An Unintentional(?) Guide to Sophomoric Humor
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Author: David Bickel
Title: Creepiosity Genre: humor(?) T. S. Elliot said that "April is the cruellest month," but I wouldn’t be surprised if Tom also believed that adolescence is the cruelest age. “Cruelest” in the sense of mean and snarky, of course. Adolescent “humor” (for lack of a better word) is mainly based on put-downs, ridicule and all-around antagonism. Whatever’s different becomes a target. That’s adolescence: you know, junior high. I’d expect more of someone who's old enough to have been out in the work world for more than a decade, but sometimes expectations just aren’t met. A case in point is Creepiosity: A Hilarious Guide to the Unintentionally Creepy, by David Bickel. Bickel’s an unemployed television writer who maintains a website about “creepiosity.” If you haven’t figured it out, creepiosity is the measurement of creepiness. That is, of course, as defined by Bickel. I must admit that I learned something from this guide, but that lesson is “Never to trust a writer who calls his own work ‘hilarious.’” In this case, he’s wrong. Dead wrong. Bickel’s little exercise in adolescent humor comprises between fifty and 100 topics in a 194-page volume. Each entry has a brief rationalization for its presence in his list, a rating on a clearly arbitrary creepiosity index (1 to 10) and a photograph of an example. Some entries include: Lucy in Color – “Hilarious in black and white, creepy in color.” - 8.86 Styrofoam Wig Holders – 9.03 (“…with toupee: 9.31”) Any School Bus not Being Used as a School Bus – “Whether it’s now a bookmobile, a camper, or a pedophile’s hangout, all are equally creepy.” – 9.19 Canadian Coins – “…they’re strange and different…” – 5.94 Renaissance Fairs – “Creepy people in creepy costumes recreating a creepy period in history” – 7.62 Popeye – “…three identical ‘nephews’ and yet no discernable sibling…” – 7.97 Your Friend’s Grandma – “…wasn’t called ‘Grandma’ but instead something off like ‘Minky’ or ‘Ya Ya…” – 9.40 Your Grandma – 8.51 Guys Without Sideburns – “without any burnage at all, you look a little creepy.” – 7.72 “Burnage”? Burnage”?! The humor’s sophomoric at its best. At its worst, it’s ageist and xenophobic. Old people (like your grandma) are to be ridiculed, and anything that’s different is apparently at least a little “creepy”: Canadian coins are creepy? Give me a break. Mom and Pop grocery stores? Try “Walmartians” on for size, Bick! Of course I do have to agree with a few of his choices – Necco Wafers, RenFairs and Anime are creepy to this reader, too.
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