Is using humor in reviews considered not professional, legitimate, or trustworthy?

Do you consider humor in reviews professional?


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Sonic Angel Knight

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I wanted to post this in the "Site and discussions" sub page rather then here since I was directly asking about this website, but then I just wondered if others sites also up for consideration. To be honest, I don't like reading, not cause I don't enjoy what people have to say but I just feel more invested to care if I was listening to someone than to read context. Voices bring things to life on a more satisfying level, I just feel personally is hard for text to reach that level alone.

I submitted some reviews for this site (Over 10 actually) and some of them add humor. Sometimes it is to poke fun at the game, I feel the game sometimes have jokes hidden in them i can reveal, sometimes is comparing two things or just trying to keep it from being monotonous and depressing, the satisfying integration of a serious moment well blended with a joke. I'm not much of a creative writer but I try. The reason is I know that if I was reading text and felt too boring cause it is too long to hold my interest, I insert joke here to keep the viewer wanting to know if there is more to come.

But I wonder how do other people feel about it? Do people appreciate such things or do they feel is unnecessary cause it may be hard to take the writer seriously. I understand, it is a review. The point is to share your experience with what you did and tell someone else about it so the influence of buying or passing on a game or movie or whatever is assisted in their decision. Adding lots of moments that should "WOW" the viewer, with serious moments that make it impactful enough for them to understand, keep it a bit amusing weather it is a good game or bad game and include some fun facts along with interesting stories regarding the creation of said media is more my preferred way to view them, but others probably want bearly minimum facts and opinions expressing the stuff making it end as soon as possible. The problem is if you choose to include more, how do you balance it to not be overbearing like a book or novel to just having all your desires met with a presentable presentation for viewers.

If anyone has thoughts to share, please leave a comment below, and if you are talking about a video or text review to specify which one. I'm not asking you to "Comedy central roast" anyone's review but to just share your opinion on what kind of reviews appeal to you most, what kind of creative writing that they should include to get your attention. :)
 
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Meteor7

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I think there's a way to insert humor tastefully without it feeling forced or crass, depending on the context, what exactly the joke is, how well it flows, if it helps to illustrate a point, etc. That being said, I heavily enjoy cracking terrible jokes in general, so perhaps I have a slight bias. ^_^;
 
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Sonic Angel Knight

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I think there's a way to insert humor tastefully without it feeling forced or crass, depending on the context, what exactly the joke is, how well it flows, if it helps to illustrate a point, etc. That being said, I heavily enjoy cracking terrible jokes in general, so perhaps I have a slight bias. ^_^;
Of course, as is with all forms of creative writing, the goal is to make it appealing enough for someone to enjoy that they will read all the way through. Not stop somewhere in between. The writing has to be clever and easily amusing while not trying to lose focus on the main part of the writing. So far I see reviews as huge criticism in pop culture that some people cannot feel satisfied viewing cause of some of the writers who use improper balance in presentation or just unrespectable context. (Judging a game that was made in 1996 to 2017 standards cause it was never officially released until 2017) Star fox 2.

Still I think some people can do their humor well but some do it where they over use it and make it seem like they was making it a huge joke to begin with not to be serious or trustworthy for credibility on influence. Honest trailers make videos that is basically pop culture references jut to get the attention of people while revealing the harsh criticism of the game that the players have commented on.
 
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If the humor isn't funny, nor does it add to the quality of the piece or the main point of the article, then, for all intents and purposes, it's dead weight, and should be removed from future drafts.

Reviews are rather tricky, because their purpose is not only to inform potential players of a game's features, but, in a sense, to persuade the reader of the author's opinion. The overall opinion of the game should be clear, by a review, in my opinion, should offer some sort of leeway as far as the audience liking a certain feature that didn't quite click with the audience, or vice versa. After all, money is at stake here (or not, if y'know what I'm talking about).

If humor is just randomly interjected into the review, without any real context or point to make, then you'll only succeed in annoying your reader base.

That's not to say humor can't be used at all. It, like many other writing tricks and conventions, is meant to be used as a tool to get your point across. A bit of self-referential humor can help accentuate one aspect of a game.

Besides, I seem to have soft spot for just plain stupid humor, so I like seeing some comedy in a review.
 

Veho

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There is no absolute "YES" or "NO" rule for humor in reviews. Like anywhere else, use of humor in reviews really depends on the person actually being funny. Some people simply aren't funny, and their humor will annoy. It will annoy everywhere. So a review filled with forced, lame, stupid humor will be annoying as well. On the other hand, I don't want reviews to be a checklist and feel like I'm reading a spreadsheet. It has nothing to do with professionalism or lack thereof, because there are dry humorless reviews that are diletante as fuck, and there are biased mockeries who use humor to make their point. And there's everything in between.

So by all means, if you think you're funny, make with the funny. Just make sure the review is balanced.
 
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FAST6191

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If you are reviewing something other than medicine or devices used within it there is scope to allow humour. Humour has all sorts of uses, including highlighting a point, breaking things up or making something more memorable.

When I have done things for here I would often caption the images with a relevant* but potentially humorous line, especially when the rest of the review might have been somewhat dry**. Being captions then people could skip them if so desired as well.

*I write reviews to read. If you want to be more of a "personality" (no bad thing, just not how I care to set about things) then playing to that may allow for things not immediately relevant to the review but in line with previously established things.

**dry humour on the other hand.

It should be noted that bad humour can tank things rather quickly. Such a thing is one of my great issues with live streams and let's plays; so very few people are naturally funny, and those that are have typically been doing it for so long. No script, minimal editing and having to focus (if they are also playing like a moron it is an equally great turn off) on a game does not lead to this.

Otherwise what Veho said.
 
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Chary

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I might put a single quip in a regular review, somewhere, but putting too much of it in a review in general is a tad sketchy. Unless you absolutely nail the jokes, your readers are not likely to enjoy the review. There's times where you can write satirically for less serious games. For example, theres some hilarious satirical reviews from sites about Bubsy, Ride to Hell, ET, etc, and when pulled off, they're even better than a serious review could be, on that topic.

But personally, I try to avoid joking around in my own reviews. I try to keep it "professional", as well, opting to not use first person unless it's addressing something entirely subjective (music). Every writer has their own quirks and style. Some do humor better than others.
 

RustInPeace

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I reviewed the My Bloody Valentine movies last night for another site, I hadn't reviewed a movie in almost a year, if not longer. I even ended up reading them back, and, I like what I write, ego much, but whatever. It's not professional at all, that's boring, so I thrive on humor and generally informal prose, and swearing. I'll give an example.

Jump 10 years later. Now, other differences, this is set in America, so no Canadian cheese to laugh at. Axel, instead of being a miner, is a cop, looking like David Arquette from Scream if his face was fixed to make himself less dopey looking and instead like a douche. I'm guessing Tom is the TJ character, apparently he inherited his father's shares of Henniger Mines (same name as in the original), and wants to sell it. That doesn't sit well with Kevin Tighe's character, who was introduced a bit earlier in a diner, he works at the mine. So, 10 years passed, but Tom looks the same! I would complain but it's Jensen Ackles, he doesn't look like someone who ages. Oh and unlike bra action being the extent of skin in the original, the remake has nudity! Glorious nudity, boobs, bush, the whole 9 yards! Betsy Rue commits to this, having sex with some bald man at a motel Tom checks in. Not only that, she stays naked as she argues with the bald man, then goes after him with a gun! Still naked when the killer reveals himself, having used his pick-axe to puncture that chrome dome, and she runs back to the motel. Still naked when hiding, and the room she hides in belongs to I guess the motel owner...who is a midget woman. That was random. The movie isn't politically correct, the killer gets the midget, raising her all the way to the ceiling! I laughed a bit, just the first 20 minutes alone is better than all of the original! She dies by the way, duh.
 

The Real Jdbye

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Humor, used right and in moderation is very welcome in a review IMO.
But I don't know if I could consider it professional. When I think of professional reviews I think of big sites like IGN, and I don't recall seeing humor in their reviews, though it's been ages since I've been there.
But those big sites aren't exactly where I go for reviews anyway, at least not anymore. So that it might not be considered professional is not a bad thing to me. I prefer it this way.
 

Technicmaster0

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I think that jokes are not professional but they might make a review more enjoyable. They have to be used carefully tho! Jokes that actually give new information and might not be too obviouss are okay in most cases, but there shouldn't be more than two jokes in a review to be funny (like bad word jokes that you emphasize). One bad word joke is okay at my opinion - but not exactly professional.
 

Sonic Angel Knight

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I don't want to focus too much on humor in most cases, I want to put it where it fits best and make it count. I want to be taken seriously (perhaps good grammar helps) but I also want it to be enjoyable to read.

Whoa! That sounds awesome huh? Epic story, magic swords releasing evil, booby trap treasure chest, monsters are friends, flying dragons, changing weapons... This world is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions. Old Testament, real wrath of God type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes... The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

In the example, I was reading the context on the game box I was reviewing and there seem to be some over the top exaggerations of what the game provides, so I responded by quoting a popular line from the Ghostbusters movie which is also providing over the top exaggerations. (If you don't like it, i didn't say it was a good joke, just a example.)

I respect creative writing as a art, I try to be creative sometimes to seem more personal cause that what I feel reviews should be, personal experience being shared with anyone of interest. Do I consider it professional? No not really. I never intend for my reviews to be taken on a professional level, like some hot shot websites or other people who do reviews here, I wanted a creative enjoyable contextual presentation for readers that gets my point across. I just want to be able to play a game, and tell someone about it, start a conversation regarding similar interest, you know making it a social experience. Have fun writing it, and discussing it. :)
 

Taleweaver

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I have two thoughts on this that make me unable to vote for anything but a (not-included) "it depends" on the poll.

1) when reviewing games, "professional" just means "getting payed to write a review". There are criteria for good and bad reviews that somewhat boil down to "do they inform the audience on what they need to know?" but that's about it.

2) humor is a broad spectrum. I'm very much leaning into "yes, humor is good!!!", but I think we can all agree that some reviews are just cringeworthy. I'm not sure if there's a rule for it, but if there was, it'd be something in the lines of "aim for the review...never for the punchline". In other words: just let the humor come naturally. Don't write in a direction that only goes to prove your attempted funny-ness.


That said: if you can pull of good humor: go for it. The best recent example I've read was about need for speed where the author wrote in the 'you'-perspective in a situation where the DLC situation was a real world event. It was hilarious.

Personally, I really struggled with my review of doki doki literature club. It originally had more tongue-in-cheek remarks, but as I discovered the game's dark side, those same words left a bad taste. So I rewrote a bunch of them, but even now I think I may have been too cheerful for the topic.
 

Foxi4

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Humour is what differentiates a boring book assignment from genuine insight, it's indispensable if you want to engage the audience. If I wanted something dry, I'd eat some dry wall. Besides, humour is often times what accentuates truly biting commentary. Do you thing Roger Ebert or Gene Siskel weren't true reviewers? Of course they were, and humour was precisely what made their opinions relevant. There are times when you need to be serious, otherwise you're treading into mockery territory, but you have to weave in some humour or the piece comes across as written by someone with no character. A review is an opinion piece and it should be as much about you as it is about the product, if you found something about the thing you're reviewing funny, you should convey that sensation to the audience - they're reading to get a feel of what you're reviewing, not to scroll through a PowerPoint presentation.
 

Sonic Angel Knight

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hey're reading to get a feel of what you're reviewing, not to scroll through a PowerPoint presentation.
I thought Power point was a very popular thing. :P

Honestly I use some humor in the reviews I have done here to poke fun at some game oddities and break monotony, writing reviews are very different than visual ones, but even in those reviews you can find videos of have humor even if watching those is mostly shorter than reading through text ones. But I understand it varies by reviewer, how much context, what is explained, and more.

I dunno if people are reading my reviews or not but I'm trying things to see what works. :)

I guess the question i should be asking is "What qualifies as a professional review" instead of wondering if using humor is advised against being professional or not.
 
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Sonic Angel Knight

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To be fair, most game reviews out there are not professional in my opinion. Most are just subjective opinions that lack detail and in-depth analysis, hence why I don’t take most of them seriously.
Well then it's fair that there is no such thing as professional review huh? Just a bunch of opinions. :P
 
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