Another DUAN Rant

So, as long as I'm at it, I guess I'll air all my grievances about DUAN this week.  I understand that there is a general pressure to fit it, especially for the new folks, and that naturally leads people - even well-intentioned, clever, and funny people - to try to borrow material or re-tread over well-traveled and safe ground.  Maybe you think that doing so will enhance your profile by showing how well you fit in, but it will do the opposite, and even if it worked, that's not a way to establish your own identity on this site (and, ultimately, that's what you want, right?  You don't just want to be the guy who is always first to +1 Gamboa Constrictor.)  Look, I'm just going to come out and say it: enough already about the fucking Smoot-Hawley Tariff.

We get it: everyone loved David_Hume's legendary run of jokes about how small the tariffs were before Smoot-Hawley came along, we all got a major kick out of dont-forget-where-you-came-from-cheese-mac's legendary darko-fee.com bit, it was great when Bev talked about how he spent "4 hours in the gym excising," and, of course, who can forget MKM's delightfully inside jokes about "The buddy Hawley Story." They were all great.  But they've all been done.   When you come into DUAN and just bitch about how high the stupid tariffs are now, or how much the comments about tariffs suck on Gawker, all you're doing is cheapening something that was once a really special joke among those of us who enjoy the comments on Deadspin.

Look, I've said it before: these aren't rules, if you can find a way to make a good, fresh, original Smoot-Hawley joke, be my guest.  But how are you going to do that?  (I guess no one has really played up the Fred Smoot angle, but that's only going to be bear so much fruit.)  All I can ask is that you be really careful about turning a great and special joke into something that's just another internet meme.  It deserves better.  Those of us who love it deserve better.  If you have any self-respect, you deserve better than that, too.

Pictured: IMG after another tired Smoot-Hawley joke