics/Patterson situation to an out of control forest fire that is a little contained but may break out again at any time on several fronts. Of course, it was an allusion to the forest fires that are still ravaging Northern California, just about 90 miles from Berkeley. He knew his audience of course, and did not post it on a Cal-Berkeley board. But it raises some very good questions abut making jokes about tragedies. When is it too soon? When is it ok? When can we, as Longhorns, tell jokes to each other on our boards that good taste would indicate should not be told to or in front of some of our non-Longhorn friends?

Because I know a few good ones about fires. Bonfires, actually.

(Of course, I'm referring to Bonfire Night in England. Some great Guy Fawkes jokes!)

 

[Driver 8]

But it raises some very good questions abut making jokes about tragedies. When is it too soon? When is it ok?

I suppose it's a matter of personal taste. Some things lend themselves to a wry humor after a time, while others are just never "funny" in any way.

The A&M bonfire incident, to me, is never funny. Twelve kids dying in a tragic accident like that, I just don't see any place for humor.

 

[JesterSurvivor]

The A&M bonfire incident, to me, is never funny. Twelve kids dying in a tragic accident like that, I just don't see any place for humor.

I understand your point of view. I subscribe to the view that tragedy plus time equals humor. I also subscribe to the view that aggy has no capacity for self-awareness. It's the essence of their famous phrase about the cult of aggy: "From the outside looking in, you cannot understand it. From the inside looking out, you cannot explain it."

Which is why California fire jokes are funny to aggy today, while the fires are still burning, and bonfire jokes will never be funny in their eyes (and the eyes of many non-aggy as well).

I'm guessing that the people whose houses are still on fire in California would find the aggy message comparing our Athletics program to that fire to be a bit over the line. Tragedy without the passing of time is tragedy.

At least Baylor used The Titanic as a reference point. That was 100 years ago. The only problem with that video is that it just wasn't funny. Making a Downfall parody video about who knew what when about Denny and Ukwuachu could be funny, given enough time, but that meme has been played out.

 

[TXLonghorndad]

There is never acceptable time to make bonfire jokes.

If a small percentage of aggies are linking our troubles to the California fires, feel sorry for them and move on. My opinion.

 

[TXLonghorndad]

There is never acceptable time to make bonfire jokes.

If a small percentage of aggies are linking our troubles to the California fires, feel sorry for them and move on. My opinion.