Next time I have to explain why I (really) prefer dogs to cats, I will not provide an argument. Instead, I will point people to this video.
While the video is not an instance of joking, it is nonetheless a potent example of humor, at least in the way that the philosopher, Simon Critchley has defined it in his compact and very powerful (and very beautifully written) book, On Humour:
Jokes tear holes in our usual predictions about the empirical world. We might say that humour is produced by a disjunction between the way things are and they way they are represented in the joke, between expectation and actuality. Humour defeats our expectations by producing a novel actuality, by changing the situation in which we find ourselves…
I still prefer my cat. I’ve been told that she has a very dog-like personality, though.
That video makes me wish we had 3 feet of snow outside..
Comment by Andres Salomon — December 2, 2008 @ 5:07 pm
well well a dog-like cat sounds appealing indeed. it is the best of both worlds.
i have a feeling my shortuga in PR (http://flickr.com/photos/biella/2989319419/) would do something similar in the snow as he does it on the beach. he prances in the water like you would not believe, jumps into any pile he can, and makes a nose dive for food and pigeons alike. it is all very dramatic.
as per the snow, i also wish we had some snow.. lots of it.
Comment by Biella — December 2, 2008 @ 5:12 pm
Counterexample to your assertion that cats don’t dance in the snow: LOLCat Invisible Snowboard
Comment by chithanh — December 5, 2008 @ 1:12 am