I get the feeling he's being facetious.

I know, it's Stephen Fry, WHY would I think he could be facetious? Even the concept is absurd.

*related to
http://videosift.com/video/Absurd-Creature-of-the-Week-10-Foot-Bobbit-Worm
*related to
http://videosift.com/video/Bobbit-Worm-and-Frog-Fish-Night-hunting

Gotta love their persistence in spinning a ludicrous argument until it almost sort of works. Just an absolutely absurd situation.

I noticed at the end of the video it briefly came up with Romans 14:19. I wonder if he'll do a "Smarter Every Day" on the absurdity of religion.

The funny thing about that passage is that, like most religious passages can mean almost anything you want it to. To me it ironically means to give up religion, yet to someone else it could justify a nuclear war.

I'm a liberal in many things but allowing gun manufacturers to be held responsible for the actions of some gun owners is simply absurd. If it was allowed to happen then we'd be opening a legal Pandora's box in our litigation happy nation that would damage or kill all kinds of businesses big and small, and not just the gun industry as the proponents of this plan hope it would.
Bernie explains this well enough but the woman on the show but it's clear that her anti logic field is working perfectly.

Is this for real? It's so visually absurd I question the reality of it.

Also: needs more yakity sax.

The GOP never to this point kowtowed to that part of the base anyway until they decided to attempt to harness the energy of that faction to the point that this faction has a stranglehold of the party, and yet are wholly ignorant on the issues. We're talking about people who hold up signs that read "Keep your government hands off my medicare" caliber people. Or people who think Obama isn't an American. Or people who think Obama is "a complete socialized take over of health care". Stuff like that which is so obviously untrue, it's laughable.

And I want to be clear. I'm not accusing the right of having a monopoly on stupid people in their base. There's PLENTY of stupid liberals. The difference is the Democratic party is doing a far better job of keeping their idiots supporting them without enacting what those idiots want or succumbing to their idiocy.

Here's proof - how many times do you see Democratic leaders constantly say crap like George W. Bush is a war criminal for Iraq? Name a Democratic presidential candidate who actually has said over and over again that Ted Cruz isn't a US citizen? Donald Trump, the current GOP frontrunner, over and over again insists Obama isn't a US citizen, as have many many Republican Congressmen.

When the GOP signed the deal with the devil so to speak by trying to co-opt the Tea Party movement, this was the inevitable outcome. The Tea Party has been hijacked twice by my count because the people within it are so incredibly ignorant, they don't seem to realize what they stand for. It was Libertarian in the beginning both socially and economically. Then it got hijacked to become more socially conservative and economically conservative. Now, it's been hijacked by Donald Trump, who nobody actually even knows what he is socially or economically at this point overall.

Why did this happen? Because GOP support is so contaminated and dominated by so much ignorance, you can have a TV personality say a bunch of stupid crap they want to hear but is certifiably absurd, that he can become the front runner. Building a wall to keep the Mexicans out, no matter how you feel about illegal immigration as far as ideals go, is simply not a practical solution to stop illegal immigration. You can't make Mexico pay for a wall even if you built it. Obama wasn't born in Kenya. Replacing Obamacare with something "terrific" is NOT a policy proposal; it's non-specific anti-Obama BS to make people who hate Obama love you. He could replace it with "Trumpcare" which could be basically Obamacare, and that could be "something terrific" for all you know.

Trump and Cruz don't exist without the Tea Party, and the Tea Party wouldn't be a thing if the GOP didn't decide to eventually attempt to galvanize it. Well, mission accomplished, but you're never going to get the support of the growing minority segments of the population. You've forfeited the support of moderates like myself, too. And young people by enlarge are rejecting this version of the GOP big time. Women are increasingly rejecting it, too.

Your second point... Umm, big fat no.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/03/21/the-last-presidential-candidate-who-was-as-unpopular-as-donald-trump-david-duke/

you have people living in artificial environments that use tons of power because they want to, because they like it, not because they REQUIRE it. native americans lived in southwest USA for a thousand years just fine without the need of AC or diverting rivers.

go read up on the absurd agricultural subsidies tied to the colorado river- that isnt a problem created because farmers need to produce food to feed the world, its a problem created because politicians want money making businesses to tax, and because people are willing to spend money to eat what they like instead of what there is, a lot of money is made.

same with trawling- nothing to do with feeding all those people, everything to do with money. trawling has been going on for over a hundred years, well before the world population was even a 3rd of what it is currently- fishermen trawl because they want to be efficient because that makes them more money, not because they are concerned about how they are going to feed undernourished people.

the problem isnt getting people to eat insects. the problem is getting the developed world to stop eating so much, especially so much meat. there is an obesity epidemic around the world, over 3000 tons of food are discarded every day, and you want to tell me the problem is not enough food?

and lets not be disingenuous about nuclear waste, nuclear technology was invented as a weapon, not an energy source. you're telling me that if tomorrow a terrible plague wiped out 90% of the earths population, that nuclear armed states would give up their nuclear weapons? bs.

the video is on point. the environmental crisis is caused by greed, not because there are too many people on the planet. and if you feel so strongly that there are too many people on the planet, I assume you are relieved when your family members die? Unless you are willing to volunteer yourself and your family to die for the greater good, overpopulation is a facile bogey man to mask what you really want to say- lets get rid of all those "other" people so *I* dont have to change my own lifestyle.

http://www.wired.com/2014/05/absurd-creature-horsehair-worm/

Interesting article.

That's why the joke is funny. The absurd juxtaposition of pizza delivery and childbirth with the proposition that the pizza delivery is the more difficult act is why this is comedy.

No one would laugh if someone got on stage and said, "Boy, childbirth sure is harder than pizza delivery".

That's it, I think I've finally figured it out.

Every night, each host is put into a cold-storage unit until the next show. When they're unboxed for the next taping, their minds are wiped and reverted to an early stage of childhood, so they may emerge into a world of light, color and fantasy, and gawk genuinely at the most mundane, absurd, and overproduced shit-shows humanity has yet to create.

The talking heads on most of these reality shows are the personified equivalent of the laugh-track. Just there to convince you to feel whatever emotion the creators want you to have.

Anyway, opera!

I very much recommend watching TT3D. Short review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEUKFoBt4Cw

I find it fascinating, but watching these things makes me so uncomfortable because it really feels like the glorification of an absurdly dangerous addiction.

Wow, I'd forgotten about this game. Also, at the time of its release it completely escaped me how absurd the presentation was. They just didn't know what to do with this, did they?

Saying that "Taxation is the price we pay for a decent civilization" is the same as saying that "Human sacrifice is the price we pay for having a sun."

Such "primitive" ideology (with its absurd beliefs, fetishes, taboos, and weirdnesses) is reflected by a belief in strange elites as being either godlike ("Bernie!") or demonic ("Koch!"), along with a total ignorance about the functioning of the (alien) banking system and the military empire that it feeds.

i think he makes a great point in regards to jokes being well thought out in regards to controversial or potentially offensive joke material.

the really good comedians are the ones who can take a sensitive subject and portray it in a way that makes us reflect on the absurdity of our lives.holding a mirror up so we can all have a good laugh at our own contradictory nature.

carlin was a master at making us laugh at our own self-absorbtion.
bill burr has some his best material about domestic violence.
patrive o'neal makes misogyny hilarious.
doug stanhope revealing the absurdity of nationalism and pride in things we never had a part in.

a good comedian makes us laugh with jokes.
a great comedian makes us laugh at ourselves.