Re: CHAT anecdotage (was: Easy and Interesting Languages -- Website)

On Thursday, May 27, 2004, at 05:51 PM, Mark J. Reed wrote:

> On Thu, May 27, 2004 at 11:52:03AM -0400, jcowan@REUTERSHEALTH.COM wrote:
>>
>> I recognize your usage, but I use "shaggy-dog story" as a name for a
>> kind of
>> parajoke: a long, meandering story that eventually leads up to a
>> deliberately
>> unfunny punch line.
That's certainly what I understand by shaggy-dog story - the longer the
story & the unfunnier the punchline, the better   ;)

> Ah.  Thanks for the etymology; I didn't know that story.  My usage is
> approximately a subset of the original, then - the difference being that
> the punchline is required to be a pun, and therefore the unfunniness is
> in the ear of the beholder.
This is surely because puns are so easy to make in English that they
generally get greeted with a groan; therefore they make excellent
punch-line to shaggy dog stories. I seem to recall that they usually do
end that way, but I hadn't ever considered it an absolute requirement.

>  The longer the leadup (the "shaggier" the
> story) the better,
Yes, indeed!

> and in the most masterful creations even the most
> sophisticated audience should not be able to predict the punchline at
> any time before it is actually delivered.
Yep - and the greater the unexpected unfunniness the better   :)

Ray
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