Thursday, May 19, 2011

Thursday Roundup

Some favorites and a selection of duds from Thursday's commenting.

Favorites
, in no particular order:

I was surprised this comment, from Eddie Murray Sparkles, in the Ben Eager post, didn't draw any attention. That's pretty clever, if you ask me. A simple switcheroo of two letters, and voila, you've got yourself a goddamn winner. Nice job.

I really enjoyed UweBollocks's contribution to the ASU Undie Run post, and from the looks of it, so did the crowd. That's good work.

WhoDoYouKnowHere contributed this very clever joke to the Hockey Abuse post, earning applause. That's a nice pull.

Our guy Phintastic offered another great pull in the Soccer Set Piece post. It's maybe on the obscure side, but is a pretty strong comment nonetheless. Comments can be obscure, but they can't be just obscure. This comment works because it's not just some random recontextualization - the actual content of the joke is funny, it just requires that you either understand the reference or look it up.

In the Jim Tressel post, snoop-a-loop's funny dig at Bleacher Report earned a nice round of applause. Good stuff.

I chuckled quite a bit at this offering from Vodkanaut in the John Sterling post. It's sharp and silly and I loved it.

And finally, unstarred commenter Raysism earned a promotion and a +1 for this excellent pull in the Weak Draft Class post. That's a terrific comment.

Total Fucking Duds

The ASU Undie Run accounted for a pretty hefty chunk of today's duds, for whatever reason. Unstarred commenter Asitwere contributed this head-scratcher, and I really have no idea what's going on there. If it can be explained, feel free to do so in my comments. At any rate, I feel like I'm a fairly intelligent person, and this seemed completely empty to me.

In the same post, unstarred commenter RiddlerStrikesAgain offered this two-part mess, which is ultimately just a goofy rent-a-joke. I think. I don't know, maybe it's the peyote, but there seemed to be a lot of nonsensical offerings in today's commenting.

Down thread, unstarred commenter The Norv Face contributed this, which I believe is meant to lampoon the jocks in the video. If that's the case, I think it's just too lukewarm. I can't see anyone laughing at that. There's probably a good joke to be made from lampooning the bro-ness of the bros in the video, but it would require somewhat more ambition that this offering.

Speaking of a total lack of ambition, this comment, from unstarred guy Ram Sacked, also failed to impress. Again, there's probably a good joke to be made from that idea, but this comment is just the idea without the joke. Finesse that thing a little bit next time. Think bigger.

This is a common theme today, it turns out. In the Hockey Abuse post, unstarred commenter Big Jim Slade drew a line from Nikolay Zherdev to Brett Myers and stopped there. That's not enough. These commenters all had the makings of solid jokes, and then they wasted their own good ideas by not taking them far enough. Spend the extra couple of minutes and shine that fucker up.

This is in a whole different category, from unstarred commenter VicViper, in the Dick Ebersol Classic post. There's no way to cook that thing and make it delicious. That one person looks like another person is not funny unless you happen to be 11 years old.

Along those same lines, this offering in the Soccer Set Piece post from unstarred commenter Tea_For_Dong should have been scrapped altogether. Where's the joke? Is the picture supposed to make it funny? What about the slashie? Tighten up your comments and focus on delivering a punchline.

And finally, I'm not sure what got into Armen Tamzarian's head, but I'm certain he can do better than this thing, from the Jim Tressel post. Look, I agree that The Simpsons were funny, but the fact that The Simpsons exist as a common cultural reference is not. And offering a reference to The Simpsons is not you being funny. Furthermore, a zillion Jim Tressel vest jokes have come and gone on Deadspin - surely there's something fresh and new in this particular Jim Tressel post that can be turned into a good joke beyond just another vest thing.

Alrighty, hombres. Have a great night, and support your local DUAN.

1 comment:

  1. Poop! Tried to do a sweater-vest/'dressing like a slut and he deserved it' sort of thing. Trying to wring out the last bit of funny from a tired meme is a high-wire act that nine out of ten fail at. Count me among the failures.

    -vodkanaut

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