unFunnyCyclopedia

I was doing a little research to try to find a new web comic, and I ended up finding a Wikipedia satire page. The format is exactly like Wikipedia, except it's more directed towards fake news articles than actual information - a lot like The Onion. One such article that caught my attention, yet has nothing to do with a current event, was an interpretation of an instant messaging conversation into old-English. The post attempts to dissect a simple IM conversation in a witty way, but for an article posted October 13, 2007, it certainly doesn't seem to provide any fresh jokes about IM language.

As with most funny interpretations, basically anything that restates what's being said comically, the interpreter's explanation for each line of conversations is about 50 times longer than the actual conversation. Ok, that's cool, but we've all seen that before: like the japanese cartoons that that have been translated into English, only there are 10 lines of subtitles for what sounds like 2 words. So I suppose it's witty at best, but I wouldn't give it any more credit than that since its old wit.

It also introduces user hotchick43 as a lonely middle-aged male who is craving attention. Now I won't make a big deal about the whole "online stalking is a real problem today" issue, cause I can handle a bit of heartless humor, but whoever wrote the article completely leaves the fact behind when he starts translating the conversation. This just makes it seem even more like an assembly of old jokes thrown together.

Now I hate to bring this up because I've posted a bit of material that has no real point, but the question I kept asking myself as I looked at it was, "what does this have to do with anything?" Usually something like that would have a bit of a punch-line at the end, or at least something to make me say, "oh, that's why I kept reading." Instead he changes topic to how he wants payment for something he posted on a free encyclopedia: clever.

I won't be completely critical though, I found two of the pictures rather funny, but that's because the pictures were able to make the same joke without wasting 5 minutes of my time.


"More than two people can engage in "Instant Messaging". Despite these men's expressions, "chatrooms" as they are called, are exhilarating places."





























I just don't see why those two pictures needed the rest of the post to go along with them. You can check out some of the other articles on UnCylopedia, but it doesn't seem like any of the other articles are much better. I'm not sure if it's like Wikipedia in that anyone can make an article, but if that's the case it certainly explains a lot.