Studs Up

I’m really quite confused about what inspired Soccernet to create This Sporting Life. I wouldn’t highlight this if it was a simple case of them trying something new and creative and failing, rather it’s the fact that I can’t even figure out what they are trying to do at all that is throwing me for a loop. I liken the reading experience to the awkwardness I feel when I watch David Brent crack a joke that’s followed by deafening silence and the odd wince.

On first glance, it looks like they’ve set up a blog that is supposed to be the personal website of Pharrell Bell, a football player at “Redcastle Town” who plans to talk about his “life” as a Premier League star. So one would assume it would be a series of humourous blog entries that are supposed to be taken tongue in cheek?

Perhaps, but not only does the attempted satire fall entirely flat, but the Soccernet team have also put in some considerable effort to write their own comments under various aliases, apparently attempting to con people into believing Pharrell Bell is a real person. Or at least con people into believing there are other people who believe Pharrell Bell is a real person.

So perhaps they are trying to re-create the Masal Bugduv effect for April Fool’s?

Well, the problem is that since they have made no attempt to make the set-up plausible (Redcastle Town?), there is 0% chance of anyone being fooled and we can all safely conclude any comments on that blog to the contrary are written by someone at Soccernet. The remaining comments by real people are usually berating the blog author for wasting everyone’s time, which is never a good sign. Sadder still, the people behind Mr. Bell’s blog are now moderating out most of the abuse they are getting to keep it a shill-only zone.

So let’s try this again. Humour? Fail. April Fool’s gag? Fail. Comments? Fail. The trifecta.

If anyone has any theories on what they were trying to achieve with this, I’d love to hear them.