
RAH Humor Review: America Online's Comedy Club
by Dave Bealer

This month's RAH Humor Review takes us to the Comedy Club, one part
of the "Games & Entertainment" section of America Online.  Alright,
you may well be wondering what a DOS command line cowboy like me is
doing anywhere near a GUI-based online system like AOL.  The answer
is deceptively simple: they sent me a free trial membership.  I may
be a grouch, but I'm also cheap.

Yes, AOL is slow, but that is almost a relief on the first call
since the main "menu" offers a bewildering variety of icons you can
click on.  A few of these icons even make sense once you figure out
what they're supposed to mean.

The Games section of AOL is extensive, offering everything from
online role playing games to an online casino.  On the same main icon
is the Entertainment section, which features an entertainment news
section.  But my attention was immediately grabbed by the Comedy Club
which is listed in this area.

Sure enough, the Comedy Club features both messages and files related
to humor and comedy.  The message areas seem to contain many of the
same blonde jokes seen everywhere else in the online universe.
Sometimes I get the feeling that every humor/funny/laughs conference
is linked together - with some demented twerp in Cleveland dumping
all these lists of moldy jokes and chain letters into them.

The file area also contains much of the same old stuff seen on any
BBS with a decent humor collection.  The only difference is this area
is not being maintained.  The most recent file posted for download
was uploaded on 06/20/93 (I was there in November).  "Maybe they're
not getting any uploads," I thought.  A few issues of RAH should take
care of the boredom.  Three issues from last summer were dutifully
uploaded.  Upon checking back a week later, nothing had been done.

"Hmm.  It had been so long since anything was posted, maybe the 
sysop gave up looking in the upload directory on any kind of regular
basis."  I left a note using the "Ask the Staff" icon.  A few days
later I received a message from a fellow who said he used to run the
Comedy Club, but not anymore.  He said he'd pass my note on.  

Another week or so went by, and my free trial month was drawing to a
close.  Since absolutely nothing had been done to post RAH for
download, I decided to cancel my membership.  The nearly frantic
phone call asking why I cancelled came a week later.  I explained 
what happened, and was politely offered another free month to try and
work things out.  Since it had been about five months since the file
area of the Comedy Club had been touched by official hands, I decided
it just wasn't worth the effort.  Since the nice lady acted like she
was going to be brutally murdered by her bosses if I didn't stop the
cancellation process, I was nearly forced to hang up on her.  Low
pressure 90's marketing strikes again.

The final analysis: slow and mostly repetitive of any networked BBS
with a decent humor collection.  The only unique thing was the
"Improv" area, which contains short bios of a few fairly well known
stand up comedians, like Rick Duccomun.  Once these folks have you in
their talons, they're most reluctant to let go.
