FOR GROUP DISCUSSION: Moratorium on creationist jokes

[Emperor_Norton_II]

Maybe this is just me, but every time somebody posts a science article relating to geology, paleontology, or whatever, somebody else just has to post stuff like:

The Earth is about 6,000 years old, RIGHT?!?

And so on. Frankly guys, it's getting tiresome. I know you think you're being funny, but the joke's really old now. Furthermore, it's a bit of a threadcrap, assuming somebody wants to talk about this stuff in a serious fashion.

So I would like to suggest that we call a halt to all "but (creationist claim X)!" joke posts in non-creationist news articles. Anything directly involving ID or similar ilk is fare game, though; let it not be said your sovereign isn't generous. ;)

Okay, I've said my bit. I open the floor up to discussion.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. I agree, that joke's getting to be like 6000 yrs old, its so stale.

Now i COULD NOT resist that one.

By the way, it is now 6,011 yrs old.

[Emperor_Norton_II]

8. ...

:argh: :D

[ChairmanAgnostic]

18. As I apologized, I could not resist. The tragedy of being curmudgeonly.

Not a tragedy, but I always like looking for the warped side of life. Pretty easy in these dire dark days.

[Lerkfish]

2. buzzkill.

;)

[HereSince1628]

3. There are 81300-ish DU'ers all expecting a chance to be funny

Do you really think people aren't going to do this?

[Emperor_Norton_II]

10. Not really, no.

But an attempt should at least be made.

Hell, if I wanted to engage in totally pointless action, I coulda posted this in GD. ;)

[HereSince1628]

11. Well, as long as you have an emotional balance about this.

:)

[MercutioATC]

4. In the religion forum, I'd agree...in the science forum, no.

And then, really, only if people are willing to admit that athiesm/agnosticism is not a religion, but an absence of one.

[Emperor_Norton_II]

6. It's not a religion/science thing, though

It's a question of funny versus not-funny. Young Earth Creationist jokes are stale. It's like telling the same stupid knock-knock joke over and over again; it might've been worth a chuckle the first time, but by the 500th time you just wanna strangle the teller.

[MercutioATC]

13. I think it's less of a joke than a dig.

The fact that's it's freakin' spooky that a large number of people actually believe this is what makes it funny.

[Emperor_Norton_II]

14. The problem still remains, though

Joke or dig, you can only hear it so many times before it gets tiresome.

It's like the FSM. It's a neat meme, but the best way to beat a meme to death is to include it in every friggin' conversation. After that, it gets old and annoying instead of being funny or insightful or whatever.

[bananas]

21. Hey, my DU user name is a knock-knock joke.

Maybe I should put it in my sig just to piss people off.

[greyl]

24. bananas who? nt

[Psephos]

5. All Hail Emperor Norton!

Great suggestion.

I'd like to see it extended to other topics as well. Some threads are as much as half retreads.

Peace.

[NNadir]

22. How does this "joke" harm anyone?

Many people like to post sarcastic, but obvious, references to right wing dogma.

I don't see how doing so harms anyone. It is just a "me too," statement a shorthand for "I am with you."

I have no problem with it. In fact, repetition is an excellent way of driving home a point.

I really don't care if everyone is witty, funny and original. The requirement that everything and everyone be witty, funny and original would simply generate nearly total silence.

The last thing we need today is silence.

[Psephos]

23. There's room for many opinions

But please, spare me the same old tired jokes over and over. It's worse than listening to grandma tell the same story over and over.

To be more serious, I disagree with you that there is no harm to discourse when people parrot cliched statements. I actually DO care if someone is "witty, funny, and original." Those are the comments I want to read, along with serious, insightful comments, analytical posts, and anything that brings new understanding or at least a good belly laugh. But the same old tripe over and over is like getting those stupid forwarded emails that some people insist on sending.

I don't have time to waste on commentary that adds nothing but noise. Life is finite.

Peace.

[NNadir]

28. Well, from my perspective, cliches become cliches by being true.

In this sense, cliches provide a useful shorthand.

In any case, discourse is rather dry (and often boring) without cheering. I appereciate hearing from everyone. In any case, one always has the option of ignoring what one doesn't like. How much precious time does it really take to open and close a post, particularly a post that includes a cliche, cliches being brief. (Many of the cliches appear in the titles, so it is pretty easy to ignore them.)

You are also assuming that everyone knows what everyone else knows, or has heard, before. Personally, I am perfectly willing to put up with hearing somethings twice, or for that matter 50 times, to prevent the risk of not hearing something the first time because people already assume that I have "naturally" heard x or y or z before.

There are still some old jokes that are new to me, and I don't, by the way, consider myself to be wholly out of touch with the world or isolated.

DU has tens of thousands of posters, many of whom have written many thousands of posts. It is my opinion that there would be few such people if people spent too much time hesitating because they feel compelled to be "witty and original." If we banned posts that are not witty and original, I suspect the number of posts would fall by a factor of 100.

[megatherium]

7. Yes. Let's give the Flying Spaghetti Monster a rest. nt

[longship]

9. I recommend that you skip over those threads.

nt

[greyl]

26. Haha. What if it's his own thread? nt

[Psephos]

27. Very good point n/t

[benburch]

12. But creationists are FUNNY.

Ridiculous in fact.

Why not ridicule them?

They deserve it.

[Emperor_Norton_II]

15. Because the ridicule isn't - oh, irony - creative.

[benburch]

16. No... But satisfying in its minor way.

I see no harm in it.

[Emperor_Norton_II]

17. Call me a horrible humor elitist, then

I just can't handle seeing the exact same joke told the exact same way over & over. It's a character flaw. ;)

[mainegreen]

19. I agree.

If the article doesn't mention creationism/ID, why bring it up? It's not science, so unless the article is posted is about ID/science conflict, because clearly it probably would not be an actual ID article (lock bait), no ID jokes.

However jokes like this are ok, right?

Dating Dinosaur Bones
Some tourists in the Chicago Museum of Natural History are marveling at
the dinosaur bones. One of them asks the guard, "Can you tell me how old
the dinosaur bones are?"

The guard replies, "They are 73 million, four years, and six months old."

"That's an awfully exact number," says the tourist. "How do you know
their age so precisely?"

The guard answers, "Well, the dinosaur bones were seventy three million
years old when I started working here, and that was four and a half years
ago."

[The Revolution]

20. I agree

It does get a little old. After a few dozen times, it really becomes more annoying than funny. It would be nice if the same joke wasn't in nearly every thread. :)

It's like when you're playing a multiplayer game on the internet, if there is any kind of lag at all, someone invariably chimes in "someone's downloading porn!" And this has gone on for years... and years.... and years....

[greyl]

25. Pretty much agree.

Especially when an additional unknowing newbie takes the joke seriously and responds while the point of the OP is ignored. ;)

I suppose I'll settle for tolerating it from those who are new to the joke, but I can never accept it, because it isn't in the Bible.*
I don't see how to really prevent it - fercrissakes I know a young girl who has a "you might be a redneck" ringtone. It's new to her, I suppose.

*See how I included a tired joke with actual comments on the OP? :)

[Ediacara]

29. I agree 100%

I get extremely annoyed at the joke. It's not funny now, and was only marginally funny the first time I read it. A perfect example of what you're talking about can be found in this thread, where there are snide jokes intermixed with a real, honest to gosh discussion!

Shut up already! We know creationists are dumb!

[agincourt]

30. I'm totally hopeless, sorry

I never seem to get tired of creationists jokes, even the same old ones over and over again. I work with a creationist who is always spouting off his beliefs over and over. Maybe that's where it comes from.

[Crunchy Frog]

31. I'm getting here a little late, but I want to say that I absolutely agree.

I find it really tedious whenever I see an interesting post here that pertains in some way to evolution, and all the responses to it are snide little one liners about the Earth being 6,000 years old.

It just isn't funny after the first few dozen times you see it, and it seems to take over the threads in question and drown out any serious or meaningful discussion of the actual science.

I despise fundy creationists as much as anybody, it just seems like there are more appropriate places to trash them.

[OldCurmudgeon]

34. maybe it'll take ANOTHER 6000 years....

maybe it'll take ANOTHER 6000 years for creationists and IDiots to grow a brain. But I wouldn't
count on it. Not when there's (some) selection advantage to raising hordes of ignorant christo-spawn.

And today we see that they've been officially noted as LIARs by a federal judge. Way to go, IDiots!

[greyl]

32. Soooo, how's this working out? ;) nt

[NNadir]

33. The world is 6,000 years old, right?