’It’s nearly impossible to humorously mock something that is reasonable.
Nonsense. Humor is lots of fun, but it’s far, far from the measure of reason. I’m under the impression that, in every country, a reliable source of mockability is alien-seeming accents. I’m told that, in mainland China, at least 50 percent of TV humor consists of Chinese people mocking each other’s regional dialects. I could give any number of examples in English, but is it really necessary?
Other sources of humor would include: people falling down, big noses, and—at least in English—words with a difficult ‘K’ sound.
None of these examples involves an actual proposition that can be ‘reasonable’ or true or false. I don’t think this is the kind of mockery that Adams is talking about.
Nonsense. Humor is lots of fun, but it’s far, far from the measure of reason. I’m under the impression that, in every country, a reliable source of mockability is alien-seeming accents. I’m told that, in mainland China, at least 50 percent of TV humor consists of Chinese people mocking each other’s regional dialects. I could give any number of examples in English, but is it really necessary?
Other sources of humor would include: people falling down, big noses, and—at least in English—words with a difficult ‘K’ sound.
None of these examples involves an actual proposition that can be ‘reasonable’ or true or false. I don’t think this is the kind of mockery that Adams is talking about.