Friday Q&A

Questionable Frustration

Greetings, crickets and trolls. Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Q&A. It's nice of you to join me again. As you're no doubt aware, I value nearly all of my readers. At least those who swear a loyalty oath to uphold my ideals. Like all great geniuses, I'm able to recognize that everyone who disagrees with me is stupid. Thankfully, there's still hope for a few of you.

Q: What's the best way to win a Fark contest?

A: It's easy, you just have to give the public what they want. If voters are only interested in seeing tired cliches repeated ad nauseum, you'd better be there to serve that tripe on a platter. Skilled and insightful work can only take you so far in our community. Formulaic and obvious are much better recipes for success on Fark.

Q: Why does my best stuff always seem to score poorly?

A: This lament is so common, it should be part of the Adobe EULA that you have to agree to when you install Photoshop. People always want to know why an entry they spent ten minutes on can outshine something that took hours to complete. My best advice would be to make sure your piece contains an actual joke before you expend a lot of effort on it. Voters don't know how long it took for you to finish something, and aren't really judging your image on that criteria.

Q: Why do Fark voters favor quick and dirty stuff over more advanced entries?

A: Once again, you've missed the point entirely. Voters don't necessarily favor simplistic work, they just want a laugh. Cliches serve this purpose well, and often act as ready-made comedic devices for Photoshoppers who didn't have the pleasure of attending Sarcastic Joke University. In the past, there have been many attempts to elevate what we do. That's all well and good, of course. No one is saying you shouldn't spend time on your entries, or work to improve your skills. Just make sure the concept you choose is at least mildly amusing. Fark is, after all, primarily a humor site.

That's all for this time, gentle reader. Thanks again for stopping by. I'm glad we had a chance to further explore the debate of skill vs funny. Ultimately, you will find yourself best served by having a little of both. Though it's much more likely that you have none of either.

Stay tuned for more honest evaluations from the Doctor!