Chess at the Edinburgh Fringe

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Tristan Clayton
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Chess at the Edinburgh Fringe

Post by Tristan Clayton » Thu Aug 25, 2011 7:34 am

Just spotted this from BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-14646532

The 5th funniest joke at this year's Fringe comes at the expense of our beloved game.

I still found it quite funny, though.
Follow me on Twitter @BackRankTristan for a patzer's-eye view of the amateur chess world: 140-character book reviews, ill-informed opinion, cartoon updates from the Back Rank, and other assorted chess rubbish.

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Jon D'Souza-Eva

Re: Chess at the Edinburgh Fringe

Post by Jon D'Souza-Eva » Thu Aug 25, 2011 10:42 am

I saw that and thought the joke was rubbish. However it reminded me of a line in Catch 22 which gives a much better reason to stop playing chess:
Joseph Heller wrote:The captain was a good chess player, and the games were always interesting. Yossarian had stopped playing chess with him because the games were so interesting they were foolish.

Paul McKeown
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Re: Chess at the Edinburgh Fringe

Post by Paul McKeown » Thu Aug 25, 2011 10:47 am

Joseph Heller wrote:The captain was a good chess player, and the games were always interesting. Yossarian had stopped playing chess with him because the games were so interesting they were foolish.
The ubiquitous Geoff Chandler :!:

Ray Sayers

Re: Chess at the Edinburgh Fringe

Post by Ray Sayers » Thu Aug 25, 2011 11:18 am

Out of curiosity I googled 'chess jokes' - they are by and large pretty rubbish and recycled.

However, I liked the Fringe joke. My wife even 'phoned me up to tell it to me because it was on the 'Today' programme!

Geoff Chandler
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Re: Chess at the Edinburgh Fringe

Post by Geoff Chandler » Thu Aug 25, 2011 2:07 pm

Matt Kirshen:
"I was playing chess with my friend and he said, 'Let's make this interesting'.
So we stopped playing chess."

Unfunny and certainly not original.
(like most of the 'comedy' acts I've seen this year.)

If this is in the top 10 of jokes cracked at the Fringe
then you can only imagine what the rest were like.

It's a simple take on the lead up and reverse joke.

"Me and a friend were fed up seeing comedians so we went to see Matt Kirshen instead."

I'll let him off if he is actually a chess player.
But suspect he's a non-player cracking jokes at the expense of Chess. Blasphemy!

Think I'll round up the Bell's gang and we will go and heckle him to tears.

No need to Google for Chess Jokes. Play over games of Chess.
Honestly I've been brought to tears of laughter seeing some players games.

I happened upon this a few years back.

1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. Qxd4

Image

So Black offered to get the Queens off. 3...Qf6

Image

"Oh No." said White. "The Queens stay on." 4.e5

Image

"Queens OFF!" yells Black 4...Qb6

Image

"Queens ON." shouts back White. 5.Qc3

Image

And now did Black play 5..Bb4 and win the White Queen?

Oh No. 5...Qb4

Image

"The Queens are coming OFF!"

Priceless, and it's from an actual game.

What's more only chess players can see the humour in this.
These non-players do not know what they are missing.

By coincidence I posted my take on The Fringe only yesterday.

http://www.redhotpawn.com/blog/blogread ... gpostid=70

It's already got 150+ hits which is 149 more laughs than Mr. Matt Kirshen
has had in the past few weeks. (The Snow White one was good.)

Hi Jon

Catch 22. I was what you classed as 'normal' till I read that book in the mid 60's.
It changed my life. It is a quote I've often read in connection with that book.
Heller's 'chess joke' fits in with the theme book where nearly every sentence
turns your head. Yossarian fell in love with the maid because she was the only
person he could not fall in love with. The old man reminded Yossarian of his Dad
because he looked nothing like his Dad...etc. etc. and etc etc.

Paul McKeown
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Re: Chess at the Edinburgh Fringe

Post by Paul McKeown » Thu Aug 25, 2011 2:11 pm

Geoff,

Yes - 1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. Qxd4 Qf6 4. e5 Qb6 5. Qc3 Qb4! - that was humour, but try explaining to a non-chess player.

Geoff Chandler
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Location: Under Cover

Re: Chess at the Edinburgh Fringe

Post by Geoff Chandler » Thu Aug 25, 2011 2:48 pm

Hi Paul

As I said only Chess Players will get it.

Happily I don't have any non-playing friends so the situation will never arise. ;)

I see humour in the end to that S.Gordon - M.Adams games I've linked to.
Here though the joke would be on me. I can just see me playing what
he played including the last move blunder.

It's a perfect case of 'there but the grace of God goes I."

Why do we blunder so when faced with really good players.
Is it a forlorn doom?
There is more going on inside our minds in OTB Chess than just what
we see on the board.

Geoff Chandler
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Location: Under Cover

Re: Chess at the Edinburgh Fringe

Post by Geoff Chandler » Fri Aug 26, 2011 1:27 am

"I was playing chess with a friend, it was a Caro Kann, we
said "let's make this intereresting" so pushed the pawn from c6 to c5
and played a Sicilian instead."

matt_ward
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Re: Chess at the Edinburgh Fringe

Post by matt_ward » Fri Aug 26, 2011 6:46 am

It is so typical chess players over react and take the joke to seriously; It must be true most chess players have no sense of humour.

Ian Kingston
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Re: Chess at the Edinburgh Fringe

Post by Ian Kingston » Fri Aug 26, 2011 1:26 pm

I posted the Fringe joke on Facebook and got four 'likes' (I don't have a lot of Facebook friends). Of the four, two are chessplayers, one is the parent of a player, and one doesn't play.

I also told the joke to my children and my ex-wife. They all laughed, but I think they were laughing at me, not the joke.

Paul Cooksey

Re: Chess at the Edinburgh Fringe

Post by Paul Cooksey » Fri Aug 26, 2011 1:30 pm

matt_ward wrote:It is so typical chess players over react and take the joke to seriously; It must be true most chess players have no sense of humour.
Maybe. But I'm not keen on occupying the cultural space formerly reserved for trainspotters.

I liked Simon Spivak's anecdote about poetry, and this joke works better if you substitute trainspotter than if you substitute poet.

Alex Holowczak
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Re: Chess at the Edinburgh Fringe

Post by Alex Holowczak » Fri Aug 26, 2011 1:31 pm

Ian Kingston wrote:I posted the Fringe joke on Facebook and got four 'likes' (I don't have a lot of Facebook friends). Of the four, two are chessplayers, one is the parent of a player, and one doesn't play.
I conducted the same experiment and had 8 likes: 4 from chessplayers, 2 from chessplayers in their youth who've since given up, and 2 who don't play.

For comparison, the following recent chess-related statuses had 7 likes:
(1) "Alex Holowczak is waiting for Roger de Coverly to go off on one now that the ECF's Future Funding Proposals have been published."
(2) "Chessplayers can be such demoralising creatures."

Geoff Chandler
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Re: Chess at the Edinburgh Fringe

Post by Geoff Chandler » Fri Aug 26, 2011 2:35 pm

I laughed when I first heard it....in the 1980's
When the genuius that was Bob Monkhouse cracked it. (it's how you tell 'em).

My point is that if this unoriginal 'joke' is even considered as the
Best of the Fringe then the state of modern comedy is in the soup.

I find this current lot dreary and repetative. (none of them tell jokes!).

I suppose being brought up with Monkhouse, Morcambe & Milligan
has something to do it.
Mind you, the vasectomy performed on them by the PC crowd
is not doing them any favours.

No doubt it will circle the globe as did that 'Chess Nut Boasting..' one did.
(.....and still does). :(