Subject URL: Haiku jokes arn't funny?

This link (via Null Device) is particularly telling because I've recently had a big problem with the internet being filled with webpages that are essentially large slabs of text which attempt to be humourous by explaining a simple but otherwise lame joke. For example, "Bert is evil" or "Yowi's are Christian propaganda".

The author above says Haiku (*cough*senryu*cough*) joke are lame and show no wit or intellegence what so ever. I agree. However he then goes on to say the Limerick is a worthy replacement for those attempting to be funny by writing in a particular way. Rubbish. Limericks suffer from the same lameness as senryu but take longer to write. End of story.

I used to write senryu to a friend during the day. We'd just send short emails discussing our mood: usually great crushing boredom. It was a quick way of getting our minds going for a brief period of time. It took longer to write than "I'm bored" and stimulated a part of the brain that "I'm bored" continues to fail.

Limericks are one of my most hated joke telling devices and will forever be stuck in the "aw gee this is lame" section of my brain. I've always thought of the Limerick in exactly the same way at the author above sees "Haiku".

All of that is of course ignoring the history of "Haiku" and how annoying it can be for some to see that history pissed on from a great height. But we're not in Japan now Toto.

So how was Japan Dave?