Thursday Roundup

Some favorites and a few duds from today's commenting.

Favorites, in no particular order:

Vodkanaut was on fire, first making me chuckle with his sly dig at Teddy Dupay in the Car Dunk post. Later, in the Brandon Meriweather Update post, his meandering monologue on doubt was good for a laugh. He wasn't finished, later earning some applause for a hilarious twist on fatherly wisdom in the NFL Lockout post. Vodkanaut is usually most active in DUAN, but his unique, inebriated, atonal silliness is a welcome change of pace in daytime commenting.

Gamboa Constrictor dropped another perfect one-liner in the Car Dunk post, to the delight of Francophobes everywhere.

President Camacho slayed me with a hysterical observation from the photo atop the NFL Lockout post. Excellent job.

In the Appalachian Trail post, All Over But The Sharting earned applause for a wonderfully depressing dig at the filmmaker. Careful structure is a key component of Sharting's joyful contributions.

In the same post, Always Winning checked in with an outrageous Jason Whitlock joke. I laughed out loud at this one.

And again, from the Appalachian Trail post, Eddie Murray Sparkles drew a laugh with a hilariously gross Gallagher joke. I love it when the more clever, cerebral commenters go for the simple laugh, and this was a great one.

Last but not least, Steve U showed pictures can be used for a great joke, with his literal representation in the UVA Choke Job post.

Total Fucking Duds

I don't want to pile on the guy, but norbizness had a dreadful day. First, there was his inexplicable contribution to the original Brandon Meriweather post. Then came his equally mind-boggling rent-a-joke in the Harvard/Princeton post. And later, he dropped this deuce in the Montreal Hockey post. This is perhaps the laziest carpet-bomb-style commenting by a starred commenter I can remember.

FriendsOfScottSisson got in on the act, laying this foul egg in the Buzzer Beater post. I suppose there's a joke in there, but I'm sure it's not his.

From the same post, billikenmetz thought (incorrectly) that recycling someone else's joke would be a good idea. This is not making jokes. This is like going to open mic night at the local improv, then wheeling out a television showing episodes of Family Guy and sitting down on the floor next to it.

At least cobra.la.la.la.la.la.la attempted to make a joke, but it fell flat and I hated it. I'm usually reluctant to punish someone who actually tried to make an original joke, but I feel like the John Amaechi/gay jokes are tired. If you're going back to one of these memes, you really need to bring something fresh, and this just didn't measure up.

And finally, from the so-bad-it's-actually-funny file, Von Kaiser's absolutely dead-on-arrival disasterpiece. Somehow, VK managed to overcook a joke that has fewer than 10 words. "[A]s in horny"? Really? WAIT, STAY A WHILE AND REVEAL YOUR BRILLIANCE FOR SUBTLETY TO US, O HUMOROUS ONE.

Today was a terrific day for Deadspin commenters. It started slowly, but towards the end of the afternoon, great comments were flying left and right. I left out any number of very solid, very funny, very original comments.

One more note; henceforth, I'm really going to try to deviate away from just picking on those comments that use pictures or videos in a lazy, throwaway manner. Frankly, I think I've made my point on that topic. Plenty of pancake-flat puns and references are tossed up throughout the day, it's high time I give them the comeuppance they so richly deserve.

Happy DUANing, y'all.