The Mighty Blog

Fans of The Mighty Blog really, really like The Mighty Blog.

Others felt like the blog was “juvenile.”

We get the feeling Mighty Dykerson and his fans don’t care.

CONTENT – 8.0
“I think I have a new favorite blog. Thanks for the link!”

“Overall, the blog is a little too frat-boyish for me to be in love with it. Don't get me wrong, I like the blog but it's a little more base and vulgar for me, without being clever enough to balance it out.”

“Entertaining, engaging, sometimes perversely funny.”

“This blog reminds me of something my 14-year-old cousin would love. A good read if you aren't looking for anything too deep and you don't mind at least one poop joke in every post. A few posts were really funny and unique, but there are just as many that where just a little too juvenile – more silly than witty.”

“Reminds me of Blog Ho or Pop Fizz, but with a deeper sense of humor. Very good stuff.”

“Not bad. Very funny at times. The Valentine’s Day post was laugh-out-loud hilarious. I enjoyed reading the work-related posts, though personally I would be too scared to venture into that territory.”

“The first post I read was the one about ‘If I Did It … .’ That’s like getting a leadoff home run. What a great post!”

“He comments on some of the blogs I visit. His comments are funnier than his posts. Just my opinion.”

“This is one of the funniest blogs I’ve ever read.”

“I liked this blog. Like Borat, sometimes it seems over the top for me, but you cannot deny that it is funny.”

DESIGN – 6.4
“In the name of all that is good, turn off the flashing lights! The cosmic bowling design is not working. Added a couple of points for the entertaining links on the sidebars.”

“The blinky shit turned me off, and I’ll never understand those sidebar comment things, but the logo is great. Find a Web designer to fix your blog and you’ll really have something.”

“I really like his template in that it fits the overall theme very well. It's easy to read, and it's pleasing to the eye.”

“Some of the formatting is off if you don't use IE for browsing. The blinking is a little obnoxious, but so is the writer so it goes with the theme. It's simple enough to navigate and I was thankful for the two-column layout. Three columns and blinking would have sent me into seizures.”

“Lackluster. However this is rated as high as it is because it's not too link heavy.”

QUALITY OF WRITING/GRAMMAR – 7.1
“I like his writing, but again ... I think my biggest beef with it is that it sometimes appeals to a lower common denominator than it has to. On the other hand, it's his choice how to write, so whom am I to criticize?”

“Not the greatest writer in the world, but he’s funny.”

“Despite the occasional overuse of the ellipses, deliberate misspellings (I hope 'edukational' isn't spelled like that), and self-created words; he does alright. Just a few annoyances, but none that make it too hard to read.”

“The writing didn’t do anything for me either way, which is a good thing. I didn’t see any glaring errors for a personal blog. I didn’t see anything that made me say, ‘This guy is a great writer,’ either. The quality of writing is OK.”

INTANGIBLES – 7.1
“Those blinking lights are fucking horrible."

“Other than the annoying lights, it’s a neat, uncluttered blog that I have no complaints about.”

“I feel weird about my review because while I like it, I think it could be more, and I know that comes off as arrogant. But it's honestly how I feel.”

“The monkey clown freaks me out.”

FREQUENCY – 6.0
“The Mighty Dykerson has averaged almost three posts a week the past six months.”

WOULD YOU READ THIS BLOG REGULARLY – 64% Yes
“Yes. I’m adding it to my links.”

“I might pop back in sometime.”

“No. I don't care for it. I think he's trying too hard to be funny. Seems forced to me.”

“I do. It's not one of the ones I read first, but I get around to it. I like it.”

“I'll check back occasionally. I can appreciate a little shameless and immature bullshitting every now and again.”

“Sure. Good stuff.”

OVERALL – 85.7

Vonnegut’s Asshole

Eric Spitznagel has writing/editing credits from Playboy, Esquire, Spy, Harper's, Blender, McSweeney's, and many other publications. He’s written (and published) six books. He even had a brief career as an adult film screenwriter.

These days, he’s a contributing editor for Believer Magazine, Web site editor for Monkeybicycle, and the world’s foremost authority of Vonnegut’s Asshole.

The blog, that is.

Most of our reviewers loved Vonnegut’s Asshole, placing it near the top of the blogs we’ve reviewed.

CONTENT – 8.8
“Totally brilliant in most every way: A humor blog that is actually laugh-out-loud funny.”

“Laugh-out-loud funny in places. His mind works like mine does, and that's almost frightening. Cigarette Penis Envy and Hot Lesbian Muppet Love made me cover the laughing with fake coughs since I was wasting time at work, reading.”

“Very entertaining. The posts are generally pretty long, but I wrestled my short attention span into submission because I really enjoyed reading them. I don't know if this blog would appeal to everyone, but if not it is a reflection on the blogging community and not the blog because his writing is wry and clever.”

“This stuff is original, funny, and so well written. One of the best I've reviewed so far!”

“Good use of kitsch.”

“In today's blogosphere, it's awfully hard to find a subject that hasn't yet been covered by thousands of others. The author gets a lot of credit from me for being able to find fresh topics for almost every post. Of course, some are boring as hell to me, thus the few points I've taken of.”

“I'm ashamed to admit I enjoyed the whole huge thing about cereal mascots.”

“The Pete Best of cereal, good one!”

“With a name like Vonnegut's Asshole, it has to be good! I'm not sure if the world is ready for two long-winded posts about breakfast cereal mascots, but I found Eric's essay on Dig 'Em particularly moving. And I was truly impressed with his Nov. 2nd post, which includes a picture of a Scottish guy with an enormous uncircumcised wang. Pure genius!”

DESIGN – 7.4
“The monkey was funny but hate the 'grandma's wallpaper' background.”

“Sadly, as brilliant as this blog is, it really suffers in the design department. Desperately needs a re-design to match the quality of the writing, which is excellent.”

“It's a plain jane blogger template, and I don't care much for the way he plops his pictures into his posts in such a manner that some of the words are crammed to the left or right of the picture, but that is such a minor quibble that I am embarrassed to even bring it up.”

“Nice, easy on the eyes, low on redundant paraphernalia like ads. I liked it.”

“Standard Blogger template.”

“It’s an altered, standard template but I love the monkey. A re-design would make all the difference in the world.”

“Its uncluttered and neat but at the same time, boring. The brown/tan color scheme doesn't do much for me. I guess I'm impossible to please. “

“The template isn't earth shattering, but at least it's clean and easy to read.”

QUALITY OF WRITING/GRAMMAR – 9.6
“I really like his writing style.”

“Impeccable. The guy is a professional writer, and a very good one at that.”

“I've got no complaints. The guy knows his stuff, not surprising given that he is a published author, I suppose.”

“Conversational and easy to read.”

“Has a handle on rudimentary grammar and spelling.”

“Generally done well but I have to point out that something with stripes is 'striped,' not 'stripped' (not necessarily, anyway).” [See Snap Crackle & Pop post.]

“The man writes for a living; his writing has to be good.”

“Not every professional writer I read is this good. It’s an honor he bangs this stuff out for us. Very good.”

INTANGIBLES – 6.6
“Whenever I see anti-aliased type I go into spasm, and his header text brought on a full seizure from which I am still recovering. Extra points for having full entries in the RSS feed.”

“Loved that he used illustrations, old ads and video clips of the different cereals.”

“I have no beefs. He doesn't post every day, but his posts are very full and robust, they last you a couple of days.”

“I hate to even mention the long posts, but they really bother me. Part of being a good writer is knowing when to quit.”

“I'm not a big fan of long posts, but they are well written.”

“Don't really love the interview transcripts. They're the equivalent of memes and Quizilla – sins that I am equally guilty of committing. People that write in glass blogs shouldn't throw stones, but I still don't love them.”

“I don’t get the name.”

“I had to skip through the majority of his posts, because, had I attempted to read them to the end, I'd still be at it when I retired. The posts are painfully long, and the author takes forever to get to the point. On the other hand, if you stay with a post, it proves to be worth the read. Loved the Chicago post, for example!”

“At first I didn't understand why the author only posted twice a week, but after seeing the length of his posts, it seems fair.”

“Eric, you just sold another book.”

FREQUENCY – 4.0
“Eric Spitznagel writes a new post every Monday and Thursday … because he loves us.”

WOULD YOU READ THIS BLOG REGULARLY – 64% Yes
“Yes indeed. I am putting it in my Bloglines as soon as I finish this review.”

“Maybe. I'll try a few more posts and see if he keeps my interest.”

“Sure, why not?”

“Doubtful. Not sure if it was the kitsch or the template, but it just didn't pop at me, and the posts were too long to grab the attention.”

“Maybe once a week is good.”

“I liked Eric's blog and I will be coming back, though I don't promise to read all his posts in their entirety.”

“I would read this blog regularly.”

“I added it to my Bloglines about a month ago but I didn’t realize this was the same blog. Honestly, the long posts probably kept me from thinking of it as one of my favorites. Thanks for forcing me to dig into the archives.”

“No.”

“While I enjoyed what I saw, I'm not sure it did it for me well enough to go back regularly.”

“Already do, and recommend it highly. Why this blog isn't immensely more popular than it is boggles my mind.”

OVERALL – 91.8

Bookfraud

Even the reviewers who didn’t like Bookfraud recognize the quality of writing.

That’s a pretty good sign with our bunch, helping to propel Bookfraud to the middle of our Top-50 blogs.

CONTENT – 7.4
“An excellently written blog about life, self-loathing, political rhetoric, with a side of pity parties and witty question and answer segments. But, it is just not funny. Smart and fun, certainly, but not funny. Why is this one being reviewed by BlogLaughs? This is more of a Dennis Miller-type site, not a Dennis Leary. Regardless, I love it.”

“I enjoyed the 'Dear Bookfraud' post.”

“The potential for funny was there ... and then it was gone. Several strong starts but wound up more of a bitch-fest about how hard it is to write and get published.”

“I really liked his posts. He always begins them with some sort of personal anecdote, and then proceeds to either rant about an obscure issue associated with the personal story, or fall into a witty diatribe that takes the topic in a funny direction.”

“I couldn't get into it at all.”

“He tells a good story, and he does so intelligently. I especially like the captions for his pictures. I certainly identify with his self-loathing.”

“I’m not a book guy myself, but he tells a great story. If the posts were a little shorter and the design was cleaner, this blog would be perfect.”

“Filled with the insane wisdom that can only be understood by the amateur wannabee novelist, Bookfraud is a genius at taking all that insecurity and indecision, filing it under ‘horseshit’ and allow you to want to continue your journey into becoming a novelist. He absolutely gets the writers mindset. He puts things into words in such a humorous yet desperate fashion that you can't help but say, oh my god, he's reading my mind! Brilliant.”

DESIGN – 5.3
“A standard Blogger template. Normally this makes me want to jab the writer in the eye with a sharpened No. 2 pencil. However, Bookfraud's style of writing, ironic at least, somehow manages to overcome the droll template. We forgive you, Bookfraud.”

“One of the few down sides to this blog. Just a simple Blogger template that hasn't been modified.”

“There was something wrong with the side bar.”

“He screwed up his template somewhere, which pushed his sidebar to the bottom. I’ve done it myself, but I have to knock off another point from my standard 6 for a Blogger template. Pay someone to redesign it for you. It’s cheap and it’s worth it.”

“This is always the hardest category for me. If the content is good, I don't really care about the template much. But, since I guess ultimately I have to grade it based on the esthetics, I give it a 5.”

“Standard Blogger template but clean. Bonus points for including pictures in the posts.”

“Blogger template, right? Too plain. Boring. I give it points for simplicity and lack of ads and other crap in the sidebar, which was located at the bottom of the page for me.”

“Standard Blogger template, but clean, oh so very clean.”

“It's a typical template, not bad, not good.”

QUALITY OF WRITING/GRAMMAR – 8.9
“Excellent. Bookfraud is a superb writer who just can't seem to get published. That's a damn shame, because Bookfraud is a great read.”

“He can write. A grammatical God. Proper usage of apostrophe. Doesn't have long, steamy affairs with ellipses. He tells an amazing story.”

“Well-written but dry in places. Could be that I'm just not edumacated enough to appreciate the prose in this site.”

“I couldn't stand to read much of it but I think in what I read the writing was acceptable. I could be wrong.”

“He writes in that sweet spot of using big words but none so big that I have to look any of them up. I love that. It's fun to read, and I feel smart. Very good writer.”

“You can definitely tell he's a writer. Even though the posts are long, they aren't too wordy.”


“I went in and really tried to like the writing but overall it was obscure and downright pretentious.”

“Very good writer. A perfect 10 is rare for me, but this one gets it.”

INTANGIBLES – 6.7
“Most of the posts were a little to long for my gnat-like attention span.”

“He's a clearly interesting, or at least he knows how to say mundane things in an interesting way.”

“I love that he's a dumb Jew. I'd give him an extra point for that, if I could.”

[This reviewer is Jewish. Stop sending e-mails about anti-Semitism.]

“Meh. Content is very specialized to writers, would-be writers, and liberals.”

“Long boring posts.”

“I really like this blog. Seems to me its kind of a 'well kept secret'. If the author ever had the desire to take the blog to its own domain and create a semi-nice design, then I'm sure he'd get a heck of a lot more readers.”

“The posts are a little longer than I like, but why penalize him for my short attention span?”

“The posts are too long for me.”

“He doesn't post all that often, maybe once a week. I always wonder about blogs like this in that would he be as entertaining if he posted every day? Can you appear smarter, funnier, etc. if you save it up for a week?”

FREQUENCY – 3.0
“Bookfraud averages less than two posts a week, but it’s close enough for jazz.”

WOULD YOU READ THIS BLOG REGULARLY – 54% Yes
“Have been lurking there for months. I think I will come out of the closet now.”

“Hmmm … no, but only because I have to read so many these days. It would be on my blogroll if my blogroll were smaller.”

“Probably. I'm going to add it to my feed reader and give it a spin.”

“No.”

“While I wouldn't throw this blog into the category of ‘funny,’ I will definitely put it on my permanent read list because the writing is smart, solid and Bookfraud is one of the few really intelligent people I have seen in the blogworld.”

OVERALL – 79.2

Perez Hilton

While reviewing other celebrity blogs in the past, a few of our reviewers have remarked, “It’s OK, but it’s not as good as Perez Hilton.”

If memory serves, none of those people responded for this review.

Instead, the reviewers who rated Perez Hilton gave us every number from 0-10 in almost every category. The numbers are literally all over the place.

CONTENT – 6.3
“The stuff is kind of funny in a ‘look at me I'm gay and I love acting like a bitch’ sort of way. There are pictures with almost every post, so you at least have a visual connection to the insults the author is spouting about celebrities.”

“I enjoy the psychotic scrawl on the photos.”

“Gossip whores of the world worship Perez Hilton, though I still don't understand why. He is a Ted Casablanca wanna be. Equally as gay but not nearly as much style and class. He is the gossip goddess for the mean-spirited. About 90 percent of the time his ‘scoops’ turn out to be wrong, but when he is right, good lawd, watch for him flamboyantly screeching ‘I told you so’ all over his page! He has a lot of growing up to do. I find him incredibly boring compared to Eonline, Gawker, Defamer or various other gossip sites on the Web.”

“I'm going to have nightmares about that Cameron Diaz photo.”

“Ugh! I am not a big fan of celebrity blogs. I have one on my blogroll and it is not, nor will it ever be, this one. There are a few sincere posts scattered among mostly sophomoric and/or mean-spirited posts. Who needs this? Is this contributing anything to our lives? If so, it sure ain't the gift of laughter. I guess some people like this. I am not one of those people. This blog gets a lot of comments. I think that makes me sad. There are blogs that do this sort of thing so much better.”

“Perfect 10s are so boring, aren't they?”

“I know I seem mean. I guess this blog is okay for some people. Maybe the kind of mouth breathers who can't read the bigger words in People Magazine or can't pick up Entertainment Tonight on their stolen television set.”

“I’ve just had enough of the ‘snarky comments about celebrities’ sites. Here’s a big ‘who gives a shit!’”

DESIGN – 6.3
“With the amount of media attention this blog is getting, I figured it would be a better layout. The main header image is out of sync with the background (in both FireFox and IE7). The images even overlap the post boxes if they're too large. I guess the pink color fits the theme, but I just hate pink. Overall, better than most homemade Blogger templates.”

“It was really slow to load at home and at work. Both have fast connections.”

“The ads were a little too busy, but I liked the pink.”

“It's a good template and design for what it is supposed to be. It's attractive. I don't get hung up on ads or mumber of sidebars or stuff like that. It's clear and attractive and easy to read. If I liked the content, I would rank it higher. I still can't get past the content."

“While I love pink to death, he manages to make me hate it. The dual sidebars are annoying as hell. On the left, how wonderful he truly believes he is. On the right, ads ads ads ads...and ads with spelling errors no less, which doesn't surprise me as PH could use a class on spelling and grammar himself.”

“Professional, unique, clean layout.”

“Not bad, but the pink sucks. It’s just too gay for me.”

QUALITY OF WRITING/GRAMMAR – 6.5
“Pretty funny stuff, but for a guy who claims to have been part of a real journalistic publication before blogging, there are still too many grammar mistakes.”

“If spelling is truly not the mark of which intelligence should be rated upon, then PH is a genius. He makes so many spelling errors that I find it painful to read his column. His use of grammar is atrocious. Maybe it's intentional. Who knows.”

“Witty captions. Very relatable. Easy to digest and enjoy.”

“The words are spelled right. I'll give him that much.”

“It’s better than average for this sort of thing, but you have to be in the mood to read it.”

INTANGIBLES – 3.8
“Too many ads will make your readers go blind.”

“Lots of ads and it tried to make me download some ActiveX bullshit. I don’t think so.”

“I'm not sure why, but the intangibles of this blog are higher than the scores for the other areas. I guess a queen from LA who posts dozens of times per day on the latest celebrity gossip is more entertaining than watching it on Entertainment Tonight.”

“Ads. Ads. Ads. Ads. Ads. And that stupid cutsie poo writing thing he does on photographs. Argh. Hate it!”

“Very plugged into celebrity-ville.”

“I'm sorry. I just can't get past the content. I think my laptop is starting to smell. I need to get off this blog.”

FREQUENCY – 10.0
“More posts than you know what to do with.”

WOULD YOU READ THIS BLOG REGULARLY – 50% Yes
“Yes, but I think dlisted.com is better.”

“Nope.”

“I added it to my feed reader, but I'm sure I'll get tired of it pretty soon.”

“No. And I have to go bleach my corneas now for taking the time to review it.”

“Sure.”

“No, no, a thousand times no. If I am in the mood for this kind of humor I can just hang out at a bowling alley or a frat house."

OVERALL – 72.4