Tragic Comedy Through the Years

Scott Hardie | July 16, 2021
Twenty years ago today, I started Tragic Comedy as a Greymatter blog for myself, and the comments from friends soon turned into friends blogging too. Then it became a discussion forum, and for a few years in the early-to-mid-2000s, it was the most popular part of the site, racking up hundreds of comments daily on politics and entertainment and life in general. Blogs came back around this time as a side feature, but the discussion forum remained the focus even as it cooled off in the era of social media, becoming more of a supplementary discussion space for the other games on Funeratic. In its later years, it supported other "unofficial" games of its own like fantasy sports leagues. I couldn't have guessed that it would have lasted twenty weeks let alone twenty years, but I'm glad that it has. For all of the twists and turns it has taken, and the high points and low points over the years, I'll always be grateful to TC for the connections that it has allowed me to make and others to make with each other. My life is richer for having gotten to know all of you.

If this sounds like an ending, it's not; TC's not going anywhere. :-) I'm just in a backwards-looking mood on this occasion. Out of curiosity, I looked up the most active discussion in each year of the site's history, so you can see its evolution. Some long-running discussions didn't start or end in their most active year, interestingly enough.

The Beginning as a Small Personal Blog

2001-2002: What Do You Think About This?

The Boom Years: Politics and More

2002-2003: 27 Views on War, and Counting

2003-2004: Gay Marriage

2004-2005: Yankees Win! Theeeeee Yankees Win!

2005-2006: Coming Attractions

2006-2007: Interesting Videos.....Or Whatever

The Supplement: Here Mostly to Discuss Celebrity Goo Game, Rock Block, and Pirate Paradise

2007-2008: Rock Block

2008-2009: "Shall We Play a Game?"

2009-2010: Goo: Towers

2010-2011: How Bad Is It?

2011-2012: The Round is Still Perfect

2012-2013: Wrath of Circe

2013-2014: Turning Japanese

2014-2015: The Final Countdown

Sports Sports Sports

2015-2016: Funeratic Football 2015

2016-2017: Football 2016

2017-2018: Badges

2018-2019: Football 2018

The Year That Sucked

2019-2020: Coronavirus

2020-2021: Rock Block Rebuses

Do you have any reflections on TC's milestone anniversary?

Erik Bates | July 17, 2021
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Scott Hardie | July 18, 2021
Yeah, I'm not at all proud of a lot of the things that I've said and done here over the years. Some of it's just little stuff, like unnecessarily harsh tones that I wouldn't take today (re-reading that Coming Attractions discussion, I'm shocked at the mean-spiritedness of the very first comment, and I even make fun of myself later in the discussion for being too harsh). But I also have regrets bigger than any one discussion, like not appreciating certain contributors more, and not recognizing and calling out certain peoples' hypocrisy. I don't want to dwell on that here, though. Here in this discussion, I just want to be positive and appreciate the fact that we've reached a milestone and will keep on going. :-)

Steve West | July 18, 2021
The blog section has been an appreciated outlet for me for both tragedy and comedy.

Mike Eberhart | July 19, 2021
I'm glad that I could contribute as the, it seems at times, the lone right leaning, conservative voice in those early early "Boom" years. Sorry I couldn't keep it up as life got in the way and I wound up moving all over the world from about 2011 to almost to today. But, I'm settled back now and have enjoyed catching up on the site. Congrats again on 20 years!

Scott Hardie | July 20, 2021
Steve: Yes, I enjoy the blogs too, though I don't add to mine as often as I should. I guess I've been too busy to blog about the things that are keeping me so busy? To paraphrase Allen Saunders by way of John Lennon, life is what happens to us while we are making plans to blog about it.

Mike: Thanks. I'm glad you were around then, and now too! I'm sure that what made it worse to feel like the lone conservative voice was that you were often held to a different standard of justifying your opinions than everyone else because of it, and I regret not calling that out sooner. (That's one part of the hypocrisy that I referenced above.)

Erik Bates | July 20, 2021
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