h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Why, I hear you cry (okay, figure of speech), do we need a Keeper of a Straight Face?

The best jokes are those delivered in a serious tone. From the perspective of the person hearing the joke, it's funnier to realize that someone is joking when you originally thought they were being serious. From the perspective of the person telling the joke, it can often be much funnier to have people take your jokes as being meant seriously than to have people laugh at them.

Deadpan delivery can take a number of forms. It can be over-the-top, or it can be like you're reading the phone book. However, both of these carry the risk of telegraphing the fact that you're joking. Good satire treads a fine line between being too dry and being too outrageous. Rather, it engages the reader or listener, who may be inclined to suspect a joke, but who is left in doubt until the very end (or longer) because the language and the argument seem so reasonable.

My favourite example of striking this balance was at a recent WTO conference, where someone named Hank Hardy Unruh, of a group called the Yes Men, delivered a speech to a group of businessmen and officials on how the Civil War was a victory for protectionism rather than for freedom, and on the instructive example of British India as a "remote labour market". One of Hank's tricks was to introduce obvious humour into a speech that was meant as a joke in its entirety. At one point he stripped to a spandex leotard and inflated a large golden phallus which he called a "remote managerial viewing device". Whether the audience laughed at this, I don't know, but the point is that they took it in stride as part of Hank's presentation.

The other classic example I know of is the song Alice's Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie. It's essentially a stand-up comedy routine all the way through, but it doesn't become apparent that it's satire until near the end, where after 25 minutes recounting his story of his arrest for littering and his near-induction into the Army, Guthrie says to an Army sergeant, "I'm sitting here on this bench because you want to know if I'm moral enough to join the Army, and burn women, kids, houses, and villages, after being a litterbug?"

I believe I could be a good Keeper of a Straight Face. I have difficulty making my case without making unverifiable assertions which present me as an egotist with a very high opinion of my own abilities. That's probably because I am one. Well, in a less flattering example, sometimes my roommate will tell me after people have left, "Highland [not my real name], I don't think they realized you were joking."

I guess I could leave you with a few short observations that I call Murphy's Laws of Urban Transit, and you can decide whether they tell enough about me to warrant granting me the title. You could also check out my personal space on the H2G2 site.

Highland Flood, cub researcher

Gridlock's Barb:
If you lined up all the cars in the Lower Mainland end-to-end . . . no one would notice anything out of the ordinary.

Yogi Berra Misquoted:

Nobody rides the bus anymore - it's too crowded.

Bennett's Credo of Megaprojects:
All megaprojects blow up in the face of the government that initiates them. A truly successful megaproject is one which continues to blow up in the face of the next government.

The title of Keeper of a Straight Face is hereby awarded to Highland Flood.

Congratulations!

Please join my Keepers group! Address on the Keepers page.

Thanks, Archangel. (I'm not sure if I can call you that, but I will, because it feels sort of like I'm Sam Spade talking to Brigid O'Shaughnessy in Heaven.) I'll try not to crack a smile.

Oh please smile, it suits you so.
My name is Galaxy Babe although most people here call me GB.
Archangel is my title

I love those films.
I wonder why?

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p.s. Do you know how come thegot to be top of the Christmas tree?
There had been no snow during the entire month of December. The elves in the bicycle department had been on strike since October, and now there was the possibility that the elves in the doll department might join them.

Daily life at the North Pole was not pleasant, and Santa Claus was in a pretty foul mood. Mrs. Claus was suffering from arthritis and was very mad over the fact that her red velvet cake had fallen in the oven. Santa had tried to round up some extra helpers, but with no snow, they weren't able to make it by sleigh to the workshop.

Rudolph had a bad cold, and his nose wouldn't light up. Comet and Prancer were fighting over Vixen, who had just come into heat. Blitzen's right foreleg was still in a cast, and the vet said that they would have to wait until 24 December to decide if Blitzen would be able to pull the sleigh.

The electricity went off, and all the power tools came to a stop. There was nothing going right in Santa's workshops. The helpers were about three weeks behind in their work, and it didn't look that all the toys would be ready by Christmas Eve. Santa's foul mood was exacerbated by a bad case of hemorrhoids, and he wasn't too happy about the possibility of having to ride so far on Christmas Eve.

Seeing the terrible state of affairs at the North Pole chez Santa, the
angels took up an offering to buy a gift for the unhappy workers and the Clauses - something that would brighten their Christmas. They chose a Christmas tree, and they sent it down by an.

Theburst into the workshop room and asked,
"hey,where do you want me to put this tree?"



Well, the rest is history