Stop Rationalizing... It Sucked

I have noticed people on this NG reading all sorts of things into the finale - e.g., it was satirizing the entirety of the show, the "irony" (sic) of them going to jail for doing nothing, etc. On Dateline this past Tuesday, Jerry said that the show serves only comedy - nothing else. In this case, it failed miserably.

On Fri, 15 May 1998, Susan Hochtman wrote:

What you describe IS comedy, nothing else.

Joel Madden wrote:

Gee, I thought comedy is something that makes you laugh.

Susan Hochtman wrote:

not necessarily. that's a watered-down notion of a complex concept. did you ever hear of highbrow humor? if you can acknowledge that something is cleverly conceived and executed, and can understand the irony of a situation, that's comedy, too. an argument could be made, though, that the final episode was a *tragedy* -- the characters all had their tragic flaws which led to their respective downfalls in the end. i'm not claiming that you can't appreciate the final episode, but i think that the whole concept was purposely chock-full of clever, underlying themes (most of which have been laid out here already). just because you weren't rolling around on your living room floor doesn't make it bad comedy.

kevin

On Fri, 15 May 1998 23:58:41 -0400, "Kevin M. Polke" wrote:

No, no, no. I've been to Oscar Wilde plays, which qualify as high-brow humor. If they didnt make me laugh, I'd consider them lame, too.

Which reminds me of one of my favorite "high brow" humor stories:

G.B.Shaw: Please come to my new play. Here's a ticket for you to the first night. And one for a friend. If you have one.

Winston Churchill: I'd rather have tickets to the second night. If there is one.

Humor has many faces. It was a satirical that it poked fun at itself. It's hard to believe that anyone could not find the final episode humourous.