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Bob Saget 2.0

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the robo-saget-desires-your-funny-movies dept.

theodp writes "Slate makes a pretty convincing argument that YouTube and its knock-offs can trace their roots back to America's Funniest Home Videos." From the article: "The show's stock in trade was to find the lowest common denominator and then hit it in the crotch. Consider this list of select highlights from the show's 'Best of Kids & Animals' DVD: a kid doing a cannonball onto his dad's groin, a baby running into a church pew, a dog peeing on a wedding dress, and a kid clocking his dad in the nuts with a helmet. While these clips are all certainly lowbrow, they've also got something else in common: They're oozing with family values."

6 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. Why is 1800 of 2000 trampoline accidents? by iogan · · Score: 4, Funny
    At its height, viewers sent America's Funniest Home Videos 2,000 VHS tapes a day, and at least 1,800 of those, it seemed, showed some kind of trampoline mishap.
    Wouldn't that seem a bit high? What are all these people doing on trampolines? What am I missing here?
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    Nyhetsankaret.com -- det bÃsta av Sveriges Nyhetssido
    1. Re:Why is 1800 of 2000 trampoline accidents? by a16 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Wouldn't that seem a bit high? What are all these people doing on trampolines? What am I missing here?
      The joke? ;)

  2. There go the family jewels... by Chaffar · · Score: 4, Funny
    For all its black eyes and unplanned water landings, America's Funniest Home Videos always reinforced the nuclear family as this country's central institution. A child hitting his dad in the groin is a child who's spending quality time with his dad.
    Remind me to kick my dad in the balls next time he wants to spend quality time playing Scrabble with me...
  3. Re:But youtube isn't usually funny! by legoburner · · Score: 5, Funny
    "America's Funniest Home Videos" culled out probably 99% of the tapes they received

    The department which did that must have a higher suicide rate than the russian military!
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    Warhammer forums
  4. Re:GCD, LCM by richdun · · Score: 4, Funny

    Actually, lowest common denominator is okay. For instance, when adding the fractions 1/6, 2/3, and 4/18, you could convert all the fractions to a denominator of 54, as in 9/54, 27/54, and 12/54. But the correct procedure is to convert them to a denominator of 18, as in 3/18, 9/18, and 4/18 (16/18, or 8/9). And the lowest common denominator is only 1 if the numbers are all integers. You can't express 1/6 as a fraction of integers with a denominator of 1.

    For more, see Wikipedia.

  5. New slogan for YouTube by jb.hl.com · · Score: 5, Funny

    "YouTube: Everything Slashdotters hate about MySpace rendered as a low quality video"

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    By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --