Site Review: 11 Points

By Glenn 

A new feature I'm cautiously considering adding to our weekly ordeal of posts is called "Site Review." In case you were raised in the wild and can't infer what this is from contextual clues and a dictionary, the idea is that I will view one website (or blog as the case may be) and give some of my private thoughts on the content and design. These are my private thoughts, remember, so don't go telling everyone about them. We also hope this will lead to more websites issuing fatwas against us. As it stands, it's only Al Jamiyah Islamiyah and Ask Jeeves.


"A Blog of Lists by Sam Greenspan. Funny lists, movie lists, sports lists, top lists. So, basically, lists."

This is a website run by Sam Greenspan, whom I assume to be the great great grandson of former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan. He's much funnier, but lacks the strong grasp of monetary policy his g.g. grandpa had. Richard Pryor and Bill Hicks once said in a joint statement that lists are the laziest form of comedy writing, but Sam does what he can to turn that adage on his head. OYIT has gone down this path in the past, with mixed results. Maddie's "Twenty Things I'd Rather Do Than..." series would fit in perfectly with 11 Points, but our less popular "Top 10 Football Murderers" list would have no place here. They don't mention OJ Simpson or Ray Lewis anywhere!

Mr Greenspan lists things in elevens because it's more than ten and because eleven is a prime number. I assume since he communicates using prime numbers that number one for Sam on a list of recent medical diagnosis is autism. I once saw autistic kids communicate like that on the Kathleen Turner film House of Cards. Whether or not Sam is autistic isn't really relevant to my review of this site though. What is relevant are the kind of Top 11 lists that he does. Featured are eleven of the best:

1. 11 Stops on a Sexual Tour Around the United States
   
2. 11 Behind the Scenes Secrets From Our Mike Tyson's Punch Out Rap Video
   
3. 11 Famous People Who Were in the Completely Wrong Career at Age 30
   
4. 11 Things I've Learned About Los Angeles (Part Two)
   
5. 11 Worst Mario Games, In Order
   
6. 11 Races/Ethnicities I Would Never Date
   
7. 11 Weakest Official State Items
   
8. 11 Best Beers To Get You Drunk But Not Make You Fat
   
9. 11 Firsts In Internet History
   
10. 11 Sexy Photos Totally Ruined By People in the Background
    
11. 11 Things Connor Peterson Missed Out On
    
12. 11 Funniest Classified Ads Ever

As you can see, there isn't a subject he won't tackle, except football. After you quit laughing at that pun, I should admit that I stole it from the site's "Top 11 Football/Fish Puns" list. I'm a little resentful that he jumped on the fish puns bandwagon after OYIT built the bandwagon in the spring of 09, but I won't let it shine through in this review.

Design

As you can see, an immediate problem with 11 Points's design is the same problem that plagues OYIT: Ringo Starr. Or rather, Ringo Starr advertisements. We've spent many minutes discussing what kind of ads to use on our webpage but I will never stand for one that blocks a portion of the page! I like that the background is white, just like my favorite form of precipitation: snow.


Content
I think I've already discussed content.


Pictures
Some of the articles have pictures! For example, in the one called 11 Most Painfully Obvious Newspaper Articles Ever, Sam posts pictures of real newspaper articles and then riffs on them. My favorite is:

Now that's comedy!


Overall
This isn't my favorite website on the internet but it isn't the one I hate the most. My favorite website on the internet is this one because it's where I log in to do my online banking and get to see how much money I have. My least favorite website is The Drudge Report. Instead of giving me information about my checking account, it gives me tabloidy headlines about my favorite liberal people and causes. On this scale of online banking to the Drudge Report, I give 11 Points a 5, or also known as a "powdered doughnut." The ranking system will be clarified for next time.

Sam Greenspan, please tell us that you've read this review of your website!