The AI In The Social Media Algorithms Doesn’t Get It

I posted this on Facebook and LinkedIn, and nobody liked it.

One knock-on, downstream effect of the AI revolution is that Alberts, Alfreds, Alphonses, and Alistairs will probably stop using the nickname Al.

I presume this is because the algorithms don’t have a sense of humor or have flagged it as misinformation.

It would never occur to me it’s just not that funny.

The joke came to me when I read an article about climate change, and the name Al Gore was broken so Al was on one line and Gore on the next, and I just scanned Al as AI. In the serif font of the WordPress text editor, it’s clearly different. But in the sans serif fonts of the Internet, it looks the same.

One more reason to study calligraphy: If one can read it at all, one can tell the letters apart.

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A Parody That Needs To Be Done

Combine your basic Jason Aldean with any law enforcement story featuring an American in the Middle East (or Singapore), and you’ve got “Try That In Dubai Town”.

I’d do it, but I can’t sing or play an instrument. Also, I am lazy.

(Credit where credit’s due: Although this has been on the Internet so much that even Friar awoke from his winter slumber to comment on it, I got the news link from Wirecutter this morning.)

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Movie Report: The Best of Gallagher Volume 2 (1999)

Book coverThis DVD includes two of Gallagher’s comedy specials from 1983, The Maddest and Stuck in the Sixties. I recognized a lot of The Maddest from heavy rotation on Showtime in the years where I spent a lot of time in a mobile home with but a television (well, and a brother, and friends who were prohibited from actually being in the trailer when my sainted mother was at work). However, it’s entirely possible that Showtime played The Messiest, a 1986 compilation of bits from other specials.

Gallagher deals with topical comedy and relies on a lot of props for his humor–a giant sofa to jump on, a motorized school desk, an animatronic baby doll in a high chair representing his new childm and of course the Sledge-o-Matic that he uses to smash produce up to a watermelon at the end of each show. In Stuck on the Sixties, he does hit a couple of political points to contrast the early Reagan era with his idealized version of the sixties, but overall, it aged better (at forty years old now) than, say, Dennis Miller’s The Raw Feed from only twenty years ago. Or maybe I have extra affection for the comedian because I watched his special or specials over and over again when I was younger.

When I was browsing the DVDs at the Friends of the Library book sale this spring, a woman waved her hand at the DVD and said that he’s funny. So I told her about how his brother would do his act sometimes, but it turns out I got the story wrong: His brother looked a lot like him and did his own shows, perhaps hoping people would confuse him with the Gallagher until the Gallagher sued his brother to make him stop, and he did.

Gallagher toured until 2020 when the pandemic shut everything down, and he passed away last year. I kind of wish I would have seen him live, but one wonders if his comedy became more political as everything did in the 21st century. I can believe not, at least until I run into some of his later comedy specials on DVD.

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I’ve Made That Pun Before

Bayou Renaissance Man posts a cartoon:

I myself made that very, or well a very similar, pun that was posted in the Top 5 List’s Club Ruminations newsletter fifteen years ago:

Given that I’ve completed my run through the calendar years’ best Facebook memory gags from years past, perhaps I should mine my entries to the Ruminations. In 2007-2008, I had several appear in the daily email, including some in the Bad Rumination of the Day category.

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The Palm Sunday Main Event

I saw this listed in the church bulletin this morning, and I was eager to see how they would do:

I mean, the youth chorale members are small, but they are many. I guess how well they would do in a battle would depend upon who the 1 was and how well he or she kept the vocal horde in front of him or her, stacking the singers so only one or two could attack at once.

But, turns out, this meant that the youth chorale was singing the first verse of the hymn. Not fighting versus 1 person.

A little disappointing to be sure.

Next thing you’re telling me is that we’re not going to see Pennywise the Clown during Holy Week.

Sure, the slide might be talking about the cantata the previous slide refers to. Or it could refer to It.

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Brian J.’s Recycler Tour Turns To Rome

On this date in 2016:

I tried out this new handshake that I learned at martial arts today in church.

In related news, I’ve been communicated from the church. Apparently, this is when a Protestant church says you’ve done something bad and you’re now a Catholic. I didn’t know that was allowed.

Apparently, I think Catholic humor does not go out of style, as I posted just this weekend:

I’m on the Pastor’s Bad List, again.

Friday night, I sneak into the fish fry, and when I turn around with a plate full of golden breaded, flaking POPERY and hush papists, there’s a Lutheran church elder with a notebook.

One of the pastors at my church responded:

Give me that elders name and I’ll make sure that notebook page somehow disappears and you’ll be ok with the Lutheran pastor

And I rejoined:

Sorry, Pastor, I will not be tattling on anyone who might or might not have been consorting with the Whitefish of Babylon.

Actually, I am not sure if that’s Catholic humor. I must be a raging anti-papist to make gags like that.

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Brian J.’s Recycler Tour, Early Days at the Dojo Edition

From this date in 2011:

Brian J. Noggle just tied the karate belt on his son’s gi based on an eHow tutorial. Noggle hopes this is the traditional way and not the one that signifies the wearer wants to challenge the sensei to mortal combat for the right to lead the dojo.

Of course, he’s not wearing the knot. So it could be worse.

Followed by a comment later:

Aw, nuts.

Well, two positives from this faux pas: 1., perhaps the avenging his brother thing will encourage the younger son to study Karate more dilligently. 2., I made $5 betting on the sensei.

A year later, the younger brother would start classes. A couple of years after that, mommy and daddy started taking classes. In 2022, 3 of 4 reached black belt rank, but only daddy still takes classes there.

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Brian J.’s Recycler Tour, Caroling Edition

From this date in 2011:

Brian J. Noggle is going to put on a ski mask and go caroling just to see if the press accounts describe him as an unknown wassailant.

I did not, of course, as going house to house in rural Greene County takes a lot of time. Also, knocking on people’s doors, ski mask or no, is a risky undertaking.

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Brian J.’s Recycler Tour, Prophesy Edition

From this date in 2019:

Listen, when you declare an attacker in the combat phase, your opponent can play the Blake Martinez card which drops one of your creatures before it can attack.

I don’t care if your creature is 8/8. Martinez makes the tackle.

What do you mean I can’t use Green Bay Packers football cards?

This game sucks.

In contemporary news, Blake Martinez, who has had stints with the New York Giants and the Los Angeles Raiders, has retired from the NFL to focus on trading Pokemon cards:

Blake Martinez retired from the NFL because he had to catch ’em all.

The former Las Vegas Raiders linebacker called it quits last week at just 28, telling the team he was hanging up his pads just days after recording 11 tackles in a loss to Jacksonville.

Martinez revealed the news on his Instagram, saying he chose “to step away from this career at this time to focus on my family and future passions!” Well, turns out that passion is very similar to something we all used to dabble in … trading Pokemon cards!

Martinez recently sold a Pokémon Illustrator card with a Gem Mint 9.5 rating for $672,000. Don’t ask what all that means, because I don’t know.

Brian J. Noggle’s Facebook feed: Where you get tomorrow’s news today, albeit in a typical oracle fashion of a bit of humor is a riddle.

Also, yeah, I know, I was using the Magic: The Gathering metaphor. But I was being oblique and cryptic, see?

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Brian J.’s Recycler Tour, Real Estate Development Edition

A two-fer from this date in 2016:

I’m looking to get financing for my new real estate project, a set of apartment buildings with small units for young men just starting out.
I’m gonna call them “The Dude Abodes.”

Except maybe in New Mexico, where they’d be “The Dude Adobes.”

I say “two-fer” because the first was the original post, and I immediately commented with the second.

On a long enough timeline, I imagine I will start repeating my best puns of the day. I’m going to have to start searching the blog to make sure I’m not repeating. So far, so good on these quips.

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