Editor’s Chair: 100k Views

December 2, 2012

tags: humor, Humor in America, Humor Studies, milestones, statistics

by :

Tracy Wuster, Founding Editor

From time to time, I have seen fit to print reports on the general progress of this website as a publishing venture. As the editor, I feel it is my prerogative, stretching back to the great tradition of 19^th century magazine editors to speak my mind and address our readers—both real and imagined. Also in the tradition of those editors, I have not been able to resist the urge to explain what I think we are up to with our publication and to, in addition, engage in that greatest of all editorial goals—filling space.

Upon reaching one hundred thousand views, today December 2, 2012, I cannot resist expounding on some of the statistics that have accumulated for us to reach this milestone. I have no idea if this is a lot of views for a publication of this sort—although there are not a whole lot of publications of this sort for me to compare to. I will choose to treat it as a grand milestone, one worthy of reflection. Plus, I have long been obsessed with statistics and milestones, and the WordPress statistics page, which tallies the use of the site in real-time, has been a boon to my obsession.

Number of Contributors: 23

Number of Posts: 214

1^st Post:

Appropos of a first post…

June 24, 2011

Total views: 5

1^st Official Post (Public Launch):

Politics and the American Sense of Humor

by M. Thomas Inge

August 11, 2011

Total Views: 2405

Viewing Statistics:

Most views in a month: 18,737 in June 2012–almost 10,817 views on Ricky Gervais’s birthday, June 25, 2012.

18,197 in November 2012–a close second

Most views per day (average): 625 per day in June 2012

Average Views per day (overall): 189.81

Average views per day (2011): 39

Average views per day (2012): 273

Average view per post: 467.44

Comments: 336

Subscribers–wordpress: 147

–facebook:88

–twitter: 81

Top Posts:

Title		Views
Home page / Archives		14,640
Stand-Up Monday: Happy Birthday Ricky Gervais!		11,918
The Election! Zombies, dogs, and white people! Humor and politics in short video form…		5,247
An Educated Sense of Humor		4,566
In the Archives: James Russell Lowell “Humor, Wit, Fun, and Satire” (1893)		4,178
Sunday Sermon: Activist Humor and Frederick Douglass’s “Servants, Obey Your Masters”		3,526
Frank Lloyd Wright, Ice Cube, Poetry and Humor		2,677
The Sound and the Furry: An Interview with Alfra Martini, Creator of The Kitten Covers		2,545
The third best gift of all: The Muppets and Laughter		2,407
Politics and the American Sense of Humor		2,406
The Mark Twain Circle of America		2,305
Power Girl and Girl Power (Or, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bombshell)		2,024
Humor Studies News		1,740
Happy Birthday, dear Google . . .		1,253
Humor as Ridicule: The Case of UVa		1,251
Occupy Wall Street Cartoons, Post 2		1,217

Top Search Terms:

All Time

Search	Views
mark twain	1,485
frank lloyd wright buildings	500
frank lloyd wright	403
political cartoon	344
joe paterno funny	311
kurt vonnegut	281
political cartoons	233
vonnegut	202
humor in america	156
american humor	156
frank lloyd wright works	146
mount rushmore	130
barbie doll	130
occupy wall street political cartoons	123
monkey on a dog	121
occupy wall street cartoons	118

Country Views (since 2/25/2012, when that sort of thing started to be counted):

Top 20

Country	Views
United States	51,992
United Kingdom	10,176
Canada	4,757
Australia	2,877
India	1,278
Germany	823
Ireland	702
Philippines	688
Netherlands	643
New Zealand	643
France	632
Brazil	629
Sweden	486
Spain	398
Norway	354
Italy	342
Mexico	300
Belgium	298
South Africa	275
Russian Federation	271

Countries with only one view: Faroe Islands, Gabon, Mozambique, Guadeloupe, British Virgin Islands, Belize, Dominica, Anguilla, Chad, Malawi, Botswana, Isle of Man, Zambia, Iran, Haiti, Gibralter.

Most Clicked Pictures:

Falling Water: 85

Occupy Cartoon: 41

Super Girl: 34

99% cartoon: 34

Mark Twain in a chair: 33

Most clicked youtube clips (not most watched; these are links, not embedded):

Nyan Cat: 25