Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Tuesday Roundup

Favorites and duds from Tuesday's commenting.

Favorites
, in no particular order:

Hatey McLife went on an absolute tear on Tuesday. What follows is a sampling, my two favorite comments among many great ones: this creative, clever scouting report in the Thomas Brothers post, and this offering in the West Virginia Bars post, which earned a pair of +1s. This seems like as good a time as any to remind everyone that many, many very good comments don't get +1s, don't get promoted, and/or don't make the Favorites. Hatey McLife dropped one terrific comment after another today, but I can't feature them all.

IronMikeGallego similarly had it going today. In the Thomas Brothers post, his "brownies" joke was the best of several attempts at that angle. In the Kevin Durant post, I laughed quite a bit at this one-liner, which earned a huge round of applause. And finally, in the Miss USA post, this is one of those sharp, elegant little comments that I absolutely love. Great job.

Gamboa Constrictor got in on the act with a pair of winners, first cracking me up with this Roberto Alomar joke in the Chicken Hat post, and later causing a ripple with this wonderfully daring contribution to the Ryan Dunn Update post. That second one took some serious guts. Great job.

I enjoyed this impressively clever offering from Steve_U in the Ryan Dunn Update post. Later, in the West Virginia Bars post, this was another great pull and the crowd loved it.

MarkKelsosMigraine earned a huge ovation for this awesome, personality-packed effort in the Ryan Dunn Update post. In the West Virginia Bars post, this comment was, if possible, even funnier. I giggled on and on at this joke. I'm still chuckling.

AzureTexan cracked me up with this re-use of the title of the West Virginia Bars post. It's actually a damn strong reference. Later, in the Phony Scouting post, this clever wordplay joke earned a round of applause from the crowd. That second one in particular again illustrates AzureTexan's talent for infusing his comments with personality and charm.

The last sentence of this contribution from SavetoFavorites in the Kevin Durant post slayed me. I mean, the whole thing's funny, but that finish is spectacular. So good. I have a giant crush on SavetoFavorites. That's not gay, right?

David Hume
showed that a great joke can be made using an unedited photo with this effort in the 80s Sports Posters post. So funny. This joke in no way relies upon the humor of the photo itself; taken apart from David Hume's contribution, the photo has no real humor at all. The strength of this joke is the author's ability to make a funny reference to the photo, to use it to construct a creative, original comment.

UweBollocks really cracked me up with this excellent comment in the 80s Sports Posters post. I'm still surprised this joke didn't get a little more attention; I thought it was one of the day's very best.

And finally, this is a tremendous comment from Bevraj of Choice in the Miss USA post. This joke has it all; a great angle, specific, skillfully executed tone, perfect structure, tons of personality. Great, great job.

Total Fucking Duds


Unstarred commenter Johnny Gomas went with ye olde YouTube clip for his contribution to the Wake Up Deadspin post. Observe the obvious differences between this effort and David Hume's offering in the 80s Sports Posters post; this comment has no punchline, no creativity, and no originality whatsoever. It's just lazy and boring.

Unstarred commenter Professor Mean missed badly with this desperate reach in the Chicken Hat post. It rather clumsily reworks something from the video into an excuse for a ho-hum Kardashian joke. This comment doesn't lack for effort, but it's obviously hugely misguided.

And finally, unstarred commenter Candy Bacon also opted against creating something original in favor of dropping a screen grab from his favorite show, in the 80s Sports Posters post. Be original, be creative, be funny, make jokes. This kind of stuff is never going to get much attention.

I imagine DUAN is winding down by now. At any rate, thanks for reading. Hopefully we'll be back on schedule sometime soon.

3 comments:

  1. I dunno, I just didn't "get" the Origin of Specious joke. I mean, I got the reference and everything but, I don't really get who or what is supposed to be deceptive or ostensibly true but actually false.

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  2. +1 for another terrific roundup. Thanks again for the excellent and obviously quite demanding work you're putting into this.

    Let me put in a (very limited) defense of Candy Bacon's dud. He did have the makings of a decent joke -- it was a nice catch that Tock Costacos is phonetically equivalent to "tacos, tacos" and "Tacos, tacos/burritos, burritos" is a well-known line from South Park. That said, it was a sloppy, lazy effort that ended up ruining whatever good materials he may have had to work with. A more disciplined effort might have resulted in a comment worthy of a promotion.

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  3. @cheese mac

    The tiny bits of their reasoning that we got. The whole concept that evolution is just a "theory" and that kids should be exposed to every other competing idea since this is all just a big whodunit at this point. It all sounds superficially plausible, but if you know anything about it all, it's totally ridiculous.

    It's a fair critique. To be honest, the reason I edited the joke was because I didn't think it was the perfect word for what I was going for. (I would rather have had something that meant "contrived reasoning" or "dishonest explanation" but it just wasn't there). Specious was about an 80% match for what I was looking for, and it fit the joke perfectly.

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