K Larson, I think Eliezer was wrong about bad political jokes, for two reasons. Firstly, a joke depends on its context, and it may not be possible to depoliticize a joke without losing something essential in the context. Secondly, like it or not, most of us do find it funny to see a disliked powerful figure get their comeuppance, which means that when assessing how good a joke is it’s an error to penalize it for getting some of its laughs that way.
(But he was right when he said that finding what would otherwise be a bad joke funny is evidence that its target is playing the Hated Enemy role for you. Eliezer has been quite open about the fact that he greatly dislikes religion.)
And, for what it’s worth, I think Eliezer’s little drama does introduce one idea that not everyone’s thought of (I don’t claim that it’s new, but novelty as such isn’t all that valuable): that preservation of self-esteem might be an element in why the virgin-birth story succeeded. For what it’s worth, though, I think it much more likely to have arisen some time after the events themselves than to have been made up on the spot.)
K Larson, I think Eliezer was wrong about bad political jokes, for two reasons. Firstly, a joke depends on its context, and it may not be possible to depoliticize a joke without losing something essential in the context. Secondly, like it or not, most of us do find it funny to see a disliked powerful figure get their comeuppance, which means that when assessing how good a joke is it’s an error to penalize it for getting some of its laughs that way.
(But he was right when he said that finding what would otherwise be a bad joke funny is evidence that its target is playing the Hated Enemy role for you. Eliezer has been quite open about the fact that he greatly dislikes religion.)
And, for what it’s worth, I think Eliezer’s little drama does introduce one idea that not everyone’s thought of (I don’t claim that it’s new, but novelty as such isn’t all that valuable): that preservation of self-esteem might be an element in why the virgin-birth story succeeded. For what it’s worth, though, I think it much more likely to have arisen some time after the events themselves than to have been made up on the spot.)