The funnyman cometh
Culture & Community
Harmony B
“[Salman Corbette] was the absolute master of comedic articles as far as I'm concerned.”
Tanhony
What is a Salman Corbette? Only the most influential humorist containment fiction has yet seen. One can only look at how robust the joke category on SCP is, then compare it to the lacking parallel categories on other confic sites, to see what his impact has been for SCP.
Creator of the butt ghost, the ghost sign, researcher james, and co-creator of the little misters. The characters he created are the forerunners to other similarly humorous characters such as Spanko the corn crake and Dado the pharmacist. But none are as iconic as the ones created by Corbette.
The nineteen joke articles written by Salman Corbette were transformative for the category as a whole, at least on the Anglo-American SCP Wiki. Compare the joke category before and after.
The most iconic of his creations is, of course, the Butt Ghost. The butt ghost is a simple article. Presented as an article written by another Corbette character it is a child-like rendition of a toilet-dwelling ghost which suffers due to the pooping of unsuspecting bathroom-goers.
One of the more interesting aspects of the butt ghost is the culture clash it inspired with its first translation. When being ported to the Russian SCP Wiki, it met with an overwhelmingly negative reception. It is, to this day, far more unpopular on the Russian Wiki than any of the others in the international confederation of SCP confic writing communities. As of January 12th 2023, it sits at -74 and counting. At its lowest on other sites, the translations generally sit around +10. It was the first time an article had such a dichotomy response in the history of SCP confic writing. To this day, it remains a striking symbol of how difficult humor is in particular to adapt for differing cultures.
The Ghost Sign is an evolution of the butt ghost idea, an even more absurd concept that makes far less sense than the butt ghost. It is the kind of article that detractors of the butt ghost allege that first article to be. But this time it is told by a level-headed narrator character, a grown-up Dr. James. The article didn’t evolve from butt ghost, contrary to popular belief they were unconnected concepts.
Hilarious Farting Frogs is an article which proves just how fickle the SCP audience is when it comes to its humor. When it was originally posted, it was instantly downvoted into oblivion. However, upon waiting some time, the same article was re-posted without significant alteration and was immediately a smashing success. It shows how quickly the collective sense of humor of a large community can shift, and how truly subjective humor is. Nothing is guaranteed in comedy, the same material that got uproarious guffawing one night can lead to crickets the next.
682-J was originally a big png image drawn in a childish style, but this was changed due to perceived issues with web browsers struggling with loading large images. The article is still funny but less punchy than it once was.
The creation of the Little Misters came from a trio of characters that Corbette came up with, combined into one SCP, which then was split into other articles at the insistence of Dr. Bright. This project would eventually evolve into the tales of Mr. Collector which went on to inspire greater interest in completing the little misters list, and then in popularizing the list of links as a popular method of crosslinking for years after that first little misters list was completed.
After 2012, Corbette became far less involved with the SCP Wiki and confic writing generally. While the characters and ideas he introduced would continue to mutate and grow as other writers ran with them, the original writer himself was a distant figure. He was not an absent one though, whenever he was able to return he could and can always expect a warm reception.
What did he do beyond SCP? Corbette may be the only funny person to have been involved with the Rhinoceros Party of Canada in some time. In brief, the Rhino Party came to being after a town in Brazil supposedly elected one of the beasts as their mayor. Inspired, a group of irreverent 20th century Canadians created a satirical political party with absurdist positions such as repealing the laws of gravity. But his campaign was less focused on the farcical platform of the party and more so on encouraging voter participation, while still utilizing his unique sense of humor to ensure people were paying attention.
Whether or not his political career will continue after being defeated on election day remains to be seen. For now, he lives with his partner in Canada and is working as a professional dungeon master. In future returns Sal hopes he makes more jokes
Oh, and that unique username? It was inspired by Archie comics, specifically an issue featuring a character being mocked with some variation of the name “Corvette” inspiring a purposeful malapropism and thus, Salman Corbette.
You can hear a complete conversation with Sal here.
https://lethbridgecampusmedia.ca/lethbridge-satirist-takes-his-show-to-the-political-stage-2/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Canadian_federal_election,_2015/Lethbridge
http://www.sunnysouthnews.com/news/2015/10/14/u-of-l-student-not-packing-bags-for-ottawa/
https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-310362 (Creating the little misters February 22nd-24th)