When you notice yourself laughing so often, or perhaps just raising your eyebrows bemusedly from time to time, it's easy to mistake oddball sites for humor sites. However, there's a subtle difference: humor sites TRY to be funny. Comic strips, joke lists, humorous collaborations, and comedy sites are all intent on making you laugh. Both the author and reader are aware this purpose from the start. If a humor site fails to make people laugh, it's failed its mission and goes on someone's Bad list.

On the other hand, oddball sites appear funny because they're so pointless. Oddballs present nonsense and socially incoherent concepts, effectively puzzling the reader. It's easier to understand a site with a purpose. When you go to Nike's website, you expect info on merchandise, even if it is presented in a vague manner. There is a social context and defined basis for analysis. But how do you make sense of a site dedicated to the secret life of Vienna Sausage? Most people never knew or even considered the possibility that Vienna Suasage had a secret life; this is a concept from far outfield lacking social context. Your mind is left grasping for a foothold.

When something doesn't make sense, a human's first reaction is either to freak out, ignore it, or start laughing. Good oddball sites manage to capture the reader's interest with the promise of something amusing. And because websites are less dangerous than a tribe of rabid baboons that suddenly popped out of nowhere, most people don't start freaking out. Therefore, the remaining option is laughter.

Furthermore, the type of laughter induced by oddballs is usually passive or indirect, requiring the reader to glean it out of the content in mis-context. This humor is usually a dry, sophisticated, or rather strange wit as opposed to the well-articulated, directed, instant humor prevalent in humor sites.

Node by: Rumi Mohammad