• Goltbrook@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      1 day ago

      I think in this case it works well enough.

      Most comedy works by subverting expectations. And sometimes you can shift the burden of establishing these expectations to the audience by offering an unclear and vague statement, that later is revealed to be the punchline to the joke.

      There is a certain risk involved because how well the joke works on an individual basis is a question of how imaginative or unimaginative the audience is (depending on how the joke is constructed).

      A joke that relies on lack of imagination basically turns the audience into their own straight man. While the joke that relies on imagination banks on you being the straight man to the flights of fancy of your audience.

  • Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca
    2·
    3 days ago

    When I was much younger I had heard for the first time a swan circling the shore of my lake in the dead of night. It was this eerie swooshing sound, like huge wings, accompanied by the weirdest nasally grunting. This thing circled the entire lake multiple times, but I could see nothing in the dark.

    Now, I was probably just high, as I usually was during that period, but I remember taking to social media to ask if anyone else had “heard something weird flying around the lake” the night before. Unfortunately, people thought I was talking about a UFO, and I wound up being ridiculed for it.

    It took me years before I had finally witnessed a swan doing the same thing in the light of day, and was able to finally drop my half-baked fear that Nosferaru had been taking to the skies at night in my lake community.

    • Sidhean@lemmy.worldEnglish
      01·
      2 days ago

      I was talking about a UFO

      you thought it was a ufo? lmao

      sry sry i feel the fuck out of that. I’m glad you found your answer- so rarely do we!

    • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      23 hours ago

      They’re a lot more formidable than you would think. They bite very hard and having much faster reaction time than we do. Their bill is basically a weapon, and they can strike many times a second. We are slow in clumsy in comparison. He won through brute force.

      That swan is defending its life and probably it’s family and will do so with every last shred of its existence.

    • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
      01·
      3 days ago

      Well, I can’t believe fighting a bird has come up twice in a two day span.

      But, how are you going to grab its neck?

      You’re in the water, with a big-ass set of wings pounding at you, a beak that is pounding at you, with their raucous calls disorienting you.

      You aren’t going to be seeing clearly. You’ll be blinking, flinching, and maybe even keeping your eyes closed so they don’t get injured.

      And now you want to reach out and grab that moving neck.

      I’m not saying it’s impossible. But it isn’t exactly as easy as people seem to think.

      I’ve been attacked by geese while fishing. And it was on land, where I should have an advantage what with being able to stand firmly. I’ve fought humans and dogs before and come away with only minor injuries. Big birds are harder to manage.

      But, nah, you aren’t just precisely grabbing the neck of a big-ish bird when it comes at you. You think you’re fast, and you may be. But you aren’t enraged bird fast.

      Those necks are also wiggly and feathered. So getting a grip if you manage to make the initial grab isn’t a guarantee.

      Then what are you going to do with it? Even on land, you aren’t going to be able to 100% kill the bird just because you have its neck. You aren’t going to be able to just throw it either.

      In the water? Your footing is less stable to begin with, so all of the above is harder.

      Also, killing or injuring the bird isn’t necessarily desirable. You can get into trouble doing that, depending on where it happens. Even if you won’t, swans and geese don’t attack humans just because. There’s always a reason because fighting is dangerous. Aggression definitely has a survival benefit, but not when it’s random.

      So now you’re the asshole that went somewhere there were birds nesting, or eating, or resting and instead of backing off when they warned you (and they usually do), and you’re trying to injure or kill it when all it wants is you to go away. That’s a seriously douchey thing to do.

      Think about it.

      • theUwUhugger@lemmy.world
        04·
        3 days ago

        Yea no you didn’t fight people, nor dogs nor did you ever fought that bird! You know that lying about this is super super sad?

        Grabbing the also wouldn’t be hard if you actually thought about it! Its fucken largest part of that bird! I distinctly remember a viral video of an old man doing it with ease! And what on earth are you on about how fast it would be? You think its gonna dodge? Its wants to bite you!

        Also if an animal were to attack a person unprovoked, it relinquishes any and all right to its wellbeing or even its life!

          • theUwUhugger@lemmy.world
            01·
            3 days ago

            You know, its really really really obvious when you are making things in a subject you have no idea about! You wrote and entire chapter to a discussion about you doing the thing we are talking about and you wrote one sentence about not even bothering to make up any circumstances? Oh but you mentioned how strong you are? Fighting people and and and dogs too!

            Its fine to imagine that you big big tough boy, its even fine that you jerk off to it! I don’t care, not even that you are apparently into getting your arse kicked by a 10kg bird which has hollowed bones… But its fucking pathetic that you post about it like you are some sort of expert!

    • Sadbutdru@sopuli.xyz
      0·
      3 days ago

      I’ve heard their wings can break your arm, so it might not be just as simple as that. Still probably a good first step. But if this happened when he’s out swimming where he can’t stand, that would be an advantage for the swan.