I don’t think so, one of the most common theories of why things are funny is it being unexpected, and the art of comedy is disguising a setup so it doesn’t seem like a setup until the punchline.
Well I think the original comic achieves more than the barest effort then. We have the setup (why seatbelt on plane?), the vaguely dark-humoured explanation, the absurdist ‘oh ok that makes sense’ as the punchline (where, y’ know, a lot of the humour is because so many people identify with that ‘i don’t care if the truth is dark I just want to know’ idea). Anyway. Not lazy.
Not every joke has a lazy setup.
Most do though
I don’t think so, one of the most common theories of why things are funny is it being unexpected, and the art of comedy is disguising a setup so it doesn’t seem like a setup until the punchline.
And you think that’s… High effort?
Disguising a setup is the barest effort I think, not necessarily high effort.
So would you consider it, potentially… lazy?
I think it would be lazy to abstain from the barest of effort, yes.
Well I think the original comic achieves more than the barest effort then. We have the setup (why seatbelt on plane?), the vaguely dark-humoured explanation, the absurdist ‘oh ok that makes sense’ as the punchline (where, y’ know, a lot of the humour is because so many people identify with that ‘i don’t care if the truth is dark I just want to know’ idea). Anyway. Not lazy.
Wow, achieves more than the barest effort, I’m glad this comic has come so far.