DPChallenge: A Digital Photography Contest You are not logged in. (log in or register) 
 

DPChallenge Forums >> Challenge Results >> Why Humor Rarely Works (Motivational Poster
Pages:  
Showing posts 1 - 25 of 32, (reverse)
AuthorThread
 09/10/2007 12:04:30 PM · #1
I just wanted to share a laugh with you on the recent Motivational Poster challenge. I entered the following photo to get a laugh:



I knew going in that this would not score well because one, it really isn't "motivationl" and two, most people will get bent out of shape about. However, what is funny to me is looking through the comments and seeing how many WOMEN actually found it hallarious and gave me a high score and how many men found it offensive and gave me a bad score. I had men telling me what an idiot I was entering something so s*xist and I can tell they are just SOOO offended for the fairer s*x. Yet, the fairer s*x seemed to find it darn funny for the most part. I honestly think the women here had more of a sense of humor than the men. It was as if men were feeling they had to stand up for women when in fact most women didn't seem to take it offensively at all. IT WAS A JOKE! IT WAS MEAN TO MAKE YOU LAUGH!

Unfortuantely I don't think humor does very well on the site. There is a fine line with humor where no matter what you do, you're going to offend somebody if you try to be funny. So, when you enter humor like I did, just expect that it won't score well and enjoy the comments.

By the way, I had 41 comments and most of them were great fun to read!!!

Message edited by author 2007-09-10 12:04:48.
 09/10/2007 12:16:08 PM · #2
I was more offended by the "egg" poster myself. But I would say this: humor doesn't need to be at the expense of half of your audience (although as you mentioned, they ,ay not have been an overwhelming number of comments indicating so). I'm glad you didn't expect a good score. If you read the comments on this one: you'll notice that most people thought it was funny when commenting ... but men seemed to be rubbed the wrong way more than women also. Perhaps you gave women the benefit of the doubt here in "getting" it ... but men are protective of women so they felt the need to say something.

Message edited by author 2007-09-10 12:20:04.
 09/10/2007 12:17:30 PM · #3
I laughed like hell, and voted it down for not being motivational and having the photo off-center. Funny though.

The egg one was even funnier. Some people are tight-asses, but in my experience not many. I posted a picture of a human woody in the woody challenge and from the comments it was pretty well received. Only a couple people were irritated.

Message edited by author 2007-09-10 12:19:00.
 09/10/2007 12:17:58 PM · #4
You offended my inner woman.
 09/10/2007 12:20:13 PM · #5
Originally posted by metatate:
I was more offended by the "egg" poster myself.......

That one offended my inner chicken.
 09/10/2007 12:21:39 PM · #6
Originally posted by Strikeslip:
You offended my inner woman.


My inner woman was offended by the egg poster :)
Wait, I am a woman! D'uh!

PS - I cracked up over both of them.
 09/10/2007 12:21:59 PM · #7
Originally posted by metatate:
I was more offended by the "egg" poster myself. But I would say this: humor doesn't need to be at the expense of half of your audience. I'm glad you didn't expect a good score.


Mine was the egg. For what it's worth, mine was also a joke. :)

Yours was great, lkn4truth. I gave it an 8!
 09/10/2007 12:23:32 PM · #8
Originally posted by metatate:
If you read the comments on this one: you'll notice that most people thought it was funny when commenting ... but men seemed to be rubbed the wrong way more than women also. Perhaps you gave women the benefit of the doubt here in "getting" it ... but men are protective of women so they felt the need to say something.


I only saw one uptight comment about the egg shot, and I would really consider the source on that one.
 09/10/2007 12:23:35 PM · #9
Actually, very few of the comments were negative. Lots of them predicted you'd be beaten down for it, but they were pretty much wrong.

Not trying to be an ass or anything, but If I'm being completely candid (and I usually am), I'd suggest the reason it got a mediocre score was because a) the underlying photo is mediocre, and b) the layout is off.

after all, this is still a photography site. Your photo is a bit small, and the composition and subject matter is pretty bland. The lighting and sharpness are excellent. The photo and text aren't centered in the frame, either.

All told, I'd say if you got a 5.5 and a few laughs out of the deal, you did pretty well. without the humour I'd think you'd be looking at a 5.0.

Maybe humour works after all ;)
 09/10/2007 12:24:01 PM · #10
THat took me a minute ... Now I'm ROTFLOLWTMSWO!

Originally posted by Strikeslip:
Originally posted by metatate:
I was more offended by the "egg" poster myself.......

That one offended my inner chicken.

09/10/2007 12:25:17 PM · #11
Originally posted by lkn4truth:
Unfortuantely I don't think humor does very well on the site.


Yeah, Scalvert is living proof that humor rarely works around here... :P
 09/10/2007 12:25:42 PM · #12
10 scores of 1 bring a score down quite a bit.
But I agree on the photo critique.

Originally posted by Pedro:
Actually, very few of the comments were negative. Lots of them predicted you'd be beaten down for it, but they were pretty much wrong.


Message edited by author 2007-09-10 12:26:06.
 09/10/2007 12:25:56 PM · #13
One of the funniest posters in the challenge and laughter can be motivational. Though, I didn't think it was motivational (but i said that in my comment). I love it when people are not afraid to break the mold.
It's ok for you to say this..now if my husband had said something like this...he'd be toast!!
 09/10/2007 12:28:39 PM · #14
Right you are :) (though I was more referring to the comments than the scores - I'd think the 16 votes of 9 or 10 offset those nicely - without the humour, ya think it would have received 8 tens?)

Originally posted by metatate:
10 scores of 1 bring a score down quite a bit.
But I agree on the photo critique.

Originally posted by Pedro:
Actually, very few of the comments were negative. Lots of them predicted you'd be beaten down for it, but they were pretty much wrong.


09/10/2007 12:29:00 PM · #15
Originally posted by lkn4truth:

I knew going in that this would not score well because one, it really isn't "motivationl" and two, most people will get bent out of shape about.


Just being brutally honest.

1) Yes, DNMC would be a choice comment.
2) It's funny, but not that funny and definitely not universally funny.
3) It's boring and not that well shot.

Perhaps if you had a woman actually folding clothes it might have scored better. But a boring stock photo of clothes in a basket isn't gonna score well not matter what the challenge is.

FWIW, I've seen humorous shots do quite well here (scalvert). Just gotta get the punch-line right.

Message edited by author 2007-09-10 12:29:45.
 09/10/2007 12:36:45 PM · #16
Originally posted by alanfreed:
Originally posted by lkn4truth:
Unfortuantely I don't think humor does very well on the site.

Yeah, Scalvert is living proof that humor rarely works around here... :P

Ouch!
 09/10/2007 12:37:12 PM · #17
touché
I'm still not quite sure if it's "humor" though ;P but if women laugh, I guess that's humor. I laugh as much as anybody, but to me this stuff is recycled over and over and just isn't worth it. These seem to fit a niche that needed to be filled though.

Originally posted by Pedro:
Right you are :) (though I was more referring to the comments than the scores - I'd think the 16 votes of 9 or 10 offset those nicely - without the humour, ya think it would have received 8 tens?)
09/10/2007 12:39:46 PM · #18
Demotivational Posters

Whoops didn't see someone already posted a link.

Message edited by author 2007-09-10 12:40:14.
 09/10/2007 12:42:38 PM · #19
Must be something wrong with me. I thought both of them were funny and gave them both 7's.
 09/10/2007 12:56:47 PM · #20
Thanks for the comments and I admit the photo wasn't very good and it wasn't centered though man it's brutal when you guys just want to be honest and then tell me how horrible my photo was and I'm lucky to have a 5.5 score. Still, as I said, I agree with it. It's still brutal to read.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
 09/10/2007 12:57:01 PM · #21
The egg is hilarious!
 09/10/2007 01:26:26 PM · #22
Thing about humour is it's risky; thing about dpc is it's all in the comments. Well, mostly. But most mostly, take heart from it all.
 09/10/2007 01:38:13 PM · #23
Originally posted by lkn4truth:
Thanks for the comments and I admit the photo wasn't very good and it wasn't centered though man it's brutal when you guys just want to be honest and then tell me how horrible my photo was and I'm lucky to have a 5.5 score. Still, as I said, I agree with it. It's still brutal to read.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.


nobody said horrible...I actually thought the technicals of the photo were quite good. but it's a bit small in the frame (a challenge when we're limited in total image size and the challenge involves a rather large border etc). The biggest issue on the score comment is that the subject matter (no matter how well photographed) is still a bit bland - laundry is like that :)

Overall I think it was a pretty solid effort, and the score it got was fair.

about the brutality - if yer gonna post it for comments, yer gonna have to accept the bad with the good :)
 09/10/2007 01:41:48 PM · #24
If it's one thing DPC will teach you is to have a thick skin or find another playground. I've grown a thick skin. No worries.
 09/10/2007 01:53:52 PM · #25
Right you are. Actually that's one of the things I appreciate about DP. Lots of other sites are good for the ego with mostly "WOW!", "STUNNING!", and "THIS IS YOUR BEST WORK EVAH!" type comments...but those don't teach me much. I've had my arse handed to me more than once here, and I'd like to think I'm a better fotog as a result.

Another benefit to having thick skin - you'll make a more durable coat once you're dead.
Pages:  
Current Server Time: 04/25/2024 04:20:58 PM

Please log in or register to post to the forums.


Home - Challenges - Community - League - Photos - Cameras - Lenses - Learn - Prints! - Help - Terms of Use - Privacy - Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2024 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 04/25/2024 04:20:58 PM EDT.