Sports Cards for Insane People

Now that Progressive Boink and the Dugout have moved on to greener (read: money-producing and read by more than 3 people) pastures, Jon Bois and Brandon Stroud's unique sense of humor is finding its way into more and more Internet articles. And to that, I say, huzzah.

Case in point - "Sports Cards for Insane People - The Awesome 1880's Athletes of the World" on SB Nation is the perfect blend of niche, well written, over-the-top, hit-the-nail-on-the-head-of-whatever-it-is-you're-trying-to-describe writing style that makes for what I think is a new genre of comedy writing.

Are there genres of comedy writing?

Anyway, the piece describes a bunch of sports cards from the 1880's hilariously and brilliantly, like this blurb describing "Daniel O'Leary, Heel and Toe Pedestrian":

Daniel O'Leary, champion of the pavement, did walk 200 metres through the streets of London without so much as a speck of goat, sheep, pig, cow, or human feces bespoiling.

His figure, a feat described by the Daily Mail at the time as "the preeminentathletic feat of our century, and more surprising still that O'Leary, and Irishman, did it all in what was a straight line indicating sobriety, and condition previously thought impossible among the people of the Emerald Isle." O'Leary fell into an open sewer at the 201st meter, but his record walk and unique technique lived on for years in the lore of London as "O'Leary's Walk."

I'm not sure how to describe that other than a Victorian-era newspaper clipping. It made me laugh, and it should make you laugh too, damn it.

But really, I think I'm the only one out there who really gets this stuff.