Author Topic: Wii: The Plastic Box of Death! (Read 8033 times)

ryancoke · « **on:** February 12, 2007, 09:20:53 AM »

This is freakin hillarious! (sorry if this was posted before)
I thought this guy was insane until I realized he's joking...

http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,72660-0.html?tw=wn_columns_4

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #1 on:** February 12, 2007, 11:21:43 AM »

"Studies indicate that the Wiimote is the most ballyhooed video-game controller of all time by 3.5 kilohypes."

ROFL!!!!

NWR_pap64 · « **Reply #2 on:** February 12, 2007, 12:04:08 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Smash_Brother
"Studies indicate that the Wiimote is the most ballyhooed video-game controller of all time by 3.5 kilohypes."

ROFL!!!!

...I don't get it. :\

As for the article, it was alright.

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #3 on:** February 12, 2007, 12:07:01 PM »

The word "kilohypes" because it places "hype" into a unit of measurement, much like Professor Farnsworth on Futurama once used the unit "MegaFonzie" to measure "coolness".

NWR_pap64 · « **Reply #4 on:** February 12, 2007, 12:09:31 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Smash_Brother
The word "kilohypes" because it places "hype" into a unit of measurement, much like Professor Farnsworth on Futurama once used the unit "MegaFonzie" to measure "coolness".

1. I edited the post just before you posted this.

2. I understood the point of the joke. He just replaced bytes with hype. Clever, yes, but not THAT funny. I simply didn't understand what's so funny about it. Maybe written humor doesn't work as well as visual humor, or it would've been funny had someone actually said it.

JonLeung · « **Reply #5 on:** February 12, 2007, 12:23:48 PM »

Yeah, I don't find "kilohypes" that funny either. It might work better as a subtle visual gag or spoken with the proper deliverance, but I don't think you'll get much more than a brief snicker out of me from that no matter how you present it.

I haven't had a good laugh in a while, the kind that leaves you in tears (or "in stitches", as they say, I think), or, you know, LITERALLY rolling on the floor. You won't see "kilohypes" doing that for me.

NWR_pap64 · « **Reply #6 on:** February 12, 2007, 12:28:29 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: JonLeung
Yeah, I don't find "kilohypes" that funny either. It might work better as a subtle visual gag or spoken with the proper deliverance, but I don't think you'll get much more than a brief snicker out of me from that no matter how you present it.

I haven't had a good laugh in a while, the kind that leaves you in tears (or "in stitches", as they say, I think), or, you know, LITERALLY rolling on the floor. You won't see "kilohypes" doing that for me.

Good to know that I am not the only one that feels this way...I was afraid that my sense of humor was broken or something.

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #7 on:** February 12, 2007, 12:30:32 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: pap64 2. I understood the point of the joke. He just replaced bytes with hype. Clever, yes, but not THAT funny. I simply didn't understand what's so funny about it. Maybe written humor doesn't work as well as visual humor, or it would've been funny had someone actually said it.

It's the fact that he's quantifying something which is non-measurable and he's doing so by inventing a silly-sounding unit of measure.

When the professor waved his coolness detector at his and Hermes' sons and said, "My god! They're reading in at over 500 Mega Fonzies!", it was funny because A) "coolness" is not a variable which can actually be measured: it's a subjective quantity, and yet here was the professor with an invention used to measure it and B) it used the character "Fonzie" from "Happy Days" as a unit of measurement due to his coolness factor.

The full quote from the article was actually:

Let's start with the much-ballyhooed controller. (Studies indicate that the Wiimote is the most ballyhooed video-game controller of all time by 3.5 kilohypes.)

First of all, "ballyhooed" is a silly word to start with, and I thought the comparison was amusing because he claimed to quantify a variable which cannot be quantified and did so with a silly unit of measure. Not only is the Wiimote "much-ballyhooed", but it's so ballyhooed that it's the most ballyhooed of all time, and by a measure of 3.5 kilohypes.

When I read "kilohypes", I immediately thought of the many cases of hype that I've seen in people and how it affects them: starry-eyed fanboys driven mad by the prospect of some pending game release or, in this case, a controller that promises to change the way we play games forever. If I had the professor's inventions at my disposal, I'm quite confident I could have waved a sensor past these individuals and said, "Whoa, careful there, buddy: your expectations are up to 2.7 kilohypes! You're gonna start hypegasming yourself into a hype-induced coma!"

I dunno. Maybe one needs to have a scientific mind that can appreciate subtle jokes in quantification humor, but I thought it was funny as hell.

NWR_pap64 · « **Reply #8 on:** February 12, 2007, 12:38:26 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Smash_Brother
Quote
Originally posted by: pap64 2. I understood the point of the joke. He just replaced bytes with hype. Clever, yes, but not THAT funny. I simply didn't understand what's so funny about it. Maybe written humor doesn't work as well as visual humor, or it would've been funny had someone actually said it.

It's the fact that he's quantifying something which is non-measurable and he's doing so by inventing a silly-sounding unit of measure.

When the professor waved his coolness detector at his and Hermes' sons and said, "My god! They're reading in at over 500 Mega Fonzies!", it was funny because A) "coolness" is not a variable which can actually be measured: it's a subjective quantity, and yet here was the professor with an invention used to measure it and B) it used the character "Fonzie" from "Happy Days" as a unit of measurement due to his coolness factor.

The full quote from the article was actually:

Let's start with the much-ballyhooed controller. (Studies indicate that the Wiimote is the most ballyhooed video-game controller of all time by 3.5 kilohypes.)

First of all, "ballyhooed" is a silly word to start with, and I thought the comparison was amusing because he claimed to quantify a variable which cannot be quantified and did so with a silly unit of measure. Not only is the Wiimote "much-ballyhooed", but it's so ballyhooed that it's the most ballyhooed of all time, and by a measure of 3.5 kilohypes.

I dunno. Maybe one needs to have a scientific mind that can appreciate subtle jokes in quantification humor, but I thought it was funny as hell.

...It's a PUN.

Again, I UNDERSTOOD what he is trying to say. He is saying that the controller is overhyped and he is doing so by changing the word "kylobytes" to "kylohypes".

I am simply saying that it isn't THAT funny, whether its clever or not. The joke was a pun, and puns are simply a cheap type of humor.

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #9 on:** February 12, 2007, 12:41:58 PM »

I didn't read it as a pun, though. I read it as an invented unit of measure, hence why I thought it was funny.

Look, I found it funny, others don't. There's a lot of sh*t I find hilarious which others don't (like Tom Cruise snapping the old lady's neck in "Interview with the Vampire") so this doesn't exactly come as a surprise.

NWR_pap64 · « **Reply #10 on:** February 12, 2007, 12:50:40 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Smash_Brother
I didn't read it as a pun, though. I read it as an invented unit of measure, hence why I thought it was funny.

Look, I found it funny, others don't. There's a lot of sh*t I find hilarious which others don't (like Tom Cruise snapping the old lady's neck in "Interview with the Vampire) so this doesn't exactly come as a surprise.

Heh, I'm sure you found it hilarious when Tom Hanks confessed that he had AIDS in Philadelphia...

(NOTE: This is a Family Guy reference, don't take it wrong or anything).

As long as you don't find anything completely repulsive or sick funny (like a girl being raped or something), I guess you're fine. :p

This pretty much confirms my theory that humor is subjective as what may seem funny to some is stupid to other (I particularly groan at Jackass, yet some people die of laughter). I found the scene in Final Destination where the girl gets killed by a bus funny, but I am sure someone jumped like crazy when it happened.

Just like how I found Sam Jackson's portrayal of a comic book geek funny simply because he was giving so much seriousness the role, while to other this is a fantastic portrayal of a comic book fan.

So in short humor is subjective and depends on the type of person that views it.

Smoke39 · « **Reply #11 on:** February 12, 2007, 01:00:58 PM »

"Ballyhooed" is a funny word.

Ceric · « **Reply #12 on:** February 12, 2007, 01:18:58 PM »

I didn't find Napoleon Dynamite funny so I can't say anything.

Hostile Creation · « **Reply #13 on:** February 12, 2007, 01:21:21 PM »

EXPLAINING HUMOR ALWAYS WORKS

Djunknown · « **Reply #14 on:** February 12, 2007, 01:28:08 PM »

Quote
People played nice games like "pass the parcel," "postman's knock" and "soggy biscuit."

How do you play soggy biscuit? What is a soggy biscuit?

wandering · « **Reply #15 on:** February 12, 2007, 01:35:03 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Hostile Creation
EXPLAINING HUMOR ALWAYS WORKS

...I don't get it. Could someone explain the humor of this sentence to me?

MaryJane · « **Reply #16 on:** February 12, 2007, 01:53:02 PM »

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I was going to change that line to fit humor, but I was afraid of having to explain it.

MorningStar · « **Reply #17 on:** February 12, 2007, 02:14:20 PM »

That whole article wasn't that good. That guy IS pretty sarcastic, though...

NWR_pap64 · « **Reply #18 on:** February 12, 2007, 02:21:53 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: MorningStar
That whole article wasn't that good. That guy IS pretty sarcastic, though...

Yeah, the whole thing was pretty sarcastic, which is why I thought it wasn't that funny or hilarious. It was clever and it did have some funny jabs at Nintendo, but overall I've seen this sort of thing done BETTER.

You know you are struggling to be funny when you have to combine words and make funny words in order to be funny.

But I wouldn't be surprised if the guy's excuse is that we are not smart enough to comprehend the depth of the joke.

NinGurl69 *huggles · « **Reply #19 on:** February 12, 2007, 06:11:06 PM »

Oh man this thread fails at comedy more than Nintendo fails online.

EVERYONE, STOP THINKING

Shecky · « **Reply #20 on:** February 13, 2007, 01:17:01 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Professional 666
Oh man this thread fails at comedy more than Nintendo fails online.

EVERYONE, STOP THINKING

Real humor for the save!

JonLeung · « **Reply #21 on:** February 13, 2007, 01:46:43 AM »

I just wanted to say that I thought saying that one needed a "scientific mind" to understand "kilohypes" as if the simple pun was sophisticated humour sounded rather elitist and snobby. Unless that is the joke. "Brilliant, I say. 'Tis a jolly good bit of humour. I do so love the subtle nuances of making hype into a metric unit of measure. I am certainly in stitches. I do wish to roll on the floor giggling like a giddy schoolgirl if only it were proper."

Then again, I could be jaded or something. I don't find much funny, and maybe that's my problem. Elitist humour (oooh, you can use big words, X-Play, aren't you smart?), dumb humour - ironically known as college humour (fart jokes, jokes about particular sexual preferences or gender/sex jokes in general), and political humour (I'm a Canadian, and I don't like Bush either but if he's the target of so many jokes then why the heck did you vote for him?) are examples of those that just don't hit the funny bone. I wish I could laugh at more, maybe it's not so bad if I did.

But no point explaining it, it just makes it even less funny.

Daisy and Samus are SO right.

I should get an Ada avatar, BTW.

ryancoke · « **Reply #22 on:** February 13, 2007, 02:51:42 AM »

I think it's funnier to watch you all argue about what's funny

Some people will find this article funny and some will not. There's nothing wrong with either opinion. It's all personal taste. It's like when you explain a joke to someone because they don't get it. It doesn't make it funny when you have to explain it.

NWR_pap64 · « **Reply #23 on:** February 13, 2007, 04:03:09 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: JonLeung
I just wanted to say that I thought saying that one needed a "scientific mind" to understand "kilohypes" as if the simple pun was sophisticated humour sounded rather elitist and snobby.

Yeah, S_B can be an elitist a--hole sometimes. You just have to ignore him, let him go on and about and humor him when the time comes. You'll be happy and he'll be happy

.

All kidding aside, I agree that you didn't need to have a scientific mind in order to get the joke. No matter how many times S_B explains why the joke is funny it won't change the fact that its a simple pun joke, or play on words joke, and those are known for not being particularly funny (unless they are told in such a way that it makes it extremely funny).

There's no denying that this thread has sparked a very interesting argument about how humor is developer in a person. Frankly, the reason I argued the joke with S_B is because I wanted to know WHY a simple joke like that made him laugh a lot. Like, what type of triggers does S_B's mind has that allow him to laugh at the simplest of jokes or the spontaneity of a moment. Exactly what type of S_B's personality play heavily on his sense of humor.

This is the reason why Cartoon Network was under a lot of fire for its Tickle U pre-school block since their intention was to develop humor in children. Just HOW exactly do you develop one's sense of humor. It takes more than just cute cartoons and random messages to truly change how a child's humor is affected.

Again, this is a fascinating subject that I would love to develop if I had the time and money to do so.

UltimatePartyBear · « **Reply #24 on:** February 13, 2007, 05:18:59 AM »

Dissecting a joke is a lot like dissecting a frog. You may learn something, but the frog has to die. Stop killing frogs.

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Author Topic: Wii: The Plastic Box of Death! (Read 8033 times)