Wednesday, January 18, 2012

An Editorial Note and Our First (Last?) Comment Roundup

So, first of all, thanks so much for all your input.  Some of you wrote in some things that were tremendously helpful, others shared things that were tremendously rewarding, and most of you shared things that underscored the tremendous need for universal mental health care in this country.  Ultimately, though, my decision comes down to this: I'm having fun doing this, and we'll see how long that lasts.  If you enjoy it too, that's awesome, but I'll keep going for as long as I can keep this fun and (hopefully) entertaining.
Like Freddy Krueger, IMG (pictured) is tough to get rid of.
So, I'm not setting forth any definite new course for this place, but I am going to try my hand at a roundup-type thingy tonight.  Like I said before, this will look nothing like MBA.  To start, despite some impassioned and mildly unhinged pleas, no duds (and no Gawker comments).   There are so many reasons for this but it comes down to the fact that I don't want to do anything that might discourage someone who could develop into a good commenter, and more importantly, I'm a massive wuss who is absolutely horrified of hurting feelings.  Frankly, you don't really need me to tell you when a comment sucks.  You can just look above it and see "Same Sad Echo" written in black and white.  That's not to say I might not call out some particularly infuriating comments, threads, or trends I see, but it won't be a regular part of the routine.  The ninjas have been engaged and doing a great job in recent days and we're all the better for it.

Relatedly, I got one request from a relatively new commenter to "dissect" his contributions for the day and talk about why each one worked/did not work.  That's a very brave and generous offer, given what I've done to my good friends here, but I think I'm going to decline.  For one, I still doubt my qualifications to render advice.  But, more importantly, there's just too much risk that someone will interpret that as "this idea isn't funny, so you can never use it; copy what got the +1, and you can't miss."  No matter how many times it gets said, it bears repeating that nothing is ever out of bounds, other than unoriginal, boring comments (and, hell, Phin even finds a way to make those work).  The only question is whether it's funny.  Don't be afraid to breath new life into even the oldest, most tired meme if you can actually find a way to make it fresh and original.  I don't want to say anything here that might discourage creativity or limit any one's pool of material.

Second, I'm not going to endeavor to call out every good comment, or even the best comments of the day.  I'm going to focus on the ones that I feel like writing about.  That's not to say comment quality won't be rewarded, but just to say please don't freak out and assume I hate your comment if I don't post it, like I used to do whenever MBA missed one of mine.  Nope, I pick five a day, and that's it.  Feel free to prop up others that you enjoyed in the comments.

So, sit back, enjoy an ice cool beverage, and have a good laugh at me failing miserably at this.

Today's Top Five Comments, In No Particular Order:

Nothing from MKM today, so this will take more effort than usual ....

[throws dice]

5.  Gamboa Constrictor scored points the surest way he knows with this one: by stealing a joke that Bevraj of Choice had success with just a few weeks ago.  Whatever,  dogs are funny.  +1.

4.  I got a good laugh of this joke from EddieMurraySparkles, mostly because it reminded me of a song that's pretty unintentionally hilarious on its own, and also because I hate Craig James as much as any human being can hate someone he's never met and didn't even know existed until his son got locked in a closet by an unbalanced Mormon football coach.

3.   No surprise that this selection from sweatingmullets made the list; the surprise instead is that sweatingmullets still comments on Deadspin.  Who knew?  Seriously, it's a beautiful pun, the best use of the Brat Pack references all day, and it gives me a chance to laugh at someone whose life is objectively better than mine in every possible respect.  Well done.

2.  ReverseApeChemist delivered this comment that probably should have been sent to #metadayspa.  But that doesn't mean it wasn't hilarious to all of us self-referential losers who have nothing better to do in life than read meaningless shit like this site in case their name gets mentioned.  [stares daggers at UweBollocks]

1.  This joke from Bring Back Anthony Mason didn't get any love, but I thought it was pretty clever.  Of course, I also think that The Naked Gun is the finest movie ever made, so maybe you should reconsider spending your time reading my opinions.

Honorable Mentions:

Let's be honest, this joke is easily your early front runner for COTY and maybe COTM.

That wasn't so bad!  See you all tomorrow, maybe with some sort of new shit?!

11 comments:

  1. Thanks, man. Don't think for even a second that I'm not so shallow that I will be upset if you don't go actually +1 it in the thread, because I will totally hold a grudge if I only get a (text!) +1 on my own blog out of you.

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  2. Sweaty Sweaty from wsj.comJanuary 18, 2012 at 9:42 PM

    That sweatingmullets guy has been commenting a bit more lately, it's just that his comments usually suck.

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  3. Great work, IMG.

    I really liked this one
    from Same Sad Echo today, in the Turner, Montana thread.

    And I know you don't want to do duds, but I would suggest that this, from starred commenter ceilingFANBOY, doesn't cut the mustard. A visual joke that's not really a joke, and it spawns a grammar discussion. I hated it.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, that is a head-scratcher.

      I should do a piece on this, but stars really mean very, very little. Lots of folks have them from years ago, some of them seem to carry them over from other Gawker sites inexplicably, some get them from Drew posts or AJ live chats, and then there's Phin. If you read Deadspin, you know who the good commenters are, and that means a lot more than whether or not there is something yellow and shiny attached to their avatar.

      Delete
    2. Fair points. I'm glad you mentioned the thing about other sites' stars seemingly migrating onto deadspin, stars intact. That was what it looked like to me also.

      Delete
  4. MUTHAFUCKIN' PEABO BRYSONJanuary 18, 2012 at 10:31 PM

    Yesterdays comments were much funnier than today's.

    ReplyDelete