I am currently in two minds what score to give this blog- either a 3.5 or 4. So I will write my review and see what comes out of it. My experience with reading “My Life is Better Than Yours” (aka “Fountain of Pee”) has been one of great first impressions followed by discovering some very funny and enjoyable stories, with enthusiasm then waning quite considerably as the novelty wore off rather sooner than I was expecting it too. Bit of an anti climax really, after an hour of ploughing through the archives. Let me explain.
When I first entered the site I saw a personalised, simple template with a few pictures and a menu bar. It was clearly a blog which had been around a while – it just had that feel about it somehow, and looking at the menu bar confirmed that the archives went back a couple of years, though postings were somewhat sporadic over this time. I found the “About Me” page and was pleasantly surprised to find that the author had a sense of humour and also a penchant for being offensive, though he was keen to point out that he is not offensive to be nasty, just to be funny. So whilst the blog is offensive in places- swearing, a smidgeon of homophobia here, a modicum of sexism there, it is more a long the lines of Viz or Eminem, rather than Hitler or Mussolini. Not to be taken too seriously. Having said that, if you do find Eminem offensive, maybe this blog isn’t for you.
The first few posts were funny. Most noticeably, he slagged of the TV series “Friends”, which I enjoyed enormously. One thing I quickly picked up about the posts were that they all contain links, but 99 percent of these simply bring up pop- up pictures/ photos/ cartoons which are fairly unrelated but often extremely funny at best, or at worst just plain silly. It does mean you can read all the posts without having to worry about the links at all really, though if you want an extra laugh, they are there all the same.
Now the author is primarily a funny story teller. Most are stories about his life, both past and present, with a few observations about TV shows or politics thrown in. There are usually plenty of comments too, which adds an extra dimension to the content. The author shares his life with us, including his daughter “curly top”, and things he gets up to at work – the subtitle “Fountain of Pee” comes from a pee/ daughter related story which is, in itself, rather amusing. The point though, is once you get past the funny stories and witty pop up pictures, you are not really left with much else. Now some readers may like to visit this blog simply to have a laugh and take their minds off things for a while- super, smashing, great. But by the time I had got through the first few months, I was left wanting MORE. Like the guy in the pub who can tell wonderful stories and get everyone laughing, but leaves you wanting to go and discuss philosophy with someone else, just to balance things out a bit. Maybe all I am trying to say in my rather long-winded way, is that the blog became superficial after a while and I ended up bored.
So I have settled on a four then. The author can, after all, tell a good story and he has put a lot of work in to his funny pictures. But like I say, I was left wanting more. More substance and less swagger.My Life is Better than Yours