Hacker Cinema
Supergirl
1984 · Film · 124 min
Directed by Jeannot Szwarc
AdventureFantasyActionScience Fiction
After losing a powerful orb, Kara, Superman's cousin, comes to Earth to retrieve it and instead finds herself up against a wicked witch.
1 negative1 neutralfrom 2 commenters
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2 comments on Hacker News
You know, i'm not sure i can explain the joke. I can explain what i wrote, but not why it's funny (if indeed it is). As far as i know, we don't really understand what 'funny' actually is.
My working hypothesis, though, is that this is mostly funny because of the conjuction between the familiar and the unfamiliar. There is then a second layer of funniness to do with absurdity.
So, Chesterton's Fence is a bit of a meme (in the original sense) on HN now. I've seen it come up a few times, as something people consider obscure, but are eager to share, because it's interesting. I assumed that people would recognise it. The re-formulation as a piece of Kryptonian philosophy (Zal-Tar is the scientist guy from the 1984 Supergirl film) about something fantastical and over-the-top like an ancient evil trapped in a crystal, on the other hand, is unfamiliar. There's something about the superposition of the two that is funny.
However, that feeds immediately into absurdity, because my re-formulation is rubbish; it's entirely unconvincing, and fails to disguise the origin of the quote. But that makes it more funny, because now you think i'm an idiot. Except you know i'm not really an idiot (well, something like that), you recognise that i'm playing at being an idiot. That isn't a universal element of all comedy, but it's something i personally lean on a lot - if you can make a really obviously silly statement the right way, either deadpan or hyperbolic, it can be funny.
I'm reminded of "You've not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon.":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsCVuO1yeJc
It was: but the actors (and possibly others) weren't told that. As Red Letter Media says in their review, it actually tries and has some competence... just no budget. http://redlettermedia.com/best-of-the-worst-supergirl-captain-america-1990-and-roger-cormans-fantastic-four/ (worth watching just to see the insanely bad Supergirl movie get torn to shreds).