Scoobying Workshop #3, Afternoon 6/6/2006 (Main Campfire)

[soldtoarmenians]

[Roster]

There's a table out by the unlit campfire again, however this time it contains not healthy snacks, but an array of familiar white boxes from Jeff, God of Biscuits. Not doughnuts, though, as the open boxes (with a curious ferret seated next to them sniffing...curiously) illustrate.

Pies. Cream pies.

Xander grins as he holds one up. "So today we're gonna talk about another valuable position on the team that doesn't get a lot of attention in the pre-title credits -- the comic relief."

He waves with the pie. "Okay, so unless your team happens to be a circus act, security detail for a bakery, or extras on the set of a Mel Brooks film, you probably won't come across a lot of literal pie-in-the-face situations, but it's sort of the classic example. The comic relief is the guy or girl or...other, if you happen to be a demon or an alien, I guess, who de-fuses the tension when the group needs it. Or maybe you distract the bad guy while the powerhouses whomp him on the head, or the gun-people get ready to make with the loud shootyness of bangbang.

Sometimes this means you get the witty quips; sometimes it means you do the pratfall. Some people are better at one than the other, and that's fine too - it's always good to know your strengths."

Xander points to himself. "I like to think I'm good with the quippy, but then again, so're most of my friends, so for me, it pays to be well-rounded. I can take a pie in the face with the best of them."

He looks out over the assembled students and grins. "Anybody wanna test me on that?"

Jamie (multi_madrox)	Jamie raises his hand and waves it emphatically. "Ooo! Ooo! Me! Me!"
Xander (soldtoarmenians)	Xander peers out at the students as if he heard nothing. "What, nobody?"
Jamie (multi_madrox)	Jamie multiplies so there are now four of him and they shout in chorus: "OVER HERE! US! PICK US!"
Xander (soldtoarmenians)	Xander snickers and points. "Okay, fine. One pie, though. I didn't get enough for you to waste four on me." He puts down the pie he was holding, and indicates free pick of the spread on the table.
Jamie (multi_madrox)	"Only one?" Jamie asks. "That's no fun." Jamie picks up a pie and smiles. "Of course if you plan on dodging..." The four Jamies surround Xander and begin to toss the pie between themselves. "I wouldn't recommend it," one of the Jamies finishes.
Xander (soldtoarmenians)	"Well, no," Xander says, turning rapidly from Jamie to Jamie to try to follow the game of Who's Got The Pie. "But the element of surprise is supposed to be part of the funny."
Jamie (multi_madrox)	Which is why during the pie tossing back and forth? One of the other duplicates picks up a second pie and yells out Xander's name right before he throws it.
Xander (soldtoarmenians)	Xander, sure he knows exactly where the pie is -- with the second Jamie on the left -- turns instinctively at the sound of his name.
Bridge (bridge_carson)	Bridge makes a ferret-y "eep!" noise and ducks outta the way of the pie.
Jamie (multi_madrox)	And if the pie throwing dynamics are correct? Xander's face should be full of lemon cream. Unless he ducks of course.
Xander (soldtoarmenians)	Xander's face is totally full of lemon cream. And pie-crust, for a few seconds, til the weight of that slides it away and he's left with a fluffy white face-mask. He points blindly in a random direction, knowing there's probably a Jamie in it. "Excellent use of the element of surprise."
Jamie (multi_madrox)	Jamie gloats like a gloating thing. All four of them.
Xander (soldtoarmenians)	"So is this: surprise - you've got detention. I said one pie, dude."
Jamie (multi_madrox)	"What? But... but... I already have detention. And... and... I only used one pie." Yes. That is a chin wibble you see.
Xander (soldtoarmenians)	Xander points. "Element of surprise, Exhibit B. Funny. Now granted it wouldn't be funny if I was actually giving him detention; it'd just be mean. But since I was employing a little of last week's lesson on lying your ass off, it's completely morally acceptable to laugh at the look on his face right now."
Jamie (multi_madrox)	So at this point? Jamie just goes ahead and throws the second pie. Detention be damned.
Xander (soldtoarmenians)	SPLAT. "I...totally asked for that." Xander wipes piecrust off his face, and tastes coconut cream. "Exhibit C. Variation on a theme."
Jamie (multi_madrox)	Jamies? Yeah they're back to the gloating thing. "So? Detention?"
Xander (soldtoarmenians)	Xander shakes his whipped-cream-encoated head. "Nah. You had at least a three-pie safety margin for that."
Jamie (multi_madrox)	Yes, the thought does cross his mind. But being in the principal's office twice in a week isn't his idea of fun. "Good to know. I'll keep that in mind for future demos."
Xander (soldtoarmenians)	Xander points again, this time with at least a small amount of accuracy, though his open eyes are basically glints of brown in a sea of whipped topping. "Exhibit D: knowing when to end the joke. Muy impressive, and thanks for the assist."
Bridge (bridge_carson)	At this point, Bridge comes out from where he was hiding, scrambles up onto Xander's shoulder, and calmly begins licking away at the pie topping.
Xander (soldtoarmenians)	Xander, after a moment of blinking, just points, without actually pushing him away. "Exhibit E: Ferrets, like monkeys, almost always funny."

[Pre-played with and many thanks to multi_madrox and bridge_carson.]

[OCD threads up, play away!]

Comments

Make With the Quippy

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander, still cream-bedecked (and still with a ferret licking the side of his face) gives a wave at the students.

"Okay, slapstick has its time and place, which is... later and a hundred feet away or thereabouts so we don't mess the circle up for Professor Ted's workshop -- but now you get to try the other thing.

Your team's trapped in a tunnel, waiting for somebody to dig you out from the other end. Your second-in-command's about to strangle your team leader due to unresolved sexual tension issues about why the hell he's second in command when if you'd listened to him you wouldn't be trapped in a tunnel. Your brainiac's about to kill them both or cry, possibly both, and the spiders on the ceiling are really freaking out the big guy with the itchy trigger finger.

And it's up to you to calm everybody the hell down. Tell your best joke - maybe it's your funniest, or maybe it's your awfulest and it makes everybody groan; doesn't matter as long as it works.

Everybody else? You're the team who were about to kill each other; feel free to laugh, groan, give pointers on how the joke could be better or more awful, and let 'em know whether the comic relief would actually relieve you."

Re: Make With the Quippy

[twohalvesofaphd.livejournal.com]

"Heisenberg was an unfortunate fellow; he knew *exactly* how fast his car keys were going." Geek humour, it's an accquired taste.

Re: Make With the Quippy

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia blinked. "Yeah, I don't get it."

Re: Make With the Quippy

[twohalvesofaphd.livejournal.com]

Zack looked somewhat crestfallen. "Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle?"

Re: Make With the Quippy

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory rolled her eyes. "Cute," she told him, her smile lopsided.

Re: Make With the Quippy

[nadiathesaint]

"So there was this policeman," Nadia started. "He liked to hunt when he was patrolling, and one day, he shot a duck or a quail or something, and the bird fell into a hobo camp. Well, the policeman went to get the bird, and the lead hobo said 'no, it fell on our camp, it's our bird'. The policeman argued and threatened, but there were a lot of hobos and they argued for awhile, and then finally, the lead hobo said 'we'll settle this the hobo way: with a kicking contest. Whoever kicks the hardest wins.'

"Well, the policeman liked this idea and even offered to let the lead hobo go first. So the lead hobo reared back and kicked the policeman as hard as she could, right in the crotch. The policeman gasped and doubled over and everything, then finally recovered enough to take his turn. And the lead hobo smirked and said 'You can keep the damned bird.'"

Ah, hobo humor. At least it wasn't the clown joke.

Re: Make With the Quippy

[soldtoarmenians]

For which Xander thanks her profusely. Issues, man. Issues.

Re: Make With the Quippy

[nadiathesaint]

She's got another one, about a girl with a goose on her head. . . .

But some strange sense of meta tells her he may have heard it before.

Re: Make With the Quippy

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

"So this guy was writing a book in his study when the doorbell rang. He went to the door, no one there. He went back and started working again. Ten minutes later the door bell rang again. He went to the door, still no one there. But, as he looked around he saw this small snail sitting on his doorstep. He picked it up and flung it across the street into the field.

Two years later, the man was in his study again when the doorbell rang. He went to the door and there was the same snail. the snail looked up at him and said, "What the heck did you do *that* for?"

Lana smiles. "It's my favorite surreal joke."

Re: Make With the Quippy

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia? Was totally giggling, and thus comicly relieved.

Re: Make With the Quippy

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

Lana grinned at her.

Re: Make With the Quippy

[dude-its-jude.livejournal.com]

Jude looked sage and lifted a finger. "What's brown and sticky?" he asked the group in general.

Re: Make With the Quippy

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia feared the answer.

Re: Make With the Quippy

[dude-its-jude.livejournal.com]

"A stick," Jude finished mellowly.

Re: Make With the Quippy

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Why did the thief rob an art museum?" Rory posed the question to the group.

Re: Make With the Quippy

[nadiathesaint]

"Because thieves do that?"

Re: Make With the Quippy

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"No, he needed the Monet to buy Degas to make the van Gogh," she replied.

Much like with Zack's, nerd numor: it's an acquired taste.

Re: Make With the Quippy

[multiplez]

"Um, wanna hear a dirty joke?"

Re: Make With the Quippy

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"Do I ever!" Jamie shouts back encouragingly.

Re: Make With the Quippy

[multiplez]

"White horse fell in the mud."

Re: Make With the Quippy

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

Jamie thought long and hard about the situation in particular.

In a case where you are trapped underground with a slim chance for survival? It's important to bring out the big guns...

So Jamie reaches into the pocket of his trenchcoat....

Re: Make With the Quippy

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

And pulled out his trusty sock puppet.

"Good evening Ladies and Germs! Whoa! Tough room tonight. Hey is it me or are the walls closing in on us? Hey! Look! Spiders! Boy I sure hope they don't fall down into our mouths when they're open."

Re: Make With the Quippy

[smartestone]

Hermione looks absolutely blank. "I don't know any jokes," she says. At least none that she hadn't heard Peeves say, and she's not about to repeat those.

Re: Make With the Quippy

[upforachase.livejournal.com]

Cordelia shakes her head. "I don't think I know any jokes, either."

Re: Make With the Quippy

[dbiers.livejournal.com]

The only jokes D'anna knew were bad ones. Not dirty bad, just bad. For example? The one she was about to share with the class.

"Three strings walk into a bar. The first one slides up to the bar and orders three drinks. The barkeep turns to the string and says, 'we don't serve stings here. Get out!'

"The first string sighs the sigh of the rejected and returns to his table. Where upon the second string decides to try his luck and slides up to the bar where he orders three drinks. The barkeep turns to the string and says, 'we don't serve stings here. Now get OUT!'

"The second string sighs the sigh of the rejected and returns to his table. The third string, being a brave like soldiers little string, got up from the table and went into the bathroom where he twisted and turned until he'd tied himself up like a pretzel then he unfurled all that was left of him.

"Having done that, he exits the bathroom and slides up to the bar where he orders three drinks. The barkeep turns to the string and says, 'Aren't you one of those three strings I told to GET OUT?' To which the third shook his head and said, 'nope. I'm a frayed knot!'"