The Humor-Blogs.com Blog

Hi folks. Diesel here, introducing a new review summarizer, the Mad Mad Housewife herself. MadMad, whose blog just got reviewed here, has kindly offered to help me get through these reviews. This was a tough review to start with, because although That's My Whole Thing ended up with a decent score, not very many reviewers left constructive comments. I can't be too tough on the reviewers, though, because I could have submitted my own comments, and I didn't.

Greg's blog definitely suffered from the length of the posts, and I think that several of the reviewers were confused or even turned off by his squeaky cleanness (like his fast forwarding through the 'naughty parts' of Titanic). However, he is a very good writer, and if you really look, you can find some very funny posts, such as the post on Awareness Awareness.

Ok, so now that I've softened the blow (and assuaged my conscience) a bit, I present to you MadMad's summary of the reviews.

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The reviews for Greg's blog were fairly unanimous: the writing was pretty good, but the posts were relatively long -- and not all that funny.

Category	Score	Points
Content	5.77	40/70
Writing	6.92	3/5
WebDesign	5.46	3/5
Intangibles	5.15	3/5
ReadRegularly	3.85	4/10
Frequency	6	3/5
Total		56

Percentile Rank: 51

I guess I'd better get this review posted, since its author has just volunteered to help me with these reviews. Fortunately, Madmad fared pretty well with our reviewers, so adding her to the review summarizers won't be awkward. (G has some personal stuff going on that is going to take her away from her duties for a while.)

Category	Score	Points
Content	6.18	43/70
Writing	6.29	3/5
Web Design	5.18	3/5
Intangibles	6.12	3/5
Read Regularly	4.71	5/10
Frequency	6	3/5
Total		60

Percentile Rank: 66

Did Madmad transcend the Mommy Blogger genre that gives several of our readers hives? Depends on who you ask. A number of our reviewers were impressed:

This blog is pretty funny, Sarcasm is my favorite! Only issue I have is how long the posts are but I'd return to check it out again.

I can relate to this blog, so I'm a tad biased. But, I laughed so hard that I woke all of my sleeping children, which really sucks for me, but scored big points for her. Mad Mad has a great way of looking at life through humor tinted glasses. Which she needs because she's now over 40 (Being hilarious must get easier with age!)

Holy snot, that was funny! I love her voice, her style and even though I can't relate to it (nowhere near a housewife in any shape of the word), what she has to say is just great. The only qualm I have is the stark white with black writing. It gets a little hard to read. Even just changing the background to an off-white or cream could be less glaring. Either way, this one was added to my Google reader!

Overall, a funny read.

The blog looks fine and the person is a very competent writer as well.

I adore this blog. Love this blog. My whole life is this blog. (I'm guessing your primary source of income is also this blog. - Diesel)

The consensus on the design: Clean but bland.

The design could be a little more colorful or easier to read. But hey, it's on her resolution list, so I'll cut her some slack.

Kudos for the simple site design. That's always a winner in my book.

The blog template is so bland it really hurts the blog. Pepper it up a bit and add some color.

The design is the least offensive Blogger template, which means everyone out there is using it. Switching to a different free template would help differentiate this blog from a the many others that look exactly like it. Lacking that, adding color or photographs would help.

Nobody seriously disliked this blog, but a number of reviewers couldn't quite get behind it either:

A bit bitter for my taste, maybe it was just my mood that day. Found myself scanning and skimming. Gripes are fine, rants are fine, just render them fresher than the eggnog served at Christmas.

Huzzah for hausfraus! Maybe I'm just in the wrong demographic to really find this blog funny, but the whole housewife observational humor schtick is a little tired. But judging by the number of comments she gets, people definitely seem to dig it. So hey, who am I to stand in the way of a generation of disillusioned and snarky soccer moms?

This blog has its moments, but some of the posts drag on for too long. For example, she wants to tell us her birthday is being ignored, but she's pushing it when she keep interrupting the flow of her writing. Sometimes, with writing, it's easier and more efficient to tell rather than show.

I'm sure this has an audience among bored housewives, but I'm not among them.

The writing is really good. Very earthy and conversational.

I'm sorry but it just didn't make me laugh. The author is trying TOO HARD to be funny and it's not hitting the mark for me, and I really don't like the stream of conciousness/inner monologue device in the writing.

Not my cup of tea personally but I'm still sure that plenty of others will read it and like it.

There's always one person who wants a "maybe" option regarding whether they will read this blog regularly:

I wish there was a "maybe" option on whether I'd read this blog again. I really liked one post, but the others fell short. I think it shows signs of being good, but sometimes the content seems like not much thought was put into it. I'd check it out again though ... because I think it shows promise and could be good for a laugh.

Look, I don't want to be overly harsh, but here's an idea: Read four or five posts from the archives. That's kind of what you're supposed to be doing anyway. How much more information do you need to make a decision? Are there some other outside factors that you don't have control over? Sunspots? Hormones? Do you have to go through an entire menstrual cycle before you're sure? What do you do when you have to pick chicken or fish? Do you freeze like a deer in headlights? Just make a freaking decision!

So there you have it. Maybe not the ROFLMAOest blog, but an amusing, well-written blog, authored by a nice lady who is going to help me get through the rest of these reviews so that I don't snap like a dead twig. Kudos, Madmad. And thanks.

Occasionally someone leaves a comment here asking whether there are qualifications to be a reviewer, or if "just any [insert epithet here] can do it."

I love this question, because it assumes that there is a big glut of reviewers out there fighting to review a limited supply of blogs. In fact, there are only a couple dozen people who are willing to do regular reviews, while at last count there are around 300 blogs waiting to be reviewed. At three per week, it will take 2 years just for us to get caught up. So in answer to your question, Mr. PhD in Blog Criticism, yes, any idiot/moron/jerk can be a reviewer.

What would you have me do, interview prospective reviewers? "I see that you frequently comment on the consistency of your wife's gravy, and often tell people waiting in line at the movie theater which films to avoid. Very impressive. Expect a call in 2 or 3 weeks."

And who the hell appointed me to this job? Shouldn't someone determine whether I'm qualified to determine whether reviewers are qualified? And someone will need to qualify them, of course. Maybe the U.S. Supreme Court. Nobody questions any decisions they make.

Look, I'm just a guy with a website. It happens to be the website that comes up first on Google when you type in "humor blogs." That may mean something to you or it may not.

I've managed to scrabble together a group of people who are willing to look over a few blogs a week and write up their thoughts. And I've managed to find a few extraordinarily helpful souls to make sense of these comments and post them here. We're all volunteers, and our opinions mean as much or little as you want. The composition of the reviewer "staff" isn't constant from one blog to the next, and after a while the reviewers tend to get jaded because, frankly, most blogs are crap. Sometimes the reviewers are grumpy. Sometimes they have ulterior motives. Sometimes we catch the blogger on a bad week, when they weren't feeling particularly funny or creative.

And sometimes there's a perfect storm of grumpiness, as with this review. Rickey's a bit of a misanthrope, which I find equally entertaining and off-putting. Our reviewers, evidently tired of mediocre blogs, either didn't get his shtick, got it and didn't care for it, or just didn't feel like putting in the effort. So they weren't in the best of moods.

The Frogster, who was assigned to summarize these grumpy reviews of this grumpy blog, is sick. And grumpy. He's tired of reviewers grousing about stupid little incidental features of a blog while refusing to trouble themselves to read more than two paragraphs in a row. He's tired of reviewers making contradictory criticisms, not to mention committing all manner of grammatical and spelling errors while snarking about a blogger's writing style.

And frankly I'm a little grumpy too -- about commenters bitching about the quality of blog reviewers, and people complaining about the scoring algorithm I use, and reviewers who give a blog all 2's without so much as a "Sorry, not really my thing."

So maybe we all just need to get it out of our systems.

When I first read the Frogster's review of Rickey's blog, I laughed my ass off. I thought, "Man, there is no WAY I can use this." But then I thought, what the hell. If the reviewers can dish it out, then they can take it.

It's only fair, of course, that I subject the Frogster to my own criticism while he is criticizing the reviewers criticizing Rickey, who is criticizing everything else. I can only hope that Rickey writes a follow-up post telling me what an idiot I am for the way I handled this review. Then the circle will be complete.

So, now that I've completely lost our ADD readers, here's the Frogster's review of Rickey's blog, along with my own commentary.

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The Frogster here. I'm sick. I've had some kind of flu thing for almost a week and I'm grouchy. That may increase my grouchiness about reviews. But I am grouchy. It might just be my luck, but I have gotten reviews for a number of blogs in a row with an awful lot of whining. According to the list of reviewers, some of them are people who visit and comment on my blog. So, by calling them out I run the risk of someone deciding they hate me and taking me off their links or never visiting my blog again. Oh well.

I know that funny is in the eye of the beholder, but for crying out loud. We're not awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature, people.

Now then. I have no relationship with Rickey other than the comments we occasionally leave on one another's blogs. I would not recognize Rickey if I saw him on the street. I even scolded Rickey once for dropping an F-bomb on my blog (when you see my blog on the main page here, it has a smiley face with a little hat on. That means no F-bombs, please). But I have to go on a bit of a rant with regard to these reviews, for the sake of my mental health. I shall now review Rickey's reviewers.

Category	Score	Points
Content	4.55	32/70
Writing	5.64	3/5
Web Design	4.36	2/5
Intangibles	4.45	2/5
Read Regularly	1.82	2/10
Frequency	8	4/5
Total		45

Percentile Rank: 13

Meh. It was okay, but nothing I'd come back to.

Thanks for that in-depth review, Capote. Rickey should be able to make good use of your constructive criticism there. Maybe you should try texting. It looks as though typing tires you out.

Eh...I kind of feel bad. But, as hard as I would try, I couldn't make myself read any more of it. Maybe it's just not my style of humor because I felt like I just didn't get it. I did like his use of photographs, though.

This is fine. Humor is subjective. This reviewer said it wasn't his thing, and he will probably take a point off Rickey's score because of it. Fair enough.

Again, I think that you should have a "maybe" on the would you read this blog scale. (Give me a break. Make up your mind, already. It's a yes or no question. Either you're coming back or you're not. Do you need more time to think about it? Do you want me to ask you again in 3 weeks? Should I hold your hand in the mean time? Can I speak to your supervisor? If I gave people the option to say 'maybe,' people would say 'maybe' 75% of the time, when what they mean is, 'No.' So just freaking say NO already. - Diesel) Because when I first came to Ricky's blog, and oh my god does he remind you that he is Ricky through the ENTIRE blog, I thought "YAWN." He talked about football predictions and creating a banner. Not funny. But then I got down to some of his political posts and they were thoughtful AND funny. So I started thinking, "this guy has promise." But overall, I dont' think I'd go back just because it took me awhile to get into it.

Awhile is an adverb, Faulkner. You meant "A while." And, in a somewhat ironic twist, you spelled "Ricky" wrong- it should be "Rickey." After seeing all of the "Rickey's" you are bitching about, you think you would have at least spelled it correctly. Nicely done. Which DMV office employs someone with your particular set of gifts?

Geez, Froggy. Take some Sudafed and maybe some morphine already. Evidently you missed the fact that "Rickey," being the genius he is, misspelled his own name in the blog url. And I guess you also missed the post where Rickey pointed out said fact. So much for your eye for detail, eh? - Diesel

I have to say, I give a lot more leeway to sites that post every day, because THAT IS SUCH A CHORE. Ricky posted every day this week. So for that, I say, YAH RICKY!

I agree. Daily posting is too much work for me.

Despite my concern he has a mental disorder I like the blog.

Yeah, he probably does have mental disorder, but I think you could say the same about most bloggers.

I don't think this blog is meant to be funny. It has a lot of serious stuff in it.

You're right. Rickey was trying to put his blog up at horror-blogs but he mistyped it and it accidentally got shipped over to humor-blogs. DUH! HA HA! That silly Rickey! Psst! Maybe we should email him and let him know about his little "whoopsie." It's really, really, really kind of you to point that out. Boy, maybe we can put this whole embarrassing episode behind us.

The posts are too long, didn’t even smile once. One of my personal pet peeves is when people refer to themselves in the third person and do so throughout the post. Like nails on chalkboard for me.

Speaking of too long, your first sentence is a run-on, Hemingway. You should split it in twain. "The posts are too long PERIOD CAPITAL I didn't even smile once." Also, you meant "Nails on A chalkboard," I presume. Rickey could probably tighten up his post length by eliminating things like conjunctions and pronouns- maybe then you could struggle through a post.

You know what bugs me? People who use a single dash to join two independent clauses. - Diesel

While I wouldn't read this blog regularly, it's not bad. The writing is good, the humor is there but it's just not my kind of read. On top of that, who the hell is Rickey and why should I care? I even went back to the first post of the blog to try and find out. Nothing. I'm not about to root around in all those posts to find out either. I can't tell if it's someone talking about a guy named Rickey or if Rickey's talking about himself in the third person. I feel like I've walked into the middle of something and I just don't get it. As for the design, nothing to complain about. Simple, easy to read, aside from the neverending scroll of posts, it's nice to look at.

I think it's fairly obvious who Rickey is from his posts. Would a long biography help? Oh, but that would piss off Anonymous Reviewer #6 above, unless he made it funny.

I had no idea who Rickey was. To me, "Rickey Henderson" sounds like the 12-year old retarded kid who rides his bike up and down the streets in your neighborhood offering to show people his bottle cap collection. I see a picture of a baseball player in the lower right. But then I also see pictures of purple cows on a lot of peoples' sites. Am I to assume that the writer is pretending to be a purple cow? - Diesel

I couldn't surf away from this blog fast enough. Sports, Politics, ACH. And yes, both of those topics could be funny? But in reality, are only funny if Jon Stewart is talking.

We use the question mark to ask a question in the English language, Steinbeck. You are not asking a question in your third "sentence." This makes me think you are the kind of person who makes every statement into a question, you know? Both of Comedy Central's news spoof shows SUCK without their writers, you feel me? Plus, in your fourth sentence, you should stick something in front of the "are," aight? Geez. Would you prefer it if Rickey just posted a fifty word post about how someone farted in the next stall over and it smelled bad?

With what we're paying these reviewers, you'd think we could get some higher quality writing, eh, Froggy? - Diesel

I am grouchy. I've blown my nose like 27 times since I started writing this review. And I have a headache. I like Rickey's blog. He recently put up a post where he applied the law of diminishing returns to the Baldwin family. He also recently posted explaining New Hampshire to non-Hampshirites. I go up to NH fairly often (I've had family up there for the last 20 years) and he really hit the nail on the head. I think the good news is that while I've only been blogging for a year and a half or so, I've seen blogs drop like flies. A couple of the blogs on my blogroll are kaput and I'm just too lazy to go and take out the links. Rickey's a clever guy. If you enjoy satire or good observational humor you should stop by his place. I will, just as soon as I blow my nose.

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Ok, I hope we all feel better. Nothing like a little constructive criticism. ;) - Diesel

Mark Jabo's blog, Get Incensed, got quite a positive reception from our reviewers overall. A couple of reviewers complained about the ads, but there were no other consistent negatives, and Mark was roundly praised for his writing and wit.

Category	Score	Points
Content	6.47	45/70
Writing	7.05	4/5
Web Design	5.95	3/5
Intangibles	5.21	3/5
Read Regularly	6.32	6/10
Frequency	8	4/5
Total		65

Percentile Rank: 82

Let's get the negatives out of the way first:

The font color is too light.

This page keeps crashing Firefox. Presumably something in all the ads.

I'm not too thrilled about the layout but it doesn't make me nauseous or give me a headache so I can't really complain. it's simple, a little ad intensive but still readable.

I did have a few laugh out loud moments but the posts are long. I would definitely read this blog again but save it for when I have time.

This otherwise awesome website is spoiled by one annoying factor which many people opt to go overboard with - advertisements and banners. This website has them in abundance and may put off people from visiting regularly.

And now the positives:

When I read the introduction in the sidebar, I was a little leery because it basically stated that it was a rant blog, not something I'm fond of. So I took to the first post bracing myself and I was pleasantly surprised. Instead of some idiot ranting on about how his mom took away his PS2, I got an intelligent and cheeky look into constellations. The John Travolta is a little scary. The writing is excellent and while I'm not about to snort anything from laughing so hard, it's a subtle and witty brand of comedy that far surpasses anything about fart jokes. I'll certainly come back for more for the excellent writing alone, not to mention the wit.

Excellent writing, found myself reading back a few days just for fun. It felt like I was hanging out with the cool kids back in high school, well, actually, they were tolerating me because I had bought them sodas, but hey, there's a picture of me in the yearbook at their table because of it. But I was glad to get to hang out at the table.

After reading his "Animal Crackers" post, I immediately bookmarked his blog for future enjoyment. I continued reading and got further confirmation that bookmarking his blog was a good decision when I ran across this string of words in one of his posts: "grizzly bukkake fest." If I weren't married right now, I'd probably be stalking this wordsmith!

I'm sure some reviewers will be put off by the length of some of the posts, but I was blessed with a superior attention span (i.e., I'm old) and I really enjoy the gradual build-up to the final burst of hilariousness. (And yes, that was supposed to be a double-entendre)

I really hate this, because Mark is really good. His humor is off-beat, takes some great and unexpected turns, and is, unfortunately, funny.

His writing style is clean and not overly verbose. He also seems to happy to recognize the good works of other humor writers. Assuming that the other reviews share my view, (and they should, the ignorant prigs) I can now see myself pushed farther down the rankings.

The page is ho-hum, neither good nor bad, but the humor is first rate. He does appear to be excessively Huey-centric, but that seems a common failing around here and I didn't mark off for it. (See that you don't! - Diesel)

A really enjoyable read and thats why I'll be back to read his stuff again.

This website has almost everything I love in a website - an easily navigational theme which looks as if it has been customised by the user to compliment their well presented banner. Maybe it isn't modded but the entire theme just looks brilliant.

The scathing sarcasm and biting satire is everything I tend to enjoy from a website and while it may not interest everyone, I would be glad to bookmark this alongside The Onion or Maddox's "The Best Site in the Universe".

The posts on this site make for a truly enjoyable read. Rest assured, I plan to visit Get Incensed as often as possible.

The first post I read here was so funny I laughed out loud. Overall, very funny stuff. I'm subscribing as we speak.

And one comment that could go either way:

Courageous use of the picture of the guy from "Eddie and the Cruisers".

Great job, Mark. Looks like you've picked up some new readers, and this is one of the few reviews recently where people seemed more-or-less ok with the template. You might think about cutting back on the ads, but I don't think you're going to lose any readers because of them. And hell, I can't complain, because my book is up there. Keep up the good work.

Our reviewers weren't particularly excited about Olga the Traveling Bra. There weren't a lot of strong feelings about the content either way, and they seemed to actively dislike the template and layout. Still, it ended up with a 50, which is a decent score.

Category	Score	Points
Content	5.1	36/70
Writing	5.3	3/5
Web Design	5.25	3/5
Intangibles	4.2	2/5
Read Regularly	3	3/10
Frequency	6	3/5
Total		50

Percentile Rank: 20

Let's start with the good. One reviewer thought it was hilarious:

Very bizarre and unusual but I just can't stop laughing. Some of you may think, "What's the point? It doesn't make any sense." But really, does it have to?

A few others were positive, if less enthusiastic:

I like Olga's blog. She's a master (mistress?) at puns. Her blog is not especially hilarious, nor do I think she intends it to be, but it is easy to read and enjoyable just for the sense of fun. I surely do wish I could travel the way her bra does. And I mean that in all possible ways.

Definitely an interesting read and the pictures alone are worth a visit. It reads like she has a great personality which is always a plus. It's always great to be able to add another blog to my feeds list.

The author sounds creative and light-hearted. The blog carries with it sensible and humorous description of some hilarious pictures. Interesting. But, is the blog only about bra? I find 'bra' as a too dominating subject of the blog.

The rest were not overly impressed, although people did seem to like the title:

From the posts that I read she seemed to have more about what awards she had one as opposed to actual stories about the bra but I guess when your bra isn't traveling, you have to fill the gaps in with something, huh?

The pictures on this blog should speak for themselves. After all, isn't a picture worth a thousand words? I could live happily without the commentary. This person could be Can I Haz Cheezeburger? and make $20K a month like they do.

The best title of any blog around. But flea powder in my granny's bra is funnier.

I think it's a nice little blog, but the bra shtick wore a little thin for me after a while. And is it really a humor blog?

First and foremost, I truly love the name of this blog. So I clicked on the link anticipating a few perky and/or uplifting posts. I suppose that's what I found, but why didn't I laugh as much as I did every time I looked at the title?

I didn't "get" it. Sorry.

This is a PG-13 version of Flat Stanley and while the pictures themselves amuse, it didn't get more than a smile at the concept. Olga didn't bring us to a higher level of appreciation of why a brassier being immortalized across the world can bring about world peace or at least, world wide web amusement.

Not very imaginative. I feel like it's a rip off of the traveling gnome.

This blog is cute, but the concept may not stand the test of time. I view it as more of a novelty blog rather than one with content that will keep me interested in coming back on a regular basis.

Just about everybody hated the layout. The "Web Design" score doesn't really reflect it, but I'm guessing that the overall score was dragged down quite a bit by the layout, judging by the comments:

Way too many links. Who cares?

Perhaps because I found it difficult to actually focus on the writing, what with all the distractions. There's a lot going on in the sidebar -- as well as throughout the posts.

The only thing that I might mention as a distraction is that her blog seems to be a bit too much of a "gateway" elsewhere. Olga seems to have a lot of friends (always a good thing) and a lot of interests. Maybe I just have trouble keeping them separated from her writing.

Expanding the content wrapper a little wouldn't hurt, especially considering there's so much crammed into such a little space. Not that it's hard to read, it's just a little cluttered.

Olga's site doesn't have the best template going (it's a standard Blogger.com layout which doesn't normally bode well with me).

The layout is the only thing that gets a low score here. Along with the template, the site loading time is heinously slow, mainly due to various third party images and site widgets. But get past all that and you do have a very amusing and off-beat journal.

And also the right and left panels look so similar. They are fraught with pictures, and crowded. The author can help us differentiate the two columns to make a better readability.

In my opinion, the reviewer who said that "The pictures on this blog should speak for themselves" hit the nail on the head. The LOLCATS have proven that a one-joke blog can be phenomenally successful, but there is WAY too much going on here to focus on what's going on with the bra. Memes, awards, slideshows, banners... all crammed into a tiny little A-cup of a blogger template.

I want to see the bra at the Statue of Liberty, or somebody holding it up to that painting of the chick losing her top during the French Revolution. Or the bra getting thrown out of Dollyworld. Something.

Short of that, get a new template, clean house a bit, and keep the focus on the bra. Good luck!

The Frogster checking in. Today I'm putting together the review for Dido Geezers Blog. And it's difficult. The reviewers were really all over the board. And not, to be frank, very charitable.

Category	Score	Points
Content	4.25	30/70
Writing	5.19	3/5
Web Design	5.12	3/5
Intangibles	4.62	2/5
Read Regularly	1.88	2/10
Frequency	10	5/5
Total		45

Percentile Rank: 10

We start where we always start, with the template.

Ok, I'm really starting to not like a white background on blogs.

I found the changes in text as well as the general lay out of this blog to be spotty and distracting.

There is something about the layout of the posts that loses me and makes my mind wander.

As far as writing, well, take a look:

Totally incomprehensible.

She's a terrific writer.

Writing style seems awkward.

I love her creative use of language.

The spelling and grammatical errors were distracting. I don't expect blogs to be perfect - because they are about free thinking. But when you don't use spell-check or just don't seem to care ... makes me not care.

Nice language.

I assume this is being written by someone who is not a native speaker of English? I spent about five minutes trying to determine whether this is the Barat of blogs ... then I gave up.

ED NOTE: Do you mean "Borat," or not so much? Dido lives in Germany, so perhaps English isn't her native language. With the variety of comments about the writing, could the reviewers' thoughts about the content be more cohesive? Well, no:

Good use of pictures helps, although her paragraphs get a little long for the general blog reader (in my experience).

7 times out of 10 her articles make me chuckle.

Not particularly funny to me.

Best of all, her site address sounds vaguely pornographic!

I didn't find this blog funny or amusing. Not surprising since my attention span is non-existent but it wouldn't be a blog I'd read.

I would think that non-existent attention spanners wouldn't be blog reviewers. Just sayin'. And, finally, we have the War and Peace of review comments:

If I could figure out what this blog was about, maybe I could understand the writing a little more. She seems to be going on these asinine tangents about nothing and from the posts I read, I was able to pull, at most, a sentence that made any kind of sense and was relevant to something more than nothingness. I'm almost getting that she wants to prove that she has a knack for writing so when she writes the blogs, she's sitting there with a thesaurus and seeing how many 75 cent words she can cash in on. It just reads extremely forced, very rambling, pointless and, in the end, not funny in any sense of the word. Not even so much as a smile. Poignant posts are a bloggers best friend.

ED NOTE: Psst! Apostrophes are good, too!

Dido posts a lot, so she's obviously passionate about her blog. And she won over some of the reviewers. Nice job, Dido. Keep on blogging.

The Frogster here. Today I'm piecing together the reviewers' thoughts on The Smiling Infidel. I have a soft spot in my heart for elasticwaistbandlady (the blog's author), because she recently told me that she thinks of me whenever she sees a fruitcake. To have someone think of you when they see a fruitcake, well, that's special.

Category	Score	Points
Content	5.77	40/70
Writing	5.77	3/5
Web Design	5.95	3/5
Intangibles	5.5	3/5
Read Regularly	2.73	3/10
Frequency	6	3/5
Total		55

Percentile Rank: 49

Our reviewers started with the first thing that pops up when the site loads, which, for those with their speakers on, is music. This made some of the reviewers angry.

Every time you go to the archives that same bloody song keeps playing. Note to bloggers, take music off your blogs, because some of us might be sitting here reading your blogs playing our own music and will just mute you anyway.

please don't force me to listen to artists i neither know nor like. Just sayin'... it's annoying.

Automatic music when the site loads? A HUGE no-no for me.

I opened the page and music played at me. I ran away.

Maybe it was really funny, But I wasn't hanging around having my ears abused to find out.

Once they got past the music, the reviewers had some other editorial comments about the look:

The archives are not clearly marked. The blog roll is not clearly marked. All in all the layout of this blog was too irritating and I got out as fast as I could.

The font is very hard to read.

Clean layout and easy to navigate. This particular template seems a bit limiting on the actual writing side, seeming to favor the link and award side bar. Again, a matter of personal taste. But then again, that's really what these reviews are all about.

But this is the only reason I have given the site a low rating for design. The actual layout is easy enough to navigate, it's just that screaming bright yellow which annoys me.

Good blog, nice content and good writing. I found the yellow yellow yellow making my eyes bleed a little bit. The posts are a bit on the longish side and you'll have to REALLY like his style to spend the time.

ED NOTE: Um, it's not a HE. Obviously, you didn't have the time to spend.

They don't post every day. That makes me happy.

I dig this undaily posting schedule also. It's fun for me (as someone who doesn't spend 7 hours every day blogsurfing) to be able keep up on a comment thread on a particular blog post, and I just don't have the fortitude to sift through blog posts to find a response to a witty comment I left. Once the reviewers dug in, they found out why our first two comments below are true:

The Infidel seems to be very popular.

A woman with 6 kids definitely needs a good sense of humor, and the smiling infidel does a good job of keeping it light. Not exactly my demographic so I'm not inclined to stop by too often, but she does appear to have accumulated several fans.

Originally, I found some of the posts a bit long,but then, I kept going back again and again and perusing the history. She's like pringles or popcorn or chocolate in a box, you have to finish the box. Some good writing chops and a fresh take on stuff makes this smiling infidel a favorite. I'm adding her to my blog roll of worthy places to visit.

Love it!.Loved the content. Loved the design. Even loved the chotchkies on the side. :D

She is The Queen of Wordplay!

On a positive note, the actual writing is fairly amusing. It's not laugh-out-loud funny but amusing enough for it to be read regularly. Also, there are plenty of interactive polls and stuff for people to come together and have a few good laughs.

Great and funny blog.

It's just a shame about that yellow. It's like my eyes are burning. But still, it's quite a good blog as far as writing is concerned.

And finally, one scatalogical comment:

I'm one to talk but then again I don't talk about my own poop. Perhaps if I had been reading from the beginning I would have been more into it but it feels like I've walked into a long-running joke and I can't find the beginning so I just laugh along with everyone else to keep up.

I agree that EWBL's posts are easier to follow once you've read a few of them, but, to me, that's what makes it fun to stop back in. As a note to blogs yet to be reviewed, it seems as though we have unearthed a hive of Yellow Hatred with this review. Keep that in mind.

I like The Smiling Infidel. I have it on my blogroll. As our reviewers pointed out, enough people come here every day that it's obvious you are on to a good thing, EWBL. Keep on blogging! And, of course, keep on fruitcake shopping.

Easy on the plaid vest people!

Today we're taking a look at It's a Funny Thing, a blog written by a fellow named Don. I use fellow because he's in a vest and is from a quaint rural idyll and just embodies the word. As it turns out, I enjoy his writing. Not all of the reviewers were bowled over, but I have a sense Don is on the upswing. He just might pick up some new readership, perhaps consider some of the worthwhile advice and his blog could be a real contender! Let's take a look:

Category	Score	Points
Content	5.79	41/70
Writing	6.26	3/5
Web Design	5.63	3/5
Intangibles	6.47	3/5
Read Regularly	3.68	4/10
Frequency	6	3/5
Total		57

Percentile Rank: 56

Yay funny... and I didn't want it to be. "humorium' just made me wanted to hate it, but I couldn't - boo! cuz it was funny - Yay!

Not my cup of tea. But much like the humor of Garrison Keillor, I suppose it appeals to some people.

Well, nothing says "I'm funny" like a guy from Idaho who says "I'm funny". And NOTHING says "needy" like a plea to leave comments.

That said, I think this guy IS amusing, and has a darn cute sense of humor. Not sure I could muster enough energy to read through his lengthy posts on a daily basis, but he's got something to say, and most of the time, he seems to say it rather well. Not hilariously, but his sentences make sense, and his punctuation seems appropriate. All good things.

And yet another Garrison Keillor reference:

The Garrison Keillor of Idaho.

Uneven and overly long, the Wolf thing went on forever and I found myself scanning, looking for more to amuse. It had a soul but seemed a bit sedated for being posted every day, kind of like Idaho.

Hey now - no need to attack a whole state (said the NJ native).

He has a dry sense of humor which is my favorite type of humor! I snorted in laughter when he wrote about the spam e-mails to enlarge his... well you know!

Blogger.com templates! They're always going to be a pet hate of mine. Would it kill some of you to learn CSS and customise your template so your site doesn't look like it came from Ikea?
So today, I was prompted to review a couple of websites, "It's a funny thing..." being one of them. Despite my love-hate relationship with Blogger templates, I've actually taken quite a shine to this website.

The writing and social commentary from this site is deeply amusing. From wildlife preservation to online spammers, this guy covers the lot and with a sarcastic edge that literally had me spewing coffee over my damn laptop.

This is quality satire and scathing commentary. Not at its finest but it certainly gives you plenty of "LOL" moments. I see myself subscribing to the RSS of this site. I may even blogroll it.

On a final note, I wish nothing but the very best of luck to the owner of this site as the content remains some of the best I've seen on Humor-Blogs.com - keep on rocking and for Christ's sake, get rid of that Blogger thing. Please.

Sorry but I just got bored with it. A couple of quirky things were said but, for the most part, I didn't even crack a smile. I thought the longer posts were just meandering and the shorter ones didn't have that spark of humor, that burst, that needs to occur in order to make so few words funny. I'm not even looking for gut-busting, just something humorous and, overall, I didn't find it in this blog. If I could offer advice it would be to choose your words wisely and offer more description and witty remarks instead of, basically, retelling the story how it is with a few added exclamation points.

As for the layout, nice layout. Simple, easy to read. Kudos on that but what is the deal with keeping so many posts on the front page? It's not just this blog but many I've read for the reviews. Is it too much to ask your readers to go back into the archives instead of making them scroll for eons?

Loved the post on spam emails.

The tone largely sounds self-pitying more than once. The author has a neat and clear sense of theme on each of his post. The web design looks readable.

Don has a new blog and is off to a good start. It is apparent that he is trying hard to live up to his commitment of posting every day. Unfortunately that can sometimes come at the expense of an interesting story. If he keeps at it a consistent style should emerge. I would recommend less posting and more developed stories.

Too much content for reading.

Well that's a wrap.

Okay, Don that's a lot to chew on at first glance, but I think I can break it down for you. People, for the most part enjoy your blog and if they don't, they want to - even if they don't know that. Trust me - you're likable. I have come to your sight perhaps drawn in by that red plaid vest mentioned above and have enjoyed your posts. I think some good points were made in the reviews in terms of brevity being the key. The posts need a few less words and a bit more punch, getting to the humorous point a bit more quickly, which you often do but via the scenic route. Also utilize your archives and just keep a current batch of posts up for reading.

As mentioned, a consistent style is emerging in your writing and it is rather enjoyable. So continue on with what you're doing and consider some of the advice offered. We'll see you in the Top Ten!

Thanks for submitting your blog for review.

~ posted by G

Wow, I don't know what happened. I was looking for the remote under the couch one day and I found the review for 15 Minute Lunch. For some reason I thought I had already done this one, but apparently not. Sorry, Johnny!

Ok, so I'm just going to do a quick & dirty review to get this one done. 15 Minute Lunch scored very well overall with our reviewers, garnering an impressive 69, dude.

Category	Score	Points
Content	7	49/70
Writing	7.68	4/5
Web Design	5.37	3/5
Intangibles	6.16	3/5
Read Regularly	7.37	7/10
Frequency	6	3/5
Total		69

Percentile Rank: 98

There were a lot of positive comments:

I've been reading this blog for a few months. And generally I don't read a lot of blogs written by men as I don't find them as funny as the women writers (editor's note: Yes, but can the women write in the snow?), but this guy hangs in there.

15 minute lunch is very legitimately funny, and different types of funny at that. Sometimes laugh out loud, sometimes more subtle and amusing. The JC Penney post was clearly very popular, and it deserved to be so.

This is a very funny blog considering that it's written by someone that lives in America's hat (Canada). His post on his dead dog is probably the funniest det pet column you'll read all year. In summation, I liked this blog a lot.

There's some side-splitting humor here, as well as some really great stories. Add good style to this, and you've got yourself a hit.

I had to read this while being interrupted not once but three times but I kept coming back to finish the story. Excellent writing even if I had to break the lunch into five minutes a pop. Good solid work. Geeze, I sound like I'm advertising for Amish furniture but it was a fun blog.

Just about the best consistent humorous story writing out there. The author is always interesting, most often funny, and occasionally brilliant. (Hard to ask for more.) Updates anywhere from 2 days to a week apart. The site is refreshingly uncluttered and very basic, which does his writing no disservice. The Author makes excellent use of stories mixed with photos.

Certainly one of the best humor/life blogs around.

No wonder this is at the top of the list there. The writing is excellent, the posts are funny and it's a great read. Congratulations. You have been added to my iGoogle feed. That placement is held for a select few. I'm partial to simple blog designs so I liked the layout and the overall "sedate" feel of the site.

The negative comments centered on the blah-ger template and the length of some of the posts (if it seems like there are a lot of negatives, it's only because even the people who really liked the blog bitched about the template):

Keep posts in one length. Not long-short-long-short.

I few of the posts were a little on the long side and I did skip over those so if I did have to recommend something, it would be keep post lengths to a maximum of 3 mouse scrolls. I think I hit 6 or 7 on a couple of them. Overall, great blog.

Some of the entries are waaaaay too long for my ADD addled mind, but good stuff!

My only complaint is the length of some of the posts, because when you have a lot of blogs to catch up on, there just isn't time to read everything.

As far as suggestions for improvement: 1) Lose the black background. 2) Tighten/shorten some of your posts. They occasionally drag on a bit. But overall...what a great find!

But I will not rest until the black background & white text template trend is eliminated. I came to this site for humor, not bomb instructions goddamnit. Nice job Johnny Virgil.

Fairly amusing real life blog. Just a shame about the plain ol' Blogger template.

I HATE BLACK BACKGROUNDS. ESPECIALLY WHEN THE BLOGGER THEN WRITES IN WHITE. Uh, did I say that out loud? Good. Because I hate black backgrounds. Especially when the blogger writes in white. As for content? Well, from what I saw, before I became blinded by that template, this blogger is pretty funny. Can't say I'd read 15 Minute Lunch every day, but ask me again when that template is easier to read, and we'll talk!

One reviewer mentioned a security warning that popped up:

I got a 'warning' about some other site trying to access my computer when I pulled up this blog, maybe it was just a coincidence, but the author may want to check to make sure he doesn't have some rogue program randomly attaching itself to friends, potential friends, and, um, me.

And finally, a couple of reviewers broke from the pack:

This blog is really well written and the author is likely the best story teller that I've come across. The narrative quality is excellent. But it wasn't funny.

It's amusing. The blog is apparently very popular, though I'm not sure why. The attention to detail is limited at best. There's something happening here, but I don't feel it warrants such high honors.

Well, that sucks. I should try to end with a positive quote, but all I can think of is "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," and I'm not sure that applies.

Way to go, Johnny. Let me know if you want some help with that template. I can make you look like a badass even if you're a complete wuss like me.

G here.Finally, a blog that I'm familiar with! It's just that way back in my editorial assignment, I hadn't read many of the blogs reviewed. This was easy as I have popped over to Deb's blog and she's been pretty amusing in those posts.

I think that overall, Deb fared pretty decently. As this post goes to publish, she is hanging in the Upper Ten rankings at Humor-blogs.com, so not too shabby.

Category	Score	Points
Content	6.53	46/70
Writing	6.94	3/5
Web Design	6.53	3/5
Intangibles	6.53	3/5
Read Regularly	4.71	5/10
Frequency	8	4/5
Total		64

Percentile Rank: 75

Here's what the reviewers had to say. Let's start with the good, shall we?

I like this blogger. She's fun, funny, and relevant. Her posts are generally short, sweet, and to the (humorous) point, something that's always appreciated to one as distractedly challenged as I am.
Oh sure, the template could be more "jazzed" up, I suppose, but I'll take a simple white template over the black hellish one so many bloggers feel compelled to use, any day!

This lady is hilarious!

I really wish we'd have a selection in the "Would you read this blog regularly" that said "perhaps," because this is one of those blogs that I would probably read on an irregular basis. A place I would go for a fresh-er perspective on things. I liked how organized the blog was; however, nothing in particular grabbed me. Yet! I would love to attempt the Advent Drinking Game this blogger formulated.

ED NOTE: Who says blogging isn't educational?

This is a fairly amusing blog. Not all posts are at the same level of quality, but the funny ones are quite funny. Really easy to read, nice template. Not sure as far as becoming a regular reader if it's up my alley...but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it.

Crisp, clean, tight, sweet and tart. (Both the writing and the page layout). Certainly one of the funnier written blogs out there. Very laid back with a natural humor; excellent setups and short well-constructed punchlines. Good use of supporting graphics too. Wish I wrote this well. I'm taking a feed off her for the laughs (and the education).

The Christmas savings were funny, I could see that being a really strong reocurring segment. Funny all around. :-)

You had me at "12 Naughty Days of Christmas," not to mention the image of snorting wasabi. Would the brain burn that caused be the opposite of a brain freeze? Anyway, I love the content. It's my type of humor and I have officially added you to my feed thingy. Congratulations. As for layout, I think it could be a touch better, not much. I'm not a fan of the wall to wall carpeting layouts but I like the simplicity. I have no idea what the deuce the stuff at the bottom was about but, honestly, I didn't give it much of a look because, really, I thought it was ads although I think it's some kind of music player. Overall, loved the blog and I shall now be reading it regularly. I shall even forward it to my friend who shares my ungodly sense of humor.

Top girl!

The Bad:

Ew. Loving Al Gore creeped me out. Lost interest fast. Then there's the 12 gifts for naughty adults. What a tired conceit. Vulgarity is not wit.

Good day sir, good day!

Okay, that last part was me. Sorry, but hey wait - you forgot your glove!

and the confused (or at least I was after I read this):

This blog post is a place you will want to visit if you are looking for a non-habit reading , that is if u want to face an entirely new topic everytime u wanna read. The style of the author also is not connected in every post, it seems different everytime. Also this look really gender biased. The girly stuff predominates. The language is more of a urban style and the flow of thoughts is good. Its a blog that i may read for a review but nevertheless not more.

Deb, there you have it. The reviewers have spoken - more drinking games! Other than that, I don't think there's anything constructive that I could add. Perhaps just to keep doing what you're doing! We're laughing.

~ posted by G

Predator Press ended up with a pretty good score, even though our reviewers were all over the map. Mostly they were in agreement that the site is a little bit "out there," although there was no consensus on whether this was a good or bad thing.

Category	Score	Points
Content	6.36	45/70
Writing	6.71	3/5
Web Design	5.71	3/5
Intangibles	5.71	3/5
Read Regularly	4.29	4/10
Frequency	8	4/5
Total		62

Percentile Rank: 70

There were those who were fascinated and entertained by the blog's weirdness:

I am charmed, alarmed and/or intrigued. I found myself chuckling often (always a good sign) even as I scratched my head whilst trying to figure out what -- exactly -- this blogger (and/or bloggers?) is (and/or are?) trying to accomplish. Mostly I found the posts to be well written and pretty damn funny. A bit confusing at times, but funny, nonetheless. That said, the sidebar Site Guide is flat out hilarious. But then, mentioning killer sharks who can't "spel" in the same sidebar as breath mints usually is.

And those who found it just a little too weird:

Just not my cup of tea. Clean site, good graphics, but too far out even for me. There's some funny things in there, but the whole psycho-punk stuff just weirds me out (Might be his intention for all I know.)

There were those who thought the blog possessed "evil wit," and those who sniffed that "if brevity is the soul of wit, no one told this guy."

Several reviewers used the word "clever":

Very clever and sophisticated stories, took risks, they paid off better than Dick Cheney's Halliburton Stock.

Clean looking web site was a bonus. Despite being more adult in content, it was clever enough that I would return to see what he comes up with next.

Rants were clever and new despite hitting on what has become the ubiquitous need to complain about all the other plebs out there preparing for Christmas. Well done.

At least one reviewer was just plain confused:

I'm not a fan of the multiple people blog. It took me a while to figure out who the people were not to mention where to find them on the site. No profiles. Very confusing.

And yet, another lauded Predator Press for its "lucidity":

This blog has a lucid sense of writing that u can 'relate' to. (I should say most blogs make the reader feel so lost, but this one is not that type).

And others were just not terribly impressed overall:

Just not very funny.

The blog itself is very plain. Uninteresting looking. They list EVERY single fart they've ever typed and their list is so long, way too long, that I had no desire to read any of it and instead just read the archives, which are hidden.

I liked the first part of the sidebar about the sharks. Very funny but as the sidebar meandered into eternity, I lost interest quickly. I found the pictures and the external material provided in the posts funnier than the actual writing. Nothing saying funny like a picture of a shrieking sphinx cat. That's not to say the writing wasn't good but, for the most part, I didn't find it all that funny. I cracked a smile every now and then nothing much beyond that. The title bar there could use just a touch of sprucing up as it's rather bland and, without the pictures the black text on white background reads a little sterile. I like simple layouts but that's just a little too simple for me. Overall it was ok but not something I would read regularly.

So there you go, LOBO. Take from that what you will, and keep up the good work.