Thursday, June 30, 2011

Thursday Roundup

Favorites and duds from Thursday's commenting.

Favorites
, in no particular order:

AzureTexan cracked me up a number of times on Thursday, but never more so than with this delightful contribution to the Equatorial Guinea post. Jason Whitlock jokes aren't nearly as worn out as, say, John Amaechi jokes, but it nonetheless takes special care and creativity to pull something this hilarious from that trough.

This might have been the comment of the day, from Theodore Donald Kerabatsos in the T.J. Fredette post. The line Mom and Dad are Awesome made me choke with laughter. Outstanding.

Unstarred and unapproved commenter Poignant Theater hit a homerun with this outstanding comment in the Manhunt post. What an introduction! For his efforts, he was approved, his comment was promoted, and he received a handful of +1s. Keep it up!

Raysism slayed me with this Mork and Mindy joke in the Manhunt post. The line assfucking of a lifetime is devastating. I'm laughing as I read it again. So, so good.

Here's your other comment of the day candidate, from Clue Heywood in the Manhunt post. This one brought the house down. Great comment.

Okay, goddammit, here's another one, from Steve_U in the Manhunt post. Man, this one really killed me, too. It's a meta-comment, but it is fucking hysterical. Today included a lot of awkward, tortured commenting, but the comments that were good were really good. When I laughed, I laughed my ass off.

It wasn't until the very end that I laughed at this one, from SavetoFavorites in the Bob Hope Classic, but that last line destroyed me. I like to think that was kinda the idea: silly but mild tone setting up an uproariously funny ending. In that way, it has the set-up/knockdown effect, but in tone, not in content. Or am I overthinking this. At any rate, the sort of casual way it's thrown on there at the end, as if to suggest it just rounds out the picture, really cracked me up.

And finally, here's a sharp, funny little one-liner from Mantis Toboggan, M.D. in the Charlie Sheen post. Actually, Mantis Toboggan, M.D. had a few funny, successful comments on Thursday, but this was my favorite. Nice work.

Total Fucking Duds

Unstarred commenter LBabe aimed way too low with this effort in the Chinese Cheerleader post. I'm not entirely sure why that's supposed to be funny, and I'm only giving it the benefit of the doubt that it is, in fact, supposed to be funny because LBabe generally does attempt humor. From time to time, we've talked about grinding over here on Mad Bastards All, and I offer this unsolicited advice to featured and unstarred commenters alike; a single A+ comment a day will make a much stronger impression than a dozen or more C+ comments. Sometimes, as a commenter, you want to be involved, you want to engage the group and join in the fun. Sometimes, you want affirmation and approval. But believe me, the more you casually drop unambitious, uninspired comments in Deadspin, the more other commenters will start to scan right over your offerings and ignore you. Resist the urge to engage Deadspin commenting as if it's a big party. Save your submissions for those moments when you really have something special to offer.

Similarly, this offering from Helena Handbasket in the Equatorial Guinea post amounts to nothing. It lacks any amount of vision. I assume people are commenting on Deadspin because they like the emphasis on humor and the high standards of commenter approval. This kind of totally boring, indefensibly lazy stuff just doesn't measure up. Try harder.

Okay, so, this was a shorter roundup. The commentariat was not at all bad on Thursday, but there weren't as many knockout comments. There just weren't. I have my theories on why, but mostly, hey, keep going for greatness. As I said, the comments that were great were pretty fucking great.

Happy DUAN, sillies.

10 comments:

  1. +1.

    The point about a single A+ outweighing any number of C+ comments is spot-on. That's great advice for everyone, myself included.

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  2. Oh man, pissed I missed today. TDK's and Clue Heywood's comments were unreal.

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  3. Big deal. He pulled up short when he went into the splits. My high school squad would have cut him for that.

    I don't think they had male cheerleaders in the early 70s, did they?

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  4. "Theories?"

    Water fluoridation levels? Black mold in the site infrastructure? Persians?

    Tobaggan did have hisself a day, didn'e?

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  5. I'm trying to figure out who you are. Mickelson's Man Tits? From like, four years ago?

    What the hell do I know. I'm the old man around here. I should be at the Deadspin American Legion, talking about the old days.

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  6. @Anonymous

    See, the obvious problem with that (if, in fact, that is where the attempt at humor in that comment lies)is that it is yet another wholly self-referential comment. How in the hell is a Deadspin reader supposed to know what decade LBabe went to high school? That the comment is therefore useless should be glaring to anyone who follows Deadspin commenting.

    Look, if a commenter wants to make a joke out of being old, it can't be based upon the expectation that everyone knows without being told how old the commenter is. For example:

    "Well, in my day, our high school squad cut cheerleaders who pulled up on the splits like that. And by 'my day', I mean 1847. And by 'our high school squad', I mean the 1847 Truckee Lake Pioneers. And by 'cut', I mean for firewood and sustenance."

    Actually, that's a fucking great joke.

    [pats self on back]

    [goes back to eating from trash can]

    And see, the joke is "I'm old and the Donner party ate people", and it's funny for getting there in an odd, unexpected way, and it in no way relies upon anyone knowing beforehand anything about your age or history or ANYTHING ABOUT YOU AT ALL.

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  7. Well, in my day, our high school squad cut cheerleaders who pulled up on the splits like that. And by 'my day', I mean 1847. And by 'our high school squad', I mean the 1847 Truckee Lake Pioneers. And by 'cut', I mean for firewood and sustenance.

    -1

    The Truckee Lake Pioneers didn't field a serial-killing cheerleading team of arsons until 1853.

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  8. @ Shitehawk: +1 for the joke, and + 1000 for the reasoned argument.

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  9. @Anonymous (again)

    Hey, this is not the place to express your animosity towards another commenter. I disagree wholeheartedly with your characterization of the commenter mentioned. And no, your comment will not be shown here, not as long as you're taking anonymous pot-shots at other commenters. Only I am allowed to do that.

    If you're anxious about being unapproved, I can understand that, but it should not translate in any way into hostility towards other commenters. No one mentioned in Thursday's roundup is guilty of anything other than misguided joke-making.

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  10. I may be just completely brain dead, but can someone explain Clue Heywood's joke to me?

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