I was thrilled to get so many positive reactions to my “testicles” design! Thank you all! Too late to get it into our summer catalog, but look for it for sure in January 2011.
Since I seem to have found such a responsive (and like-minded) panel of experts, let’s really test the limits of good taste:
As you may know, I have recently started working with a few writers. Writer Laura Hohnhold has me falling-off-my-chair-laughing on a regular basis. But some of her submissions are just a little too risqué for my current product line. Now finally, with you, I can share the laughter. As you can see from these two captions for the same image, Laura is an equal-opportunity offender:
I loved this caption…
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…but when I showed it to my staff (all of whom are significantly younger than I am) they were absolutely appalled. They informed me that herpes is never under any circumstances funny at all. |
When I shared their response with Laura she wrote back: “Herpes must be a generational worry! I think of it as something almost quaint, like ague or the vapors….”
And finally, the most offensive caption of all! Please understand: I do not think there is anything in the least bit funny about children drowning. As a grandmother of two, I spend almost all of my time worrying about all the bad things in the world that could hurt my granddaughters. So why does this make me laugh?
Probably a defense mechanism gone horribly awry: I suppose that if I can laugh at something that terrifies me (or just plain annoys me) it loses some of its psychological power over me.
Thank you, Laura!
I was delighted to see that one response to my testicle design came from my dear former partner-in-crime JoAnne Russo. JoAnne and I used to do craft fairs together; we loaded my booth and magnets into her van with her booth and baskets and drove all over the east coast together. JoAnne’s relentlessly silly and often unpredictable sense of humor made all those grueling craft fairs bearable.
If you were to look at JoAnne’s current work (which I insist you do, and make sure you read her artist’s statement)…
…you would think she had a subtle and refined sense of humor. But don’t be fooled.
