Uncyclopedia:Pee Review/Tide Pods
Tide Pods[edit]
Atomicdragon136 (talk) 19:10, February 11, 2018 (UTC)
Reviewed[edit]
How and why is it funny? Any suggestions?
One of the first things I lean on when reviewing (or writing) an article is How To Be Funny And Not Just Stupid. One section in particular here is Avoid stagnant jokes.
While Tide Pods have become a meme recently, just making reference to a meme does not make a funny article. This doesn’t mean articles written on memes can’t be funny - it just means that you would have to make it funny beyond the repetition of the meme itself.
One of the disadvantages of writing based upon a meme is there is a high likelihood that the joke(s) have already been done, and your audience is aware of them. One of the elements of humour - and a key one - is surprise. An unoriginal joke falls as flat as a dad joke.
How good is an idea behind the article?
There is no original concept involved in this article, which is the key to the problem.
There is a sketch done by College Humour which shows a man obsessing over eating pods. This sketch is funny as it takes the basic concept - eating pods - and builds a narrative around it. It’s not the meme that makes it funny, or the actual eating of the pods, but the man’s struggle against his instinct to eat the brightly coloured treat. Of course, as this has been done to re-do it would leave you in the same position of recycling a meme.
One of the skills of parody is to take what is real and make it amusing. One possible way to do this is to look at the history of real food-stuffs and substitute elements of those dtories into your own article.
Some things that come to mind are the history of corn flakes, and the idea that by eating them would reduce sexual desire and masturbaion. Or the history of play-doh being a cleaning product that became a children’s toy. Or Coke having cocaine added.
An article that explained that Tide Pods were invented as a treat that was high in baking powder - in order to whiten children’s teeth - then being used accidentally to wash clothes successfully, could have some merit. Controversy about the high levels of HFCS, and studies linking it to cancer could be involved. A contra-marketing campaign, along the same lines as the tobacco industry, could also work.
Steal lines from pop-culture, such as “as part of a healthy balanced breakfast.”
If you include the highly toxic nature of the pods, or number of deaths, make it so it looks as though it’s just an afterthought, and almost not worth mentioning.
For this to pop it needs to move away from the “people eat them” angle, with nothing else, or delve deeper into it, moving further down the ridiculousness rabbit hole.
How good does it look and how well does it read?
I guess it was okay. I didn’t pick up on anything, but fidn’t go through spelling and grammar with a fine tooth comb.
How are the images? Are they relevant, with good quality and formatting?
The candy version of the pods was a good image, and the core source of humour. I think you were aware of that as it has been oversized to compensate for the lack of content. The first image is only so-so.
An image of the pods out of context as a foodstuff may work. Like a picture of a restaurant style dinner plate with pods on it.
The article's overall quality - that indefinable something.
I think i’ve covered most of it.
An overall summation of the article.
Articles on memes are a bastard to do well, and often are avoided for exactly that reason. The best articles on here take the mundane or obscure, and stretch the narrative around them to expose or add the funny.
Read through HTBFANJS, and have a flick through UN:BEST to see what works. Maybe shelve this in user space for now and work on something different to develop your style, and then come back later.
Or maybe just work on it now and make it brilliant.
I don’t know. I’m not your mother. Do what you want!
Overall, don’t be disheartened. My first few efforts here were disturbingly crap, in retrospect, but I thought they were works of genius. It’s a starting point to develop from.