Q: What did Tarzan say to Jane when he saw the elephants coming?
A: Here come the elephants.
Elephant jokes are seen by many commentators as symbolic of the culture of the United States and the UK in the 1960s. Oring notes that elephant jokes dismiss conventional questions and answers, repudiate established wisdom, and reject the authority of traditional knowledge. He draws a parallel between this and the counterculture of the 1960s, stating that “disestablishment was the purpose of both,” pointing to the sexual revolution and noting that “[p]erhaps it was no accident that many of the elephant jokes emphasized the intrusion of sex into the most innocuous areas.”
Learn more about the 1960s elephant joke fad
Boomdeyada
Svend tweeted this chart that shows the relative amounts of money spent on the Iraq war, the porn industry, gift cards, and more.
Angry Norwegians in scuba gear chase after Google Street View car
Star Wars reimagined with Paris subway tickets
Wes Anderson’s Spider-Man:
NZ blogging community Public Address has been knocking it out of the park of late. Check out, in particular, Russell Brown’s examination of media coverage of the proposed national education standards, Jolisa Gracewood’s response to standards by reference to her experiences with a similar system in the U.S., and Keith Ng’s short and brutal evisceration of one of our major newspapers.
But the most incredible and positive and challenging thing I’ve read all week is Stephen’s account of why he’s decided to join a political party.
You’ve seen unhappy hipsters by now, right? What most people seem to miss is that it’s a scathing attack on the aesthetics of one magazine, Dwell, rather than a general comment about architecture magazines or, indeed, hipsters. It’s hilarious, though. The Dwell aesthetic is far from uncommon in the designosphere.
Have I linkied before to the Crappy DVD Bootleg Covers flickr pool? I don’t think I have.
And finally… My First Dictionary
I found it fascinating to read on Stephen Judd’s blog someone else with the exact thought-process I used when I joined the Greens.
And then, in the following comment by George D, the exact same reason why I resigned my membership and, despite some temptations, haven’t got the enthusiasm to join Labour or any other party.
I also found Stephen’s post fascinating as I’ve recently joined the Greens after a very similar thought process. Having been a member of The Greens for about six weeks now, and having only attended one meeting, I have not yet resigned my membership…..
Thanks for those kind words.
It’s possible that I too will suffer the disillusionment described by George and Scott. For now I tell myself that __that’s how THEY want you to feel__.
The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves. – Plato