Humor in noise

[Jaakko V.]

I just saw CO Caspar video. Is that some joke project?

Humor in noise. Can you appreciate it? The best? The worst?

I have a feeling that some people think humor should not be tolerated in noise at all. Not personally a big fan, but not on a mission against it either. I don't quite get what would be the problem. Obviously there are also occasions where the border between comedy and seriousness is blurred in a really interesting way. Let's say the best of Schimpfluch, where the comedy may seem almost sinister at points. Or maybe Hafler Trio. I guess there's also a fair amount of so called goofball-noise, which aims to be funny but often isn't unless you're aware of some inside-joke or something. Generally not that fond of this style, but for example when Crank Sturgeon performed in Finland with his self-made fish costume it was 100% gold. Absurd and funny. Of course, in generally, badly done comedy is exactly that, and often painfully boring.

[SiClark]

There's a project in London called something like Now Wash your hands which deals with OCD in a comedic way. I haven't seen him perform so can't comment on how the comedy works but from a friend's description it sounded kind of interesting.

Yellow Tears and related projects might fall into this category, definitely absurd but I think it works really well as they have created this strange world the project lives in.

[Andrew McIntosh]

Wow, a few classics there - the Bonzos and Victor Borge. Taking me right back.

This always struck me as some light hearted noise flavoured humour -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSulycqZH-U

[Brad]

for example when Crank Sturgeon performed in Finland with his self-made fish costume it was 100% gold. Absurd and funny.

I saw his performance in Germany last year and thought the same thing.

[Goat93]

I think some Kind of Humor is normal like Sarcasm, Schadenfreude, Black humor (or so called British Humor), Ironical Stuff. Mostly Goofish Kind is not so often used. It depends on the Work of the Artist. Genocide Organ in Selfmade Teletubbie Costumes would look idiotic. fckng bstrds ( http://www.fcknbstrds.com/ ) in Military Uniform would also look unusual. Or think about the Residents in normal Business Suits.

Costes (http://www.costes.org/) is somekind of weird and unusual Humor, fits totaly in Noise...

[burdizzo]

Smell & Quim. Hilarious, and complete piss-takers!

[Duncan]

The short answer is, of course, that when it's done right ANYthing can be good and there are, of course, many examples of failure here as there are in laptop noise, power electronics, HNW, psych hippie stuff and any other semi divisive little trope we have in our world.  I'm a big fan of funnies personally.

I think unintentional humour is far more prevalent in noise anyway but I guess that's another story. 

One thing I think is missing here though is that to laugh at or with some piece of noise or weird art is a perfectly great and valid response.  A lot of the misunderstandings about these things often stem from the fact that those not 'in the know' find what they're seeing quite funny but don't feel it is allowed to express that.  I remember explaining a Peter Fengler performance I saw to my Mum and she shook her head saying 'I'd just want to burst out laughing.'  I wish more people WOULD do that.  I know I've tried to crack a lot of jokes live that have sunk like a million lead balloons because of my crap delivery and the very serious feel that accidentally springs up in live settings.

[Pax Chetyorka]

When it's fused together with the aesthetic, it's great!

These are more plunderphonics than noise, but deserve a mention: 
Culturcide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aobQDfnRStA
V/Vm (+ his Test Records label)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2hRvSsPQqI
Negativland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7EqYVPEq_c

[cantle]

Smell & Quim. Hilarious, and complete piss-takers!

Milovan Srdenovic supporting Whitehouse many many years ago was hilarious... the 'Islam Uber Alles' cover was very well placed... So good was the whole of his set that it made the usually good Anenzephalia that followed him seem rather po faced and boring.

[Cementimental]

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/04/john_cage_on_a_.html "I prefer laughter to tears"

[Cementimental]

for example when Crank Sturgeon performed in Finland with his self-made fish costume it was 100% gold. Absurd and funny.

I saw his performance in Germany last year and thought the same thing.

His last London performance was one of the greatest things i've ever seen, hilarious but also as genuinely intense and powerful as any deadly-serious PE act could ever hope to be.

[Dr Alex]

I don't like humorous noise but Emil Beaulieau is unbeatable! I remember that I watched a lot his performances during my first days in noise. It's still amazing!

[Jaakko V.]

for example when Crank Sturgeon performed in Finland with his self-made fish costume it was 100% gold. Absurd and funny.

I saw his performance in Germany last year and thought the same thing.

His last London performance was one of the greatest things i've ever seen, hilarious but also as genuinely intense and powerful as any deadly-serious PE act could ever hope to be.

Yeah, same in Finland. It was truly genuine and "real" in a rare way.

[collapsedhole]

Si, i wouldn't have yellow tears fall into this category. that's like laughing at a retard - not that they are retarded at all - they are just so deranged and  so extremely out there in their own wacked out world. definitely absurd in certain live settings (the yt carnival at fleshtival comes to mind, septic world, etc) but the records are so extremely dark i can't let em fall in here. 'don't cry' is a masterpiece of purely nightmarish sounds. 'the cult of yellow tears' is also just really terrifying.

humorous - emil beaulieau for sure. any 'costume noise' i find funny regardless of sound. while crank wears a costume, listening to recordings you'd never expect to see a guy dressed like a fish making it.

i'm not into comedy of any kind so can't really comment anything new... when blake performed as 'pope joanna' i gotta kick outta that... maybe the juggalo dude waves crashing piano chords? its funny till he punches you in the head... i have all the old ICP cd's tho so can't complain... i think more people should punch him the back though - guys who don't fight are pussies.   

[Bloated Slutbag]

Into the cans and have given up trying to gather the assorted threads below into anything approaching coherence, so...

In "The Joke and Its Relation to the Unconscious", Freud speculates that humor is essentially a form of aggression, what one might term the psychological sodomizing -  "stripping" - of the butt (of the joke). This was published in 1905, two years after Psychopathia Sexualis was first translated into English (just to offer a random time referent). One would have a very hard time persuading anyone, including your mother, that early Whitehouse (for ready example) was anything but very intentionally humorous.

Not to neglect either the recent study that suggests that the most insanely funny comedians have high level psychotic  traits:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/humor-sapiens/201407/do-comedians-possess-bipolar-traitsa
"What is perhaps surprising is the very high scores comedians achieved on these scales compared to other creative people."

Given that most any sense of the humorous is largely culturally imbedded, one is certainly playing with fire when attempting the deliberately "funny" at an international festival.  (When Whitehouse has played in Japan, the most common adjective used by the locals to describe net impression is "funny". Funny? Hell, yeah. And even if one were to get real po-faced about the shit what response might otherwise be expected? Some shirtless white dude, refugee from an episode of Cops*, yelling incomprehensible nonsense over a bunch of synth vomit of which the only discernible lyric is "Suck my cock!" This – again, very widely-held- impression was summarized very nicely in the Gero contribution to Extreme Music From Japan. Etc.)

Still I can see where objections may start. In general, with reference to just about anything, it is easier to dismiss the deliberately stupid or funny. "Merzbow" / lowest arts (porn) could be a viable (preemptive) response but so to Roemer-esque statements like "I have no sense of humor". A (noise) war was (is still?) being fought to establish the legitimacy of the venture. Good luck there.

At the same time, the Cementimental phrase "hilarious but (also as genuinely intense and powerful) [emphasis added]" kinda gives away the game. Why not hilarious and genuinely intense and powerful?


* proof positive that more crimes are committed by shirtless people