Humor Articles

Humor | By Knight Pierce Hirst @ Monday, 7th July 2008 @ 11:39 PM

In 1955 when researchers counted the punctuation in period texts they found a change in our way of communicating. They discovered there had been a surprising drop in semicolon usage between the 18th and 19th centuries. The drop from 68.1 semicolons per one thousand words to 17.7 was attributed to technology. What was the new technology in the 1850's? It was the telegraph - or what science writer Tom Standage called the "Victorian internet". The first telegraph that could successfull... more...

Humor | By Sebastian Marders @ Friday, 4th July 2008 @ 9:14 AM

It's been said that a person has a better chance of getting into Harvard than the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College. This fact highlights the extensive admission process and the seriousness of learning to be a clown. The clown college only accepts about 50 applicants per year from a field of thousands of would-be students. Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College was opened in 1968. It was originally located in Venice, Florida and later moved to Sarasota... more...

Humor | By Knight Pierce Hirst @ Friday, 4th July 2008 @ 6:39 AM

I admit it. I've taken my feet for granted. I've forced them into shoes because the shoes looked good - not because they felt good. After years of this abuse I'm feeling "defeeted". After a bit of sole searching - of my shoes - I discovered that the majority of shoe designers are men. I wonder if women's shoes would fit better if those men tried to put the shoe on the other foot. Kenny George, a 7'7", 360 lb basketball player for the Universit... more...

Humor | By Knight Pierce Hirst @ Wednesday, 2nd July 2008 @ 1:06 PM

Until a recent trip to Vermont I thought Vermont was one of the original thirteen states. Wrong. Vermont had wanted to be its own country. It changed its mind in time to become the fourteenth state in the union. I also learned that Vermont is the most rural of the fifty states. One-third of its roads are unpaved and one hundred twenty covered bridges dot its countryside. In Vermont roofs are covered with tin so the winter sun will warm them and cause accumulated snow to slide off. If I didn'... more...

Humor | By Knight Pierce Hirst @ Tuesday, 1st July 2008 @ 4:37 AM

Everyday mysteries are things that you unsuccessfully try to understand. Somnambulism is as mysterious to me as the condition it describes - sleepwalking. Only 1.2% of the population sleepwalks, which explains why I've never known anyone with the condition. Sleepwalkers are supposedly in a non-dream state of sleep, which allows the process going on in the brain to manifest in actions. Although some drugs have been thought to cause sleepwalking, somnambulism experts say drugs only exacerbate... more...

Humor | By Knight Pierce Hirst @ Saturday, 28th June 2008 @ 6:04 AM

By 2030 the number of older Americans will have doubled to 70 million. That's 1 in every 5 Americans. That's why anti-aging information is often on the evening news. What isn't there are aging women. There are no female counterparts for Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather or Charles Gibson. Is it just me or is this sexist ageism? Is it just me or is there a one-word explanation - man-age-ment? Yes, we're flattered when people tell us we don't look our age; but what does ... more...

Humor | By Sebastian Marders @ Friday, 27th June 2008 @ 12:44 AM

Send in the clowns! Perhaps the first time that command was voiced was in China in 1818 B.C. Or maybe it was said during Egypt's Fifth Dynasty around 2500 B.C. Although the history of clowns may not have an exact date, their influence and joy have been felt for thousands of years. Clowns were originally court jesters and served an important function in society. Besides providing comic relief, clown jesters were allowed great freedom of speech. This translated into them having a real... more...

Humor | By Knight Pierce Hirst @ Wednesday, 25th June 2008 @ 11:45 AM

Who knew there was a statue of John Lennon in Havana, Cuba? Although he never visited Cuba or sang about it, the government unveiled his statue on Dec 8, 2000 - the 20th anniversary of the singer's death. In fact, Fidel Castro, who had said that the Beatles were subversive and that they were a symbol of selfish consumerism, made a surprise appearance at the unveiling of Lennon's cross-legged, bespectacled likeness. Because the spectacles have been stolen twice, four retirees have been ... more...

Humor | By Knight Pierce Hirst @ Wednesday, 25th June 2008 @ 10:48 AM

There are times I've wanted to be a bartender. A people-person with good listening skills who can mix drinks - how hard could that be? Well ... it seems to have gotten harder. Recently there has been an influx of new drinks and flavored martinis. I have nothing against blue drinks topped with a parasol, but a martini should be vodka or gin with a touch of vermouth and an olive - no chocolate, no coffee, no banana liqueur. Okay, maybe I wouldn't measure up as a bartender because... more...

Humor | By Sal Farzin @ Wednesday, 25th June 2008 @ 3:43 AM

Texas is popular for a lot of things. But of the many things that are famous there, humor tops the pack. Texas is a very big state. And the people from there pride themselves with all things big. Big myths, tales, and natural phenomenon distinct to Texas are revered, including hails and armadillos. Texans are big in their pride too. They might seem a little different from the people hailing from other states. But they have the same American dream like the rest. Many say that visiting Texa... more...

Humor | By Sal Farzin @ Wednesday, 25th June 2008 @ 3:32 AM

Texas humor is something that can make you look at the brighter side, more than anything else. The sense of humor Texas have is entirely its own. While it amuses everybody, it is something that can be used to one's advantage rather than just laughing about it. American sarcasm is the other name of humor in Texas. It can be considered as sarcasm, but if people just try to see the things the way Texans see them, then coping with life's most difficult moments becomes a little easie... more...

Humor | By Konrad Braun @ Tuesday, 24th June 2008 @ 3:02 AM

Funny videos are abundant on the web. From amateur clips to professional skits, samples of cartoons to segments of live comedy acts, and anything else that can make you laugh the internet has it all. There are many sites featuring funny videos. Some are video sharing sites, where users can post videos they find funny, and rate videos posted by other sites. Other sites feature videos, so that people browsing can just graze and click; no effort required. Most video clips online ... more...

Humor | By Knight Pierce Hirst @ Saturday, 21st June 2008 @ 7:49 PM

When a Swarthmore College student turned a guided tour of the Web into a detailed journal of his life, blog communication was born. That was in 1994. By 2007 that one blog had grown into 106 million blogs. Seventy-six percent of them document personal experiences to share with others. The 15 most popular words used in communicating those experiences are blogger, blog, stupid, me, myself, my, oh, yeah, ok, post, stuff, lovely, update, nice and a four-letter word that begins with "s". Alt... more...

Humor | By Mitch Endick @ Saturday, 21st June 2008 @ 5:39 PM

While much of the written history of the recliner starts in the early Twentieth Century, the recliner chair dates back much further. The earliest recliner chairs actually appeared in the late Eighteenth Century, and were functionally similar to todays recliners. The goal was always to allow the user to sit upright or recline back with the legs and feet off the floor. What has been dubbed by many designers as motion furniture, the recliner has been with us in one form or another for over ... more...

Humor | By Sebastian Marders @ Friday, 20th June 2008 @ 12:26 PM

Robin Williams' manic style of comedy earns him the honor of being called a living legend. His wild improvisational skills bring both humor and excitement to his performances, and his impersonations are truly unique. Williams has the rare gift of taking on character traits with apparent abandon, moving in and out of personalities with ease and authenticity. To the audience, he is nothing short of a genius. As a child, he was very shy and quiet, until he became involved in his high sc... more...

Humor | By Sebastian Marders @ Thursday, 19th June 2008 @ 12:42 PM

The satirical and edgy comic strip "The Boondocks," created by Aaron McGruder, involves two young African American brothers from inner-city Chicago who explore life living with their grandfather in an unassuming suburb of the big city. The strip, which ran in syndicate from April 19, 1999 to March 26, 2007, was certainly no stranger to controversy as "The Boondocks" has regularly received criticism from both the white and black communities in regards to McGruder's strong lef... more...

Humor | By Sebastian Marders @ Thursday, 19th June 2008 @ 12:31 PM

June 19th, 1978 saw the birth of one of the most beloved and best known comic strips of all time, Garfield, a tale of an ornery but lovable orange tabby cat, his owner Jonathan Q. Arbuckle, better known simply as Jon, and the long-eared but equally adorable Odie the dog. Garfield was the brain child of cartoonist Jim Davis and over the past three decades, has evolved into a billion dollar empire as well as holding the record for being the most widely syndicated comic strip in the entire world, a... more...

Humor | By Knight Pierce Hirst @ Tuesday, 17th June 2008 @ 10:15 PM

Everyone has an opinion about cooking. Robert Frost said, "There is one thing more exasperating than a wife who can cook and won't and that's a wife who can't cook and will". Buddy Hackett said, "My mother's menu consisted of two things: take it or leave it" and Phyllis Diller said her meals were so bad her kids thought Thanksgiving was meant to commemorate Pearl Harbor Day. Then there's Thomas Wolfe. He said, "There is no spectacle on earth more appe... more...

Humor | By Knight Pierce Hirst @ Tuesday, 17th June 2008 @ 5:51 AM

Time flys - even when you're not having fun. Everyone talks about it, but talking is all we do. According to the Oxford Dictionary, talking about time has made it the most frequently used noun in the English language. Year is the third most frequently used noun, day is the fifth and week is the seventeenth. On the list of the one hundred most frequently used nouns, war is forty-ninth, but peace didn't make the list - which is something we could talk about. We could talk about t... more...

Humor | By Sebastian Marders @ Friday, 13th June 2008 @ 10:03 AM

Charlie Chaplin's comedy was rich in creativity and cleverness. His ability to make his audience laugh while touching universal chords of emotions was a rare gift. Perhaps his childhood made him sensitive to the thoughts of other people, or maybe his sad upbringing gave him the motivation to move beyond the limits of poverty. Whatever gave him the momentum to success in the entertainment industry was a blessing that caused millions to laugh with joyful abandon. Chaplin was best known... more...