humor

What’s the deal with hilarious reviews?

Most reviews are mildly helpful. The problem is that if something is reviewed and it has less than 3/5 it’s interpreted as being bad. Like not even worthy of attention. And as we all know reviewers are biased. Or incompetent. Or they just look at stuff that isn’t important. I don’t mean individual reviewers. I am a reviewer on some sites. I mean as a collective. A… Wait! what is the collective noun for reviewer?? probably something boring… Anyway an embarrassment of reviewers are usually generally bad. Taken together we all hate different aspects of the same thing, making it less helpful for the reader to decide what it all means.

But there is one type of review that is fantastic and that is the snarky, hilarious review. Take for example this review for Veet for Men Hair Removal Gel Creme by A. Chappell:

Initially all went well and I applied the gel and stood waiting for something to happen. I didn’t have long to wait. At first there was a gentle warmth which in a matter of seconds was replaced by an intense burning and a feeling I can only describe as like being given a barbed wire wedgie by two people intent on hitting the ceiling with my head.

And the review just gets funnier and funnier.

Or what about this review for Haribo Gummi Candy Gold-Bears, 5-Pound Bag by Douglas Pope:

The animal noises broadcasting from my pelvis were an ominous warning of the violent acts that were to follow. I shouldered my way into the bathroom, clawing at my belt, moaning with pain. The smell came first. It started sweet, almost tangy. That was quickly overpowered by a cloying chemical perfume.

 And its not only on Amazon that people are creative. Tripadvisor has over 250 reviews for The Grand Budapest Hotel in The Republic of Zubrowka. Naturally neither the hotel, nor the republic exist as they are both fictional creations from a recent Wes Anderson movie called The Grand Budapest Hotel.
One of the reviews “Singularly Charming!” by Wendy J from North Carolina
Much of my enjoyment was due to the kind attention of M. Gustave, the heavily perfumed concierge. I was amazed that he seemed to be there ALL THE TIME, always ready and delighted to help me! Case in point: On the plane ride over from the States I somehow lost my front row isle seat to the opera ‘Toscana’. When I mentioned this to M. Gustave, he told me that he’d be able to get me another ticket with just one day’s notice. And he did. Incredible. That in and of itself was worth a million klubecks to me.
Coming across reviews like these makes me happy. But I also wonder – what kind of literature this is? Should this be seen as a type of fan fiction? Maybe this works for the hotel but for the gummi bears? So is it just humor writing? Journalism? It is definately creative writing! The what is it that drives people to spend time and energy writing wholly or partly fictional reviews? Or even reviews for things that do not exist?
Maybe this should be the basis of a small research project? Or maybe I should just enjoy reading what people write and not worry too much about the rationale.
Posted on by Mathias Klang

Social media madness

So I am still trying to figure out what the best use of Google+ is, and how to integrate it into my information chaos. But today I when engaging in light procrastination instead of editing an article I looked at my circles and was a bit shocked to see this:

A dozen of the people in my circles seemed to have changed the pictures in their profiles. And they had all chosen to use my image! What was this? Intense hero worship? Finally the recognition I desire? An advanced form of anonymity or pseudonymity? A sure sign of my descent into madness due to article editing? Or just a bug?

The most likely theory is that social media really is just a game where high scores are obtained by collecting “friends”. I have obviously progressed to an advanced level of cheating and instead of collecting friends I have begun to make them up and to populate my social media universe with clones of myself.

While questioning my own reality in this way – I ask myself whether Mats, Jenny, Niklas, Alexander, Rickard, Jonas, Chris, Fredrik, Krister, Stefan, David & Natasja know that they are actual people or just figments of my overactive imagination?

Posted on by mklang

XKCD book finally out

The long awaited event has finally occurred, xkcd: volume 0 is now available from the XKCD website. Price 18? dollars, rubles, sheep? it doesn’t say. I want!

xkcd: volume 0 is the first xkcd book! It features selections from the first 600 comics, including various author and fan favorites. It was lovingly assembled from high-resolution original scans of the comics (the mouseover text is discreetly included), and features a lot of doodles, notes, and puzzles in the margins.

The book is published by BreadPig, a company founded by my friend Alexis, and their portion of the profits will go to build a school in Laos through the charity Room to Read.

Posted on by mklang

On philosophical advice

Not all intelligent sounding advice is actually good advice and most philosophical advice is on the level of a bad sound-bite. Most of it just sounds cool but is totally useless real life applications. The latest strip from Jorge Cham of PhD comics has come online:

What this means in real life thesis writing (if I now may offer some advice…) is not to dig to deeply into “how-to-write-a-phd-or-masters” books since they are filled with obvious advice and keep you busy reading the wrong things. I think that Nike had the right approach with their slogan “Just do it”.

Posted on by mklang