“In contrast with such lovable loafs as Seth Rogen and Danny McBride, who have supplanted him as cinema’s man-children du jour, [Jim] Carrey’s comic instincts still tend toward the sinister, and many of this film’s jokes live or die depending on which side of the cruel-clever divide they fall.” — from Andrew Barker‘s Variety review of Dumb and Dumber 2. Barker is not just observing but half-agreeing that “lovable oaf” humor is preferable or more digestible than “sinister” humor, which tends to mean social-criticism humor with bite. Humor without a point, in other words, is more inviting or worthwhile than humor with a point. I’ve posted this Michael O’Donoghue quote 28 or 29 times since this column began, but Barker needs to read it: “Making people laugh is the lowest form of humor.”