545. War of the Worlds, condensed (spoilers)To: sam@rinkworks.com Subject: subscription for a condensed movie!!!! Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2008, at 13:33:14 War of the Worlds Humans: look, aliens! (run toward them, aliens begin killing people) humans: run!!!!! (aliens kill almost everyone) alien: ACHOO!!!! (aliens all die) Humans; we love you common cold!!! This is a typical Book-A-Minute submission from someone who just has no idea how the humor works. But it's actually very close, and it's a wonderful illustration of how delicate humor is. Imagine the same words with a simple period at the end of each line instead of all the ridiculous exclamation points: "Look, aliens." -- "Achoo." -- "We love you, common cold." Suddenly an awful ultra-condensation becomes a pretty good one. The difference is whether there's any winking at the camera, figuratively speaking, and also whether there's any contrast between the words and the presentation. |
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