#this is only funny to probably a niche audience

[cypric-rat-hyperfixation]

As my following grows and as I meet more and more people who have rats, had rats, know someone who has/had rats, and love rats...

increasingly I wonder if/when a day will come... a day that I'll express rat enjoyment to someone and they'll enthusiastically ask me if I've heard of This Funnie Little Rodent Blog they like, figuring I may already know it or will enjoy it if not...

and it's.. my blog... and then I have to come out as popular Rat Tumblr blogger that they follow and now know IRL.......

#/lh #I'm saying this like it's some big deal but I'm just exaggerating for comedic effect adjfgsbkdfj #no idea what the likelihood on that looks like. based on statistics of people estimating statistics? probably likelier than we all think #anyway that time I posted a survey for a university research project here and you all wound up comprising 2/3 of our sample was so funny #I had to actually say in an academic research paper that one possible flaw in our study #was bias that may result from 2/3 the sample having come from a niche and extremely specific demographic of people #due to the fact that they flocked in from One Of The Researchers' Substantial Online Following Centered Around A Particular Theme #And Selected Specifically To Have Only A Certain Kind Of Person On It Via Boundaries And Blocking #literally you all made up 98/150 respondents (but that's assuming all digital responses were from y'all-- we had 52 paper responses) #ah but the research symposium was the best. in the paper I was able to remain that generic about it #but at the research symposium. well it's a glorified science fair. so participants have their own stations set up and observers tour them #as the participants speak to their audience; directly providing a summary and then answering any questions #some of the audience/observers are faculty and most are fellow students #so real scholarly scientific types yeah? so they had questions. thoughtful questions #long story short I confessed to numerous listeners throughout the day that the sample's bizarre gender ratio is probably my fault #around 57% women; 21% nonbinary adults; 17% men-- an unusual proportion #so I had to academically tell my professors... underclassmen..... my classmates....... acquaintances.... foes.......... #... that I'm big famous in Rat #and it was so. djkjSBCJXHQKRIGAJFSHF

[kitkat-the-muffin]

Tis a niche of its own

Sorry there is only two female characters, I kinda pulled these off the top of my head and probably missed a ton of other candidates. Reblog with an addition if you have one!

Edit: I forgot to make this poll a week long! Once this poll ends I'll remake it with new additions depending on the results (the characters with the fewest results will be replaced with suggested characters from the notes so be sure to suggest some!) in the meantime tho plz reblog to increase sample size

This follows my own definition of what "Comic Relief" means: A character that is used as a conduit for comedy in a piece of media

Through character studies I have determined that there are 5 types of comic relief: the Character Relief, the Audience Relief, the Tone Shifter, the Butt of the Joke, and the Slapstick. Characters that identify as "Comic Relief" usually fall into one or more of these categories

Further explanation under the cut

The Character Relief refers to a character who actively makes jokes to be funny in-universe through conscious humor. Examples from this poll would be Sans and Rayla, who go out of their way to make their friends laugh

The Audience Relief refers to a character who makes the audience laugh regardless of their impact on the story. Examples from this poll would be Lapis and Gus, who are often involved in comedic bits meant for audience entertainment that aren't acknowledged by the narrative as anything unprecedented

The Tone Shifter refers to a character who makes jokes to relieve tension and shift the tone of a scene, either consciously or unconsciously. Examples from this poll would be Jay and Leo, as they both consciously make jokes about grim situations to help their friends or family feel better. Additionally, Jay would do this unconsciously before his trauma made him start doing it on purpose

The Butt of the Joke refers to a character who is made fun of by other characters in-universe, whether endearingly or not. Examples from this poll would be Dewey and Lance, who are often met with insults whenever they do something wrong or silly. The insults are usually meant to be endearing and comedic, but they can still feed into the character's possible inferiority complex. This also applies whenever a villain hits them with a sick burn*

The Slapstick refers to a character who is made fun of by the narrative and the audience like a punching bag. Examples from this poll would be Sokka and Yusuke, who are sometimes put in troubling and awkward situations as a gag for the audience's entertainment alone. These gags are not fun for the characters yet delightful to watch

Most comic relief characters can be characterized as multiples of these. For example, Jar-Jar from Star Wars is both Slapstick and Audience Relief, and even if you don't find his jokes funny that doesn't change the fact that they were written with your entertainment in mind

If you're curious how a "The Narrative's Favorite (derogatory)" character would fit into this chart, they're likely both a Butt of the Joke and a Slapstick character, making their life absolute hell. To be honest, MK from Monkie Kid is an example of a character who fits all 5 categories, but he isn't blue so he isn't in this poll

*Ok if you've ever seen Phineas and Ferb Mission Marvel let me just say MODOK is a total Butt of the Joke and my favorite line in that special is when a TV announcer calls him a "Giant Chicken Egg with a Face" and I just had to mention that omg

#I wanted to put Aqua from Kingdom Hearts but she's technically not a comic relief character #I did initially put Phoenix Wright down but ultimately decided Lapis needed a shoutout #Phoenix is both Butt of the Joke and Slapstick. no wonder he's traumatized #polls #comic relief #character analysis #atla #atla sokka #ninjago #jay walker #voltron #vld lance #ducktales #dewey duck #sonic the hedgehog #the owl house #gus porter #undertale #sans undertale #the dragon prince #tdp rayla #persona 5 #yusuke kitagawa #rottmnt #rottmnt leo #steven universe #lapis lazuli #ok ko #ok ko let's be heroes #omg im out of tags

[cutsiewitch]

You know, I find it funny and interesting that I ended up on the very niche part of tumblr with t4t horny transhumanism mechs. It’s especially funny because I am not anywhere near the actual target audience for that type of content. I enjoy it from an observer’s perspective, watching people go into detail about something very alien to me is entertaining, but I don’t get turned on by any of this at all.

I enjoy mechs and robots a bunch, and I find the idea of robots and mechs to be dope as shit. I am an advocate for the rights of AI and robots even if they are still only fictional, and would gladly help make mechs and robots a reality if I could. I, however, enjoy them from a purely mechanical standpoint.

When I see a robot, I don’t think “God I wish I could fuck her (rearrange her hardware inside her chassis, install harmless bloatware in her to make her overheat)” or “God I wish that I was a robot girl too”, I think “Oh man, her construction is fucking awesome, I wonder what her schematics are like, I bet she could do all kinds of shit. Imagine the modding potential too.”

When I see mechs, I don’t think about the orgasmic experience of jacking into it and becoming something better, pilot and mech fusing into one whole being and experiencing the pleasure of battle. I think of how I could construct one of those for myself, I imagine the parts necessary, I think of how I could improve on the design and further innovate.

I kinda know my place in this fictional world of transhumanist robot lesbians and mecha/pilot symbiosis. I’m essentially an asexual mechanic. I dont tinker with robots for carnal pleasure, I do it because I am simply preforming routine maintenance, please stop moaning you’re making this weird. I don’t see a mech and dream of my consciousness melding with its into a sacred union, I theorize how I could fit as much weaponry as possible onto it’s frame before it overheats from the stress.

I actually hate transhumanism. I am deeply uncomfortable with the idea of replacing parts of myself with machinery. If the world worked like that I’d probably be pretty odd. I service mechs and androids with passion but am adamantly against body modding or mech piloting. I’d be the weird girl that avoids stepping into the cockpit at all costs, the one that stares concernedly at the pilots who seem so out of it when not jacked in, the one who always seems a little squeamish around people with augments. I think it’s ok for others to do it, go crazy, I don’t mind. I just worry that the normalization will lead to it being harder to live without augmenting, like cars making cities unwalkable.

Idk, that was a lot of rambling. TL:DR I find mech and robo stuff interesting from a mechanical standpoint, and I like this kink for the plot. Yall keep wanting to fuck those bots, good for you!

#mechs #mechposting #empty spaces #robot girl

[mirror-ralsei]

The Sound Test is hands down my favourite piece of horror in Undertale.

Yeah, sure. Photoshop Flowey is a great spiritual successor to Giygas, and Gaster to Uboa. The Chara jumpscare is disturbing, as is the entire No Mercy run. But the Sound Test is a masterfully crafted anecdote that deserves more appreciation.

So to recap, Fun event 65 begins when you walk north in the crossroads before Snowdin. The music cuts out to transition to text on a black background.

It starts off positively: “Welcome to the Sound Test! Listen to all your favorites. Press Left or Right to select. Press Z to play a song.” The friendly terms fade in calmly, offsetting any disturbance caused by this sudden interruption by easing into it. We also need to note Undertale was designed as a niche RPG for RPG fans, which intentionally played with their expectations.

With that audience in mind, the player also likely has an expectation here: contemporary sound test rooms are typically a cool bonus for players, unlocked either through the progression of a game or its completion, or sometimes only through codes or developer consoles. They provide a list to play of all the sound files in a game, or at least the OST. This is a generally beloved feature when provided, allowing players to jam out to their favourite tracks. “Listen to all your favorites” seems to confirm this, reinforcing the brain to glaze over any specifics and autofill an expected experience here.

So we dive excitedly into this bonus feature (if maybe a little bit confused). Sound tests typically are accessible from main menus, and we were just interrupted while playing the game, but whatever, this game is a bit weird anyway. What songs do we have? You can cycle through them, but more likely people will play one by one in successsion.

We start with “Happy Town.” There hasn't been a “Happy Town” location yet that we've seen, but this is probably an area from later in the game or something. We click on it, and it's... short. It's just a simple loop on two channels, too. The melody itself is rather boring. Okay. Maybe this is just an intro track, so on to the next one.

“Meat Factory.” Uhh. This is definitely from later in the game... probably? When you think on it for even a moment, you realize this grim title sounds very tonally out of place in a game that's so far been pretty fantastical and friendly, and that makes it immediately unsettling. Clicking on it immediately confirms this. Where Happy Town was pretty noncommittal, Meat Factory's 8-bit loop is even shorter and almost oppressive in its relentless, growling two notes, repeating at an alarming pace, as if approaching with deadly intent. Why is something so disturbing and almost industrial in a funny little game?

You quickly switch to the next song. “Trouble Dingle.” A “dingle” might imply something a little bit lighter, and “trouble” sounds maybe a little more whimsical than “doom,” but there is no relief here. This loop is longer, but distorted and chaotic. It sounds corrupted. There's no trackable melody, it loses the 8-bit instrument, and like Photoshop Flowey's fight or the unpredictable melody of “Amalgamate,” is generally throwing away all sense of safety in favour of absolute disorientation.

At this point, you have likely forgotten about the context and are trying to find one song that's not incredibly disturbing. Maybe you've even realized by now that there is no way to even exit this unsettling “room.”

It's an auditory chase scene. The pressure increases with every song. Something is approaching, and fast.

Enter “Gaster's Theme.”

The hunt is over. The music has caught you. Suddenly, no matter what you do, you are trapped, forced to listen to this piece, this theme of a character you do not know, which starts off curious before dipping threateningly into the minor key. You rightfully may get the impression that this character “Gaster,” whoever they are, exerts some terrifying control over you, to be able to freeze you like this, able to writhe around between song tracks but change absoutely nothing, escape utterly futile.

You are only free when this music chooses to let you go. It cuts off abruptly. “Thanks for your feedback!” it says cheerfully. Then:

“Be seeing you soon.”

It's an incredibly compelling little horror piece and potential villain introduction that I find even more unsettling than the 66 mysteryman door itself. It's short but sweet, toying perfectly with expectations and making us deliberately uncomfortable at every turn.

#this isn't a theory i just needed to get this out of my system #undertale #too soon to say if gaster will be a villain at all. but *within this event specifically* his presence is antagonistic #in other events like mysteryman door it doesn't feel that way however #'ma? the deltarune theorist is wildly speculating again'

[venbetta]

I took some time and actually watched Hazbin Hotel... I watched the pilot 6(?) years ago, and seeing the hellfire commentary from Twitter made me reluctant (rightfully so I guess).

But I say it was pretty alright. I feel like I have some complaints. I'm not a diehard fan at all, nor do I see myself in the fan base, but I feel like I can add my own input, I guess. These are my opinions and personal reasons, please be nice.

Spoilers/commentary beneath the cut (16+)

For starters, I think the concept is good, I like some of the designs for the characters, especially since they improved from the pilot.

I think I have at least 3-4 favorite characters, ranking them from my most fave:

Lucifer, Alastor, Vox, and Nifty.

... I didn't like anyone else. I'll probably explain that.

The only reason why I liked these four was mostly cuz they had some funny bits to them. I told my friend that Lucifer reminds me of Hunter from TOH??? And I said "Maybe it's cuz their both blonde and depressed." Lucifer just has that appeal for me. Vox didn't have much screentime, but I like his niche design and voice. Alastor is also cool. Nifty is just a cute gremlin that I fuck with honestly. Good for her. Everyone else I either didn't care much for or straight up didn't like...

Charlie annoyed me a lot, I know she's the MC, but I didn't like her. I get that she's supposed to be good, but her behavior in some scenes bothered me. Like in Ep4, I understand she was coming from a good place, but I couldn't help but feel agitated. I can't explain it. She has a savior complex which is her flaw, and maybe I just don't exactly understand it.

Of course, she's not the worst character (looks at Valentino and Adam), but she could improve. There were a few characters that I feel should've been written better, but the pacing made it hard.

I feel like the pacing was something I didn't like, but I can't blame it since it only has 8 episodes. The writer in me deflated seeing how fast things moved along, but I get why they sped it up towards the end. I wanna ramble about how the show could have gone if it had 24 episodes- but that feels like another post. Also, another thing that irked me were characters word vomiting.

Again if this show had more time to explore each individual character, it wouldn't have happened. I thought ep 4 with Angel Dust pouring his heart had good intentions to tell the audience that he's fucked up, it could've been built up more (if there were more episodes) until he finally blew up, similar with Husk. It's different because it's an animation, but you can still show and not tell visually about someone struggling. That's just me.

The excessive swearing isn't funny, I didn't find myself laughing that much except for Ep 8: Adam telling Lute to chill the fuck out, Alastor's mic breaking, and Lucifer saying "I'm gonna fuck you!" are the only bits I found funny. I've laughed at dumber things (my sense of humor is garbage, I'll laugh at a waffle falling over), but I didn't find most of the jokes funny.

I knew it was a musical, and I love musicals, but there weren't many songs I vibed with. Maybe a few, but not a lot. I'm a music person, and the songs just didn't feel right? Like the lyrics either felt awkward or general direction of the song didn't feel cohesive. I think I only like 4 songs in total.

The VAs were great, I recognized a lot of them, and I enjoyed their performances. They all fit their characters.

The animation was good for what was originally an indie project, and I hope the animators/artists were properly compensated. I know there was a lot of shit going on about Vivi allegedly not paying them but regardless, they did amazing.

I'm gonna be serious and say I feel like I didn't want to give HH a chance because I just didn't exactly care about it. My friends watched it. I saw Twitter's scolding opinions and hottakes on it, and I didn't want to hate watch it. But I was still curious. While I wasn't laughing through most of it, I think it's good. There's a lot that I'm trying not to say or get into because that would derail my commentary and make it about other discussions I'm not fully knowledgeable about...

I sailed the seven seas to watch this show, and I say it was sort of worth it. Again, I'm not a crazy fan, but anyone that likes it, good for you.

#PLEASE IM JUST RAMBLING #THESE ARE MY OPINIONS DONT KILL ME #hazbin hotel #commentary #ven speaks #text post

[jenbobbyy]

hey if youre still doing hcs could you do specimen 12/old man pls?

INHALES. okay. i dont even know where to start

old man. for convenience im just gonna call him OM for the rest of this because i refuse to call him stanley. stanley is a SPECIFIC name that can only be given to SPECIFIC people with a SPECIFIC voice commanding their actions

looking at the wiki he's described as middle aged... maybe early 50s-early 60s?

youtube has been around for about 15 years and it probably started out as a hobby when he was in his 40s. although he never gained THAT much traction he was probably a niche exploration channel with a little following that dwindled over the years

the guy has a past in professional climbing but urban exploration was a prominent side hobby and interest for him so!!!

most of his notes as the vlogger victim are weirdly calm? i doubt he had much experience in paranormal prior but i guess if you're an urban explorer you're used to places being pretty nasty the further you go

he definitely encountered the specimen (since they're referenced in pretty much every other victim's notes and it's described that he went through specimen areas) but the fact that he never mentions them in his notes is interesting (i guess all these horrors beyond comprehension all equate to an 'uneasy vibe'). there's a lot of persona involved in vlogging so in refraining from actually mentioning any wounds or monsters he's encountered OM is masking the fear he has. he wants to let everyone know 'hey!!! hey im okay and managing!!'

i think the prospect of having an audience might have left him at least a little comforted. he probably found other lines of notes at the time and took solace in the concept of people knowing he's alive and moving (even if they don't know him personally)

i still hate the fact that his writing patterns completely change between specimen 12 and endless mode hallways but i get that if he was going 'hey guys. erm, so THAT just happened.' it would ruin suspense from a gameplay point of view so. I'll let that slide :/

he's been in for a few months and by the time the protagonist meets him, he's not COMPLETELY gone. specimen 12's weird parasitic nature relies on the prior host's death, and in parrying axe attacks he still has some kind of self preservation. but he definitely doesn't remember who he is or why he's there. 12 isn't exactly fully possessing but is more of a mindfuck like foodie and bab that mess with perception and mental state. it controls but doesn't invade

in OG OM was voiced by vernon shaw (hot pepper gaming). altho this was changed as well as the chillis being removed from specimen 12 in HD, the concept of specimen 12 being so deathly and terrible that only incredibly spicy and near-toxic food being able to grow in it is funny. no wonder he sounds like that.

as to further agitate hosts into murder, 12 doesn't actually generate any food. luckily, OM isn't a cannibal host and lives off of whatever he can grow down in the basement and any dead rats or (god forbid) specimen 3 carcasses that are around. If it wasn't for the strength given to him around 12 he would have died in a week

being an extrovert and feeding from that concept of an audience, being alone has had a massive toll on his mental state. this probably made him a more desirable host for 12 - if he's craving conversation and people then having voices and mirages impact his perception would definitely fuck him up enough to give in to kill. i don't usually take common headcanon names into account but people calling 12 'parry' gave me the idea of the spirits of 12 manifesting in visions as a singular being (although this vision is different to every host) in an attempt to aid with the host sympathising and agreeing with it.......

the entire hide-and-seek style game he creates for the protagonist - as well as sparked on by the protag being someone much younger than the typical victim (ILL WRITE MY PROTAG HCS IF ASKED.....) - is a reflection of him stalling to kill in order to entertain himself and 'entertain' his victim. if it weren't for his longing for human contact he'd probably kill straight off-the-bat but the opportunity to fulfill the gap for a short amount of time is open and sought-after.

despite this, there's a mutual separation between him and other specimen. he's not seen as a nuisance alike specimen 14 as he doesn't openly attack the others but is still a missed opportunity and not particularly wanted by anyone. most of the time he remains in specimen 12 but OM will venture out (on occasion) to specimen 13's rooms. his ONE good specimen relationship!!!

ok. POST BAD-END HCS.

fumbling their way thru the mansion would likely lead 14 to again meet OM at some point. 14 being hit with the SPECIMEN BEAM definitely enhanced their strength at least enough to kill and swing that axe more effectively. in anycase, if the two were to fight and OM almost loses, the clarity given through his self preservation is enough to at least make him aware that

1. He's being beat the shit out of by a teenager

2. He's attempting to kill the only other person in a similar situation to him

speaking OF that, the parallels within sjsm of the protag and [i guess ex-protag] seem to be everywhere when it comes to OM.

posters

sprinting mechanics

garden tool weapon in 500

him recovering (or getting worse depending on how you see it) by mentoring and helping 14 survive within the mansion is always a concept i thought of given they're both humans who have (somewhat) made it through. he'd definitely have more of a drive to live on (and kill the enterers b4 they could kill him)

i had the idea that if 12 is constantly expanding and shifting through the mansion then OM and 14 could take advantage of that and start actually growing stuff.... making a little survivors camp and plotting.

anyways. those are my old man headcanons. I have absolutely taken canon and stabbed it 30 times but the concept of an ex protag is so cool

UNDERRATED CHARACTER. OLD MAN FANS WHERE ARE YOU?!

the scar i draw on him is from the fight with 14.......................

#specimen 12 #insane headcanoning #hcs #sjsm #spookys jumpscare mansion #spooky's jumpscare mansion #old man #shojs #shoj #spookys house of jumpscares #spooky's house of jumpscares #specimen 4 #specimen 14 #specimen 6 #specimen 8

[skinnytuna]

(i'm anon who replied to your long post about audience validation and art)

thank you for your response, it's very interesting. it's actually kinda funny because I used to be a person who never, ever shared anything I did with other people (online or in person). I wouldn't talk about the media I enjoyed or showed the drawings I made. it always felt too intimate - I was only doing it for myself and so having other people's eyes on it wouldn't add anything to my enjoyment apart from shame from not liking or creating the 'perfect' thing. if I imagined what I would do in the future, it was only from the perspective of what I would actually create, rather than the validation it would give me.

and then my world view flipped, I guess as I became increasingly exposed to online validation. I still dont share anything I make but if I (indulgently) daydream about creating something, it is rarely purely the process of creation that I think about. I cant separate the stuff I do and the response I would get like I could as a kid. this is probably partly because of watching numbers rise online. but maybe it could also just be the sad reality of transitioning into adulthood? when you are young the stuff you make is never going to get you shit. but when you are older, you are expected to view the world with a transactional slant: whatever you give, you must get back in return.

idk how into fandoms you are but I love them because they are a way to remove that dependence on transaction (both monetary and inter-personal validation) we have. obviously, fandoms mostly exist in an online world and so some people are going to be more successful at creating than others (and some people might even manage to make a tiny amount of money) but mostly they are pretty equal. most artists (fic writers/fan artists) are only creating for the sake of creation. they like something, want to improve it or want to explore a world and so they create. some fanfic writers will never get past 100 kudos on a single work, but they still write thousands and thousands of more words. this is because, for them, writing is a hobby and a way to have fun. they are literally unable to monetise it, and the possible size of a response is often limited by the tiny size of a niche fandom.

fan fiction is wholly and unapologetically amateur. it can be a great quality, but writers have the freedom to create imperfect things and learn as they go. there are no critics, book sales or best seller lists - you can just make shit and put it out there if you want.

idk if any of that made sense but yeah

it's funny you say that about adulthood because there are so many like. 13 year old rappers now who are solely in it for the money or dont understand why they are doing it and their parents are encouraging them to do it for the money so like. childhood for us was very different to what childhood currently is, right now this year.

but i personally cant remember a time when i wasn't desperate for validation like when i was playing guitar when i was 8 or 10 i still had that "i hope im good enough i want to be good enough without trying" feeling it's just the people i wanted to impress were like, authority figures. i wanted my guitar teacher to think i was cool. i wanted my moms friends to think i was funny. i'm still afraid of doing anything i haven't already learned how to do, writing is the first New thing i've attempted in maybe my entire adulthood.

it's kind of funny, when i was younger i didn't realize how bad i was at writing music and that's the only reason i stuck to it long enough to learn anything. i was like laughably bad at it in high school and no one really went out of there way to grab me by the shoulders and say "hey! you suck at this! stop!" though a bunch of people did tell me it kinda sucked. i mostly just thought they were wrong. they weren't. but now part of me doesn't believe i could ever be any good at something that isn't that. like when i write fiction i know on a cognitive level if it ends up being good it's not because i worked hard or earned it or anything it's just a complete fluke. and i don't even really believe people when they tell me it's good. even though obviously i'm only posting it so people will tell me it's good.

in a way i feel like i'm sort of shifting back to the way i was in high school... every piece of art i make im like "this is the best shit ever" and then i post it and if people tell me it sucks im like "lol. incorrect. your tastes are Unrefined" and then i keep making more whatever crap whatever. which honestly is the best way to live i think. i have some people in my life who really like, respect and admire that i make whatever the fuck i want without ever really considering whether or not i should. which is funny because i have a lot of people in my life who are like, Normal artists, who Think before they make something, and try to make Good Things and i envy them greatly because it really comes through in the work.

though obviously as an evil bastard communist i am a strong believer that "Bad" Art Is Radical and "Good" Art is Bourgeois Idealism and i find myself constantly torn between, the allure of timesinks and iteration and the mystique of hyperprolific stream of consciousness artists and i feel like i'm the worst of both worlds by not being fully one way or the other! but i guess not everyone can be Lil B and not everyone can be Frank Ocean and some of us need to sit in between those two extremes...

look at all this me talking about how i never stop and think about the art while i'm stopping and thinking about the art... i'm an Olympic level liar rn.

i've never read a fanfiction in my life (outside of like.. homestuck smut when i was fifteen. which i guess Technically Counts.) but as the form is widely derided i'm sure it has the most artistic merit of any thing. i think a lot about what a world would be like where money and art are completely unrelated. and all art exists completely separate from how much dollars it can make a corporation. would being popular even matter? would people still seek fame... complicated questions. Way if we pees form butts

#you better tell me who you are anon we better become friends

[tyrantisterror]

How did you manage to build such a following? I’m considering trying to start a blog because I physically can’t have a more traditional job but I’m completely lost on how to do it.

I'm not sure if I'm a good person to answer this question - both because I don't really think I have much of a following in the grand scheme of things, and because I didn't really try to cultivate it all that much.

Like, ok, numbers wise, my follower count is a bit over 3000, which is a bit impressive, I suppose, but it's not enough to build, like, a side hustle or anything. Of those followers, I'd guess at least 2000 are people who saw one of my handful of Cursed Undying Posts That Will Never Rest Until I am Dead, and followed me purely because that one post was funny or whatever, and then realized I don't post like that often and kinda forgot I exist. Of the remaining 1000, I think it's mostly people who followed me for, like, fandom reasons, with maybe a couple dozen or so people who actively look for my content specifically, rather than using me as an aggregate for kaiju content or what have you.

If that sounds like a complaint, it is not. I like the size of my audience, I like the relatively small number of my genuinely interested followers, I like exactly this much (or, honestly, slightly less) attention. I like being able to know the people who've actually read my silly books by username and how they sometimes even tell me what they think about them. I like it when those good mutuals and not-mutuals-but-still-beloved followers show up in my notes over and over again. It's a small following, and it's nice. I like it that way.

Whenever my follower count goes up, my immediate reaction is fear, because while generally it means some people have just added me to their dashboard's influx of nonsense and will forget my name in a week, and rarely it means someone cool has begun following me and I'll eventually come to recognize their username with affection, every now and then - every rare yet horrifying now and then - it's someone who's a bit deranged, someone who's made me their fixation. I've already got a couple of social media stalkers (or one very dedicated one with multiple accounts, not sure which) and, uh, it's not great!

So, like, whatever following you think I have, it's 1. not something I tried to create on purpose and 2. probably not that impressive, numbers-wise. I feel like it's basically what anyone could get if they post their nonsense like I have for a couple of decades under more or less the same username. Whatever success I have as a blogger I attribute to a mix of being old and getting really verbose about niche topics I care about and have rarely seen others discuss in my particularly deranged way.

So... be authentically weird the only way you can be, and do it for a couple of decades online, I guess?

[spikeinthepunch]

i made a post a bit ago before the reddit black out even happened, talking about how many AI written articles i find when searching for answers on stuff- usually things a little more specific (questions for video games, tech, everyday things but more specific to you, etc. not just "what city is this state in"). its bad- i basically get that or i get reddit threads when i google. and before the reddit black out, i hadnt thought too much about how those AI threads would be.... the only thing left behind if i didnt have reddit. still i watched the reddit black out live, i watched /r/funny go private at midnight. and yet it didnt really hit the importance of reddit until i went on the next day looking for help on a mac laptop i was restoring and realized all the reddits i checked were private. needing mod help for my server, all private. searching reddit for a game i couldnt remember, private.

theres a lot on the internet that needs to be preserved, kept alive, kept relevant. over and over i see people reminisce on old forums and how theyre gone and be brought back- and i think no ones follows through with the format because places like reddit at least fulfill that to some extent. staying with the mainstream is easier and its understandable, bc its relevant and trying to start up your little forum and advertise it isnt easy. Reddit being mainstream becomes the useful google option for a niche forum subject without being a lone forum you probably wont find in typical google search.

and now Reddit isn't available. the most mainstream iteration of those lovely little forums of discussion and support is not available. does it hit now? does it sink in now how bad this is? the past year- maybe even less than a year- has been so so chaotic and bad for the internet. instagram starting turning into tiktok a while back with its changes to feed and format. youtube has slowly followed suit with forcing short's as more relevant for creators than normal videos. twitter did... well, all of That, a lot of Things. Reddit goes along to make their API paid for. Discord turning to the methods on social media, with username changes and more. tumblr is also shifting so much of their entire deal, i think you should all be prepared for tumblr to become unrecognizable too because theres many hints of it happening- some already here.

when i made my personal website over a year ago, it was partially fun but it was a statement for myself too. it was recognition that social media had become unhealthy for me, and i didnt like how it was The thing that existed now, and that bigs corps suddenly taking more and more control of the web was bad and not something i wanted to be stuck with. but suddenly its not just a gentle step to the side i have taken, still knowing i can be on social media to see my friends and build an audience. but now it feels more like all the walls are crumbling around me, and soon i will have no choice but to jump ship entirely. i went from one, to the other, to tumblr where i had always been- the one site that stuck out from the others at least. had an 'old' format. in many ways you need social media.... because its how you made your friends, its how you stay in touch, its how communities get built these days!!

we can try to move back to the independent, the personal sites, the forums, but we all know its not easy. thats truth. its not going to spread as far as we'd hope, many will not follow suit or not know they can. i can only imagine all the old, tech unaware people who will continue to use the internet, never realizing why they struggle to get info or unknowingly follow nonsense AI articles, and have no idea that anything exists outside of the bubble theyre forced into. Not even the old people, but the young generations that will grow into that too and not get out of it.

im just waiting for the mainstream internet to just become entirely unusable from our perspective and its dreadful to me. trying not to be a doomer but i dont think its something you cant ignore when something as simple as googling slightly more specific questions brings nothing but AI nonsense articles or reddit posts and when one of those massive and only relevant sources is down, there is suddenly nothing.

[yandere-sins]

If you ever decide to drop og obey me but want to feel the gap while you fully transition between games, I would like to recommend Limbus company! It's dark fantasy gacha with a gamplay kind of similar to darkest dungeon. Altough the combat system can be a little hard to get the hang of, it's pretty rewarding as you fight more!

The main cast is based off from classic literature: Metamorphosis, Moby Dick, Dream of the red chamber... the Mc is mamed Dante and is based form the Divina comedia (and a comedy it is with how darkly funny and bastard all the characters interactions are with each others!) It's kind of a niche target audience, but I have been having fun with it. You will love the bug guy!

The dailies are basically just fighting, so they are quite easy to fulfil. Although I have yet to find how to get the points for the gacha that aren't from advancing with the story or buying, the gacha isn't that bad; my luck is terrible, I tell you. I have to always reach 76-80 pull on both guaranteed and 50/50 in Genshin to get the five star! Even on my way to build pity, I only pull onr 4 star per tenfold. But in Limbus, I pulled the equivalent of three 5 stars in two days. And since it's relatively new, it won't overwhelm you with the amount of cards.

The only problem I would say it has, is that you will probably need to use the steam version for PC/Laptop if you don't have a good phone/tablet. I tried to run it with the same tablet I play Twisted, but it always crashed after trying to load the tutorial battle.

Sorry if this message bothers you! You can delete it if so, but your poll made me remember the reasons of why I left Obey me! Similar to you, how tough it was to keep up with the dailies and grinding in general, but I was too attached/needed something to do the ex/change before taking my leave. I felt better almost immediately and soon realised everything felt more like a chore rather than something I wanted to play.

Hey! Thank you so much for your insight!

I am just in a big transition mood tbh. I already dropped one of my genshin accounts since I rarely play on it any more and now just do the dailies on EU which I can enjoy with friends too, but it's just waiting out until the update now ^^'

And yeah, I'll definitely drop the OG Obey me. Not like I will delete it, but I just won't nurse it anymore with my time unless they decide to go back and make it an actual, separate game. I am just so disappointed at how they are handling it now. And I was so surprised how many people chose the option that they only play the OG game...

Nevertheless, I do want my games to immerse me (and get my mind off things for a while) and this grinding or just doing dailies is just not doing it for me anymore, so thank you for your input! I'll keep it in mind though not sure if I want to find something else or just go with the most obvious option for me personally: Honkai Star Rail.

IDK if that will catch my attention as much as Genshin did, but with friends that play it and my fav content creators also making videos about it and stuff, it seems logically for me to at least check it out. Either way, there won't be big changes coming soon, though maybe I can find some time this weekend to check out some games I wanted to play and see if something catches my eye, so thanks for your suggestion ♥ I hope you continue to have a lot of fun with Limbus Company!

#admin #recommodations

[brsb4hls]

I think one of the main issues with not only s2 but some of s1 as well as that only neil was involved with the creation of both of them because terry unfortunately passed away. It lost something vital in that moment. In s1, they still had the book and I think s1 did a good job as far as adaptations go with some grievances, but now in s2, it's whatever neil is going to do and with how active he is on tumblr and how the fans are and how he's reacting to them, it's losing the spirit of the original even further. Not BECAUSE the ship is canon, but everything else surrounding the ship and how we got there and how the writers and the actors are changing the characters more as they progress from one season to the next. I watched s2 feeling giddy for more good omens and very quickly that giddiness turned sort of confused and disappointed. I didn't want disjointed filler fanfic with a loose plot. It didn't fit. It didn't feel right. Overall, I didn't hate the season, but I didn't quite like it either. The handful of you good omens critical blogs have summed it up very well for me and I'm surprised it's not a more popular opinion. I've just seen a couple people talking about how book fans are complaining which is the most dismissive way to put it. I'm not sure if people are blinded by their theories and canon ship or they just don't care that this season felt almost fanmade, but I'm sad that the book and tv show versions are now miles apart rather than cousins.

That's a long ask, thank you for sharing!

I actually did like season 1, too. The book is very hard to transfer to tv imo and choices had to be made.

Technically, Adam is the main character, but putting more focus on him would either mean a) a kid show with a lot of stuff about the them or b) more Anathema and conspiracy theories discussion.

That probs wouldn't have worked that well, so Gaiman made the two most colourfull characters the protagonists and in order to flesh them out added to their relationship.

Other stuff was added for comedic reasons or drama. Which I get.

So season one was a fair interpretation with necessary (to appeal to a mainstream audience) changes.

And both actors were doing an amazing job, so that helps.

Another plus is that a lot of new fans had so much fun with the material and created a ton of art/fics and revived the fandom.

And then it went off the rails somehow.

The thing is, Good Omens isn't a drama. A lot of dramatic events happen, but they feel understated, it's mainly weird, quirky and funny.

It also isn't a love story. In the romantic sense.

There is a lot of love in the book.

And I truely do not know what exactly happened, that turned such a unique little thing into the most bland, generic romance.

Probably capitalism.

I mean, just watching Crowley and Aziraphale trying to weather everyday life without having their jobs anymore would have been hilarious, but probs to niche.

And I would love to know what made Gaiman change his tune in regards to the nature of their relationship.

He does not really answer stuff, though, he's good at circumventing.

I hope at least it wasn't tumblr that influenced him. In most cases a creative process suffers from too much social media interaction. (Season 3 could get even worse).

The fandom dynamics regarding criticsm are always complicated.

I do speculate that most hyper positive fans are fairly new, just in it for the ship and going with the flow.

Also critcism is kinda a four letter word these days.

Sadly.

I mean it can be fun and relieving to went or pick apart or even ridicule and as long as it's tagged correctly nobody gets hurt by it.

Maybe 'Good Omens' also is a sore subject, because after years of being vague, Crowley/Aziraphale actually got canonized, and no matter what they represent as, they do look like a gay couple to the general audience, and people might be afraid criticsm might reflect badly on the representation they finally got.

Who knows.

In the end, one can always cherry pick. I do like some scenes, I do ship Crowley/Aziraphale, but I'm disappointed that their characters went full on angel/demon cliche contrary to the appealing, nuanced book versions.

And yeah, there is no actual plot so we might as well have gotten smth like Crowley tries to earn money by becoming an uber driver or smth (there's great fanfic about that).

But that's just me, I do get why people enjoy it. Criticsm just helps to deal a bit with the disappointment, because, like you, I was initially thrilled about the second season.

#anonymous #good omens critical #good omens #good omens season 2 #I could go on forever about that #But actually I just wanna ask why Gaiman switched their personalities to fit the cliche so much #which is the saddest thing #but he wouldn't answer that anyways

[yupuffin]

Another observation for the book of "differences between my experiences in Genshin Impact and Star Rail that are neither complaints nor value judgments -- they're just interesting to note."

This is probably applies for most or all of the characters, but I'm speaking mostly about the men since I'm just a tad fruity 🏳️‍🌈✨

Genshin characters are generally really likable. A major factor of my attraction to a fictional man is how trustworthy I feel that he is, and I've found, with Genshin, that this rarely or never becomes a point of contention; a lot of them have aspects to their personality and/or story that are redeeming, ingratiating, and/or really just plain appealing.

That's how I ended up in love with eleven (and counting) Genshin men, which is absolutely unprecedented for me in any given franchise/piece of media.

Again, not a complaint.

Then there's Star Rail... I don't know very many of the characters, but I feel like, for the ones I do know, I HAVE OPINIONS ON THEM.

Kafka is terrifying and makes me want to run in the other direction. Blade is terrifying and makes me want to run in the other direction. Arlan is my son I must protect at all costs. Luka's my weird baby (meaning a few years younger than me) cousin with the robot arm that he wants to mod rockets into or something?? which is strangely wholesome. (Also accurate to the observation that amputees are the funniest people on the planet. You take EVERYONE with one arm only if you only have one arm to begin with!) Dr. Ratio is the insufferable, presumptuous jerk everyone thought Alhaitham was, so I can't call him delightful, per se, but he's so eccentric that he's very funny to observe regardless. (And whenever he's on my team, my siblings listening in comment on how mean he sounds. 😂)

As people, I don't like them, but I enjoy them as characters just because my opinions on them are so strong. 🤣

Again, still not a complaint.

But also, like. Someone on another platform observed that this is probably because Genshin has a target audience of "basically everyone," meanwhile Star Rail's is more niche. All the guys in Star Rail are so HOT. Dr. Ratio as a person bothers me but he's so physically attractive that I'd still let him kiss me breathless (at least once, just for the experience). This is as unprecedented as me having crushes on eleven guys from the same media simultaneously. 🤣

Don't even get me started on Dan Heng. I don't think I've ever been so attracted to a man 😶 ("Just a tad fruity" was an understatement made for dramatic effect.)

#soliloqyu

[wot-tidbits]

10 Years Anniversary

PART 1

How it started?

10 years is a lot of time and a blink to the human eye.

For 10 years I was extremely stubborn in my pathological consistency to provide WoT content for this blog every single day.

In the last 10 years I had probably around 10? 20? days without a single post. 10 days for 10 years. This is a lot of dedication. Basically this is dedication by insane lunatic.

Every single day - new art or new meme or usually both, with sprinkles of community posts on the top.

For the 10th anniversary I decided to look back through my bumpy journey and write some memories down. I am not surprised that the project turned into several parts.

So here is part one.

How it all started.

If you are old follower of mine probably you have read that story already - I had completely other intention in creating this blog.

Back to 2013 when A Memory of Light came out I had crazy lovely time going around different places in the fandom in anticipation for the last book. And then in the first days of January I stumbled onto the UAF community on Tumblr. I remember two blogs which captured my attention - asthewheelturns and deleted WoT confessions blog. I participated with several confessions and liked the idea of how Tumblr works. For the next months I regularly checked asthewheelturns and in the end of 2023 I got inspired to create my own blog on Tumblr.

(Note – asthewheelturns was the biggest WoT blog at that time)

But what was gonna be the content? At that time I was rereading the database interviews in Theoryland and gathered the most interesting parts shared by Robert Jordan which turned into 100+ excerpts of a list. Then I decided why not make a blog which sorts out the best of the interviews and make catalogue for easier reading. So the blog was initially heavy text only oriented. From the very beginning I knew that I create very specific niche and I expected small audience to pay attention. I anticipated that 100 followers would be considered as great success in the long run of a year or two.

How little did I know about the community on Tumblr. I got the first 100 followers for less than a month.

While learning around the community in those first days I decided that it would be good to have some amazing content reblogged on my blog to show my appreciation. Then I noticed that asthewheelturns was kinda unique in providing various content and I asked myself what kind of blog I would love to follow myself - WoT centric content with regular sharing of artwork, memes and funny community posts and thoughtful analysis (alongside with information behind the scenes by Robert Jordan or Brandon Sanderson). And then I realized that such grandiose thing have not existed at the time. Do not get me wrong, asthewheelturns were amazing and awesome but still they were doing it casually for fun. I told to myself - well if no one else is eager to put the required insane amount of dedication into work... why I don't try it myself? As I wanted such blog to exist, let’s build it with my own hands. I am that crazy enough to spend so much time consuming enormous amount of labor. And this is how I start working on it and now you have seen content for this blog for 10 straight years. And this project is still not replicated.

I got the first place of the WoT-content blog with most followers very fast - in around 1 year my numbers surpassed asthewheelturns and to this day 9 years later I still hold that record to my knowledge. May be this sounds like I am extremely proud and selfish for this "accomplishment", if we can call it as such. The reality is so much different. Yes, in the first 3-4 years it was nice to know that I give the most dedication to the project. But not for long. I realized that such long period “being on top” is definitely not okay for the WoT community in the long run. If the WoT community is thriving there should be always healthy competition, there should be always someone new, someone better - this is a natural cycle. I was not worried or was jealous of the thought to be surpassed. I was eager for this to happen - it would show that WoT on Tumblr is moving ahead. On the contrary, being on top for so long would show that the community is in worrying state of stagnation.

There were several attempts where people created blogs for the goal of competition with me (often doing it with spite of me) and I was more than happy to promote them. Unfortunately, in the long run they all got tired and abandoned their work. This was sad news for me. What I do is not that difficult or special to replicate. The only difference it seems to be that I am insanely stubborn donkey who does not give up. That's all.

All of the above probably does not matter anymore as the new gained popularity of the TV show might make someone with more followers than me. I hope so. Really hope so. Just I do not have that information yet. Please, share with me if you know WoT-centered blog that has more than 4400 followers so to put the record straight. 9 years is too much.

Let the Light keep you safe.

LightOne

#wheel of time #my post #tumblr milestone

[nicehare]

Disclaimer: I have sideblogs for niche interests. Some of them are for mature audiences only. If you make niche content, I will not reblog that stuff here. If you have questions about this, feel free to message me.

---

we do consistent tags here

#caspers art - something i made! i do digital art, photography, and sometimes crochet

#caspers photos - things i took a picture of (mostly clouds and plushies)

#casper talkin - my dumb text posts

#casper venting - vent posts or art

#avery nimbus - my only OC, Avery

#rb - reblogs from other ppl

#lmao - memes, jokes, anything i found funny

#favs - my favorite stuff ive reblogged

(super boring intro below)

Hey, I'm Casper (he/they). I am learning to draw as an adult, so my art is a bit wonky right now, but I'm working on it!

I am autistic and I have a lot of interests. Here are some things you might see me draw or reblog art for:

- TF2 especially medic and especially heavymedic/red oktoberfest, this is my comfort ship right now and I have been rbing it incessantly. For what it's worth, I've never even played TF2, I'm just really really gay. If there's gore or blood I will try to make sure I tag it, let me know if I mess up.

- Clouds, so many clouds. Art of clouds, photos of them, diagrams, etc. I am obsessed, it's my primary special interest. If you don't like clouds, you are not gonna like it here lmao

- Object heads

- Robots (just, like, in general lol)

- Night in the Woods

- Neopets

- Sfw furry stuff

- Pokemon

- Digimon

- Undertale

- Animal Crossing

- One Piece (especially Katakuri)

- The Amazing Digital Circus

- Minecraft

Annnnnd probably others I'm forgetting!

If you have any questions, my ask box is always open. heres a lil blahaj, he hopes you have a great day!

#casper talkin #about

[tothedarkdarkseas]

Okay, now I'm genuinely curious to hear what ideas you'd have if you were in charge of making Stu TikToks. I'm prepared to be amused and also horrified in the best way possible.

I'm sorry for the delay! (It's been a hell of a weekend.) When I first wrote something about the character profiles they made for Tiktok during P6, I'd never used the app. Nowadays, every social media app has their own version of shorts/reels/et cetera, and my only exposure to Tiktok now is through reposted content on YouTube or Instagram. I've come away with two impressions: there are major trends that dominate the average experience but also thriving niche communities for anything, and I'll be hearing "A little context if you care to listen, I find myself in a shit position" on my deathbed.

That all being said, here's what Stu's Tiktok page would look like if it were up to me!

He's active, but not constantly so. Not enough to give the impression he's got a routine, not a one video per day sort of user. Still, he posts too much to be passive. Always featuring himself.

Football videos. I'm sorry, I'm playing the hits (assuming the audience is... mostly me, haha) but football videos. The phone's sticking up out of a cup on a metal table in the garden. The videos are all raw footage, no snappy edits or even music overlaid-- rather, he's got one Bose earbud in and the other down in the cup to amplify sound, the music now recorded secondhand just utterly garbled. He's occasionally got his Chelsea kit on, but not always. The videos are not concise. Three to seven minutes on average of him running around, no one playing opposite him, just showing off his footwork and kicking the ball into the unguarded net. The videos all begin and end with him way too close to the camera as he starts and stops recording.

I'm imagining a thirst trap that Murdoc's recorded of him returning to his bedroom after a shower, hair and chest wet with his towel on his shoulder. He asks "Are you filming?" and then proceeds to tepidly hem and haw, doing nothing to stop him. He captions the video cant believ he film this. geri attic geezer.. goin tp get him back. (He's clearly unbothered because he knows he's fit.)

Too-dark videos of himself in bed shot with the forward facing camera, usually high, looking like he's just woken from a 7-hour nap. These are usually cloudy-headed musings about nature, music, death, life. Occasionally he says something crass or unintentionally funny, but for the most part they're just on the other side of incomprehensible. There's an internal logic to his musings, you assume, but he'll eventually stray too far for someone outside his head to follow.

I wouldn't be mad if these sorts of videos were occasionally quite astute, quite depressing, wise in a sort of sour way. But if I were "directing" things, I think it'd be best to space those between videos he reckons are touching a raw, truthful nerve, but are mostly sort of aimless and shot up his nose.

He'll play piano, or melodica, or marimba, or experiment with singing bowls or finger cymbals. He'll occasionally sing Gorillaz songs acoustic, or cover The Human League, or try out new material. In the latter case, he is notably high or notably low, so to speak. He never comes across entirely clear or professional.

He probably records in studio at times, trying much too hard to look important while remaining casual. He'll record something quick at an award show, showing nothing impressive to the camera and instead filming from his crotch in the car or a dressing room. Stu really ricochets between glamorizing and deglamorizing celebrity, I think, and you're often left feeling uncertain whether that was or wasn't intentional.

I don't know if you're able to see other users' liked videos/if their "FYP" is visible at all, but Stu's is all fanmade Chelsea reels, official Chelsea reels from players or WAGs, borderline pornography, "long-distance reiki healing" sessions/generally grifty new age spiritualist videos, extremely technical mechanical repairs primarily on synthesizers or soundboards done in silence, world music played straight to camera with little fanfare, very local British food chain content, SpraypaintTok, fashion and sneakerhead videos that he's not sure he actually gets but he understands have a certain value to his image, and the occasional animal doing something funny. The algorithm strongly favors the Chelsea, the partial nudity, and the fiddly repairs.

Sadly I don't think I've delivered on much horrifying content here! Suspending disbelief that there is no social media manager patrolling what he can and cannot post: he is, of course, not above filming a touch of borderline pornography himself. Never with Murdoc, even if their fingerprints both linger in other ways, but certainly with women in short dresses, heads tucked to his neck to obscure their face, his hand firm enough on their thigh to leave white lines in their wake. There's nothing that would get him flagged-- they're clothed, if unbuttoned, but there's a sort of editorial sleaze to it. His own head rocks to the side, self-impressed. Sometimes he buries in touring or award show content and captions it berlin. thanx for the memmory. o might be munich.

That's all I have for now, sorry if it's less scummy than you'd hoped! My brain's a bit fried lately. I'm open to your suggestions as well!

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Something I'm not proud of: How pleased it makes me when comedians I like flatter their audience by saying we must be smart if we're listening to them.

I recently watched Stewart Lee's Alternative Comedy Experience, and I thought they sometimes went unnecessarily far into pretentious territory, not with any of the comedy itself, but with the way they talked about its place in the world. There was much talk about how this stuff wouldn't go over well at a normal Friday or Saturday night at a comedy club, in a way that's sort of ostensibly self-deprecating, but actually they're pretty much saying "my comedy is too smart for most audiences". I listen to it and think, oh come on, this is very good but it would be funny to almost anyone. But then I think of all the time I spent in comedy clubs pre-pandemic (which is a fair amount of time, since my brother does stand-up and I used to go see him a lot, his act is... decidedly not the sort of thing that would be on a Stewart Lee show), and I realized that actually, it would be pretty outside the norm if Josie Long got up at my local comedy club and did ten minutes on socialism between sets. So maybe it is fair that the comedians on that TV show cast themselves as not very palpable to a mainstream comedy club crowd.

Anyway, when they did that thing on Lee’s TV show in which they sort of made fun of themselves for being niche but were really sort of backhandedly bragging about being smart, they were also sort of making fun of their audience for being nerds but really sort of backhandedly calling us smart. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy that a bit. Any part of me that enjoyed that even a bit is genuinely among my least favourite parts of myself, an indulgence in smugness that’s a true guilty pleasure and really it’s not a large part of me, and in my defense, I got a lot of shit for nerdery in school and therefore have the right to enjoy this now. That defense would make me feel better if it weren't also the defense of every nerd-identified insufferable asshole I've ever met.

What made me think of this is that I just heard Nish Kumar call me a criminal. Specifically, he called his fans "a pack of criminals", by saying he knows that being outside Britain will not stop anyone from finding his stuff that's only officially available in Britain, because the sort of person who's into his comedy is also the sort of person who’s good at illicitly finding media. I've heard him say things like that a number of times before, and every time, I do feel a bit pleased with myself. Like, yeah, Nish, you're right, you know me. Stewart Lee also has a bit on a DVD show about how it's less lucrative to be a smart comedian like him because his audience is full of people who are smart enough to pirate media, and Michael McIntyre doesn't have this problem. Which... yes, okay, I know, you're a comedian during the 2010s, you all fucking hate Michael McIntyre. No one has ever fully explained to me why he’s the worst thing in the world, but I’m not interested enough in the sort of thing he does to listen to any of his stuff and find out. But yes, Stewart Lee, you are probably smarter than Michael McIntyre.

Streaming and downloading media is a common practice that doesn't require any special level of intelligence, and that means it’s very silly that comedians flattering their audiences by complimenting our skills in that area does work on me a bit. I think I just like being part of the team - Team Pack of Criminals for Nish Kumar.

If I ever feel too pleased with myself for being into highbrow intelligent comedy, I can always remember the guilty pleasures I have besides the occasional indulgence in smugness, which is that sometimes I like to get drunk and watch Roast Battle UK and outtakes from Frankie Boyle-era Mock the Week (the outtakes being where they leave out that show’s occasional forays into intellectual merit, and just show Frankie finding contexts for the word “cunt” that make it even more offensive than it is on its own) and lately, old clips of late-night Edinburgh shows in which comedians do things like rap battle at each other (I make no apologies for how pleased I was to first find that bit of comedy history and I posted about it a lot at the time, the bit that makes it a guilty pleasure is how much fun I find re-watching that stuff while drunk). Oh, and Amstell-era Never Mind the Buzzcocks - it's been a while since I've gone back to that but that was a big one for a while in terms of bad shows I like to re-watch while drunk. I think I might just like watching people be assholes to each other, which makes me absolutely no better than people who are into reality TV shows. Sorry to let you down, Stewart Lee. Though to be fair, Stewart, you were on one episode of Amstell-era Buzzcocks, so you’re not that above it all either.