As kind a corollary to the samizdat in Infinite Jest, there are jokes so terrible they have the capacity to haunt our dreams, grateful only that we weren’t the ones to spring them on an unforgiving world. “Uma… Oprah” belongs in that class, of course. So, perhaps, does the joke of the comedian who opened for Charlie Sheen in the now-legendary Detroit performance and was booed off the stage: “Why is it called a defibrillator? Shouldn’t it be a defibri-now?” (That isn’t the worst line I’ve ever heard, but it’s one that should have been toyed with for a few moments and then discarded on the grounds that it would could never play, except maybe, and only if you're a sick bastard, in a convalescent home.) The reason these apocalyptically bad jokes (apoca-quips? DISCARD) spring to mind is that virtually every gag of the new Arthur belongs in their company, beginning with the grisly opening sequence in which chauffeur Luis Guzman shows up in Burt Ward short-shorts so that he and Russell Brand can drive the Batmobile into the Wall Street bull statue. I'd only buy the DVD if there were a bonus supplement in which all the co-conspirators are hanged. More to come elsewhere (I'm warming up for the actual review) when I can bring myself to re-read my notes. R.I.P. Dudley Moore.