Everyone's a critic

Stella Graham wants web reviewers to reveal their favourites

At the end of many webpages, especially newspaper articles and online magazines; you often see those fateful words: ‘Post a Comment’, ‘Have your say’ or ‘Add a review’.

A quick skim through most news sites will turn up some fine gems from unknown geniuses. But when it comes to comedy comments, how often have you seen comments like: ‘ He/She’s not funny’, ‘Utter rubbish’, ‘Worst comic I’ve ever seen’, ‘Can anybody explain why this is funny?’ and so on.

Fair enough, everyone is entitled to an opinion, positive or negative. Certainly when making purchases on Amazon or eBay, the customer reviews can be hugely helpful. But with comedy reviews, anyone who can be bothered to click ‘Comment’ can slate comedians in seconds.

So Bazza666 can write, ‘Completely unfunny. Avoid’; TonyWestHam can say, ‘About as funny as a dead kitten’ or SharonLovesBikes can opine, ‘Not even funi’. But wouldn’t we all get more value out of their hugely insightful comments if they’d add what they DO find funny?

If things Bazza666 finds funny are, ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos, my mate Ryan from down the Rose and Castle. He’s dead funny like’ that TonyWestHam loves Bill Hicks and George Carlin; that SharonLovesBikes ‘OMG, i jus luv lee evuns, hes rofl funi’. At least we would have some context. After all, if you’re a fan of Metallica, chances are you might not be in to Beyonce?

How about this, to post a comment, we need your name, email address, comment and what DO you find funny? (Go on Chortle, be a pioneer…)

If proper comedy reviewers - ie not those wannabe idiots who deface the internet with their badly spelled ramblings about what is and isn’t amusing - would also add what they DO find funny to their reviews, wouldn’t we all get a lot more out of that too?

If you like awkward comedy, maybe something fast-paced and energetic won’t inspire you. Maybe filthy comedy offends you. Maybe clean comedy offends you? Maybe comedy offends you in general and you just write reviews because you hate the world and everyone in it.

Either way, let us know what you DO find funny, before telling the rest of the world who you think is utter shite.

But then, this is just my opinion. I find loads of comedians funny; I wouldn’t post a bad comment about anyone. Then again, you would find both Metallica and Beyonce on my iPod…

Published: 30 Dec 2009

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