A Partial Taxonomy
May. 10th, 2022 11:11 pmI have an ongoing fascination with the Tumblr-native comedy form of the snowballing multi-contributor post, and I think I've identified a couple of distinct variants:
"50 consecutive punches to the face" — Characterized by a series of disorienting and aggressive reversals. Actual enmity isn't mandatory, but there's got to be some kind of opposing polar alignments in play.
"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Shitposting" — Characterized by surreal cooperation rather than surreal opposition, with the participants egging each other on to play their roles more outlandishly or amplify the central premise.
"Who's There May Be Giants?" — The first half of the thread is people riffing in a lawful or neutral way, and then someone parachutes in just in time to completely miss the entire point, which is even funnier.
"ADHD Physics Simulation" — Characterized by a series of increasingly out-of-control conceptual left-turns and topic shifts.