It’s amazing how people react to some things.  How they get so worked up over something that is nothing, or purely in jest.  Whether they lack a sense of humour, or refuse to look away from something that makes them uncomfortable, maybe even searching it out just so they can react.  It’s strange, it is as though some people purposefully want to be offended.

Before reading further, please read my previous post and the replies it gathered, then come back and read on.

Case in point.  My previous post was a complete joke.  I thought the language I had used would have made it clear.  Starting off in a serious way, then after a nice long leadup I pointed out an idea Jen had posted on her blog as a joke (and talked about in jest on Twitter).  From that point on my post went out in to left field, took a completely different slant.

Phrases like “whip ’em out”, “show us ya front bum”, speaking about moobs etc.  I thought that made it quite clear I was now talking completely in jest, not being serious in any way shape or form.  I then finished with lines paraphrased from The Simpsons “WON’T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!”

The song I included in the post from Tim Minchin takes much the same path.  It starts off talking about a very serious topic, then goes completely out to left field for the chorus “… but fuck I love boobs though, I so really love them”.  Surely including that just at the point where I go out to left field would be enough of a hint?

Not for some.  Poor Peter has decided he wants to read my post without a hint of humour.  He’s using it as a petty excuse to attack skeptics and skepticism.  He’s not only completely failed to see the joke, but he’s refusing to see it even after I point it out to him as plainly as I can.  I don’t know if he’s just too embarrassed to admit he made a mistake by not seeing it, or if he just plain wants to be offended.

There is no seriousness what so ever behind the idea of getting people to show cleavage on Monday.  As a matter of fact, I am willing to bet that on Monday I could go for a trip down to Bondi Beach and count more people showing cleavage that day (and a lot more skin than just that) than what we could gather globally online in the short time we have between now and then.

If there was anything behind the idea, earthquakes would happen every Summer.  The northern hemisphere would be afflicted by them around June, the southern hemisphere around January.  Spring Break in the U.S. would be known as earthquake season on all coastal areas on both coasts.  It isn’t.

There is no need what so ever to do any testing, it has already been done and is done every single year.  There is no need to entice people to do these things as it’s clearly false.  Joking about trying to organise it and get it to happen though.  Sure, why not?  It’s all in the name of a laugh.

Peter has accused Jen of backtracking, and I’m sure with this post he will accuse me of the same.  I’m not.  I stand by my post in the context it was written in – that being satire.  I even filed it under the “misc” category rather than “skepticism” or “atheism” and tagged it with “#boobquake” only.  I have explained this to you as plainly as I can, using the shortest and simplest language that I can.  If you still cannot understand that, then there is no hope unless you take some serious steps to work on your own personal sense of humour.  The only issue here is yours.  Not mine, and certainly not skepticism’s.  I write for myself and myself alone.