 ou will not laugh
at what you do not understand. You will not laugh at
what you do not agree with either -- or if you find the
material to be offensive. Finally, the stuff has to be
funny.
In Cultural Literacy, Random House, 1988, E. D. Hirsch frames a compelling picture of the knowledge-bound character of all cognitive activities. The book is dominated by an inventory of topics that every literate American should know something about.
The list set forth below is not prescriptive. These subjects were not judged for taste or comedic quality. {HyperNote 1} Here is merely a collection of topical elements observed to be immediately accessible by individuals in TV audiences, as evidenced by their laughter.
accent, Brooklyn |
accents, foreign | advertising, billboard | airline
public address | America's Most Wanted |
Attila the Hun | auto mechanic | automobile features
(commercials) | baby behavior | Barnie (cartoon
character) | baseball mit (sight gag) | Batman |
birth control (various) | birthday | black (dialect)
| blacks (stereotypes) | blowtorch | blue collar |
bashing, gay | Bobbitt, Lorena | Bolton, Mike |
bondage | born-again Christians (anti-abortion) |
boxing | Boy George | Brady Bunch | Brando, Marlon
(impression) | Bryant, Anita | bridal shower |
British courtroom | Bundy, Ted | Burger King |
Buttafuoco, Joey | Carter, Billy | cash register
(buttons) | Catholic (birth control) | channel
selector (old type) | cheating in sex | child
molester | child support | Christen, Carol |
circumcision | climate, California | climate, Canada
| clothes iron | commitment (relationship) | condoms
| contact lenses (cosmetic) | cops | creamed corn |
crime, urban | Cro Magnon Man | crystal ball |
Dahmer, Jeoffrey | Dallas (city) | Dallas
(TV series) | Davis, Ben | deafness | defecate |
Denney, Reginald | department stores | derangement
(clock tower with rifle) | Disneyland | dog poop |
drooling, children | drooling, old people |
earthquake | Einstein, Albert | emergency room |
Energizer Bunny | engagement rings | eye crust |
Fabio | facial analysis | fast food | fat people |
FBI | female condom | football fans | foreigners
(behavior) | full-length mirror (cheap) | gay bar |
gays in the military | girl friends | GMC truck |
golf clubs | grandmother behavior | green card |
Grim Reaper | gun bill | gym shoes | hair styling |
hand-me-down clothes | Harding, Tonya | Hashly, Rick
| Hathaway, Jane | Hepburn, Katherine (impression) |
Hitchcock (Birds, Psycho) | Hitler (Adolph) |
homeless woman | homophobic | hooters | Hubble
telescope | infommercial (impression) | invisible
airplane (comic books) | Jackson, Latoya | Jackson,
Michael | Jehovah's Witnesses | Jordan, Michael |
K-mart | King, Rodney | KKK | Kwasimoto | lesbian |
Limbaugh, Rush (obesity) | low self-esteem | macho
(impression) | magnum pistol | make-up | mammogram |
marriage | marriage problems | marshmallow |
masturbation | Mafia | McDonalds | medical textbooks
| Menendez brothers | menstruation | Mexican (macho)
| Mineo, Sal (impression) | Montezuma's Revenge |
moon-walk | mother | Mr. Potato Head | mugging |
multiple orgasms | murder | NAACP | New York | news
programs | obesity | old age forgetfulness | Oliver
North | orgasm | Packwood, (Robert) Senator |
paper-or-plastic (at grocery) | paranormal | Payless
Drugs | peaking of sex drive (tumescence in men) |
penis size | perfume | Perot, Ross | personal ad |
Pinto automobile | pirate eye patch | police cars |
Police Academy (movie) | potato
(pronunciation) | Presley, Elvis (ignorance,
obesity) | psychic counselling (late night TV) |
rats (in NYC) | referee's wireless microphone |
Reilly, Charles Nelson | rejection (coping) |
relationships | Retin, Mary Lou | Roadrunner
(cartoon character) | Schwinn (old fashioned
bicycle) | screen door | Sears | secretaries (phone
manners) | segue (on TV talk shows) | senility
(behavior) | Seven-Eleven (foreign clerks) | sex |
shoulder pads | shower rod | Silverheel, Jay (trivia
question) | sick leave | Siskell & Ebert | skeet
range | smoke alarm | smoking pot | snoring | spit |
sports on TV | Sports Illustrated (swimsuit
edition) | Stewart, Rod | stress | stucco ceiling
(texture) | T-shirt (slogans) | tank-top | taxes |
teddy (garment) | terrorists | Thanksgiv- ing |
theft | therapy | Three Little Pigs | tin-can phone
| Tourette's syndrome | tour guide | transexuality |
truth serum (at dentist) | turbo option (in cars) |
Turner, Tina | Tyson, Mike | Underdog (cartoon) |
underwear, men's | underwear, women's | vacuum
cleaner | vagina | vampire | vulnerability (male) |
weathermen | weight gain | welcome mat | Western
Union | Westside Story | Whopper with Cheese
| wife swapping | Wimbeldon | Wonder Woman | World
Trade Center (bombing) | yuppie.
HyperNotes {HyperNote 1} When this article was first published (in a local Mensa newsletter under the title "Laughter as a Gauge of Cultural Literacy"), readers eagerly nominated the most egregious entries they have found for inclusion in my list -- appointing me, as it were, to complete some grand and comprehensive research project. Others expressed revulsion for the listed topics, decrying them as vulgar or banal -- a stark revelation of the ignorance and tastelessness of American society in the final decade of the 20th Century.
{HyperNote 2}Topics scientifically collected from VH1's Sunday Comics, against the null hypothesis -- an objective experiment, characterized by lengthy observations at non-random intervals (bounded by bladder breaks) in 1994 by Paul Niquette. There were a total of 22 comics: 16 male, 6 female.
|
aughter is being used here as a gauge of
cultural literacy. Not funny, I know. 