My dear Colonel Poirot,

It would surely be remiss of us to neglect the opportunity thus presented.

Shall we play?

Is a sense of humour that different to the other senses? And has not Houllie acted as Gulliolle did in the book? As an aside isn't it strange the closeness of their names?

The ability to make a woman laugh and a good scent are essential parts of the male's mating kitbag.

Any comedian requires validation from others that their offerings are humourous.

Just to be told one is funny is not good enough, instead one needs to see a reaction.

Houllie enters the thread and tries a couple of 'scents'. Starts of course with the quite passable;

 "Yeeeeep. I've never forgotten any of my farts."

Not bad and in this setting had the benefit of leaning on the tried and true 'fart at a funeral' joke.

But us males are generally insecure about our prowess as comedians and within three minutes Houllie has taken a punt and backed it up with;

"'diabolical allergy' ... To Columbian marching powder?"

I have some support for the contention of the esteemed Professor Higgins, sorry Hitchens, that the delivery of humour is primarily a male domain, used to make us appear intelligent and more attractive to the fairer sex since with bodies like ours we need it.

Houllie's second effort, or scent, contained another ingredient, intelligence or wit! However it was obscure enough to confuse without the pleasure of discovery adequate enough to compensate.

Still, full marks for the attempt.

The response from Yabby and yourself signaled bodily emanations were the go but wanting to keep the ingredient of intelligence part of the mix Houllie attempted "Bacterial vaginosis?". Obviously fell flat but you can see a tester's mindset.

"Male humor prefers the laugh to be at someone's expense, and understands that life is quite possibly a joke to begin with—and often a joke in extremely poor taste."
Christopher Hitchens

I invite you to read the rest of his excellent essay.

http://m.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/01/hitchens200701

csteele,

According to Arthur Koestler, all humour is malicious : )

Houellie is an exotic breed in a place like OLO. I have designs to capture the essence of his wit (maybe bottle it and use it as a condiment, although as yet I haven't discovered the process)...anyway, he's promised to write a book and if he does, I'll buy it.

Will have a look at the essay a little later when more time.

Dear Poirot,

Of course it is malicious, especially when asserting ones self in a male pack.

It also has the function I described plus I like Nietzsche's take, quoted by Hitchens, that "Wit is the epitaph of emotion". Superbly illustrated by Houllie's use of it here by attempting to deflate what he saw as 'mawkishness'. The is also some truth in Aristotle's "Wit is educated insolence".

However it is hard to go past Monty Python's portrayal of the essence of humour in their skit 'The Killer Joke'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdWGlJrG6sQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

It certainly echoes and perhaps surpasses Gulliolle's last bottle with the notion that something can be so irresistible to something primal within us it causes our death.

Genius!

Dear csteele,

Thank You for your eloquent posts. As always you've raised
the bar in this discussion and given us food for thought.
Here I was thinking that Houellie had all the charm and
wit of three men:

Larry, Curley and Moe.

cont'd ...

BTW - I read the excellent article by Hitchens.

Mel Brooks summed up the difference between
tragedy and comedy thus:

"Tragedy is when I cut my finger.
Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die."

csteele,

That's a great article by Hitchens. Will have a more in-depth read of it later.

I happen to be a huge fan of P.G. Wodehouse. I love his kind of humour. I've even had a shot of writing in his style (for my own enjoyment only) - no-one else does it like him.

The following is an excerpt from my effort:

"The time had come, I could see, for me to reacquaint myself with Aunt Minnie. She was on my mother's side, and apparently had taken a distinct dislike to me at the tender age of three when I learned my first important lesson in life - and that was never to pee in the silver soup tureen....especially when it contains soup.
(I still maintain that she covered up that particular incident with dutiful ardour. To this day those seventy-odd blighters at the Hunt Ball have no idea that the Brown Windsor served that night contained a secret ingredient not usually served as standard fare)."

I think I'm a little more inclined to "male tastes" than most women.

: )