Creating a humor page?

I think anyone that has hung out at BugGuide for any significant amount of time knows that this community has a pretty good sense of humor. Aside from the witty comments on images, there is an occasional post which perhaps lacks the technical perfection or educational usefulness necessary to keep it in the guide, but is extremely amusing or creatively photoshopped. Usually these posts are sent to Frass, but I wondered if there might be any interest in creating a permanent page for these images (similar to the page for BugGuide gatherings and events or Portraits of BugGuide contributors)?

Here are a few examples of possible candidates for creative photoshopping posted recently for Easter:

An example of funny captioning:

Possibly a good spot for those historically contentious "not serious enough to be a proper portrait" images?

I'm sure there are many more potential examples -- these are just a few that I came across. This was honestly just a random idea that occurred to me, so please feel free to let me know if it was a bad one! (*grin*) Just curious to hear what other people thought...

Contributed by Harsi S. Parker on 26 April, 2009 - 4:39pm

100% For (With Reservations)

I think something like this came up before and, as I did then, I'm all for including some humour and anything else that will help endear insects to the general public. It NEEDS to be kept separate from the purely informative, though. If I want to look at 'funny bugs' or even 'funny entomologists', then I want to be able to go to a section dedicated to just that. Even I wouldn't want to see goofy captions and photoshopped handlebar mustaches slathered all over the photos people are trying to use for identification purposes or for serious research.

One of the big reasons I'm all for humour when it comes to insects is that it makes for a great opportunity to get that appreciation and learning process going. Insects, let's face it, have a bad rap by and large with Joe Q. Public. Exceptions occur for those perceived as pretty (butterflies), awesome or cool (dragonflies, praying matids), or just plain cute (ladybugs and woolly bears). Comical bugs are only a step away from being elevated to the status of those well-thought-of and relatively safe cute bugs. People, I find, are also much more interested in learning about something once they've become fond of it for whatever reason, and there's your education angle opening up, all thanks to an initial 'funny' picture.

If this site ever does allow for a humour section, what I'd love to see most are entries that serve that ideal dual purpose: to entertain, yet also educate. Photos like that of Elissa Malcolm's Eastern lubber grasshopper hanging from the twig strike me as ideal. The original is both a good serious portrait of most of the ventral surface of an adult Romalea microptera and the perfect candidate for some photoshopping fun--I think it makes an even better little poster if you close-crop the original photo to a long vertical rectangle so that you get the full effect of the hopper's long dangling body, then slap that onto an all-black background with the phrase 'hang in there' in white vertical lettering on the left. Stick something like that in the appropriate subsection in the 'Orthoptera: Goofy Grasshoppers, Cracked Crickets, Krazy Katydids' funny pages along with the species common name and a link back to the original photo in the serious ID section, and there you go: Visitors and regular site members alike will have a good laugh, and I'll bet a lot of the casual visitors who were perhaps a bit intimidated by all the 'scientific' jargon on display (ie. those latin names!) may now click on to find out more about the funny hopper they just laughed at after all. At least that's my thinking on how using humour could help this site, and I'm sticking to it!

PS to Elissa Malcolm: I actually did quickly photoshop your original lubber photo as I described using the basic Paint programme on my computer here at work just for my own amusement and it really does look great that way. Showed it to a couple of people that came through the office earlier this morning and they wanted me to run off copies! You really should submit this photo to a nature/humour based greeting card/poster company for pro consideration, if you haven't already. It seems to be the sort of subject matter they might go for and you'd wind up with a bit of change in your pocket for your troubles. (Me, thinking of the cute-baby-grasshopper-in-the-tulip-flower greeting card that I bought recently.)

… Heimchen, 3 May, 2009 - 9:11am

Partially against

Sorry, but I'm going to look like "the bad guy".

First the "Hang in there" image. While quite funny, please note the image submission form requesting "Please do not include any other text or markup in the image". I think that the guide should be somewhat serious so that people will respect it. I think that making "Hang in there" the title instead of "Eastern Lubber" is appropriate, but I don't think that it is proper in the guide "as is".

I also don't want it to become a "contest" for every image to have some "Bee there or Bee square" plastered on it. Then what do we do if the image is valuable IN the guide?

Does this funny section just become a big dumping ground for any image with a little quip on it?

As I said, I don't want to be the bad guy, but a lot of people work hard to make this a respected source of information and I think that funny text on images in the guide takes away from that. And I wonder if a humor section will divert too many images that really belong in the guide but it has something silly written on it?

… John R. Maxwell, 2 May, 2009 - 10:09am

No hard feelings here...

John, that's OK, I kind of got the impression that there wasn't much interest anyway (considering that you are the only person who has responded thus far!). I think you have some very valid points and I had actually considered several of the downsides myself (despite being the one who suggested the idea). It was truly just a flirtation of an idea and I think you have presented a solid enough case against it that I am more than happy to let it go. I do, however, want to thank you for giving it thoughtful consideration and posting a response.

[Also, if a humor category did not become an option, I had every intention of suggesting the lubber image for Frass. I agree wholeheartedly that images within the guide should adhere to the image submission stipulations.]

… Harsi S. Parker, 2 May, 2009 - 10:50am

Art page

I would like to see an "Artistic" page where people who paint or draw (or whatever) can submit images of their creations. But I also cringe at the idea of what would probably be a needed "review/approval" process on what gets in. How do you tell someone there "art" isn't good enough? But I also know there are people who create true and wonderful art and I want to see it displayed somewhere even if it isn't at BG. I'm pretty sure this was discussed in the past. Maybe we should just do what we do?

… John R. Maxwell, 2 May, 2009 - 11:47am

Also an art fan...

...but I assume that the problems you brought up with having an actual gallery of some sort would soon become apparent. Everyone has their own idea of what good art is and it would seemingly be quite unfair to put anyone's submission through the scrutiny of the frassing process. Still, it is nice to see that some of the talented artists who create realistic illustrative drawings are currently included in the guide. (For instance, Andy Hamilton, Christine Elder, or Tyler Christensen.) And for those works of art which border on the more fanciful end of the spectrum, there is always the option to present your work via a general posting to the forums, as Sonya L. Volkhardt has done here.

… Harsi S. Parker, 2 May, 2009 - 5:09pm

Another wonderful candidate!

(*chuckle*)

Submitted by Mark Fox to ID Request.

… Harsi S. Parker, 27 April, 2009 - 11:56am

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