2014-09-26
Explanation
The Joke
The comic proposes "a site where you can leave reviews of anything" and then shows absurd reviews of things that are not normally reviewed as products. Reviews include: the color orange ("Good, but it's no burnt sienna"), the concept of great ("GREAT BUT DO NOT CONFUSE WITH THE FOOD!!"), four-sided polygons (one reviewer was won over despite not liking objects with both length and breadth), the inexorable passage of time (one star, with a warning that it "KILLED MY GRANDPARENTS. AVOID!!! LAWSUIT PENDING!"), and another reviewer grateful that time is "destroying the abstract notion of youthfulness."
The Humor
The comedy comes from applying the familiar format of online product reviews to abstract concepts, colors, shapes, and fundamental aspects of reality. Each review perfectly mimics the tone and quirks of real online reviews -- the enthusiastic all-caps warnings, the oddly specific complaints, the litigious threats, the contrarian reviewer who goes against the consensus. The review of "the inexorable passage of time" is particularly funny because rating an unstoppable cosmic force one star and threatening a lawsuit perfectly captures the entitled tone of angry online reviewers who believe everything should cater to their preferences. The comic satirizes both the ubiquity of online review culture and the absurd belief that everything deserves and can be rated on a five-star scale.