It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #123 · 7:34pm Jul 26th, 2023
When most authors write Purple Edgehorse, they go for action. Maybe romance. A dark path full of pathos and regret. (For a certain subset of authors, they go a bit more steamy because they really want her to step on them.) Comedy is not a first choice for most authors.
These are not most authors.
They understand that comedy sometimes works best when the madness comes from the mouth of a pony who would murder you at the drop of a hat. Any hat. Or hat-like object.
See? Hilarious.
We lead with the story I can describe: Tempest Poppins, by PresentPerfect.
There is a legend: if a foal is in need, they can write a letter to her and set it on fire. And then she will arrive to help them: Tempest Q. Shadow, Esq., D.B.A. Then the foal's problems wil be solved through the power of friendship and incredible violence.
For those not in on the joke: Tempest Shadow's VA is Emily Blunt, who starred as Mary Poppins in the remake a year after the MLP movie. So now hopefully this particular joke makes sense to you.
But back on the main topic! Random comedies are often, uh, bad. I won't mince words: the tag is usually not used well, and ends up being dumb monkey-cheese pretty frequently. Thankfully in the hands of a skilled writer? You get things like this. It's wonderful and I'd expect nothing less from PresentPerfect.
It's a short series of vignettes - which honestly is just what it should be, to keep the joke from wearing out its welcome - that hit just that balanced sweet spot right between "Oh my god that's so dumb" and riotous laughter. Because yeah, Tempest Shadow in a turn of the century nanny's outfit, arriving via umbrella to beat up a child's bullies? It's incredibly stupid. It's also so tongue in cheek you can't help but laugh.
Each of the following chapters changes up the situation enough to keep it interesting while both staying within the story's conceptual bounds and accelerating the lunacy. (Chapter 5 peaks this and remains one of my absolute favorite comedic bits.)
Don't expect a deep plot, but it's a funny, fast ride.
Now on the other hand, we gotta talk about Super Trampoline. Tramp's an author who's pretty easy to summarize: you either get the joke or you don't. Like jakkid166, there's a good section of readers who will simply never find the story funny, and there's a section that will bust out laughing at the first sentence. I haven't really found there's much of an in-between.
So when I bring up the story Gee, Tempest, Why Are You So Tall? I can tell you with confidence that I cannot summarize it. Not without spoiling the entire joke, and even then I would almost assuredly flub it. What you need to know going in is:
- This story is a comedy despite most of the text seeming to be a serious discussion.
- It is centered around a single joke.
- You will probably not realize what the joke is until the last line or so of the story. (Possibly beyond - Super Tramp's got a helpful short video in the ending author's note and that's where I finally got it.)
- It is probably the dumbest joke I have ever read on this site.
- Three-plus years after first reading it, I still occasionally remember the joke and groan.
I think that about does it for this one. If you get Super Trampoline, this is prime comedy.
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…Is it telling that when I saw the opener refer to “purple edgehorse”, I was very confused when the following prose before the pic didn’t really seem to fit with Starlight Glimmer?
Part of that is because I don’t think of Tempest as purple, more maroon or red wine. And also because my view on Starlight is not that of most authors in some regards. But I think it’s telling that Tempest didn’t even cross my mind. I suspect I may well be alone here – she had quite a lot of solid fics to her name, after all. But it certainly was a more vague opener than usual on your part. Likely it never crossed your mind that anyone would think of anypony but Tempest off “purple edgehorse”!
As for the fics, I’m always surprised at how little of PresentPerfect’s work I’ve read (I’ve never reviewed one, for starters), though I do know there’s quite a few Tempest stories there, especially the still-slowly-ongoing The Princess’s Captain. This one seems to avoid the traps of most tonally off-kilter bordering-on-random-comedy fics, and I am intrigued by the concept, so I’ll certainly consider it.
Though speaking of the Emily Blunt connection, I’ve always found it so weird that they hire her, a British actress with a wonderful natural voice, to play the villain, and they she puts on an effective yet altogether anonymous All-American accent for the role. And apparently, it was her idea as an approach to the character! Like, don’t get me wrong, Tenpest’s voice has an appropriate silky menace, but it’s such an odd choice. She’s spent ages away from Equestria, not having an American accent would fit grand too.
On the other end, Super Trampoline’s work tends to not work for me, whether it’s actually a feghoot or just a build up to a really dumb joke. But unlike most other such authors, I can see how the stuff is well done and thus good for its target audience, so I admire the work from a theoretical perspective.
Also, apparently I’ve read this one? Got a blue checkmark, anyway. Don’t remember a darn thing, alas. So I’ll take your word on it being the best kind of dumb joke.
So....no creature exists that gets the joke in at least one story by the author, but (even so) doesn't find it ALL THAT funny?
I mean, I think it's possible for someone to understand a joke in one of my stories, but still not find it very funny. (I'm just not telling you which one of my stories that would be.
)
Ah, I remember Gee, Tempest! I actually recall enjoying the winding buildup to the punchline a smidgen more than the punchline itself, at least at the time, but either way, I'd recommend it, even if Super's usual routine isn't necessarily your bag*. For that matter, I'm pretty sure that story's what wound up kickstarting the big "Feghoot Festival" contest of 2019; good times, those were!
*We tabled co-writing something once or twice, IIRC, but I'd almost assuredly impose too much method upon his madness, methinks. :P
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PP is an excellent author and I heartily recommend her work. The Princess's Captain is top tier, and as a sampler I also suggest Twilight the Useless and Dinky's First Kill. Both are real favorites of mine.
This week's is absolutely the second one.
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I'm still sitting on an idea, waiting for that contest's sequel. Perhaps some day.
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Same here, to be honest.
I AM HAVING THE BEST NIGHT RIGHT NOW THANK YOU :'D
seriously, it's been a severe rollercoaster of a day for me, but between this blog and Lucky Dreams', you are helping me end it on an extremely high note :) thank you for this review!
also, that's a really good choice for a Trampo fic XD
Thank you for the featured review! I must also recommend the much shorter but equally dumb sequel!
I can very heartily recommend
5739520 Present Perfect's story as well; it's one of my favorite silly comedies.
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I was thinking of holding a Limerick contest next once I'm a little less disfunctional and can actually set aside money. I still owe some of the feghoot winners.