Bad Jokes

There's a line in the ABBA song "Thank You For The Music" that goes, "When I tell a joke, you've probably heard it before." They actually wrote that song from my perspective because, even though I love jokes a lot, I'm not very funny. One time, I told a friend ten jokes to make her feel better. And no pun in ten did.

However, wit and humor are really important in France. Assuming, of course, that French culture hasn't changed since the eighteenth century, having l'esprit (wit; also means "spirit" and a shoe brand) is an important marker of intelligence. For example, once Louis XVI asked a courtier to make a joke using the king as a subject--to which the man replied, "Le roi n'est pas un sujet." Oh how punny! (This was used in the movie Ridicule.) A pun, in French, is un calembour, and French literature is full of them. That's why translations always have so many footnootes: to explain the puns.

My favorite novel, Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo (not to be confused with this monstrosity, which I refuse to acknowledge), opens on the fête des rois, or Epiphany, which is the day before my birthday. In medieval Paris it was a carnival day much like Mardi Gras still is, and they would crown the Pope of Fools. Part of the sparring takes place with jeux de mots which are punny but also a little harsh. Victor Hugo comments: "A pun is immediately understood at Paris, and consequently is always applauded." So there you go.

What is the point of all of this? Some people mistakenly believe that puns are a form of cheap humor, like it's not hilarious that the Romans in Asterix are named things like Armisurplus and Crismus Bonus. (So good.) So it's totally intellectual that I am Aix-cited to go to France tomorrow.

Get it?

Also. Why do cows wear bells? Because their horns don't work.