Transformers Wiki:Captions

A picture is worth 1000 words.

Unlike most Wikis, Transformers Wiki does not have a complete ban on humor, particularly in image captions where a description saying "a picture of Generation 1 Megatron" on a page about Generation 1 Megatron with "Megatron (G1)" in big bold letters at the top with "Megatron" bolded in the opening paragraph would be just a wee bit redundant. Instead, we prefer to lighten things up with humorous image captions, because Transformers is inherently ridiculous, and denying this probably isn't healthy.

Transformers Wiki is a fun community which welcomes new members' contributions with open arms. That said... if your idea of "contributing" is to simply change the existing jokes to new, "funnier" jokes... don't. This holds true for changing them to blanks or boring, patently-obvious descriptors as well.

Why?

There are several reasons we discourage new users from editing image captions.

• Your jokes probably aren't any funnier.
• Funny image captions are like a fun bonus you get to do when you make a page or a new section or upload a needed image. For the people who wrote the text, or found and edited the images, this is their reward for that hard work. If you're not expanding the article, you really shouldn't be making jokes.
• If you're changing a joke, you're removing content created by a user who's contributed to this community, and replacing it with something from someone (yourself) who has not.

Removing joke captions

Edits which do nothing but change the funny image captions to new funny image captions, or remove those captions altogether, are reverted to their original state.

You will be banned if you repeatedly remove jokes simply for the sake of doing so despite warnings given. The humor thing has been discussed at length for quite a long time; the policy will not change, and trying to "make a point" will only result in us removing the troublemaker.

Keep in mind, however...

• Some jokes are not appropriate.

We do have guidelines about what level of humor is and is not acceptable:

• When it comes to profanity, try to stick to "PG-13" words or lower; if it's been used in an official piece of Transformers media, it's probably okay. However, the four-letter f-word indicating copulation is right out.
• Sexual humor should be kept to a minimum, and preferably implicit rather than explicit.
• We do not tolerate slurs, stereotyping, or "punching down" humor. Jokes where the target is based on race, gender, sexuality, religion, etc. will get a wipe, and you'll at least be on thin ice.

As sort of an extension to this, we also impose stricter guidelines on pages for pre-school age franchises, such as Go-Bots (2002) and Rescue Bots Academy, due to their much younger target demographic. Captions and jokes for episodes and characters that originate from these franchises should not exceed a mild PG rating at the most. Even if this wiki is not "for kids" per se, time and place, you know?

Three sets of the same gang-molded toys. The smoky-clear parts in the bottom row are all lavender in the middle row, and all black in the top row. See the pattern of consistent plastic-color changes from row to row across all the toys in each set? This is gang-molding in action. Take note that the rightmost column uses paint applications to drastically change the car panel colors, but the plastic below still conforms to the pattern. (Not shown: The eighty-six other versions of these molds.)

• It is okay for an image to have a factual caption, or *gasp* no caption at all.

Please note that an image without a caption is not an open invitation for anyone to come along and slap in whatever thought first crosses their mind. A captionless image is not some grievous error in need of immediate correction. Minimal-contributing editors who add captions in such instances are rarely doing the wiki a service.

Also, on occasion, a caption needs to be informative, not irreverent. Sometimes, a descriptor is necessary to describe the contents (such as just what pattern you should be recognizing here in regards to the plastic colors on the example image to the right), and a joke will only obfuscate or confuse the purpose of the image.

We allow humor. We don't discourage it. But we certainly don't mandate it, either. The purpose of this wiki is to convey information; the jokes are an occasional bonus, not the driving force.

• Having no caption is better than having an outright dumb, inane, pointless, badly-written or unfunny one.

As with pretty much everything else, we demand quality. While humor is highly subjective, a joke caption should generally have some kind of thought, reasoning, or intelligence behind it.

If you can't even punctuate or capitalize, don't bother. If you haven't contributed substantive content, don't bother. If your joke caption isn't funny enough to make you laugh, don't bother. If your "joke" is so obscure or internalized that nobody on Earth will ever grasp it except for just you, don't bother. We have plenty of jokes already.

Regular contributors who decide not to add humorous captions to images they've uploaded or inserted into articles are encouraged to add more "standard", factually descriptive captions instead if necessary. We would much rather have that than weak attempts at humor by non-contributing editors. And while "A picture of Megatron" is inane and redundant, "Megatron's box art painting from his 1984 toy", while not necessary (since such detailed information would be part of the image file's content), is at least informative and intelligent.

• Even the funniest jokes stop being funny when overused.

Sure, a joke might be funny the first time. Maybe it even gets funnier when strategically placed multiple times on a page to create a running gag. Then editors start dogpiling the page, trying to make it a primary caption theme or work the joke into any available caption space. Then it starts working its way into any image that's even vaguely related, just for the sake of having it in there. Then new users who see it all over the place try to squeeze it in wherever they can, sometimes when it's barely even relevant, just so they can feel like they're in on the joke. And by the time all is said and done, everyone is sick to death of the original joke and mentioning it will get you nothing but a grimace and an exasperated sigh.

Any joke is bound to become grating when used over and over and over and over and over again. Not every picture of Beast Wars Megatron needs a "yesssssss" in the caption; not every image of Spider-Man or someone disintegrating needs an "I don't feel so good" quote; and so on and so forth. If anything, it arguably shows a lack of originality on the part of the editor(s) trying to add it everywhere. Use your best discretion when repeating an existing joke and really think about whether it's still funny or fits the image in question. Variety is the spice of life, so we'll always prefer coming up with something new instead of trotting out the same tired material over and over again. In instances where a joke has clearly been run into the ground, multiple captions will sometimes be rewritten or blanked to help bring the number of uses down to a more reasonable amount.

Overuse of the same joke is a quick way to get it on the list of overused running gags below.

Themed quote captions

L: A poor example; the Dragon Ball Z Abridged Frieza quote doesn't have much relevance to Cyberverse Starscream, and "the Namekian" doesn't obviously correlate to other characters.
R: A good example; Baron Karza and Dark Helmet are both Darth Vader knock-offs, and the quote is funny even without knowing the source.

Several pages on this wiki have "themed" captions, with most or all of the captions on a page being quotes from a single source — the most famous example is probably "Generation 1" Kup, whose captions all come from another old coot who tells rambling stories about his experiences as a soldier: Grampa Simpson. Naturally, when creating or populating a new page, it could be tempting to do the same — but be careful, as themed captions can easily become boring or irrelevant without care taken.

Generally, if you want to implement a caption theme, you should be mindful of the following:

• The captions need to have relevance to the subject — as pointed out above, Kup is an old soldier who tells rambling stories, so Grampa Simpson is a good match for him.
• They have to be reasonably recognisable (at least by Googling, if nothing else).
• Individual captions have to fit the contents of the images they caption; and, thus, there need to be enough of them to reasonably fit the contents of images that might be added in future.
• Brevity is the soul of wit. If your caption quote isn't funny in 20 words, then it probably isn't going to be much funnier with 100. Plus, really long caption quotes can really screw up a page's layout.
• Most, if not all, of them need to be funny even if you don't know the source of the quote.

And, in general, keep in mind the fact that themed captions are already somewhat oversaturated on the wiki. They should be occasional page quirks, not the default.

Captions and jokes we don't like

Transformers Wiki's humor has evolved over time. Our humor policy began at a time when the wiki was a much smaller website, and it was possible to carry a series of jokes, quotes, or running gags through to the end of a page while still keeping the material fresh. After decades of growth, however, it becomes harder and harder to maintain these kinds of long-form running gags; eventually, there comes a time when jokes must be retired and put out to pasture.

Captions we'd rather not see at all

Captions and jokes regarding the following subjects will probably be reverted on sight. Off-limits jokes include:

• "Japan is pervy"/"Dammit Japan" captions don't fit the "PG-13" limit. Plus we're not about shaming and stereotyping an entire country based solely on bad anime tropes.
• Any reference to JaAm. The joke hasn't aged well in more ways than one, and is best left largely forgotten.
• Any and all variations of "dude looks like a lady". We get it's a pop music reference, but see above concerning "inappropriate" jokes.

Low-hanging fruit

Some jokes and/or quotes are incredibly obvious and overdone. These include:

• Jokes about how someone with a large weapon or whatever else is "compensating" for something.
• Remarks about how someone or something is "not" someone or something else that they might vaguely resemble, or "not" "Shattered Glass" whatever.
• "I'm here to kick ass and chew energon/bubblegum/anything else!"
• Futurama "clamps" references. The core of that whole shtick is how uninspired and obvious it is.
• Comments about how much a specific toy rocks/sucks. Unless the reception is notable, don't presume to speak for the rest of us.
• "And then all the other toys were thrown away." There will always be a better toy, sooner or later.
• Jokes about big toys being expensive or hurting your wallet. Shockingly enough, plastic costs money and toys the size of a small child use a lot of it.
• Kiss Players, the Beast, Energon, Revenge of the Fallen, Combiner Wars, and "B.O.T." Yes, we know. We all know. It's over with. Let it go, Indiana.

Overlinking

Jokes and captions involving links to other pages were once a popular form of commentary, but these days gratuitous links in wiki captions are seen as trying too hard to be cute. That said, some editors adding quotes in the caption may choose to link an obscure quote to its source for context, which is generally considered acceptable. Specific examples include:

• Linking each word to a different page. It's annoying as hell.
• Linking the word "God" to the Primus article. "Oh God, not again!" Overdone? Yes. Funny? No.
• Linking the word "crazy" to the Galvatron article, or any other character with questionable mental health. This can cause confusion for readers who aren't up on 41 years worth of memes and in-jokes--do it and we'll give you something to scream about!
• Gratuitous word-linking to "To sell toys" and "Ruined FOREVER".

Overused running gags

The wiki has often turned character-specific quotes, personality traits, and verbal tics into material for humorous captions. However, with the aforementioned growth of the wiki, it becomes harder and harder, if not outright impossible, to keep these jokes fresh and funny for 50+ images. You might see some of these jokes still floating around on pages, but we'd politely ask that you not add any more unless you think you're really damn good at innovating on a stale formula:

• Anything involving "Soundwave superior". Previous caption superior! Your caption inferior.
• "Dull surprise!" Yeah, we get it. Thanks. It'll take new depths of awfulness to actually merit using this.
• Changing every single Omega Supreme caption to match his speech quirk. Joke: overdone. Humor: deceased.
• "Hi, I'm Windblade!" There are few jokes that benefit from endless repetition, and this isn't one of them.
• "Prowl is a prick". Find some other way to make fun of Prowl being a stick-in-the-mud. Also, not every bot named "Prowl" is a prick.
• The many things Bonecrusher hates. Which coincidentally includes everything else on this list.

Jokes we're not sick of

• Since the jokes in the previous section are surplus to requirements, you must wonder what chance Furmanisms have. The answer: a very good one.
• Me Grimlock's speech pattern filled with comedy potential!
• We love Mystery Science Theater 3000 references, dull surprise notwithstanding (see above).
• KNOW that Razorclaw's running gag never gets old!