Thursday Roundup

Some favorites and very few duds from Thursday's commenting.

Favorites, in no particular order:

Same Sad Echo got things going today in the Wake Up Deadspin post with a funny dig at Jerome Bettis. I chuckled at this one.

In the Hockey Cockpunches post, RMJ=H made by far the best use of the name "Chimera" of all commenters, and received a +1 for his efforts. Nice job.

In the Dirty Hockey post, David Hume checked in with a plain-language University of Phoenix joke. I'm a big fan of this kind of joke; the casual style, the absurdity of an elbowing major, everything. This is another joke that could very easily have been just another tortured, overcooked recontextualization, but the easy delivery is what makes it so successful.

Why do I feel stupid for having laughed at this Oliver Miller dig, from fat-leaveher, in the Monster Jellyfish post? Every time I love a fat-leaveher comment, I feel like either an asshole or an idiot. Whatever.

Also in the Monster Jellyfish post, this wonderfully simple Metroid joke from reclusive commenter Matt Sussman. That's a perfect comment, and the commentariat loved it.

FavreFail dropped his best comment in a very long time in the Sketchy Guys post, and earned quite the ovation. That's another joke that could very easily be overcooked trying to go from sketchy to Susan Smith, but he showed terrific restraint and delivered a fantastic comment.

Also in the Sketchy Guys post, another beautifully elegant one-liner, this time from unstarred commenter DumpsterDining. The best part of this joke is the discipline or instinct to stay away from the word "sketchy", even though it's the crux of the joke. His comment was promoted and applauded.

Hatey McLife's comment in the Bill Plaschke post slayed me. The possibility that this joke could have gone unmade in this or any other thread makes me profoundly anxious.

Surging commenter MattinglysSideburns cracked me up again, this time with an utterly random Danielle Steele joke in the Bill Plaschke post. This guy's cookin'.

And finally, another winner from don't-forget-where-you-came-from-cheese-mac, who had me giggling with a simple, funny dig at the elderly. So they're an easy target; it's all in the approach and delivery.

Total Fucking Duds:

Two duds today, though there were the expected number of pretty bad jokes throughout the day. I'm still aiming to cut this list down to as few as possible each day, and to try to highlight comments that represent a specific commenting issue or topic; in other words, an opportunity for me to pontificate. Hey, it's my fuckin' blog.

The first comes from unstarred commenter mcerick86, with a comment that never should have been promoted. Yes, that means mcerick86 would still be an unapproved would-be commenter, but why exactly is that comment now visible to the world? It's not a joke. It's not funny. It has all the red flags that indicate a commenter who hasn't properly observed the standards of Deadspin commenting.

This kind of thing tends to pop up in Drew's posts, where many different topics are brought up in Drew's light, fun, conversational tone. Honestly, I don't necessarily always scour his posts for good or bad comments, expecting that the majority of the time the comments section will be the wild wild west. For that reason, I don't want to come down too hard on mcerick86, because his comment isn't necessarily that unreasonable for a Drew post, but again, a featured commenter ought to know better than approving and promoting something like that.

And the other dud today comes from unstarred commenter Avrus, who was seriously creamed by the comment_ninja for what amounts to a completely useless, inane comment. I'm not sure it warranted the ass-kicking it provoked, but at any rate, whatever needs to be done to curb the rate of commentary that doesn't even make an attempt at original humor gets my approval. This is a hard lesson for Avrus, I'm sure, but ultimately, I think people tend to pay attention when they see "promoted by comment_ninja", and the lesson is thereby delivered to the masses.

Hey, everyone have a wonderful DUAN.