Lonos Oboe posted:

It's funny, I read the frontpage almost every day as part of my routine. I don't remember the writer's schedules but I normally guess halfway through who it is. If an article wasn't doing anything for me I would stop reading and close out, but not before checking the name. I noticed that a large amount of the ones I did not like was from President baby. That's fine, comedy is subjective. No worries.

Then I clicked on this thread about 2 weeks ago while browsing and realised that I am not alone. A lot of the critique in this thread has been in line with my own and that's fine too. Plenty of people get bad feedback and take that onboard before improving their material. The problem with Asterios material in my opinion is that he does not write what he thinks is funny. He writes what he thinks people will find funny. It's a cold and clinical way to approach comedy. And that is fine too, except Something Awful has always been at it's best when it is a little subversive and offbeat. The two Trump/Star Wars articles really highlight this. Zach has always been the most lauded writer on this site and while he occasionally misses. He always comes out swinging and usually mixes broad comedy and clever satire.

Unfortunately, the Palpatine article is so on the nose it feels like it was created by a comedy generator. They are almost the same joke and I did not find Zach's particularly funny but Asterio's was painful to read. It's family guy level poo poo. Star Wars reference +Trump jokes-self awareness. And I guess that's fine. I read half and skimmed the rest.

The thing that bugs me though is Asterio's attitude. Asking people to send them in their comedy articles and post them with the fee if he finds them funny is just a pathetic way to avoid criticism. I write, and I write comedy sometimes and there is no loving way I am sending him my work on some stupid challenge of "well if you don't like it you do better" Have some loving self respect dude and that includes listening to the bad feedback and taking the insults on the chin.

I am not going to send you in my work so you can use it to feel more secure in yourself or post and undermine it to make yourself look better. You write for a comedy website but that doesn't mean poo poo unless you deliver. And when people give you poo poo on the forums, welcome to the internet. There is nothing worse than seeing a comedian being heckled and losing his poo poo and cursing the guy out. Just cop the gently caress on dude and grow up. You don't see other writers on this site getting into hissy fits or snarkily promoting their lovely novelty books in the threads criticising them. Take the feedback and be thankful people are reading your poo poo and care enough to tell you how much you suck. Build on that and respect yourself and your loving audience.