Recently, two of my favorite blogs have featured comment threads that turned into lists of silly jokes.  On her blog, Alison Bechdel promoted some prints by Diane diMassa; as one of the prints shows a person holding up a sign with the word “fuck” written on it, many commenters shared jokes involving that word.  I posted a comment which I immediately regretted, realizing that it was terribly depressing; to my great relief, subsequent commenters not only refused to let me spoil the fun, but even turned it into an opportunity for more merriment.

At Language Log, a post looks at a comic strip in which a character can’t understand why the Fire Department won’t give her fire.  She’s also disappointed when the home and garden store will sell her neither a home nor a garden.  The comment thread starts with jokes of the same type (why do we park in the driveway, but drive on a parkway?” etc,) then moves on to other topics.  Here’s an observation about life in the USA that’s worthy of any standup comic you can name.    Fortunately, I avoided playing the role of Captain Bringdown there, although I did offer a non-funny remark about a sad book.