Shark Bytes

OK, back to the Carol Burnett show which is what this thread is supposed to be about.

Anyway, CB is a show that I can appreciate more now than I did as a kid when it was on TV in prime time. I just didn't get what was so funny about some of the skits when I was 7 or 10 years old.

I remember that many of the skits had an inside joke feel about them, and I often felt excluded and put off by that fact. I just didn't get what was so funny about some of the skits. This was especially true when the actors would break character and glance sideways at each other or break the fourth wall and make eye contact with the studio audience and start giggling, as if to say, "aren't we so cute and funny". And then, of course, the audience would laugh in return causing a further reaction in the actors, etc. The whole thing fed off of itself. I guess that may have been clever at the time to let the audience in on the performance and allow them to "participate", but it comes across as contrived and annoying when viewed today.

My parents both loved CB - perhaps it's just a generational thing. But at 42, I still don't particularly enjoy this show.

What I can appreciate today is the fact that the writers and cast of CB had to come up with fresh ideas and new skits every week. That must've been one hell of a job.

The CB Show jumped when it started over-using the Mama's Family skit. That skit just grated on my nerves and gave me a headache. It wasn't funny listening to a family screaming at each other incessantly... what a foreshadowing of Jerry Springer!

I loved the cast of the show to death, and think they had some of the best comedy writers of the time, but I wish they had never come up with that horrid skit.

Will this post be here in the morning?

Yeah, just don't hold your breath it'll still be here in the morning.

So are we allowed to post on here now or what?

Good luck. I hope you get a response, but if they're handling e-mail response in the same manner they seem to be handling their boards it could be a long wait I'd bet. Your e-mail will probably get deleted without ever being read.

I've emailed the site admins but who knows if or when I might hear back. I've asked them to explain their rationale for the deletions that have been made on this page, and to straighten things out so that we can get back to some on-topic discussions here.

Ditto Gabriel's question. My post from yesterday afternoon was in response to his question re. Carol Burnett's merits as a dramatic actress. I would assume this is a legitimate topic to be discussing on a message board pertaining to Ms. Burnett. What exactly is going on here?

The post that I put up here a short while ago complaining about posts being deleted from the board was itself deleted. On-topic posts are deleted and then posts that question WHY those posts have been deleted are also deleted.

So, JtS: WHY ARE ON-TOPIC posts being deleted? Why are people not being allowed to discuss the topic of this forum, Carol Burnett? There are many OFF-TOPIC posts that are allowed to remain on the board, but several ON-TOPIC posts have been removed over the last few days.

This is highly disrespectful to the usere of these boards.

LOL! I must have been more 'ooutraged' than I realized!

Actually, 'objectionable' is spelled with two o's -- but you spelled it with three.

And by the way, 'objectionable' is spelled with one 'O', which explains why I was on the Sesame Street board in the first place.

I think Gabriel's theory may have as ring of truth to it. I do know that on the 'Sesame Street' board there were a series of links to heavily pornographic sites, that had obviously been placed there as a joke. Since I imagine there are instances of younger kids hitting the JtS site, I placed a post with a complaint pointing out that these links were clearly inappropriate, and should be removed--only to find my own post deleted and the links to the **** sites still in place! (Where they remained for at least a couple of months, I might add.) A second post from me addressing this met the same fate, after which I just gave up. It does sound as if there could be a somewhat irresponsible JtS staffer playing some games, and possibly even posting some of the 'oobjectionable' links themselves. If that is the case, this needs to be addressed ASAP. An internal troll is the last thing we'd need here.

I posted a well-thought-out reply to Tiki in reponse to a question by her about CB's relative merits as an actor. I'm more than a bit annoyed that it was pulled from here with no apparent reason, along with the original question and some other related posts. It was definitely on-topic, much more so than many of the posts below that discuss our 'troll problem.'

As 'dalisonion' points out, this seems to be a problem only on some of the JtS boards...other boards seem to be left alone. And it doesn't appear to be a matter of someone with an agenda of some kind, because the posts that are removed seem to be inconsistent in their tone, political leaning and content. It seems that perhaps JtS has someone on staff that is playing around with the boards, deleting items indiscriminately, just for fun?

I can deal with off-topic posts popping up on the board occasionally (as long as legitimate SPAM is controlled), and I can deal with those same off-topic posts being deleted (as long as the deletions are handled in a consistent manner). What I don't like is this indiscriminate deletion of on-topic posts that meet the 'standards' that JtS has posted. It's a slap in the face to legitimate posters.

JtS needs to fix the problem. I agree with other posters on here who have suggested some sort of registration step for JtS so that there can be better control of trolls. I'm with 'dalisonion' when he says that he may be jumping ship if it doesn't improve soon.

I'd have to agree wholeheartedly with 'Observer's" comments. The really odd thing is that this doesn't seem to be the case on all of the boards--I visit quite a few, and on some, posts never seem to be pulled, whether or no the comments are pertinent; on others, such as this one, the deletions seem to be constant and appear to have no consistent rationale behind them. If this continues, JtS is going to be deleted from my list of visited sites, and I have a feeling I may not be the only one who's going to 'jump the ship' from "Jump the Shark" if this problem doesn't get cleared up or addressed. It's seriously annoying, and disrespectful to legitimate posters on here.

There were several posts removed sometime in the last 8-12 hours that were on-topic discussions about Carol Burnett. Why were they removed? They did contain some off-topic comments finishing up a discussion about the troll that had been posting on here and on IMdB, but the main focus of the posts (by 'Tiki', 'They Call Me MISTER French' and 'Gabriel') were about the merits of CB as an actor. There was no content in them any different than what is included in a number of posts that are still on the board here. They were all still available as of about 9pm EST last night. Now they're gone.

What gives? I have no problem with posts being removed if they are completely off-topic or if they make wildly accusatory remarks with no evidence to back them up. But it seems that posts are removed for no discernible reason, just randomly at the discretion of some webmaster who feels like removing it. Other posts are left on the board that are far worse than the missing posts. What exactly is the standard? Whatever standard is being used, it doesn't bear any resemblance to what is stated on the site links at the bottom of the page. Inconsistent? You bet!

It just pisses me off that someone is messing around with the posts in this manner. If you're going to remove posts, be consistent about it. And don't remove posts when they are on-topic discussions. That is the part that really annoys me -- we have all these freaking posts about a troll and they get to stay, but as soon as a few people actually try to carry on a dialogue about Carol Burnett, the supposed focus of this page, they get all their posts pulled.

It makes no sense -- I agree that Jump the Shark has really jumped in this instance. They need to seriously rethink how they moderate the site.