1. Chapter 5: Digital Humor
by Don and Alleen Nilsen

2. This is our grandson Erich surrounded by his Dad’s electronic equipment. This picture shows how fun and interactive computers can be even for five-year-olds. Kelvin, Erich’s dad, has taught Computer Science at Iowa State University, and also founded an IT company. Kelvin, Kristine, and Erich had to move from American Fork, Utah to Rochester, Minnesota to be closer to the IBM headquarters. Their Minnesota Christmas picture showed them wrapped up in warm clothing trying to escape a -66 degree wind chill. The snow was coming down sideways. Even their dog looked miserably cold.

3. Fall 2012 Symposium on Artificial Intelligence of Humor: http://web
Christian Hempelmann Anton Nijholt Dallin Oaks Leo Obrst Maxim Petrenko Victor Raskin Graeme Ritchie
Julia Taylor Willibald Ruch Oliviero Stock Carlo Strapparava Igor Suslov Tony Veale

4. Computer-Assisted Translation of Humorous Wordplay (Tristan Miller): https://punderstanding.ofai.at/

5. Important Books on Computer Humor

10. And look how far we have moved away from books,

11. MY BLACKBERRY’S NOT WORKING:

12. The First Digital Communication— With Real Digits

13. The QWERTYUIOP Principle
It is commonly believed that the QWERTYUIOP keyboard was invented in order to slow down the typist and keep the keys from jamming. Actually, only the first part of this belief is true. QWERTYUIOP was invented not to slow down the typist but rather to speed up the keyboard by keeping the keys from jamming. When typewriters were first invented, the letters that were used most often frequently jammed together, so the QWERTYUIOP keyboard was designed to separate these letters from each other. Nevertheless, today, whenever something is designed to slow us down rather than speed it up, this design is said to be following the QWERTYUIOP principle.

14. Millenials and Beyond

15. Everybody is now a news photographer for Hurricanes, Meteors, Floods, Police Actions…

16. and how far we’ve come with photos.

17. Texting
With a cell phone, we are able to escape the moment. This increases our social audience, and allows us to transcend. But is it always a good thing?

18. We’ve gone from talking to texting --at the game --and at dinner

19. --at the Art Museum --and in the car.

20. BRB: Be Right Back!

21. Memes
Memes allow us to combine pictures with text. The text in the top part of the meme gives us the historical context. The text in the lower part of the meme gives us the ironic spin.

22. “Lazy College Student” meme

23. Philosoraptor Memes are named after Velociraptor dinosaurs.

24. Photo Bombing

25. A New York Times photo of students in BYU’s computer animation program Can you spot the photo-bomber?

26. Is this a photo-bomber?

27. Changes in society, religion, and technology cause anxieties that inspire new movements.
FRANKENSTEIN became popular when scientists began experimenting with real bodies.
In the 1800s American “Tall Tales” were humorous extensions of the strange things people found as they moved west.
And in the 1970s, urban legends made fun of people facing new and scary technologies, including microwave ovens, organ transplants, and a lack of privacy.
Zombies are now popular because of medical advances, aging populations and fears of biological warfare and pandemics.

28. The Vine Application
Vine is an application that allows users to take and post short video clips.
The teller of verbal jokes has the luxury of taking their time in order to provide the information needed to understand the joke. This is especially true in a shaggy dog story.
But Vines are 7 seconds long, so they require careful cutting and editing.
They also require the use of stereotypes, so that the information can be presented quickly.
Editorial cartoons also follow the 7-second rule for the same reasons.

30. Selfie!

31. Selfies at Oscars and Tour de France

32. Selma, Alabama, 2015 Selfies on the Edmund Pettus Bridge

33. As new concepts emerge, we recycle old words and phrases from fantasy and science fiction.
Godzillagram = a huge packet Munchkins = teenage techies Wabbit = a mischievous program Sorcerer’s Apprentice Mode = an indefinitely repeating program 42 = the meaning of life, truth, and everything A Trojan Horse = a program infiltrating a computer
UTSL = Use The Source Luke (from Star Wars) Obi-Wan-Code = Off by One code from HAL (IBM) in 2001, A Space Odyssey Tree Killers = paper wasters from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Code Police or Net Police = thought police from Orwell’s 1984

34. Millennials and Their Careers:

35. People can be addicted to Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Tumblr and especially Video Games.

36. Call and Response on Facebook

37. More Call and Response on Facebook
ELLEN DEGENERES: “In Your Facebook”:

38. Texting

39. Peter Steiner’s 1993 cartoon in the New Yorker showed two dogs in front of a computer. One is remarking “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”
Even Steiner was amazed at how popular it became.
It not only reflected, but helped shape world-wide attitudes.

40. We like making fun of computers.
I have a spelling checker.
It came with my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.
Common spell-check mistakes include:
Untied States, Worth nothing that, and Fraud for Freud.

41. THE THE IMPOTENCE OF PROOFREADING (TAYLOR MALI):

42. Because headlines are so short, they often contain ambiguities

43. These sentences are ambiguous; computers don’t provide “real world knowledge”
A cheesecake was on the table. It was delicious and was soon eaten.
SIGN IN A CHURCH: For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
NEWSPAPER AD: Our bikinis are exciting; they are simply the tops.
It’s time to make smoking history!

44. The Nilsen family enjoying a PowerPoint or a Video Clip

45. Challenges in the Digital World
People want to create and post their own material.
What goes out on the Internet has probably not had an editor, a director, or a producer.
This results in originality and spontaneity, and also in questionable materials.

46. Internet Shows INTERNET SHOWS: “EQUALS THREE”:
INTERNET SHOWS: “JAKE AND AMIR”:

47. Recent firings because of the digital broadcasting of inappropriate humor…
In October 2013, White House staffer Jofi Joseph was fired for posting “snarky” and mean-spirited tweets under the handle
These tweets were a mix of leaking sensitive national security information, criticizing the White House policies, and insulting the personalities and appearances of national security officials.
In his own “apology” or maybe “defense,” Joseph called it a “parody account,” and said he was only “saying what everyone else…thought.”

49. Tumblr
Tumblr is a website that is part social network and part microblogging.
On Tumblr can be found list jokes, puns, parody, sarcasm and call and response.
Tumblr’s Mighty Pixie
(Teh Mighteh Pixeh)

50. Tumblr Humor

51. Pinterest Snow Humor

53. Pinterest Haiku

54. Video Game Inconsistency

55. Video Game Irony: Smiling Children as Villains

56. Compare Cartman on Southpark

57. Video Game Glitches: Photoshop & Sorcerer’s Apprentice Mode

58. A Vine for Old People:

60. Marilyn Martin and Jack Dunning

61. MOOCS & Viral Videos “Gangnam Style” has been viewed by over 2 billion viewers on Youtube

62. Digital Humor Websites
ANIMATOR VS. ANIMATION II:
BYU Computer Animation Team:
CLEVERBOT:
THE MATHEMATICS OF HUMOR:
MONTY PYTHON “SPAM”:
TOP 50 POPULAR TEXT & CHAT ACRONYMS (NETLINGO):

63. Geeks, Nerds, and Dorks
Geeks, Nerds, and Dorks:

64. Nilsen, Alleen and Don. The Language of Humor: An Introduction
Nilsen, Alleen and Don. The Language of Humor: An Introduction. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2019.