In which we resolve greater effort toward laying bare some of the more insidious, unspoken, ridiculous assumptions behind our standard pieties and official narratives.

"And by humor, I don't mean the automatic-pilot snideness, or contentless cattiness, or jealous innuendo, or ironic jibberish that sometimes passes for humor in certain parts of the Internet and Internet-influenced culture. I am referring to Fey's complex, spirited, intelligent kind of funniness, which has the effect of laying bare some of the more insidious, unspoken, ridiculous assumptions behind our standard pieties and official narratives."

-- Katie Roiphe, suggesting in Slate that women on the Internet are not funny, which is not at all like what Christopher Hitchens did when he argued in Vanity Fair that women are not funny, which made him seem like kind of an asshole.

Comments

[Paulita]

Funny that it's "jealous innuendo" when a woman says or writes something about another woman. It's witty when a man insults a woman.

[Suburban Kamikaze]

I can't figure out what the fuck she is even referring to...? Has she never read The Bloggess? Bossy? Anne Nahm, Funny Women at The Rumpus?

And somebody, please, tell me what is meant by "ironic jibberish"? Because it sounds funnier to me than the "laying bare of pieties."

SK

[nthnglsts]

"Ironic Jibberish" sounds like the same person who commented on the 3 Racy Reads.

[Suburban Kamikaze]

Some people don't seem to realize the amount of effort that goes into the creation of content-free cattiness. And very few bloggers can afford a snideness autopilot. At SK, every single piece of snide is produced the old-fashioned way.

Not that the people who write the official narratives would understand.

SK

[Mr Lady]

God damn it, I wish I'd paid more attention in AP Flinging Large Words About.

[Suburban Kamikaze]

Please. Keep flinging whatever it is you're flinging over there. I laughed so hard at your uterine press release that all the standard pieties came shooting out of my nose...

SK