Excerpt from interview:
| It is rare to find the combination of laugh-out-loud funny and mind-blowing smart in any comic series. Some would say it is because most smart people are not funny and vice versa, however, I suspect it is because thought provoking concepts tend to kill humor for most people. Yet, you easily switch between these modes, often times mixing them together. Do not humbly deny that you have achieved this, but instead, please explain to the rest of us exactly how this is done. In 140 characters or less. While doing a handstand! | |
SHORT ANSWER:Steve (IF... that is indeed your real name), I've always said that you are my biggest fan. You are too generous with your words. I must humbly deny that I have achieved what you claimed I have.LESS SHORT ANSWER (in which I talk outta my ass):However, I do have a thought on the subject. In a sense, "thought provoking concepts" have a lot in common with humor. Both have the effect of tickling our sensibilities in a very specific way. Consider, for example, the ideas in quantum physics. Quantum physics is thought provoking, to be sure, but it is also (seemingly) utterly bizarre. It makes our brains go, "WTF, man?!!" But that is also (sort of) how our brains react when we hear a joke - our brains make unexpected connections between two ideas that have no business cavorting with each other - and that is why we laugh. Quantum physics is like one big joke that is being told to us by the universe. The difference is that we don't know that it is a joke so we never think to laugh at it, but it doesn't take much effort to warp some of the ideas in quantum physics and turn it into a ha-ha joke. In fact, one may make the argument that the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment was actually a joke put forth by Schrödinger in order to illustrate the absurdity of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics when looked at from a certain point of view. I keep a picture of Erwin Schrödinger hanging on my wall and, I swear, he's always looking at me with a grin on his face as if he's about to burst out laughing after having told the grandest joke of them all.(end talking outta my ass)SHORTEST ANSWER: |
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| Okay, Goose (if that is indeed your real name!), I will attempt to control my unbridled flattery. | |
