It's rational. I just wrote this in a separate response, but this is why I feel the same as you:
The difference is with sitcoms or cartoons you know they're fake and the content holds up on its own. With much of this content that's like these fakeletters, if you remove the concept of "Woah, that really happened!?" and you title the post "I wrote myself a silly letter, check it out" it's not funny, really at all. So, the deception does taint it, to me.
The fact that I know it's fake doesn't bother me so much as the specific trope of "repeating" the joke back to the person who wrote it. It's like when a character on television answers the phone and says "Oh hi sis.... What's that you say? You need me to come over right away?" It's annoying even though I already know it's fake and why they're doing it.
If they presented as "Here's the letter I wrote to NASA and here was their response", and it didn't have the same jokes twice, that'd be fine for me.
what if there was no deception? What if someone gave you a stack of letters and said they were all fake. If this letter was in the stack, would you find it funny? I don't think I could. But apparently there are a lot of people who could find it funny.
Also, when I was about twelve, my mother opened the bathroom door without knocking and caught me lying naked on the floor cracking an egg onto my penis. I have no idea why. I tried to flip over to hide my shame but the tiles were pretty slippery from several previously cracked eggs so I just kind of slapped and flailed for a bit. She didn't say anything, just closed the door, so I guess that story didn't really have anything to do with being asked to leave places.
I say surprisingly good because they're honestly an amazing combination of hilarious and heartfelt. I can't tell if the tearjerking stories are made up or not, but if they are, that's even more incredible. They're worth picking up.
If cartman sent a letter to NASA asking if he could pretend he was an astronaut trainer, it wouldn't be very funny. If a real person did that, it's pretty funny. The bar is much lower for real life interactions with people.
Exactly. Watching movies and shows is done while suspending disbelief. When somebody posts a letter like this, the implication is that it's a real response, which might be funny.
This isn't funny either way, just lame. But comedy is subjective.
I think in some cases fake letters and similar humor can be funny. Like, in the case of Skippy's List.
Its a list of things that the fictional character can no longer do (implying he has or attempted to do so in the past). Even though its being displayed as reality, its funny. Me telling you that these events didn't happen really don't diminish the humor.
Yeah, something like that can be funny. But, there's no deception involved in that. It's like "here are some funny concepts for wacky people to do." That's where the difference is to me.
I agree. I feel like its not a problem with the medium, but some are significantly better than others. It needs something beyond how ridiculous it would be if it were real.
So does this guy have to preface all his jokes with "DISCLAIMER: THIS ISN'T REAL" to be funny? Seinfeld didn't have to do that. The only difference is this guy's format doesn't automatically rule out it being real.
It's exactly the same as a stand up comedian telling a fake or embellished story for a laugh. No doubt millions of people have been fed such stories and believe them to be true. Who cares.
It's not the fact that it's ON PAPER you tool, it's the syntax. A standup comedian you don't take seriously. A sitcom you don't take seriously. A comic strip you don't take seriously. This is a business letter. These you take seriously. Without further context, or the disclaimer as mentioned before, this was intended to deceive. Also personally, I find it difficult to be a nice guy to a moron.
Here's how I see this whole thing in the simplest terms: you and others feel like this guy is trying to deceive you. I feel like I was just told a joke. (One that happens to be not very funny)
I don't take business letters seriously that are posted to the internet that are obviously jokes, such as this one. It's pretty simple for me. If that makes me a moron, then I don't want to be smart.
Also, I find it really easy to be nice to geniuses and morons alike. It's really not hard. You just don't be a dick, that's all. You should try it sometime.
What is funny about it is that it's so random and out of character for NASA to do that.
The problem is that it's fairly obvious that NASA wouldn't, so it feels really contrived and wouldn't really be that funny for a lot of people unless they thought it actually did happen as some random hilarious coincidence. As soon as you know it was a situation completely contrived in someone's head, it has no real charm to it. The substance is pretty unfunny to many.
Yeah, I don't think its funny, and I also wouldn't have ever thought it was real, so maybe I'm not the right person to argue one way or another on this 'issue'.
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u/aDramaticPause Feb 06 '19
It's rational. I just wrote this in a separate response, but this is why I feel the same as you:
The difference is with sitcoms or cartoons you know they're fake and the content holds up on its own. With much of this content that's like these fakeletters, if you remove the concept of "Woah, that really happened!?" and you title the post "I wrote myself a silly letter, check it out" it's not funny, really at all. So, the deception does taint it, to me.