The Unexpected Juxtaposition of the Incongruous

Video reposted for the convenience of readers

Me?  Mocking members of the non-cis-heterosexual-dominant-culture, non-cis-male, non-Christian, non-working, non-Caucasian silent majority?

Never!

The reason I posted the video is because it is funny on many different levels.

The Scottish poet James Beattie first postulated that humor was the unexpected juxtaposition of the incongruous.  That is, the surprising, side-by-side positioning of two (or more) things that do not go together.

Being tough

First, I must applaud the people in the video.  They are out there taking risks.  They are DOING something to make themselves better people.  See the final paragraph.

Gait and Posture

If you read the literature in "signaling of sexual orientation" you will quickly learn that a major "signal" that gay men emit involves posture and gait.  Both are reminiscent of a marionette with wobbly, floppy, limp joints.  Another characteristic of this signaling is an arched posture with the weight back on the heals.

The body language of somebody who is transmitting "Don't F_ck With Me" signals are almost the complete opposite.  A man who is seconds away from hitting you hums with muscle tension.  Furthermore, his weight is on the balls of his feet, ready to spring forward or to shift his position.

It is highly incongruous to have a group of men with floppy postures talking about physically defending themselves unless they are afflicted with muscular-skeletal diseases.

Gait and Posture Part II

A boxing stance might not enable you to beat the other guy, but it will make it much harder for him to destroy you.  At some point it stops being fun and starts being work.  Author of this graphic.

Gay guys use "open and inviting posture".  A guy prepared to hit and be hit...not so much.

Gait and Posture Part III

Why do you think the military makes such a big deal of standing tall, shoulders back, chin up?

Perhaps more than anything it has to do with breathing.  Extended periods of aerobic activity demand breathing.  Slouching and arching are contrary to deep breathing.

In most cases fisticuffs are concluded in thirty seconds or less.  In those cases where the contest exceeds thirty seconds the participant who is breathing gains a significant advantage.

Gait and Posture IV

One person who viewed this video clip commented that one of the men had an artificial leg.  Suddenly the floppiness, at least for that individual, was not incongruous because there was an assignable-cause.  BAM!  The joke was on us.

A little less talk and a lot more action

Long soliloquy is for Shakespeare.  Clearly, the time for adroit riposte is past.  The guy who is still talking will be the first person who is punched.  Shut up.  Really.

The "Personal responsibility"- "Collective" tension

Anybody who attempts to engage in intelligent discourse and uses the terms "personal responsibility" and "collective" in the same conversation is fooling nobody but themselves.  Either you are trying to sell me a bill-of-goods or your academic conditioning created a habit of filling pauses with socialist-babble that simulates the appearance of thought when it would be more honest to say "Um..."  Or maybe it is virtual signaling, or credential flashing.  Whatever.  The two don't go together.  Another level of the unexpected juxtaposition of the incongruous.

Teaching girls to play softball

I used to work with a gentleman named Vince Ruma.  Enough time has elapsed that I can use his real name.

Vince played softball.  Hard-core softball.  He had a daughter who he wanted to become good enough at playing softball that she would get a college scholarship.  ---Spoiler: he was successful---

He knew that quality of coaches was a crap shoot.  He figured that the only way that he could ensure that his daughter had outstanding coaches was for Vince Ruma to invest in becoming an outstanding coach and to volunteer.  Nobody ever turns down a volunteer.

He went to a college camp specifically designed to teach dads to coach girls.

The person running the seminar, a rather "butch" woman, asked the dads why women threw differently than men.

She got all the expected reasons.  Different bones.  Different muscles.  Different nerves.

Then she had the men count of 1-2-1-2.

She directed the 1s to pick up a softball and hold it on their "weak" side.  She directed the 2s to observe.  Then she told the 1s to throw the softball against the side of the building they were conveniently standing beside.

Then she directed the 2s to pick up and throw a softball while the 1s observed.

Finally, she asked the men to describe how the person they observed threw.  "Like a girl." was the obvious answer.

She told the dads that the entire clinic would be run with them, the dads, using their "weak" side.  By the end of the clinic, she promised them, they would be almost as good with their weak side as their strong side.

It is all about the repetitions!

Let me repeat:

It is all about the repetitions!

Watching the men working out, my guess is that they shot this video in the first week of "work outs".  If they really care about protecting themselves and the people they love, I hope they continue to work out.  It would be fascinating to see a follow-up video six months from now.  I think it would look much different.