LogFAQs > #888296940

Esrac posted...

Rereading your post won't make it correct.

Imagine if you were introduced to people as "this is my friend Esrac, the guy who loves My Little Pony." (Note, I don't know if you actually watch MLP. I'm just using it as an example).

At this point, it doesn't matter what you've accomplished, how good your grades are, how nice of a guy you are. I've just told people that you're a grown man who enjoys a little girl's TV show, and that's what is going to stick in their minds about you for a while and it's going to take a while for them to take you seriously as a person.

This is the basis for a lot of those Ricky Gervais jokes from when he hosts award shows, and why they're so funny. "Our next presenter is the only person Ben Affleck has remained faithful to, it's Matt Damon!" He doesn't say Ben Affleck is an actor or director, he says Ben is a serial cheater and that's what people should pay attention to. "When Brad and Angelina see our next two presenters, they're going to want to adopt them. Please welcome Kevin Hart and Ken Jeong." Gervais is saying "forget these people are accomplished actors--two of them make a point of adopting multicultural children, and the other two are comically short men."

If "mentioning one quality of a person didn't disparage or diminish their other qualities", then those jokes wouldn't work. But they do, and they're hilarious, because that's exactly what he's doing. When you're talking about a professional, but you talk about their appearance first, you're doing something similar.
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