About 60% of the content of any given blog consists of links to other, more interesting blogs. There are exceptions, of course, but I see no reason why overthinkingit.com should be one of them. So this is the first of what I’m hoping will turn out to be a weekly monthly occasional feature, in which I review some of the most creative, unusual, or simply entertaining blogs on the web.
Our first honoree is Nad Shot. Nad Shot is, technically speaking, a comics blog, but it’s really sui generis. You won’t find any of the usual industry gossip, over-intellectual critiques, rants about stupid plot developments, or who-would-win-in-a-fight dorkery here. In fact, there’s no commentary of any kind. Instead, the blog consists entirely of image grabs celebrating the low blow, the unkindest cut, the Andrew Golota special.
Mediozo, the mastermind behind this little piece of curatorial art, makes only the slightest attempt at putting these images into context. He categorizes them by author, artist, character, and in some cases by the sound effect used to express the impact. (My favorite so far: FHUNT!) Beyond that, and the occasional word of thanks to a guest contributor, the pictures are pretty much left to speak for themselves. This can occasionally be frustrating. Why is the bootee in this image so elastic? Is it his superpower, or just an expression of how hard he’s been kicked? What made the puncher in the Galactus image linked above think that it was even remotely a good idea to fruit-basket the destroyer of worlds? Come on, Mediozo, enquiring minds want to know! Then again, no amount of explanation could possibly make this image of a dude going toe-to-sac with a grizzly bear any more awesome than it already is. So in a sense the minimalist presentation helps separate the wheat from the chaff: a truly successful nad shot transcends narrative.
Clicking around the blog for a few minutes is an interesting experience, because if you’re anything like me it will turn you into a nad shot elitist. Isn’t the dinosaur attack in this image overdone, and oddly painless, when compared to the elegant vigor of this garden variety boot to the crotch? Doesn’t this this attempt to convey the nad shot’s impact through off-kilter framing seem all the more labored and unsuccessful when juxtaposed with the daring horizontality of this flying uppercut to the giblets?
At the end of the day, I think Homer Simpson said it best. “Barney’s film had heart. But Football to the Groin had a football to the groin.” Mediozo, for recognizing that the internet was underserving the basic human need to see nads get shot, overthinkingit.com salutes you!