
Comedy and Computing
by Muffy Mandel

Computers have been around for about fifty years, although they have
only been common for the past ten years.  Comedy has been around
since about five minutes after man learned to communicate via the
spoken word.  But until quite recently humor and comedy were
strangers to computing.

This is not to say that programmers, engineers and operators weren't
telling jokes about their computers and the programs that ran on
them all this time.  The problem was that most of the jokes were
pretty lame.  In almost every case you had to be there to appreciate
the joke.  Professional comics call these "inside jokes."

During the past two years more and more professional comics and
humorists have been turning their attentions to computers and the
folks who work with them.  The February 1992 issue of _ModemNews
Magazine_ featured an article by Pulitzer Prize winning humorist Dave
Barry.  Beginning in June 1993, certain issues of the print magazine
_Windows User_ have featured computer humor articles by renown comic
Charles Fleischer.  Fleischer is best known as the voice of cartoon
star Roger Rabbit.

Perhaps the least known attempt at bringing a little levity to
computing is the series of books released by Integrated Insults
Press, a division of Vaporware Communications.  This series began
last summer with the popular tome, _DOS for Drooling Dolts_.  Ghost
written by veteran standup curmudgeon Don Rickles, the series
continued with such classics as, _Autocad for Airheads_, _Windows for 
Wimps_, _Harvard Graphics for Hockey Pucks_ and _Paradox for Pathetic
Putzes_.  The next volume, _Modeming for Mental Midgets_, is slated
for publication in December 1993.

Given the continuing popularity of computers, the future should see
many more professional humorists jumping on the high-tech humor
bandwagon.                                                      {RAH}

