banana peals of laughter

new favie joke:

what did abe lincoln say on his way to ford's theatre?
"i need to see this play like i need a hole in the head."



hellllllloooooo monday.

"you mean my whole fallacy is wrong"

So, I am reading Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media for my Theories of Media class. And like that's cool and stuff. I think he's an important dude in the genesis and development of Media Studies. But, ya know, I am just not sure that I can take him that seriously after reading this:

"As long as we adopt the Narcissus attitude of regarding the extensions of our own bodies as really out there and really independent of us, we will meet all technological challenges with the same sort of banana-skin pirouette and collapse."

Now, McLuhan may have some points about the whole failure-due-to-refusing-to-recognize-ourselves-in-our-technologies thing and he may be making an astute analogy between the Narcissus myth and the non-water technologies of our current moment, but he can't even get slipping on a banana peel right! Obv, Macky is missing the ESSENTIAL point that slipping on a banana peel is a moment of greatness (and authentic IMMEDIACY between the startled body and the uncanny environment) that no leaping weirdo in pink tights can begin to approximate. DOI.

How can he "understand media" if can't understand the most basic joke?