Jokes

LET THE record reflect that even Dave Portnoy — the trash-mouthed commandant of the website Barstool Sports — knows that there are certain times when you shouldn't make certain jokes. This was proven on a night earlier this month, when Barstool, which equally celebrates sports and the male id, was holding an installment of its "Barstool Blackout Tour," a traveling dance party with lasers and black lights, for Northeastern students at the House of Blues. A campus protest group that called itself Knockout Barstool held a competing event: an open-mic rally against rape, protesting Barstool's general way of...

For all the millions of dollars spent on digital astonishments in "Men in Black 3," the film's most remarkable special effect is an analog one. It's the carbon-based Josh Brolin, who plays a younger version of Tommy Lee Jones's Agent K with an uncanny replication of the older actor's bearing and vocal mannerisms. Brolin's performance is funny, masterful, confident, and more than a little unsettling. If one human being can sample another, that's what's going on here. The rest of "Men in Black 3" is about as good as one could hope for from an unnecessary sequel that's a decade late to the party.

Barney Frank is in love. This is not exactly news — he's getting married in July — but it's still striking, the way a congressman who has cultivated a reputation for prickliness can be so publicly, sweetly sentimental. "It's funny," Frank said last week, musing about his relationship with his fiance, Jim Ready. "I used to listen to these songs about love and . . . they didn't mean anything to me. I would almost be kind of annoyed by them, you know — it's like I was left out. The whole thing takes on a meaning it didn't have.

For all the millions of dollars spent on digital astonishments in "Men in Black 3," the film's most remarkable special effect is an analog one. It's the carbon-based Josh Brolin, who plays a younger version of Tommy Lee Jones's Agent K with an uncanny replication of the older actor's bearing and vocal mannerisms. Brolin's performance is funny, masterful, confident, and more than a little unsettling. If one human being can sample another, that's what's going on here. The rest of "Men in Black 3" is about as good as one could hope for from an unnecessary sequel that's a decade late to...

RE “N.H. couple have beef with police for Tasering cow’’ (Metro, June 11) and “Hey diddle diddle, the cow jumped over the edge’’ (Letters, June 16): I read the comments for and against using a Taser on a cow, and I know I’m going to get heat for this when I visit my relatives out in farmland in Wisconsin this year. I’ve seen kids ride a horse up to a galloping steer, toss a rope around its neck, and toss the steer on its backside. I can imagine them all laughing as they ask, “Why not walk up to the cow and put a rope around its neck?

Before becoming a filmmaker in his own right - he just finished serving as an executive producer on "Moonrise Kingdom," due out next year - Sam Hoffman worked with directors Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, and Wes Anderson, as well as the stars attracted by such luminaries. But when he stepped behind the camera three years ago, it was for a project that focused on far more ordinary people: his father and his father's buddies. "My father gathered together 20 of his friends in New Jersey and I shot video of them telling jokes," Hoffman said.

IPSWICH - Patrons rarely left Tony Woo's place hungry or without smiles on their faces. There always seemed to be extra chicken wings in the kitchen for someone's table, and the owner was never short on jokes, his customers and friends said last night. He knew everyone's name, sponsored most local events, and hosted countless birthday parties and family functions. A local youth soccer team, which he sponsored, was named after his restaurant, the Ipswich Dragons. Woo ran the Majestic Dragon like a North Shore Chinese version of Cheers, local residents said,...

Jon Stewart must wake up every morning thinking, "What can I make fun of today?" Humor just seems to come naturally to the anchorman of "The Daily Show," Comedy Central's fake news program; some people are good with numbers, others have an affinity for language -- Stewart's mind is configured for funny. He doesn't worry about setting up perfectly scripted jokes with beautifully crafted punch lines, although he does have a fair share of those. He just likes to point out the many things in life he thinks deserve a good mocking.

These two guys are really nerdy. Really, really nerdy. They're so nerdy they play Klingon Boggle and obsess over "Battlestar Galactica" DVDs and sketch out math equations on chalkboards in their spare time. They're so nerdy their social lives don't extend much beyond MySpace and MMORPGs - you know, Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. They're so nerdy, they . . . And so it goes on CBS's "The Big Bang Theory," which clubs us over the head with the same that's-how-nerdy-they-are jokes over and over again.

There are bad sitcoms, and then there are bad sitcoms that simply depress. They're like a nauseating Disney ride called Existential Railroad that runs through the dark heart of American emptiness. Scripted versions of "The Jerry Springer Show," they are sound and fury signifying a headache. Fox's "Do Not Disturb," which premieres tonight at 9:30 on Channel 25, is a sitcom that bombards you with a whole mess of loud, stupid, obvious, politically incorrect material, hoping it will make you forget about the pervasive pointlessness.

For a welcome, President Barack Obama acknowledged his Group of 8 guests with a joke, a pleasantry or sympathy for the weight of the world. Ever the host, Obama stood under a canopy of oaks and poplars at dusk outside Camp David's Laurel Lodge to greet his G-8 guests. "Nice weather, huh," he said, acknowledging the photographers and reporters awaiting the arrival on a balmy spring evening. "Perfect, perfect. " Each dinner guest approached him separately and Obama greeted them by their first names To Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, in a bright blue jacket: "Dmitry,...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says having a sexy television star seated beside him made it easier to absorb the fat jokes Jimmy Kimmel made at his expense during the White House Correspondents' Association dinner. Christie told reporters Monday that "when you have (Sofia Vergara) next to you to console you, let me tell you, you don't care what the heck Jimmy Kimmel is saying about you. " Vergara stars on the ABC sitcom "Modern Family. " Kimmel made three jokes about the overweight governor during a monologue Saturday night that also cracked...

A while back, a salesman walked into a bar and told the owner a joke. True story. The owner of the Neptune Lounge in LaCrosse, Wis., was Terry Putnam. During the ensuing years, more salesmen came in to drink and tell jokes. Putnam likes humor, and remembered many of the good ones. And he began writing his own stuff, keeping a notebook close to jot down his new laugh lines. Now 77, Putnam is bringing his catalog of jokes back to the stage. After he later retired from his profession as a social worker in North Carolina back in...

Prince William insists he and his wife Catherine aren't preparing for life as parents just yet, after she was caught doting on a newborn boy at a charity event. The Duchess of Cambridge, previously known as Kate Middleton, met three-week-old Hugo Eric Scott Vicary on Thursday at an event to mark the achievement of a group of polar trekkers. Vic Vicary, the boy's father and one of the trekkers, said Kate had "said the baby was very cute, and had doting eyes on him. " Though William later cradled the infant, he dismissed jokes from...

"NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams was at Tufts University on Monday as part of the college's annual Edward R. Murrow Forum on Issues in Journalism. Never one to take himself too seriously, Williams cracked a few jokes while talking about politics and the news.

NEW YORK - Lou Goldstein was the consummate tummler, one of a zany species of entertainer who kept them laughing, or tried to, long ago in the borscht belt hotels of the Catskills. A tummler - the job title, pronounced TOOM-ler, comes from a Yiddish word for someone who stirs up tumult or excitement - was a jack-of-all-trades social director who amused the hotel guests with jokes, songs, and shtick that might be better described as slapshtick, as they sat by the pool, emerged from lunch, or headed for bingo.

The comedian Gallagher is telling jokes after being taken out of a medically induced coma that doctors put him in following his heart attack last week in Texas. Doctors slowly woke up Gallagher on Sunday morning. His promotional manager, Christine Scherrer, says Gallagher immediately recognized his family and started talking to them. She says he's breathing on his own, moving and joking around. The comedian, whose full name is Leo Anthony Gallagher, is known for smashing watermelons with a sledgehammer.

Prince William insists he and his wife Catherine aren't preparing for life as parents just yet, after she was caught doting on a newborn boy at a charity event. The Duchess of Cambridge, previously known as Kate Middleton, met three-week-old Hugo Eric Scott Vicary on Thursday at an event to mark the achievement of a group of polar trekkers. Vic Vicary, the boy's father and one of the trekkers, said Kate had "said the baby was very cute, and had doting eyes on him. " Though William later cradled the infant, he dismissed jokes from onlookers that he and his wife were in...

RE "MISTAKES are part of education, too" (Editorial, April 4): Comparing college athletes, who make mistakes on the spot during sporting events, to a campus newspaper's editor-in-chief, who can take time to consider the consequences of her actions, is illogical - and insensitive, considering the painful topic at hand. The BU newspaper's editor made the conscious decision to allow incredibly insensitive articles to be printed. To turn the suffering and pain that victims of abuse experience into humor is nothing but outright cruel, especially given the recent allegations of sexual abuse at...

By Gary Washburn, Globe Staff CHICAGO -- The Celtics were outscored 55-37 in the second half Thursday night against the Chicago Bulls and dropped a bitter 93-86 decision as Luol Deng scored 12 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter. Afterwards, Doc Rivers hardly acted like a coach whose team almost pulled out a tough road win. He spent his postgame session criticizing not only his team's effort but its toughness and desire. The Celtics committed five turnovers in the fourth quarter and looked lethargic in stretches as the Bulls were the more aggressive and physical team.