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Demisemicenturian 
"Four ever European"

Posted - 10/05/2008 :  02:00:49  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I have just had a review rejected (that previously got "Don't understand") with a comment acknowledging its accuracy but asking if I am saying anything else. I don't write boring reviews so sure, I'm punning on something, but I don't see why the MERP needs to know what. Benj recently mentioned that a clever review can have more leeway (i.e. be less accurate), but surely an accurate review doesn't have to be clever. Benj, please could you clarify this issue?

MguyXXV 
"X marks the spot"

Posted - 10/05/2008 :  03:23:57  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
    Sal, I take issue with your infallibility.

    On numerous occasions and in numerous threads to state as a postulate the facts that you do not write boring reviews, incomprehensible reviews, inapt reviews, inaccurate reviews, or, indeed, any reviews that can reasonably be rejected.

    The fact that you, as do the rest of us, get rejected reviews means any one of several things other than that the editor is dense, asleep, or incompetent. If everyone else in your estimation is wrong, then maybe your estimation bears some review. The art of writing reviews is not comparable to mathematics: the answer (i.e., what works) is not necessarily the product of a given word combination.

    There are differences of opinion, which often derive from different life perceptions. Accept that and human communication will produce that much less frustration.

    Once, way back in law school, I laughed while remembering a somewhat funny bit in a generally unfunny movie: Harlem Nights. The thing that was funny derives from a colloquialism that was prevalent in my youth and which I had not heard for years. In fact, it was a statement that I had heard only other Blacks use, ever. Unfortunately, I was sitting in a caucus after an editorial board meeting for a legal periodical when the memory overtook me. One of the other editors asked why I was laughing, and I knew immediately that he would not understand. I explained that the joke was an aspect of a cultural experience to which he could not relate and that it would make no sense to him. He pestered me and pestered me until, finally, I quoted the phrase (which I will forego here, since it will occasion the same result). He looked at me as if I had no critical acumen or artistic taste in my body.

    "I don't get it," he said.

    "I told you you wouldn't, and I can't condense 27 years of life in the ghetto in order to make it any more accessible." Then it got ugly, as he called me a racist to propose that there were expressions of humor that he could not access or appreciate because he was White (of which notion I quickly disabused him, noting that his race was not the issue, rather it was his relative cultural experience).

    "Still, I don't see what was funny about it at all," he said, to which I answered before stepping out the door

    "That's because you're White."

    And, as to be expected, when I related this story to a group of Black law student friends of mine, only some chuckled at the reference (because to even those in the know it may be only mildly amusing) ... but they laughed at the story.

    So before you go getting all "White" on the MERPs, consider that maybe there's a different point of view at play. Ad hominem arguments about those with whom we disagree, do nothing to strengthen a qualitative counter-opinion: all they do is create or keep the controversy going. If that's the result you want, however, then by all means have at it.


Jeez!: while I hate having to be obvious, I meant the last reference to "White" as an ironic and possibly amusing metaphor, not as a racist dig of some sort ... unless you got offended because you're White.
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Demisemicenturian 
"Four ever European"

Posted - 10/05/2008 :  03:42:38  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I have stated that I don't submit reviews that I don't think are valid. The point of saying that is that surely that is the case for everyone (why would anyone submit a review they consider unsuitable?!), but that many people bizarrely change their opinion about their reviews as soon as the MERPs reject them, as though they are some kind of divine authority.

I have certainly not stated that I do not write incomprehensible reviews. I have only objected to reviews getting 'Don't understand' when the only thing to understand was of the level of the Volga being a famous geographical feature.

I stand by the fact that I don't write reviews without some kind of wordplay, as is the case for many F.W.F.R.ers. The closest would be one or two which just describe the film in a kind of deadpan fashion. Please feel free to cite some of mine if you believe that is not the case. However, it is not relevant to the point of this thread, which is whether boring reviews are still allowed. Of course it's to do with points of view. That is why I have asked Benj this question. Duh!

Edited by - Demisemicenturian on 10/05/2008 03:51:23
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Demisemicenturian 
"Four ever European"

Posted - 10/05/2008 :  03:49:38  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by MguyX

Jeez!: while I hate having to be obvious, I meant the last reference to "White" as an ironic and possibly amusing metaphor, not as a racist dig of some sort ... unless you got offended because you're White.

I'm offended by you capitalising white, and black.
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MguyXXV 
"X marks the spot"

Posted - 10/05/2008 :  05:51:27  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I love you, Sal. I really do. You have posted some very clever reviews, and I have voted for them. I love the fact that you are a dedicated reviewer and a loyal FWFR personality, even though we may not see eye-to-eye, sometimes. I even love the fact that you express yourself freely in the face of some -- not all -- criticism regarding your expression. You are a valuable Fwiffer.

I'm just taking issue with declarations that you are the ultimate authority on the merit of all of your submissions.

Please do not be offended that I capitalized "Sal".
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MguyXXV 
"X marks the spot"

Posted - 10/05/2008 :  05:52:50  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Also: your thread topic is a rhetorical question, which means that anything goes.
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Beanmimo 
"August review site"

Posted - 10/05/2008 :  17:36:55  Show Profile  Reply with Quote

"That's because you're White."???

MguyX,

That was a very interesting story but wouldn't it have been more prudent to have replied,

"That's because you are not Black"???

or have I missed the point!!


Edited by - Beanmimo on 10/05/2008 17:42:44
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MguyXXV 
"X marks the spot"

Posted - 10/05/2008 :  21:39:17  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I hate having to explain jokes.

It was a joke, Beanie. I was screwing around, that's all. I wasn't trying to uplift the guy or educate him -- in fact, I didn't really like him at all. Prudence wasn't the issue: arrogance was. First of all, I was laughing at something to myself, so I didn't invite this guy in to begin with. He insisted on prying into my mind and then deigned to slap a qualitative judgment on my humorous taste. At that point, I'm free to do whatever I want, in my book. I tried to explain why the matter did not translate, which he then took as a racial comment and sought to call me on it. LET'S NOT FORGET THAT THIS ASSHOLE INVITED HIMSELF IN ON MY OWN PRIVATE JOKE! I wasn't making a racial distinction, I was making a cultural distinction, just as the colorful insults of the Papua New Guineans might be lost on me, as I don't have experience with all of the comical aspects of the goji berry! I duly corrected him, but, ironically, he continued to express his confusion in a way that only exacerbated his display of cultural arrogance (i.e., as if there was only one way of judging what is humorous). At this point I didn't care what this asshole thought, so after chiding him for arrogantly reproaching me for making a supposed racist remark, which was not a racist remark, I made exactly the remark he complained of -- in irony -- as a joke. In fact, this same scenario could be played out by substituting the terms "Southern" for "White," and "Northern" for "Black."

Edited by - MguyXXV on 10/06/2008 06:22:11
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Beanmimo 
"August review site"

Posted - 10/06/2008 :  09:15:43  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by MguyX

I hate having to explain jokes.

It was a joke, Beanie. I was screwing around, that's all. I wasn't trying to uplift the guy or educate him -- in fact, I didn't really like him at all. Prudence wasn't the issue: arrogance was. First of all, I was laughing at something to myself, so I didn't invite this guy in to begin with. He insisted on prying into my mind and then deigned to slap a qualitative judgment on my humorous taste. At that point, I'm free to do whatever I want, in my book. I tried to explain why the matter did not translate, which he then took as a racial comment and sought to call me on it. LET'S NOT FORGET THAT THIS ASSHOLE INVITED HIMSELF IN ON MY OWN PRIVATE JOKE! I wasn't making a racial distinction, I was making a cultural distinction, just as the colorful insults of the Papua New Guineans might be lost on me, as I don't have experience with all of the comical aspects of the goji berry! I duly corrected him, but, ironically, he continued to express his confusion in a way that only exacerbated his display of cultural arrogance (i.e., as if there was only one way of judging what is humorous). At this point I didn't care what this asshole thought, so after chiding him for arrogantly reproaching me for making a supposed racist remark, which was not a racist remark, I made exactly the remark he complained of -- in irony -- as a joke. In fact, this same scenario could be played out by substituting the terms "Southern" for "White," and "Northern" for "Black."




Gotcha!!!
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Whippersnapper. 
"A fourword thinking guy."

Posted - 10/06/2008 :  15:56:57  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by MguyX

I hate having to explain jokes.

It was a joke, Beanie. I was screwing around, that's all. I wasn't trying to uplift the guy or educate him -- in fact, I didn't really like him at all. Prudence wasn't the issue: arrogance was. First of all, I was laughing at something to myself, so I didn't invite this guy in to begin with. He insisted on prying into my mind and then deigned to slap a qualitative judgment on my humorous taste. At that point, I'm free to do whatever I want, in my book. I tried to explain why the matter did not translate, which he then took as a racial comment and sought to call me on it. LET'S NOT FORGET THAT THIS ASSHOLE INVITED HIMSELF IN ON MY OWN PRIVATE JOKE! I wasn't making a racial distinction, I was making a cultural distinction, just as the colorful insults of the Papua New Guineans might be lost on me, as I don't have experience with all of the comical aspects of the goji berry! I duly corrected him, but, ironically, he continued to express his confusion in a way that only exacerbated his display of cultural arrogance (i.e., as if there was only one way of judging what is humorous). At this point I didn't care what this asshole thought, so after chiding him for arrogantly reproaching me for making a supposed racist remark, which was not a racist remark, I made exactly the remark he complained of -- in irony -- as a joke. In fact, this same scenario could be played out by substituting the terms "Southern" for "White," and "Northern" for "Black."





I'm offended by your failure to capitalize "Goji berry".



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MguyXXV 
"X marks the spot"

Posted - 10/06/2008 :  17:09:27  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
THIS IS THE SLIPPERY SLOPE THAT IS CAPITALIZATION!
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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."

Posted - 10/06/2008 :  17:12:19  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
DEAR SIR/MADAM

I AM A BILLIONAIRE EMPRESS AND I WANT TO DEPOSIT ABOUT 500 MILLION DOLLARS IN YOUR BANK ACCOUNT.

PLEASE SEND ME YOUR BANK DETAILS AND A DEPOSIT OF ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS TO COVER THE CURRENCY TRANSFER.

MAY ALL THE GOOD SPIRITS OF THE WORLD SHINE UPON YOU.

JUST HURRY UP SO I CAN GET THIS DAMNED CAP LOCK REPAIRED ON MY KEYBOARD.

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Whippersnapper. 
"A fourword thinking guy."

Posted - 10/06/2008 :  18:15:02  Show Profile  Reply with Quote


I'm beginning to wonder whether you guys are taking this thread seriously!


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MguyXXV 
"X marks the spot"

Posted - 10/06/2008 :  18:36:51  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
That's because you're Black and White.
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silly 
"That rabbit's DYNAMITE."

Posted - 10/06/2008 :  22:36:58  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe

DEAR SIR/MADAM

I AM A BILLIONAIRE EMPRESS AND I WANT TO DEPOSIT ABOUT 500 MILLION DOLLARS IN YOUR BANK ACCOUNT.



I got something similar to this from some guy named Paulson last week; only he was offering $700 billion. What an idiot! I hope nobody fell for THAT old gag.
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MguyXXV 
"X marks the spot"

Posted - 10/07/2008 :  00:09:46  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by silly

quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe

DEAR SIR/MADAM

I AM A BILLIONAIRE EMPRESS AND I WANT TO DEPOSIT ABOUT 500 MILLION DOLLARS IN YOUR BANK ACCOUNT.



I got something similar to this from some guy named Paulson last week; only he was offering $700 billion. What an idiot! I hope nobody fell for THAT old gag.

(*gulp*) I think somebody supposedly representing me actually signed me up for that!

Edited by - MguyXXV on 10/07/2008 00:24:16
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