Everybody laughs
Nintendo Wii has this thing called “everybody votes” wherein you participate in a meaningless poll and then try to predict what the more popular answer will be ie. “Which is better? Cats or Dogs?” And then later in the week, once the votes are in, you can see a breakdown of how the country shook up province by province, like on election day. Some polls are broken up by country so you can see how different parts of the world break down along political lines even on goofy questions. Well, There was an actually interesting one awhile ago where essentially it asked “how satisfied are you with life?” And scrolling through the list of countries people everywhere were pretty content, but then there was this huge gap in the numbers right at the bottom where the whole country seemed miserable. “Germany, Japan, Italy” I just thought that grouping seemed familiar.
Lately there have been a lot of supernatural garbage questions “which is a better predictor of the future? Psychic or Fortune Cookie” “Which is more likely to grant your wish? Wishing Well or Candle on a Birthday Cake.” Steph and I tend to abstain from voting when it reaches that level of inanity.
The fun thing is there’s a tab on this everybody votes channel that lets you suggest future questions (which I assume someone at Nintendo of America culls down to the most 3 year old friendly fare), so I suggested “Which is more likely to grant your wish? Rubber boot or gum.” You know, just my own little protest, not really funny on it’s own but some censor might get the gag. Got a laugh from those in the room who had to sit through me entering it one letter at a time on the wii onscreen keyboard… waiting… waiting… WAAAAIiiiting… for the punchline, soooo close… “Gum” “HAHAHA DEAN YOU’RE A GENIUS! I NOMINATE YOU FOR THE NOBEL PRIZE IN FUNNY!”
Sometimes I think if you boil the anticipation of the funny to just the right temperature it doesn’t really matter what the punch line is.
