Lots of sites seem to be suggesting that the release of Donovan's "Superlungs My Supergirl" was delayed because the line "she's only 14, but she knows how to draw" is a drug reference.
There ought to be a study done of the modes of the shaggy dog story as dependent on its medium. A written shaggy dog story must, since we are accustomed to reading stories longer than those which we hear or relate orally, be correspondingly longer than the spoken shaggy dog story (or such is my guess); of course it can also be more complicated, involve more characters and goings-on, etc. I suspect, too, that if you told someone a shaggy dog story over a medium which is generally very quick, and used for short messages only (say, text messaging), it wouldn't have to be very long at all for it to have its effect.
This thinking is prompted by the impromptu telling by a certain frequent commenter here with whom I correspond of a shaggy dog story on IRC last night. This individual tends to have trouble making such stories, when in the classic "shagginess competition" mode, long enough; really the only way to extend their length without resorting to adlibbed monologues and speeches on the part of judges and the owner of the dog (his normal method) is to add extra layers to the competition. However, it worked out ok even with only five.
Michael made noises about seeing the joke. Therefore, it is reproduced below. Only Michael is allowed to read it (and besides, if you read it, you will have read an IRC log, and will therefore be denied human contact for a month). It concerns Broca's Area, part of the brain. (Actually it is now here owing to weird <pre>-ness.)
I feel special, really I do. However, your log seems to truncate before the end of the lines, and so I cannot read the story.
Posted by: Michael | July 30, 2005 at 12:50 PM
That's because typepad is a bitch (And because I told it to use preformatted text).
Posted by: ben wolfson | July 30, 2005 at 01:06 PM
All is otherwise, now.
Posted by: ben wolfson | July 30, 2005 at 01:09 PM
It would really be funny, like, if you were a god, but you didn't know it, and you, y'know, weren't going to get your god powers until a certain age, and then you just did, before you expressed the thought in comment number four, and you expressed it just as you became of age and inhereted your omnipotence pow3rs and now everything really was otherwise. lol.
I wonder what that would be like.
Posted by: Michael | July 30, 2005 at 10:04 PM
I'd correct the above, but doing so would assume my audience was too foolish to do it themselves. I wouldn't want to insult my audience.
Posted by: Michael | July 30, 2005 at 10:05 PM
Very considerate, Michael.
Posted by: ben wolfson | July 30, 2005 at 10:22 PM
Yup. "Considerate" and my middle name share 3 letters.
Posted by: Michael | July 30, 2005 at 10:35 PM
Your middle name is "Cunt"? Sucks, dude.
Posted by: ben wolfson | July 30, 2005 at 10:40 PM
Even worse, my last name is Hammer.
Posted by: Michael | July 31, 2005 at 08:21 AM
That is a truly pimpin' shaggy dog story. I love how the punchline not only is completely not funny but has nothing to do with the setup. Essence de shag.
Posted by: Matt Weiner | August 05, 2005 at 02:33 PM