Wrong conclusions can be funny - or disastrous!
Sometimes I really believe I know what I’m talking about. So sure am I that what I am saying is the truth that I will insist that my audience believe it, too. I’ll go on a crusade. That’s when the real comedy begins.
”The people with the most ridiculous ideas are always the people who are most certain of them.” — [Bill] Maher’s Certainty Principle
I especially get a giggle out of my conclusions – you know, those times when I think I can boil down all the evidence into a single reasonable interpretation. And, of course, once a final interpretation is arrived at, appropriate action must follow. What happens when my interpretation of the evidence is incorrect? It’s a pretty good bet my “appropriate” action will be askew, too. Wrong conclusions can be the cause of comedy or disaster.
The immensity of the universe and the eons of time are so far outside my limited comprehension that I can’t possibly say with any certainty, for example, that other life exists or doesn’t “out there”. But for years I stated as a matter of fact that there is a God. How can I possibly know the unknowable? Thinking errors, that’s how!
In a Spongebob Squarepants cartoon, Spongebob gets up one morning and thinks he’ll create a fantastic dessert for himself. Unfortunately, his choice of ingredients cause him to have horrific halitosis (bad breath). Spongebob proceeds to go outside, where he meets several people, all of whom scream and run away from him as soon as he opens his mouth and says, “Hello.”