I can immediately think of two appropriate orchestral works. Flight of the Bumblebee or The "Surprise" Symphony, which had a deliberate loud clash (ff Forte Fortissimo) in the middle of a quiet movement (pp Piano Pianissimo), intended by the composer to wake up any courtly ladies who had dozed off. 😛

"Whether 'tis better to chuckle quietly to oneself,

Or, by posting, spread the glee abroad..."

(First saw this when someone shared it to an op shopping page. 😛 )

'S'funny, I reckon Will Shakespeare would thoroughly approve of the jokes. A lot of his plays and poems were loaded with humour, which is easy to forget when they're plonked in front of you as a required study of the high point of English literature.

I had the good fortune to have an English Lit teacher who appreciated the humourous side of things. She told us she'd seen this sonnet "performed" onstage as a conversation between two gentlemen, with the mistress "unseen" by them around a corner, but hearing every word. Becoming more and more distraught as her beloved verbally pulled apart every bit of her appearance... until the last two lines, upon hearing which she ran out and hugged him... 😄 Ahhhh.... what would Shakespeare have to say about the instagram-perfect-image culture of today?

"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare."

@Smc

On the topic of i-pods... I can't remember if I've posted this on the forums before, but if so, we can all have another laugh at it. 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5MZlATPDzU