The Humor-Blogs.com Blog

Next up in the queue: Mental Meanderings of an Old Man authored by Dave G of Manchester, Something Something, UK. Does that make you a Manchester United fan Dave? That wasn't made clear to me, but the fact that Dave is a fan of the ladies was. I think mainly by the post where now deceased friend Graham (this is the UK, there had to be a Graham) referred to him as a "dirty bugger".

That aside, I started off not really enjoying Dave's blog. I don't know if it was the clutter mentioned by one of the reviewers below, some grammar slippage (also mentioned), or the fact that I first read the title as "Menstrual Meanderings..." which had an unpleasant if not confusing connotation for me. But by the time I settled in and got drawn into his yarns, I left feeling as if I'd just spent an afternoon at the pub with him quite enjoying his stories. Dave, I'll prepare you - scores weren't great. Mostly I think your blog suffered from the same fate as some of the others under the reviewers' scope - "not humor enough!"

Let's see what they meant:

Category	Score	Points
Content	4.62	32/70
Writing	6.25	3/5
Web Design	4.75	2/5
Intangibles	4.44	2/5
Read Regularly	2.5	2/10
Frequency	6	3/5
Total		44

Percentile Rank: 12

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Posts read like a diary of things that aren't terribly interesting. It is, however, written with good style.

ED NOTE: Is it me or are those two statements contradictory? Surely something written with good style must hold some interest. Onward...

The posts are boring and novel-like in length. Every once in a while, he tries to be funny, but by the time you get there, you're desperately trying to make it to the end without poking your own eyeballs out to help relieve the boredom.

We're happy to report that no eyeballs were lost in the review of this blog.

The grammar was too horrendous for me to read any more. The two posts I did read were not funny.

I didn't find it funny. Amusing if I'm being nice, but not funny. Maybe it's the British humor, but I didn't laugh once. This is great storytelling, don't get me wrong, but what is funny? And the sidebars! Gah, so busy.

This is just not a humor blog.

Very dry British humor. Blog is well written but not outstandingly funny. The stories were well described and you can tell the writer has years of experience writing and expressing his thoughts. Wouldn't say it's definitely a humor blog for all...but I could see where some of the old stodgy Brits would find it quite funny.

Major kudos to the blog's title. Black background aside, the design is fair. Writing is great. My only real beef is with the length of the posts - they are very, very long. How long? I didn't know I had A.D.D. until I began reading this blog.

Things took a turn for the better:

This blog is a very enjoyable read. I completely forgot I was reviewing it - that's how intriguing the posts were. One problem though was the excessive amount of pictured links on the right side of the blog, I found it distracting and irritating.

This guy is hilarious!

I would read this blog regularly and I love the writing - this is a storyteller. I cannot say enough good things about how he writes and the narrative that he winds. He only gets middling marks though, as again, the blog is not very funny nor in my opinion, is it trying to be.

Helluva a read and I will be back!

The first blog I have reviewed that I truly loved.

I'll spare some of the repetitive comments regarding sidebar issues such as the length or meandering quality thereof. A few reviewers found it somewhat distracting, although one or two did find it interesting. Another reviewer left in a huff because her computer kept freezing every time she attempted to read so I'm not sure if that had anything to do with all of that sidebar action as well.

So here's my two pence for what its worth. Sidebar - a bit of a show in and of itself but somewhat detracts from the posts in its distractability factor. I'd clean it up a bit. It's nice to write from a homespun perspective, but once you let the grammar go, all bets are off so I'd employ a bit more proofing before publishing. Some also decried the length of your posts, but in your defense you were trying to give us all the juicy bits. With a little prudent editing, you could still get your point across nicely.

Nice going Dave. Although not scoring high as a true Humor-blog, you did garner some nice reviews for the writing and storytelling quality. I'd wager that you may have picked up a reader or two so it wasn't a total loss. I also hope that you're feeling better as where last we left off in your blog you were under the weather and haven't since posted.

So get well, Dave and cheers.


Review posted by: G of Simply Said

G here again. Diesel said something about making a movie, I think. He promised me a bit part if I delivered a few batches of reviews. Totally plausible, wouldn't you agree? I think Vladmir (or whoever that tin guy is on his blog) is going to be in it.

This week we're reviewing The Pop Eye, a blog that gets a bit of its fodder from the world of celebrity skewering. That well is pretty deep -- unlike many of the celebs being skewered -- so The Pop Eye has a wide net to cast. Although I think BeckEye, the blog author, is leaning towards musical topicality, she is not above a well placed post about reality TV or her disenchantment with Catcher in the Rye.

The Pop Eye is nicely designed and although it may not quite qualify as a true humor blog, it is certainly written in a tongue-in-cheek style. I think that can be a problem when submitting oneself for review as a humor blog as the blog - your baby, which you have cuddled and loved and stayed up nights with and let sleep in your bed, it's spit up on your favorite shirt - whoa, I got confused there for a moment. Okay, I'm back. The point is that we all love our little blogs and want everyone else to love them too. But not all blogs fit the Humor-blogs.com niche, and this may be the case with The Pop Eye. Having said that, however, I found this blog to be more enjoyable than some which have received a more generous score. Let's look at the reviewers' input:

Category	Score	Points
Content	4.93	35/70
Writing	6.71	3/5
Web Design	7	4/5
Intangibles	5.36	3/5
Read Regularly	1.43	1/10
Frequency	8	4/5
Total		50

Percentile Rank: 15

More of a music/pop culture blog than a humor blog. Well written, looks good, I personally am not interested in the content, but I can see where others would be.

It's funny but I wouldn't read it everyday. I'd probably look it up again and just read that day's post.

This blog had a few clever lines and some jokes that fell flat, at least to me. It needs focus and a little more shine, but there's probably a genuine funny blog here waiting to get out.

I won't say I'm hooked. The sidebar was more amusing than a few posts, but overall, there is cleverness here that, if tapped into, could spiral out of control. In a good way of course.

I like the blog - it's easy on the eyes, the writing is clear and has a nice, easy flow to it. However, it's not a humor blog! It doesn't attempt to be funny, and it succeeds.

I found this to be a very pleasant blog. I didn't read anything that had me falling on the floor in gales of laughter, but I did smile from time to time. BeckEye seems to be a charming woman, with a cute sense of humor. I wouldn't necessarily feel compelled to pop over to her blog on a daily basis, but that doesn't mean I didn't like her.

Nice blog with a slight celebrity gossip angle. A bit tame for my tastes.

Those were the nice ones...

Another celeb-based blog, don't people have any other interests in the world? And the individual blog vote buttons show a serious hint of desperateness to be liked. Have some confidence if you're going to be such a critic of those poor wealthy celebs!

It's not funny. It's not even quirky. It's a friggin' diary, fer cripe's sake.

ED NOTE: web log - blog: isn't that a friggin diary?

Slick, very slick, makes you sick, very sick.

ED NOTE: Okay, I think that last reviewer just wanted to show off their rhyming prowess.

Let's end on an up note, shall we:

Nice blog. Looks like the blogger has been around a while so she knows what she's doing. I like how she has interviews with other bloggers to add a personal touch. Although after a few posts answering questions from other bloggers I started craving more original content.

Some writing was funny, other musings were so-so. But with her personable approach to blogging, I can see how the blogger is likable among her peers.

I think that last review sums it up well. The Pop Eye, while not a great candidate for Humor-blogs.com, is still an enjoyable blog and worthy of a periodic read. I found her to be enjoyable and I'm a fan of anyone who can slip in an arcane Far Side cartoon reference right off the bat.

So BeckEye, keep doing what you're doing. I personally found you to be witty and charming, so there's that. Flat out humor blog? The reviewers have spoken. Perhaps not just yet, but I for one, have not written you off.

Next.

Hello Humor-bloggers. I've broken the Humor-blogs.com inner sanctum of editing reviews! I'm filling in for Diesel while he writes books from the roof of the house that he's building or splashing about in his fountain. Don't worry - no harm has come to him. I am in a unique position in that I am not actually a Humor-blogs.com member.

Actually, I complained to Diesel several months back, "What's the deal - some of these blogs don't seem to be solely humor, some of my posts are funny...when I feel like it(WTF?). He quickly pointed out that I could indeed join the ranks, get reviewed and possibly get kicked to the curb. It was with visions of reviewers traipsing across my lawn with blood lust heavy in the air like the angry mob in Frankenstein, that my decision to decline his invite was delivered. Anyway, my blog is Simply Said where I go by just "G". I also do a weekend gig as "DJ Lampsha" or just Lampsha at Central Snark while everybody is recovering from their week of snarkery by dropping by to listen to whatever artist's music I'm featuring that weekend. Very casual like.

Okay enough about me - reviews. This week we have THE PRETZEL, TWISTED NEWS, which I have to say fared decently among the reviewers. It is a satirical blog taking aim at American "news" stories, ala The Onion, which some of the reviewers naturally likened it to, with varying viewpoints.

Category	Score	Points
Content	5.65	40/70
Writing	6	3/5
Web Design	4.47	2/5
Intangibles	5.24	3/5
Read Regularly	2.94	3/10
Frequency	8	4/5
Total		55

Percentile Rank: 47


For instance:

Funny stuff...very "onion-esque". The lack of being able to comment and the quick headlines with no "article" makes you think he's actually trying to either copy or try out to be an Onion Staffer.

and:

I'm adding Pretzel Twisted News to my blog roll right now. Hysterical! Reminds me of The Onion, but more consistently funny. Probably the funniest blog listed on this site.

alternately:

This blog is a crappy version of The Onion.

or:

The blog seems to want to imitate The Onion in the presentation and style. Unfortunately, it misses.

Fun, but they shouldn't start applying at The Onion just yet.

Those were just The Onion references. In general terms, people either got and enjoyed the twisted logic or salt just wasn't their preferred spice:

The site needs a lot of help visually (it looks like a screen full of gravy), but it does have a laugh or two - nice job.

I rated this blog lower in the "intangibles" due to my peeve of blogs with advertisements; however, after a few minutes scrolling down reading the "nuggets," I bookmarked it for future enjoyment.

At first I wasn't sure what to think when I noticed that comments were disabled, but in the end, that did not detract from my enjoyment of this blog.

Definitely some good laughs here. I enjoyed a number of the "posts" a great deal. This blogger seems familiar to me -- and by that I mean "familiar" yet better than he was the last time I reviewed his material. Well done!

The writing is short and witty. However, updates are too sporadic, especially given the short length of the posts. I enjoy the humor, but the design of the site leaves much to be desired.

He tries so hard to be funny and he almost succeeds.

Not big in Europe:

This blog is all American, difficult for us Europeans to get a handle on.

This blog was not to my taste as I don't live in America so I don't know how "salted with the truth" the posts are.

Also, some of the breaking news links didn't lead to any content except for a repeat of the title, and there's a broken image on the front page. This blog needs some housekeeping!

ED NOTE: The breaking news links going nowhere fast are part of "The Onion-esque" quality of the big lead up to thinking you're actually going to read a legit news story. I'm thinking that this is the blog author's intent.

FINALLY:

Funny stuff...I'll be back from time to time to check it out.

or

Just not something I find entertaining.

All this proving, once again, that humor is in the eye of the beholder. Andrew, I think criticism, while not always easy to hear can offer some valuable input. For instance, if you want to take it to the next realm of "serious" satire, clean it up a bit, perhaps look into a nice custom template, think about ad placement, and hone those writing skills! I myself popped over and found you enjoyable and am admittedly immature enough to have found humor in the "Marco Polo" missing family piece, among others. I think also amping up the volume of posts couldn't hurt.

So good luck and thanks for being open to the whole review experience. And what have you got to lose? Submit something to The Onion already!

(Thanks, G! I think we can all agree that you put my half-assed reviews to shame. Anyone else want to make her a permanent replacement? - Diesel)

Mischief is, in the words of one reviewer, "perfectly pleasant," but not terribly funny. I don't think the author of Mischief is necessarily trying to be laugh-out-loud funny most of the time, but of course that's a liability in a blog that's being reviewed as a "humor blog."

Category	Score	Points
Content	5.08	36/70
Writing	6.58	3/5
Web Design	6.67	3/5
Intangibles	5.17	3/5
Read Regularly	2.5	2/10
Frequency	8	4/5
Total		51

Percentile Rank: 21

Some quotes from our reviewers:

I was a bit mortified to hear this blogger ridicule his prison inmate students re: state capitols. I found the other posts boring.

Very funny. Some posts are funnier than others, but it was definitely amusing to read.

Overuse of exclamation points by the author. 10 yard penalty. Repeat down.

This blog just isn't funny.

This is a neat blog. Not hilarious, but someone in such a position as Prison Teacher is bound to have some interesting/funny stories and perspectives, and this doesn't disappoint. A good writer that kept my attention pretty effortlessly. My fear is this will get hammered by reviewers for not being side-splittingly funny, but people should give it a chance.

It made me laugh!

Nothing overly negative nor overly positive to say. It was a pleasant read. Loved the youtube of Miss South Carolina, though!

I think the guy was trying to be funny, but I didn't even crack a smile once. The only positive things I can say is that the site was easy to navigate and not bad to look at.

I thought this was a great blog. Filled with original anecdotes and humor, written by a guy who actually seems to care about his career/family/readers. Color me impressed.

I think this blog broke my funny bone. I am unable to laugh for the next 4-6 weeks. Rehab looks promising though.

Although the blog was perfectly pleasant, I wouldn't call it funny. The author is mostly talking about himself and two of the 4 or 5 posts on the front page were meme'. He's a likable, average seeming guy and I'm sure he'd make a great neighbor, but it just wasn't funny.

Personally, I've found many of the prison stories to be enlightening and amusing. I'd like to see more of them, in fact. There's nothing wrong with this blog, but it just doesn't quite fit into the "humor blog" mold.

Magazine 13 fared pretty well with our reviewers. Over half of the reviewers mentioned problems with grammar, spelling or usage, however. I suspect a little more proofreading could have landed this blog in the top tier of the humor-blogs hierarchy.

Category	Score	Points
Content	6	42/70
Writing	5.55	3/5
Web Design	6.09	3/5
Intangibles	5.82	3/5
Read Regularly	4.55	5/10
Frequency	6	3/5
Total		59

Percentile Rank: 62

Some quotes from our reviewers:

The grammar was awful and the content was offensive.

The first post was funny. The others, eh not so much. This blog has more than one author and a good point is that they differentiate between authors; the bad point is that some of them have awful spelling and grammar habits. I chuckled at the very least but don't think I'd come back again.

Having never heard of this blog even remotely, I was a little hesitant. This is actually really, really funny stuff. There are different "columnists", so it's likely that there's something here for everyone. My fave is Paul/Michael, who completely owned me on the Chinese Toy Recall post. I would like some more proofreading...missing words and unfortunate typos distract from the overall experience. This was really strong, and I will definitely be back.

This blog is original and quite funny, but the authors need to brush up on spelling and usage. The mistakes I came across in several posts just made me cringe, and I can't laugh and cringe at the same time (guess I'm not good at multitasking). I'll be back in spite of this, because the posts really kept me laughing.

It works, it's funny.

Gah! Google Ads! Pet Peeve... can't review... Honestly though? It's a newish blog. And we should revisit this blog once it gets it's "sea legs" and gains a bit more momentum, and a bit more of an audience.

Not bad. Not GREAT, but not bad. That said, I did enjoy the "gist" of a couple of the posts, but I was somewhat distracted by the misspellings and/or poor grammar. I know... details, but that's where the Devil resides (or so I've been told).

I see potential here for a really funny blog but it is just not there yet. The glaring grammar errors are a big issue as well.

A couple of good giggles in there. The layout was your basic boring blogspot layout. I would have liked to see a little effort in that department, just for the sake of it. I said 'no' to the 'would i read it regularly question' just because there are a lot of blogs out there, and it didn't have any stand-out pizzazz. I like pizzazz.

I guess those quotes pretty much speak for themselves: If the authors work on the spelling and grammar, Magazine 13 has potential.

Our reviewers were generally positive, if not terribly excited, about The Simarco Letters (and Other Distractions).

Category	Score	Points
Content	5.45	38/70
Writing	5.64	3/5
Web Design	5.27	3/5
Intangibles	5.45	3/5
Read Regularly	2.73	3/10
Frequency	6	3/5
Total		53

Percentile Rank: 29

Some quotes from our reviewers:

I was annoyed by the constant references to Splotchy - who is that? Some posts were very amusing, I like this guy's attitude - but some posts made little or no sense.

Most of the posts made me laugh out loud. Others, like the Wednesday 15 didn't do much for me, but overall I liked the blog and would definitely go back.

There is some quality stuff on here. Too many of the posts weren't meant to be funny (Top songs, etc.) to really qualify as a highly ranked humor-blog, but the funny posts were pretty amusing. I LOVE the official blog seal on the left sidebar. To many "F" words for me to be able to read it regularly at work.

No need to change anything, it's really funny!

I'll be keeping an eye on this blog for a while. Although not every post is a gem; there's good stuff in thar blog posts!

There were "moments" of funny here, but not enough to bring me back. The best posts were those in which I was "hearing" his voice, instead of his imitation of a few other posts by *other* bloggers I've read in recent months.

It is always a bad sign when you arrive at a blog with the most-overused template ever and a picture of a child with demon-like snot running down from their nose. As promised, I found nothing original or really funny. This is also the first time I have ever reviewed two blogs that had the same viral video in a post.

The brand of humor here is calling a movie 'gay' and calling Carl Rove an 'ass-bag'. It was .... erm... hardly creative. I mean Carl Rove has given us a plethora of opportunities for humor. So, no, the content was just dumb, not funny. The layout was a standard blogger theme that 2890380942 other people have. I didn't like it at all... the commentary sounded like it was written by Beavis and Butthead.

Not a bad score, but this blog could be improved a lot by sprucing up the template a bit, trying to be a little more original, and possibly toning down the profanity. And if the blogger really wants this to be known as a "humor blog," he should focus more on producing humorous posts rather than lists, videos and other filler.

Pushing the Envelope got a lot of accolades for its originality. Unfortunately almost nobody found it very funny. As one reviewer noted, "Although I do give the blog author major credit for regularly coming up with original cartoons from his viewpoint of the political landscape, I just didn't find them that funny."

Category	Score	Points
Content	5.69	40/70
Writing	5.77	3/5
Web Design	6.77	3/5
Intangibles	6.08	3/5
Read Regularly	0.77	1/10
Frequency	8	4/5
Total		54

Percentile Rank: 28

Some quotes from our reviewers:

The only reason I wouldn't go back is that I can't post comments because I don't have a Blogger Account... I won't return to sites I can't comment on! Otherwise an enjoyable site.

NICELY original. I was very impressed, and think this blog has a LOT of potential! I may not have laughed out loud while reading this material (because I didn't always think it was especially funny), but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the content or appreciate this blogger's creativity.

I like that the cartoons don't seem to be bound by political lines, but they are lacking in bite a bit.

I don't know if I'm qualified to say if this stuff was funny, since I'm not as informed about politics as I should be, but the cartoons are really cute.

This blog steps into the tricky realm of cartoon political punditry. Although I do give the blog author major credit for regularly coming up with original cartoons from his viewpoint of the political landscape, I just didn't find them that funny. He does get points for originality though.

Political humor has to be awfully darned funny for me to pay any attention. Pushing the Envelope certainly has its moments, but in generally it's not hilarious enough for me to want to visit back frequently. Unfortunately, many of the cartoons don't stand on their own and require the author's commentary above them for them to make any sense. I might like it more if the cartoons could carry the blog.

I don't necessarily enjoy political cartoons and political humor; but that's not to say the stuff isn't quality. There were some amusing things in there. And as far as "eye appeal," I didn't enjoy the colors that the artist chose to color the illustrations.

Clever graphic humor by someone who spends as much time as I do following politics.

I have lots of nice things to say, but one bad thing: this blog is not funny. All set up, no punch line.

One of the few blogs I've read so far on this site that actually does something original and works hard at it. Some of it is amusing and I think the author should keep at it.

I can appreciate the effort, but I really like to chuckle when I read a comic, and there were no chuckles elicited here. Plus I'm just not much on politics.

It seems like I'm always telling people in these reviews that their posts need more "punch," and I feel compelled to do it again here. Dry, sophisticated humor is great, but every kind of humor, from The Three Stooges to Candide HAS to have punch. I'm no expert in writing political cartoons, but I know enough about humor writing to know that in a two-panel political cartoon, your second panel has to be all punch. You can't spend the second panel explaining the joke. All the explaining has to be done before the last panel. Otherwise you're not delivering a punchline in the last panel -- you're delivering a punchline wrapped in bubblewrap nestled in styrofoam packing foam inside a big cardboard box of explication.

That's why the cartoons come across as "amusing" and "original" but not funny. My suggestion would be to come up with jokes that need less explanation (easier said than done, I know), or go to a four panel format where you can get the explanations out of the way before the final frame.

Again, this blogger gets BIG kudos for coming up with 100% original material and being committed enough to post regularly. It's much easier to copy and paste other people's material than it is to come up with stuff like this on a regular basis. I just wish it had a little more... punch.