Facetiously Funny

As I was browsing the New York Times I came across a review for the movie Religulous, which is a documentary about religion and faith by comic and television host, Bill Maher. It's not the review itself that is the topic of this post, but rather a particular turn of phrase that was used in the review. The Times reviewer called the movie "facetiously funny". So now I'm just trying to figure out if he's being superfluously redundant. "Facetious" is one of those words I've come to dislike. It's used way too often by people who think they have to explain that what they just said was not serious, i.e., "it was supposed to be funny". "Oh, I was just being facetious". Yes, maybe. But now you're just being pompous. Anyway, Merriam-Webster defines "facetious" as "joking or jesting often inappropriately", or "meant to be humorous or funny, not serious". And one of its definitions for funny is "seeking or intended to amuse, facetious". Hmm. Facetiously facetious? Funnily funny? Let's say we use the "not serious" definition for "facetious". Can one then be "seriously funny" in a way that means "serious" for real (seriously), not "serious" as its used by some to mean "excessive"? Ironically, one of the definitions for "serious" is "not joking", in which case the phrase, "seriously funny", becomes an oxymoron. OK, so "facetiously funny" bugged me enough that I had to Google it to find out if it had any precedent. At the time I wrote this, Google told me that there were 191 documents with this phrase out on the web and 7 out of the 10 links on the first page of Google search results reference the New York Times review. So then I searched for the phrase by excluding all results that mention "Religulous". Now there were just 49 results. Good. This was a small enough set for me to browse quickly to find out if this phrase had been used anywhere else in a way that justified its use. And yes, I found this link, which in turn linked here for a lovely, little limerick about skiing topless in the Tetons while sipping tea. When one considers the English translation of the French word, "teton", I'd say this little poem is indeed facetiously funny.

Stinky Compost

I need to do something about the compost behind the barn. It's not doing what it's supposed to do. I suppose that's because I really haven't taken the effort to nurse it along. Ideally it should be a warm mass of rich, dark decaying vegetation and food scraps. But right now it's just a pile of stinky stuff I'd rather not look at. The crows are happy, the coons are happy, the skunk is happy. Even the occasional bear is happy that I don't turn the glop into the soil beneath. But my nose is most unhappy when I have to contribute yet another bucketful of kitchen leavings to that heap. Yuck. So it's about time to get the pitchfork and dig in. While I'm at it I should repair (or replace) the meager fence around the pile that really had no chance against that bear. This was the same brute that ripped the window off our garbage shed, then pummeled what I thought was a very sturdy trash barrel into a blue blob of industrial strength plastic. Fortunately it hasn't returned since then, but it is autumn now and I'm sure many bears are out there looking for anything to pad their insulation for the winter. So our redolent compost heap is like a beacon for woodland critters to come party behind our barn.

It drives the dog crazy.