The Agony Booth's take on this: If only poor Data was more confident about his finding the joke stupifyingly unfunny we may have been spared so much more equally "funny" komedy.
Yeah, I didn't thik the joke was funnt either, Data. Mostly becauase I've never heard of humanoisa refered to as "noids."
I've always wondered why Whoopi agreed to do that line. It is so unfunny that surely a great comedienne like her would have made up her own joke rather than deliver such a bad joke.
^Indeed. It would have been interesting if there'd been a human crewmember present to serve as somebody who was supposed to get Guinan's humor. Can you imagine Riker laughing at that joke? I could see Geordi pulling it off and actually making it seem like the joke was supposed to be funny. Maybe in the 24th Century that joke will be funny. EDIT: Also, it might have been helpful to Data if they'd actually made the point that humor is subjective. What's unamusing to one might be knee-slappingly hilarious to another.
Anyway, there's supposed to be an apostrophe in there. Tt's 'noid, not noid. And Data always had trouble with contractions, and therefore probably words like 'cause to mean because, not to mention a coinage like 'noid. The point is that she chose a pun that targeted a specific weakness of Data's, to make sure he wouldn't get the joke and spoil what she was trying to do.
Joe Piscapo was subjective. If only Bill Hicks had answered his telephone... Of George Carlin? Mmmmmmmmmmm Geooorge Carlin.
I read that they wrote the part for Jerry Lewis, which would explain Piscapo doing his schtick, FWIW.
Possibly, although I doubt it. Of course, I'm reminded of one of Abraham Lincoln's witticisms. Someone pointed out to him the New York City audience contained a number of millionaires, showing off the city's financial muscle. ``Oh, indeed, is that so? Well, that's quite right. I'm a millionaire myself. I got a minority of a million in the votes last November.'' It's the sort of line that makes you think he was mis-quoted. Humor evolves in weird ways. Would have helped, yes. Also it would have helped to have a humorist who, well, wrote things that had more obvious streams of logic. My poster boy for this would be Robert Benchley, but there are quite a few people whose sense of humor Data could probably understand or even usefully imitate.
This is one of the worst jokes I've ever heard. It's something you'd expect to read on the 24th Century equivalent of the Mini-Page.
It just goes to show, how much a writers' strike can hurt, and have a lasting effect. Good luck to us now!
What gets me is that the comedian on the holodeck's jokes were so greatly out of time with the 24c and Data should've realized that jokes about 20th century politicians and social barriers as well as Jerry Lewis impersonations wouldn't work 400 years after they were concieved. He would've been better off with more contemporary, less esoteric, comedians. They've got to be around.
Data- This gentleman went to see his surgeon and was informed that he needed an operation. The man thought about that and then said, "I would like a second opinion." The doctor said, "Okay, you are ugly too." I'd say Data's joke was better than Guinan's