New Ray's Place Thread (No Bad Pun's Please) (07-29-03)

[pmcd9]

I don't have anything to say about Ray's Place at the moment, but I thought there should be an open thread here nonetheless.  So no bad puns please so we can keep an open thread in this area.  Ok just to make this post barely relevant.  My favorite Ray quote from the column

Goths get tired of constantly being told that they "look like idiots" and "are annoying" and “can’t work the Drive-Thru if they keep dressing like ‘Dracula’s Knob-wipe.’”

~Paul

Column.

[Choop]

Apologies for the bad pun in the other thread.

It seems upon rereading that thread, my single pun inspired its locking. I think that makes three threads already on this very, very young message board for the locking of which I am responsible. (How can you not end that sentence with a preposition?)

I'll try to behave myself from now on, I promise.

[AlohaDawg]

Choop -

Good job on undangling your preposition. That cracks me up because when I write for work I spend significant time building unwieldy sentences to get rid of passive voice and to tuck those prepositions away.

Maybe we have some kind of pathology.

My favorite Rays Place Quote comes from Ray:

Did your mom have on big “clumsy lady” lingerie, all with like a feather boa sewn across the front of the halter, and a large area of thick lace on the front to hide her old lady belly? Man, I don’t even know why I’m askin’ about that. Do me a favor and only read the first sentence of this paragraph. Was her butt pretty long and flat? Was there a long deep line heading down from her bellybutton between some jiggly tummy fat? Man, why do I keep askin' about this stuff?!

Eww.  And,  EWW.

[V-Adore]

My favorite Rays Place Quote comes from Ray:

Did your mom have on big “clumsy lady” lingerie, all with like a feather boa sewn across the front of the halter, and a large area of thick lace on the front to hide her old lady belly? Man, I don’t even know why I’m askin’ about that. Do me a favor and only read the first sentence of this paragraph. Was her butt pretty long and flat? Was there a long deep line heading down from her bellybutton between some jiggly tummy fat? Man, why do I keep askin' about this stuff?!

This is just great. For certain meanings of "great."

Pontification time: I think that this, like all really good Ray's Place gags, derives its humor both from the letter-writer's pitiful situation and from Ray himself. Here, it's not just funny that we have a ludicrously detailed, icky description of the writer's mom in lingerie; that's funny by itself, but the gag goes from merely "fairly humorous" to "hilarious and a half" by Ray's realization of his own creepiness in asking all this stuff. Ray himself is sort of sick and sad, but -- here's the kicker -- he's still not sick and sad enough for people not to beg his advice.

... so, yeah, Ray's Place is good. Pontification mode off.

[CortJstr]

Here, it's not just funny that we have a ludicrously detailed, icky description of the writer's mom in lingerie; that's funny by itself, but the gag goes from merely "fairly humorous" to "hilarious and a half" by Ray's realization of his own creepiness in asking all this stuff. Ray himself is sort of sick and sad, but -- here's the kicker -- he's still not sick and sad enough for people not to beg his advice.

What makes that one is that even after he realizes it's wrong and gross he just keeps going.

Plus the german-thong thing was great for me because I spent the entire time thinking, "man, I thought that was just Inge."

[Asherdan]

"man, I thought that was just Inge."

Great for me for the same reasons, except the name is "Eva".

Also: The irritation that slowly mounts from answer to answer kills me.

[AlohaDawg]

Was there a long deep line heading down from her bellybutton between some jiggly tummy fat? Man, why do I keep askin' about this stuff?!

That whole bit by Ray cracks me up because it sounds like it's actually giving him a little charge, and he likes it.

ewww.