I've noticed in the time since my first two Amazon review articles that the whole "fake funny Amazon review" thing has really become an established phenomenon, with its own in-jokes, cliches and traditions, which in a way makes me a little sad. I hate the "This was so much better before it went mainstream" attitude, and I'm glad more people are enjoying the occasional unexpected laugh in the course of their shopping experience, but the reality is that more participants lead to more repetition.

So you get a lot of generic jokes about the magical properties of an item. It's funny and unexpected the first time, but after a few hundred variations of the same basic joke, you get critical and picky, and you feel more like you're auditioning a bunch of writers to see who can write the best "magical HDMI cable" joke than like you're stumbling across that silly idea and being genuinely tickled.

Getty

