...is the soul of wit.
You may not find this amusing in the slightest. I found it blowing-milk-out-my-nose-even-though-I-wasn't-drinking-milk funny.
So those who know me (or read the post I did in January) know I read Metafilter on a way-too-regular basis, it's like crack for office workers. A few months ago at this point, someone posted a front page post that said just:
FREE BOXES!
Apparently there are people in the US who didn't know that the postal service gives away priority mail shipping boxes -- It's part of why they charge so frigging much for the service. Anyway, what followed was a rather silly thread about boxes, foxes, I wonder if they ship those boxes in another box, etc. Now, Metafilter is known for being somewhat liberal... I mean, not Daily KOS liberal, or Talking Points Memo liberal, but liberal enough for my tastes. A few posts in, a gentleman by the name of "horsewithnoname" wrote:
Two posts down, Pretty_Generic wrote (and this is the punch line so pay attention):
Apparently no one told long-face that this isn't actually taking advantage of the USPS, they're offering them right there on the site or the post office for god's sake, and besides the boxes aren't exactly useful for much besides shipping things via USPS priority mail. But that's not really the point. The point is that, in three words that involve no double-entendres, puns, or twists of a phrase, Mr./Ms. Generic managed to make a joke that's side-splittingly funny.
That, right there, is gold. It's comedy at it's most pure, and I love it. I savor it. I still run this joke over through my head and it makes me grin. It's become a meme on Metafilter that will likely last for months to come. All because of timing, placement, and yes, brevity. How cool is that.
So those who know me (or read the post I did in January) know I read Metafilter on a way-too-regular basis, it's like crack for office workers. A few months ago at this point, someone posted a front page post that said just:
FREE BOXES!
Apparently there are people in the US who didn't know that the postal service gives away priority mail shipping boxes -- It's part of why they charge so frigging much for the service. Anyway, what followed was a rather silly thread about boxes, foxes, I wonder if they ship those boxes in another box, etc. Now, Metafilter is known for being somewhat liberal... I mean, not Daily KOS liberal, or Talking Points Memo liberal, but liberal enough for my tastes. A few posts in, a gentleman by the name of "horsewithnoname" wrote:
"Astounding. I can't take a moral argument seriously from any of you who jumped at the opportunity to take advantage of an honest mistake. I don't want to hear ever again about greedy corporations or crooked politicians. You people just showed that you're willing to turn a blind eye when it is to your benefit. How does that make you any different from those you rail against?"
Two posts down, Pretty_Generic wrote (and this is the punch line so pay attention):
How does that make you any different from those you rail against?
We have boxes.
Apparently no one told long-face that this isn't actually taking advantage of the USPS, they're offering them right there on the site or the post office for god's sake, and besides the boxes aren't exactly useful for much besides shipping things via USPS priority mail. But that's not really the point. The point is that, in three words that involve no double-entendres, puns, or twists of a phrase, Mr./Ms. Generic managed to make a joke that's side-splittingly funny.
That, right there, is gold. It's comedy at it's most pure, and I love it. I savor it. I still run this joke over through my head and it makes me grin. It's become a meme on Metafilter that will likely last for months to come. All because of timing, placement, and yes, brevity. How cool is that.
posted by Wolftrouble at 7:31 PM
3 Comments:
I, for one, welcome our new postal overlords.
Man, I had to go through like a 10 minute signup just to post comments here. Eesh. :)
Read further down in that post. You'll see that horsewithnoname and pretty_generic were riffing off an earlier mefi moment.
Hey, so they were! I never even knew that. Thanks!
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