Monday Roundup

Favorites and maybe some duds from Monday's commenting.

Favorites, in no particular order: 

Here's something from way out in left field, from Universal Enveloping Algebra in the Daily Screencap post. Lately, for whatever reason, jokes and funny comments that are not puns have been especially attractive to me. I think we've reached the point of saturation with puns. This kind of thing is a welcome departure.

IronMikeGallego earned a handful of +1s for this clever pull in the Olympics Racket post. Later, in the Fort Tebow post, he too went with something spectacularly different, dropping this funny preview transcript. I'm sure we've all grimaced at similar efforts that missed their mark - it can be pretty excruciating. Still, I'd rather read a day's worth of outrageous haymaker-type jokes than one uninspired pun after another. Today was a pretty good day for outside-the-box humor.

Unstarred commenter UnknownEric earned a promotion for this bonehead question in the Bisexual Buckeyes post. I love this stuff. Because I'm a moron, anthropomorphism jokes make me giggle, virtually every time. It's shameful. What can I say? But it's obviously not just the notion of a tree pretending to be bisexual for attention that's funny - it's also the idea that anyone is dumb enough to ask the question. Jokes with multiple angles to humor? Love those.

Choose-your-own-adventure jokes? Oh hell yes. Unstarred commenter Dusty Finish earned a promotion and a handful of +1s for that very thing in the Devils Takeover post. I also really enjoyed the abruptness of the "narrative", if you will, and of course the choice of chapter numbers. Great stuff.

Here's another funny joke from an unstarred commenter, this time in the Anonymous Bullshit Artist post. JonerBaloner went with that old standby, the recontextualization, but thankfully had enough juice in his punchline to pull it off. The simple idea of this joke is funny, and JonerBaloner does just enough to package it without getting in the way. Nice work. 

Is there a theme to today's Roundup? No. It so happens that many of the best jokes of the day came from unstarred commenters and/or used non-traditional structure to deliver the funny. Clever Hans earned a promotion for this go-for-it family lineage joke in the Dan Snyder post. I have a hunch most people missed this one. The names alone are funny enough to earn a laugh.

What did I say about anthropomorphism jokes? I can't help it! They fucking make me laugh! I laughed aloud at David Hume's ridiculous aside in the Clemens Verdict post. To be honest, this was probably the joke at which I laughed the most today. Yes, okay, I'm an ass. Later, his clever dig in the Fort Tebow post earned a huge round of applause.

And finally, if you're going to do puns, do them like this. From our guy Eddie Murray Sparkles in the Fort Tebow post. Clever, sure, but at its core this is a silly joke.

Total Fucking Duds

Here's a real fucking train-wreck from unstarred commenter CongoJack in the Devils Takeover post. Jesus, just look at that thing. I think my favorite thing about this comment is the exclamation point. In an odd way, it turns the whole thing into a masterpiece.

Unstarred commenter lanboyo really, really sucks. First, he did this, in the Charlie Pierce post. So lazy. That is possibly the least original comment in weeks and weeks. Later, he contributed this embarrassingly unwelcome, hopelessly tone-deaf eyesore in the Anonymous Bullshit Artist post. It was at this point that I decided to cap lanboyo's Roundup presence at two comments. I could have gone on. It was not a good day for this doofus.

Unstarred commenter M-Dizzle farted out this bitter bluff in the Clemens Verdict post. Hey, jackass, no one cares.

And finally, interestingly-named unstarred commenter Carrie Hunt and the Spoonerisms dusted off ye olde I-haven't-seen-a-[blank]-since-[blank] format for this utterly hopeless reference in the Balotelli's Goal post. I'm really not much a fan of this structure at all. I realize this structure can neither make nor break a joke on its own, but I also happen to feel like a mostly tame punchline is rendered 100x more annoying by this worn out presentation. In this case, the laborious set-up mostly put me to sleep before I even got to the punchline. That's what happens when you torture the hell out of your joke.

So . . . yeah. About that Friday Roundup. I intended to get to it. Really. For what it's worth, this joke made the Favorites. This and this made the duds. If there were any groundbreaking pieces of once-in-a-generation humor on Friday, well, there'll be no record of them on this a-here blog. My normal finish-the-Roundup time was taken up by a lot of gluttonous eating and even more gluttonous drinking.

Hey, you guys are the best. Really. The funniest group of sons-of-promiscuous-she-elk the internet has ever known. Keep making jokes, for the love of God. And have a great night.

Goooooooo DUAN!