Folks like Stephen and Adam have been asking for a better standard of discourse on the web, at home, and abroad. A laudable goal gentlemen, given that we live in an age of increasing partisan hackship. I hold out little hope that the Unitarian Jihad will succeed, rather voices will just get louder and shriller.
However there is a method to praise and skewer, and so create and foster a dialogue. That method (or rather set of methods) is humour. Sometimes jokes can bypass the shutters, like chinks of light through drawn blinds, they can help us see better. It can be scary to look out of the cave into the light, i reckon, so we talk about jokes being close to the bone (close to the truth?) or close to the knuckle. I would certainly rather be close to the knuckle than doling out knuckle sandwiches (except for Texas Hold’Em folks). A good joke can make us confront our prejudices, hopes and fears. Why was Bill Hicks so goddamn great? Because he asked such tough questions–he was a morally serious artist.
So get to the freaking point already mr chips! What the slow and laboriously and painfully unfunny intro is designed to do was to take us to some rather fine satirical work, pastiches of the famous Dead Parrot and Spanish Inquisition sketches from our old mates at Monty Python’s Flying Circus. You know where the humour came from? I almost don’t want to say, given the standard of discourse there is already under pressure from time to time – but its the… xml-dev list. That’s right Hackers and Painters and Comedians too.
I would therefore like to say thank you very much to Bill de Hora, Rich Salz and Mike Champion, for helping us laugh at each other – but more importantly to laugh at ourselves. Lord knows that’s a rich vein of comedy…
It started with the seed of an idea. NOBODY expects the…. …. RESTifarian Inquisition
And then the ball started rolling.
A customer enters a WS shop
Mr. Praline: ‘Ello, I wish to register a complaint.
(The owner does not respond.)
Mr. Praline: ‘Ello, Miss?
Owner: What do you mean “miss”?
Mr. Praline: I’m sorry, I have a cold. I wish to make a complaint!
Owner: We’re closin’ for lunch.
Mr. Praline: Never mind that, my lad. I wish to complain about this
specification what I purchased not half an hour ago from this very boutique.
Owner: Oh yes, the, uh, the Big-Wizzdl…What’s,uh…What’s wrong with it?
Mr. Praline: I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it, my lad. it’s dead,
that’s what’s wrong with it!
Owner: No, no, it’s uh,…it’s RESTing.
Which made me laugh (sad but true?). What i didn’t expect was for Mike to chime in so pitch perfect.
SEMANTIC KNIGHT:
None shall pass without formally defining the ontological meta-semantic thingies of their domain something-or-others!
HACKER:
What?
SEMANTIC KNIGHT:
None shall pass without using all sorts of semantic
meta-meta-meta-stuff that we will invent Real Soon Now!
HACKER:
I have no quarrel with you, good Sir Knight, but I must get my
work done on the Web. Stand aside!
SEMANTIC KNIGHT:
None shall find anything on the Internet without semantic metadata!
HACKER:
So be it!
HACKER and SEMANTIC KNIGHT:
Aaah!, hiyaah!, etc.
[HACKER chops the SEMANTIC KNIGHT’s first argument off by building efficent statistical/heuristic search engines}
The jokes are pretty solid if you follow RDF and all. Have a read have a laugh and ask yourself am I taking myself just a wee bit seriously lately?
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