Flood Avoided

I guess "The Miller's Tale" is the best known of The Canterbury Tales. It's the one literature professors hope will draw some interest from a sleepy classroom, boasting, as it does, a fart joke. The tale is sometimes invoked as a defence of scatological or lowbrow humour. It does show how futile it is to get on your high horse about this stuff--people will laugh at what they laugh at, sometimes against their own moral preference.
Just how often students laugh when Nicholas lets one rip in Absolom's face is another matter. The comedy is robbed of its timing by an audience whose grasp of even their contemporary English grows weaker every year. The same obtuseness makes the setup difficult to grasp. Part of the comedy is in how smooth Nicholas usually is and how fussy Absolom is. Yet, there is a timelessness about these gags.
"The Miller's Tale" is a rebuff to "The Knight's Tale", not only of its arguments, but its very premise. It rejects the notion that human nature resembles what the Knight depicts in his tale. The Knight spoke of two men vowing undying love for a woman at a distance. The Miller speaks of two men immediately seeking to fulfill physical urges and nothing more. Nicholas and Absolom don't even care that Alisoun is married, implying they don't really care about marriage or vows.
Knocking the legs of moral presumption out from under the Knight inevitably pokes holes in his tale's ultimate statement about fate. Gods and dukes may control the fates of the two rivals and the woman but that's only because they choose to place themselves above the moral chaos of "The Miller's Tale".
But is chaos all it's cracked up to be? You might call me a snob that I don't tend to laugh at lowbrow humour. I do appreciate it, as I do "The Miller's Tale", as part of a portrait of humanity. God knows people could benefit from taking themselves less seriously nowadays.
Twitter Sonnet #1493
A glowing paper passed the shady pen.
Where nothing drinks the food was ever dry.
For pleasing signs we rent a printed hen.
Upon the egg we swore to never die.
The myst'ry book was waiting near the beer.
The optic glass beheld the cooler stoop.
For nature's truth the plastics clearly fear.
We gather fruits to sell the rusty coop.
The pretty coat was crazy like a cape.
The second drink was juice or soda salt.
The city's small beside the giant ape.
The pointy building housed a golden vault.
The southern town was taped to western shows.
The gaudy head was thick with glowing bows.