Questions tagged [humor]
A form of creativity that is designed to invoke laughter and amusement in the reader/viewer.
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Were there any jokes in the Lord of the Rings?
I saw this Q&A from J.K. Rowling interview:
Q: Hello, I was wondering how much Tolkien inspired and influenced your writing?
J.K. Rowling responds: Hard to say. I didn't read The Hobbit until ...
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A man drives the last gas guzzler car. . . but he has a secret
So, in a future where fossil fuels are prohibitively expensive, the men in a neighbourhood envy their one neighbour who drives a large V8 sedan from the old days.
The owner of the throwback is well ...
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Snotty made a joke I don't understand
I have always had a nagging question about the transporter scene in SpaceBalls.
After Skroob has been "transported", to his then asinine state, we see Snotty "try and reverse the beam&...
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Alien appears on late-night talk show
This short story is from 40 or more years ago. I thought it was hilarious.
A late-night tv host has booked an alien on his show - the first public appearance of the being.
The host is a jerk who pokes ...
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Are self-sealing stem bolts a Star Trek in-joke?
During a scene in Star Trek: Discovery season 3 episode 6 "Scavengers", Burnham mentions self-sealing stem bolts. This item has had a few mentions in earlier Star Trek series, beginning with ...
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Poem about aliens observing cars on highway?
I read a poem way back in elementary school in the 70's that described the observations of aliens watching cars on a highway and concluding that cars were the inhabitants of earth.
They described the &...
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Is Kirk’s comment about “LDS” intended to be a religious joke?
In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), the crew find themselves in 1980’s San Francisco, and promptly realize that they are perceived as socially awkward. Kirk, in an apparent effort to explain the ...
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Short story concerning a dangerous ink blot
Can anyone identify this story? I read it years ago (about 1984-86?) when I had access to a small public library containing mainly old tatty books no longer fit for circulation.
This story was in a ...
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Humorous short story about alien manufacturing ship accidentally dumping defective products on earth
I am looking for a rather humorous short story that I believe I read in an anthology within the last 10-15 years (possibly originally published in an SF magazine in that same timeframe).
It was about ...
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Humorous story in which future archaeologists find a motel room and they believe to have found a great tomb similar to that of Tutankhamun
I read it in Reader's Digest in the seventies. Archaeologists interpreted everyday objects as the TV set and the toilet seat to be sacred and precious.
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Funny teleporter invention story
I remember this short story as very funny. It was told in retrospect in the first person by a member of a fairly slap-happy team of inventors developing a new teleportation device.
Initially, there ...
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Science fiction story where Asimov like writer is actually clones
This question:
How many books did Isaac Asimov write?
reminds me of a short story I read in a science fiction magazine once, probably late in the previous millennium. The title was something like &...
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Looking for a short story: robot making other robots
A friend of mine is trying to track down a short story that her dad enjoyed decades ago, with a view to buying the book for his birthday. It's a comedy, and the plot follows a guy who assembles a ...
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What is the earliest sci-fi story about humour and AI?
The "humourless robot" is a fairly standard trope in modern-day science fiction. Many writers take the view that the sense of humour is a uniquely human property, and so make a point of ...
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Identify this spoof Tolkien book review
Ten or fifteen years ago I read a hilarious parody review of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The piece was written with the conceit that the reviewer was completely unfamiliar with Tolkien ...
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Short story: temporal paradox caused by experiment ends world
This might be one of Fredric Brown's short-short stories, but I've tried and could not find a reasonably quick way to look up summaries of all his stories.
A group of scientists in a lab decide to ...
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Looking for a humorous short story about the ultimate secret agent
I'm sure I read this in an anthology collecting science fiction stories from various authors. English language. I don't remember the common theme (if there really was one). I think I checked this book ...
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Old British black-and-white humorous ghost movie, with surprise ending
Saw this only once on late night television, many years ago. Looked liked it was shot in 1930s or 1940s, shot in black and white, as I recall. It was set in the British Isles about a castle/mansion ...
user160795
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1
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A SF humor short story about the Navy finding a plug at the bottom of the sea, then a giant bar of soap
Very likely to be an early Galaxy story, 1950s. Very short. The navy finds a giant iceberg that turns out to be a bar of soap, then a submarine finds a plug at the bottom of the ocean. No plot. Story ...
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1
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Comedic short story about a man wanting to be "one with the elves" and getting his wish with a twist
I believe I read this in a fantasy humor anthology, in English, probably 10-15 years ago although that's a total spitball of an attempt to date it. I don't remember any stories being in the same ...
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Trying to identify a very old short story about aliens colonizing human bodies
Don't remember the exact start to the story, but it went something like "walking along a path" or something, and when he hears what sounds like a shotgun blast behind him, he then feels something ...
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1
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SF Short Story: alien apes invade during nuclear war
Trying to identify a science fiction short story from an anthology likely published before 1991.
Aliens invade during a nuclear war (which would be World War III, WWIII, WW3). The warring nations ...
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1
answer
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90s fantasy novel about a girl on quest with talking pig (I think)
I'm looking for a fantasy novel I read in the 90s. Heroine begins the story overweight and has to go on a long quest (don't remember why). Along the way she acquires a group of animal/spirit? ...
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1
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Automatic facile justification for bad decisions [duplicate]
I just remembered a story—perhaps by Isaac Asimov, but the whimsy I'm remembering seems to be a bit different from his—in which a narrator describes how they have created a machine that, when told of ...
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2
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Identify weird Sci Fi movie from 70s/80s
Things I remember (vaguely, maybe incorrectly) about this movie:
the setting is overcrowded and we never see "outside", so it may be in space or just a dystopian future
it's weird, like Brazil-level ...
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1
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Funny, Jewish sci-fi novel
I read it mid 80's and found it a few years ago, but with the publication of a new Jewish sci-fi novel, it's harder to find it again.
The story is about an investigator working for a government ...
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How often have Vulcans appeared on comedy television shows as themselves?
In the skit "Mrs. Invisible Man" Carol Burnett's character laments:
With my luck it had to look like it's father.
She receives a delivery from the pharmacy of a drug that may render the ...
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2
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A short story about (not) reading Shakespeare in class [duplicate]
I read this short story maybe 15-20 years ago, but it might be older than that.
With hindsight, it is pretty prophetic. Even for France, now....
It is about an english teacher (in an english-speaking ...
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Man convicted of being anti-social sentenced to share apartment with simulacrum of himself
In the future, man is convicted of being anti-social. Sentenced to share an apartment with another man, who turns out to the most obnoxious person ever. At the end, protagonist figures out that ...
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Old comedy routine about the evolutionary race to become Homo Sapiens
A friend told me about this once. I think he later allowed me to listen to his audiotape copy of it. Maybe. But this was in the late 1980s -- call it "thirty years ago" -- and my memory is far from ...
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Fantasy/urban novel about Greek-Roman gods
I am looking for a fantasy novel about the Greek-Roman gods in the modern day. They go about their lives, which are diminished, due to failing worship. The Greek-Roman gods have become one and go by ...
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1
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Was the 1998 John Glenn Planet of the Apes prank executed?
In 1998 there was an internet joke going around that proposed:
"Pssssst. This is a secret. When John Glenn returns from space,
everybody dress in Ape Suits. Pass it on."
Did this Planet of the ...
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1
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What book had a robot going around the galaxy, making other robots?
I remember getting recommended a book about a robot travelling around the galaxy making other robots. However, I never had a chance to read and have now forgotten its title.
My recollection is ...
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2
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TV series or movie about intern or new employee in a lab with monsters or mutants
I have a very vague recollection of a story involving a new female employee or intern in a lab setting. She seemed inexperienced and somewhat overwhelmed. The lab is performing experiments or possibly ...
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1
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Humorous short story where human lives with aliens as one of their own
I'm looking for a humorous short story where a human lives with aliens as one of their own, as part of a cultural exchange. He and his host have to pretend he is one of them. Against all odds, he is ...
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1
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Is Gesar a joker?
I was recently trying to come up with a short description of the character Gesar (or Boris Ignatievich), head of the Moscow Night Watch in Sergei Lukyanenko's Night Watch cycle:
powerful, been ...
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Short story on a blog which makes fun of plot armour
I once read a short SF/F story on the blog of a Stack Exchange member, which I'd like to find again. (If you are the person with that blog, please do answer this question!)
It was basically a big ...
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Name of a book - Genius Space Squid Defeats bad guy, I *think* the word "Emperor" is in the title
The "squid" was emperor of a planet and had, at one time, been a "super villain". It's all set in space and has many references to gadgetry. Humorous sci-fi book and I can't recall the name.
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80s Short story or novella written from a cat's point of view as they cross a parking lot
Short story or Novella from a pulp magazine in the 80's written from a cat's point of view, involved crossing a dead expanse (a parking lot) and a fear of castration by a human (My human would NEVER ...
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1
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E-book set in fantasy world with trolls and pirates
Looking for the title of an e-book I read a couple of years back.
I can't recall the main storyline just that there was some war going on the the heroines village. Her love interest was some kind of ...
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Is there a pun in the name of Ori species / dimensions in the Myth Adventures series?
As Wikipedia notes most of the known dimensions and their puns, but doesn't say that the Ori species / dimension's pun, if it exists.
Ori: A dimension whose inhabitants resemble house cats.
Is there ...
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identify humorous short story about spicy pizza defeating a dragon
I recall reading this in a collection of short fantasy (possibly sci-fi and fantasy) in a library circa 1990. In the story a man goes off to fight a dragon. I don't recall the exact details but I ...
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1
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Looking for a SF story about robotic explorers who discover intelligent organic life on a planet
I read a humorous science fiction story some ten to twenty years ago about robotic explorers who discover a planet, perhaps Earth, with intelligent organic lifeforms and can't quite believe it. They ...
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1
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Satan/Devil Short Humorous Story
Short story about some guy in an audience that starts shouting at the devil and gesticulating at him and giving him "the fig" , which I guess is something like the finger or some other sort of gesture....
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1
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Short story about a child who is a miniature, living Earth
I saw this short story in an anthology years ago. At least 20 years old, probably more.
This was a humorous short story about a child of human parents who was born as a tiny earth, complete with ...
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0
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I'm trying to find a sound track quote from a British Scifi Comedy (Movie? TV?) [closed]
The specific spoken words are
"This is an emergency broadcast. Nuclear missile inbound detected.
Seek shelter, duck and cover, and brace for impact".
I heard this on a recent tech ...
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0
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Looking for a humorous sci-fi story about puns
I'm thinking of a very short story that ran in one of the big science fiction magazines--Asimov's or Analog, probably--maybe a decade or so ago, about a disease epidemic that created puns. Anybody ...
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Short s.f. Story, can't remember title, satirical riff on Teenagers Who Saved the Earth (all grown up now)
This is not a particularly famous or widely-published story, but it may have been anthologized once in one of the popular "Year's Best"-type antho's (or "Best of "If", etc.) -- probably where I read ...
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Humorous story about toilet paper perforations leading to the creation "Nothing" - an unbreakable, invisible material
In this short story, a scientist/engineer discovers that the perforations on toilet paper are the strongest part. He reasons that more perforations will make it even stronger. He makes a material ...
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Dr. Phlox's gag on Captain Archer?
In the episode, "A Night in Sickbay" of Star Trek: Enterprise, Captain Archer and others, including the dog Porthos, return to the ship and have to go through decon because of a pathogen. The decon ...
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