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The Comedies Critics Club


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Approved by GSR.

 

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Note: Please, read this entire post before requesting to be a critic or requesting a review!

 

Credit goes to Click for the banners and signoffs! A huge thank-you!

 

We all know that feeling: You've just completed your best comedy to date. It’s your masterpiece, your crowning achievement, your magnum opus, a tale that will go down in history! Your name will be mentioned with Togariku, Fresh Makuta of Bel-Air, and Bionicle Guru! So you post it. And… no one reviews it. :(
 
But don't panic- that’s where we come in. The purpose of the Comedies Critics Club is to allow any author of a comedy to get a review for said comedy. With so many members on BZPower, and more coming every day, it is no surprise that many great comedies are overlooked and don't get many – if any – good reviews. As I'm sure many of you know, most posts in comedies are bits of spam-filled praise. Well, this club is designed to give in-depth reviews to comedies, giving good feedback and tips to improve. A small group of members have come together in this club to offer their time to review your comedies. All you authors have to do is post here with a link to your comedy asking for a review and one will be provided [after you read the whole first post, of course].
 
However, it must be understood that everyone here is human and contrary to popular belief, people do have lives. Do not fret if we're a little late in getting to you!

 

 

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All authors [and critics] must adhere to Comedies Forum Standards as outlined by the Forum Leader. Neither myself, nor any of the critics are responsible for any comedies being closed because they violated one of BZPower’s rules. We go to your comedy upon request to review, not to reprimand or arm-chair moderate.

 

Request limit ~ At this time, there is a limit of five chapters per review request and authors may request only one review at a given time.

 

Civility ~ We will not tolerate any rudeness towards any of our staff. Also, do not start spamming this topic with complaints of “My comedy hasn't been reviewed yet!” and so on. Additionally, do not PM any critics along the same lines. This may be considered harassment, and you will be reported to the proper authorities and taken care of. Not to mention we will never review your comedy. Please, no spamming in this topic. If you see an error, or it has been a while and no one has reviewed your comedy, you may politely PM me asking whatever it is you want to ask. Make sure, however, that it has been at least a week since you requested a review. Of course, if we made a mistake when adding your comedy to the list, feel free to PM me, or post in this topic politely to point out the error.

 

Comedies only ~ No, we will not review your Short Story or Epic no matter how good they are. End of story.

 

Comedy Size ~ Your comedy does not need to be finished, nor does it have to be past the first chapter. It's your choice when you want a review, or how much you want to be reviewed. Your comedy can be in any state when you request a review.

 

Back-Seat Reviewing ~ We've all heard the term “back-seat driving”. This is what happens when a passenger in your car [if you can legally drive, of course] starts telling you what lane to turn into, when to brake, when to accelerate, etc. It can get really annoying. Back-seat reviewing is the same idea, where writers explicitly tell us how to do our job. We're here for you, but we also know what we're doing. So please, don't tell us how your want your comedy reviewed. If you have a preference, you may explain such in your own topic. However, whether or not the critic reviewing your Comedy takes such into account, the Comedies Critics Club cannot be blamed. We're writing reviews in a manner we feel will assist you the best. Only if the review you receive goes against the BZPower rules do you have the option of reporting such grievances to me [Purple God], the Head, or the Forum Leaders of the Comedy Forum [currently: Zatth, Velox, GSR and Friar Tuck]. If you have a problem with your review, please PM me and I will review your situation.

 

Favouritism ~ Writers may not request that a specific critic review his or her comedy. A critic will be assigned to your comedy based on his or her availability at that given time. If you don't like the critic assigned, tough luck mate- we're all hardworking people, and we're dedicating our time so that the authors of BZP get recognition. All critics are either hand-picked by myself or have undergone heavy scrutiny and screening. We have full faith in them.

 

Begging ~ It is not alright for an author to beg for a review. I understand that you may not get reviews, or if you do all you get are reviews filled with spam, but that does not mean you are allowed to beg and spam. Don't give us that. Just post saying you'd like a review [following the guidelines below], and one will be given. This follows under the rule of Civility. If we catch any wind of begging, your comedy will most likely not be reviewed.

 

 

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Copy and paste the following form into your post, adding in the necessary information:

[url=(a link to your comedy)]Comedy Title[/url]
Author:
Status of the Comedy: Beginning/In-Progress/Completed
Chapters to be Reviewed:

 
You must link to your comedy. Do not say "It's in my sig". Your request will be ignored if you do. Then, you must put your name under the 'author' section. After that, please choose one of the options for your status. If your comedy is just a few chapters and you plan to write more, put "Beginning". If it's more, put "In-Progress". If it's finished, then you obviously pick "Finished". Then list how many chapters you would like to be reviewed. 
 
For example: "Chapters to be Reviewed: 1-9, 13"
 
Also, if your comedy is pages long and has many chapters, it is unlikely that we'll be capable of reviewing every single chapter. Choose a few and list those- I would recommend including the first chapter. Due to time restraints for our staff, we are only accepting FIVE chapters at a time.

 

 

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I will be checking over each and every review to assure that it's of the appropriate quality. If I find one which does not give enough insight, then I will PM that critic asking them to edit their post and give them pointers how to improve. Quality is prioritised here, and if you don't find a review satisfying enough, don't hesitate to drop me a message.

 

 

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While still a reviewer, the Head usually isn't assigned to a comedy (of course, seeing that I'm currently the only one here right now, all reviews will come to me).

 

The Head

 
Name: Purple God
Position: Head of Reviews/Former CCC Minion
What I Look For: There are three things that I will judge a comedy on: its spelling and grammar, plot, and humour. To me, any written work absolutely needs to be legible, and if your comedy is weak in its technical aspects, I definitely will point out every error you've made.
 
Plot is a big thing for me too - yes, I know most comedies are quite slapstick and might not be overly connected in story arcs, but I still expect things to make some sense. If say ... Gresh were to be having some Thornax soup one moment and then it turns out he was consuming a meat pie the next, then there needs to an explanation for why. Don't just throw random, disconnected actions at me.
 
The last factor, humour, is something that is difficult to judge, especially with everyone's sense of humour being quite different. I cannot admit to being unbiased when considering how amusing your comedy is, but I will try to ask myself: "is what you've written actually funny or are you just reusing an old meme hoping that 'randomness' will make people laugh?". If it's the former, it's likely that I'll judge you better.
 
I also happen to be a rather harsh reviewer, so I apologise in advance if you are disheartened.

 
Critics

 

Name: Eyru
Position: Reviewer
What I Look For: When reviewing a comedy, I like to focus on the technical aspects, the story itself, and the humour. 
 
The technical aspects of a story include spelling and grammar, pacing and stylistic choices, and other bits and bobs that add flavour to the piece as a whole. Tips for receiving a good technical grade include running your piece through a spell-checker, and writing with a consistent voice and effective style.
 
The story is easy enough to judge: I simply ask myself “Was it worth reading?” This section of the review includes the plot, the characters, and the overall impact of the piece. I'm not expecting a Nobel prize-winning novel by any means, but I do expect to connect with your characters and enjoy following the story. Writing a comedy is not an excuse for two-dimensional characters and a hole where the plot should be.
 
Finally, I also critique the humour of a piece. This is the least objective of the categories because humour is subjective: what you find funny may not amuse me at all. However, I will always try to be fair. If you present well-thought-out jokes, and make new and different attempts to make your readers laugh, you will receive good marks. Please note that randomness does not a comedy make.
 
Above all, I try to be fair in my reviews, and I'll give your comedy the grade I think it deserves. While it is my job to critique your comedy and highlight its flaws (learning from your mistakes is how you improve), I'll also make sure to point out what you're doing right, to help keep you on the right track.

 
Pending

 

N/A

 
 

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If you want to join the ranks of the Comedies Critics Club, you must PM me [Purple God]. This thread is not supposed to be filled up with hundreds of requests to become a critic. Also, if you want to apply to become a critic or already are one, it's still perfectly fine to request a review.

 

Critic Screening ~ Every application to become a critic will be screened by me. I will ask if you are capable of fulfilling the guidelines detailed below (possibly also sending you off to do a test review of a comedy), and following that, I'll convene with another critic for their input. If we are not in agreement, we will send your request out to the other critics for a vote. If you are rejected, you may reapply after a two month waiting period. If you are rejected a second time, you may not reapply. Note: To save yourself the embarrassment of being rejected twice, please only apply if you are serious about delivering in-depth reviews to requesters.

 

Critic Duties ~ Every comedy will have a critic assigned to it. I will be keeping careful track of how many go to each critic, so that no one person gets an advanced workload. If a critic does not complete his review within a week of the assignment, one of the other critics or the Head will review it and the critic in question will receive a strike. If the critic has informed us beforehand that he will be unable to review, the strike will be dropped. When a critic accumulates three strikes s/he will be released. To reapply, the critic must wait two months. If a critic is released twice, they will not be allowed to return to the CCC. Once again, please only apply if you can review at least one comedy every two weeks.

 

Reviews ~ Each critic is required to give a full, in-depth review. You must give positive feedback and constructive criticism. Please don't give reviews that consist of "KUTWGW 10/10 Would read again"; there's no way we'll accept that. If you like the comedy, tell the writer why. If you don't, tell the author why politely and provide some constructive criticism. Some good advice would be something that ToM Dracone gave to one of the Comedies Critics Clubs that preceded this one:

 

Here is a piece of advice: Only sign up if you feel like you can actually give helpful, thorough, and polite reviews. It won't do much good to just say "hey, this is good, you should change these two things here" or to criticize so harshly it becomes flaming. Go into detail, explain things, et cetera. And if you think a comedy is absolutely terrible, for goodness' sakes don't say that. Explain what can be improved, and if you can't find anything to actually compliment, see if there's something that has the potential to be funny or creative and say how to use that potential. That's the sort of review that helps people.

 

Civility ~ Same thing for critics. Civility is crucial. We will not tolerate anyone being rude to anyone else, and will take necessary action for the action to be punished.

 

Review Notification ~ As soon as you review a comedy, post saying so! Give a link and the author's name, and tell how much you reviewed of it [or if you reviewed every chapter they asked for, then just put 'all']. It's that simple. Just take thirty seconds of your time and post to say what you reviewed. PMing me will also be accepted.

 

General Stuff ~ If a critic spots a comedy they think needs more exposure, they may note so in their review notification post - it will be bolded on the reviewed list to show that it is recommended. If you do not give proper reviews, you might be removed from the critics list and placed on a suspension. Of course, you'll have a few warnings and chances, but if you continuously give spammy or rude reviews, you will be asked to leave. Please follow these guidelines. I will be working with you guys to make sure you give good reviews. If you have any questions about a proper review, do not hesitate to PM me.

 

Extra Review Guidelines ~ Once a critic has finished their review, the comedy should be given a grade (whether it be a percentage or fraction is up to the critic).

 

Any comedy that is given a score equal to 85% or higher will also be bolded for recommendation.

 

Critics can feel free to use the below signoff if they wish:

 

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Now that you've reached the bottom of this wall of text, feel free to jump into the world of the CCC!

Edited by Purple God
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Here's the list of comedies that have been successfully reviewed by the CCC!
 

Comedies Reviewed: (Bolded Links = Must-See Comedies)

 

Ask Vezon (Unfortunately) TWO! by ghidora131 = 5% (Reviewed by Purple God)

WHAT IS THE POTOO?! by Lucina = 30% (Reviewed by Eyru)

Kongu and Keetongu by Aerixx: Gukko Lord = 8.3...% (Reviewed by Purple God)

Edited by Umi Tryon
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I suppose I'll pop a request in here. If you could judge it both on its merits simply as a literary work and as a comedy, that'd be awesome, since I know that it's not exactly the best in the comedic aspect.

 

One Last Stop

Author: Voltex

Status: Complete

Review: All One Chapters

Assigned "Tyler is Love" to review it as part of the screening process, boss.

 

EDIT

 

Ask Vezon (unfortunately) TWO!

Author: Ghidora131

Status of the comedy: In process

Chapters to be reviewed: DINNER TIME, BUCKETS AND MATH, GRAB A SANDWICH, WORLD 2-4, THE TRAMFORMERS.

 

The review has been completed.

Edited by Purple God
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I suppose I'll pop a request in here. If you could judge it both on its merits simply as a literary work and as a comedy, that'd be awesome, since I know that it's not exactly the best in the comedic aspect.

 

One Last Stop

Author: Voltex

Status: Complete

Review: All One Chapters

 

One Last Stop has been reviewed.

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I suppose I'll pop a request in here. If you could judge it both on its merits simply as a literary work and as a comedy, that'd be awesome, since I know that it's not exactly the best in the comedic aspect.

 

One Last Stop

Author: Voltex

Status: Complete

Review: All One Chapters

 

One Last Stop has been reviewed.

 

With this review, we welcome Eyru to the critics team.

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