Irrelevant humour 99
them. Your expertise at illicit process will enable you to construct
arguments based on what some of the class do, and slide
smoothly into conclusions about all of them.
Some Australians are pleasant fellows, and some con-men are not
pleasant fellows, so some Australians are not conmen.
(Who knows? It may even be true; but it takes a lot more than this to
prove it.)Irrelevant humour
The fallacy of irrelevant humour is committed when jocular
material irrelevant to the subject under review is introduced in
order to divert attention away from the argument.
My opponent's position reminds me of a story...
(Which will not remind the audience of the argument.)While humour entertains and enlivens discussion, it also distracts.
The fallacy does not lie in the use of humour but in its employ-
ment to direct attention away from the rights and wrongs of the
matter in hand. A joke might win an audience, but it does not
win an argument.
A member of parliament, Thomas Massey-Massey, was introducing a
motion to change the name of Christmas to Christ-tide, on the grounds
that mass is a Catholic festival, inappropriate to a Protestant country. He
was interrupted by a member opposite who asked him how he would like
to be called 'Thotide Tidey-Tidey'. The bill was forgotten in the uproar.The hustings heckler is the great exponent of this fallacy. His
warblings accompany parliamentary election meetings, often