I thought the error in logic contributed to the humour in the joke. A perfect parallel to a joke I’d already heard (the binary one) would be less amusing.
I saw the joke before the context so I can’t really say how it affected the conversation, but it didn’t look sufficiently related to the parent to be either misleading or informative about how many types of fools there are. At worst it could be distracting.
I agree with you about jokes in general having a risk of being misleading. I think a good response to a joke that’s misleading in a way you care about is to acknowledge that it’s a joke and respond seriously anyway. And distinguish between replying to the joke and the joke-teller, unless you’re willing to assume the teller agrees with the joke’s implications.
This advice is targeted at the context of lesswrong discussions, where the joke’s been there for minutes or hours,. I don’t know that it would be a faux pas in general, but it would changing conversation tone to a serious mood to respond in real-time like that. Also I don’t know that I’d use it in a hostile environment.
I thought the error in logic contributed to the humour in the joke. A perfect parallel to a joke I’d already heard (the binary one) would be less amusing.
I saw the joke before the context so I can’t really say how it affected the conversation, but it didn’t look sufficiently related to the parent to be either misleading or informative about how many types of fools there are. At worst it could be distracting.
I agree with you about jokes in general having a risk of being misleading. I think a good response to a joke that’s misleading in a way you care about is to acknowledge that it’s a joke and respond seriously anyway. And distinguish between replying to the joke and the joke-teller, unless you’re willing to assume the teller agrees with the joke’s implications.
This advice is targeted at the context of lesswrong discussions, where the joke’s been there for minutes or hours,. I don’t know that it would be a faux pas in general, but it would changing conversation tone to a serious mood to respond in real-time like that. Also I don’t know that I’d use it in a hostile environment.