The Silver Pigs
“One should never use exclamation points in writing. It is like laughing at your own joke.”
context (16) "Mr. & Mrs. Everywhere: Calypso (stanzas 2, 5, and 7) <!-- [Italics in source] -->
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
Context: Watching their sets in a kind of trance
were people in Mexico, people in France.
They don't chase Jones but the dreams are the same —
Mr. and Mrs. Everywhere, that's the right name!
Herr und Frau Uberall or les Partout,
A gadget on the set makes them look like you. When the Everywhere couple crack a joke
It's laughed at by all right-thinking folk.
When the Everywhere couple adopt a pose
It's the with-it view as everyone knows.
It may be a rumor or it may be true
But a gadget on the set has it said by you! "What do you think about Yatakang?"
"I think the same as the Everywhere gang."
"What do you think of Beninia then?"
"The Everywheres will tell me but I don't know when."
Whatever my country and whatever my name
A gadget on the set makes me think the same.
“He who laughs last may be the joke.”
Ron English's Fauxlosophy (2016)
“A monster, which the Blatant beast men call,
A dreadfull feend of gods and men ydrad.”
Canto 12, stanza 37
The Faerie Queene (1589–1596), Book V
Source: Dying Earth (1950-1984), Cugel's Saga (1983), Chapter 3, section 2, "Faucelme"
“A joke can only get laughs for one reason because it resonates.”
Source: "She Mocked Men’s Bluster. Then Came the Complaints." in The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/30/world/asia/male-confidence-comedian-china.html (30 December 2020)
“He who jokes in the executioners face can be destroyed, but never defeated.”
Source: Wild Ducks Flying Backward
“Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.”
“A man who has no consideration for the needs of his men ought never to be given command.”
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
