Points in Case, often referred to as PIC, is a college humor website founded in 2000 by Court Sullivan. Points in Case began as an ezine distributed to an electronic mailing list by Sullivan at Emory University in 1999, but expanded online to include user submissions and eventually, other writers. Self-described as "The fine print of college life," the site features weekly humor columns and comedy articles by a staff of college students and recent grads, as well as daily quotes submitted by students across the nation. The site attracts over half a million unique visitors every month. In March 2006, Points in Case teamed up with National Lampoon on an exclusive network of comedy websites.

Many of the articles on Points in Case take on an irreverent, observational comedy tone, often utlizing witty and good-natured humor through satire, parodies and guides. The site stands firmly against censorship, which occasionally results in edgy, controversial articles.

The site is also noted for its instant messaging-related content. In addition to funny away messages, the site regularly features prank AIM conversations known as AIM Convos, conducted by Sullivan under the AIM screen name "courtjester5000." Unsuspecting users often instant message the screen name under the assumption it is an online robot such as AIM's Smarterchild, and Sullivan feigns the role of a computer generating automatic instant messages. The conversations are then posted on the website for others' amusement.

Another feature known as Voyeur IM, a series of actual comedic conversations between writers on the site, led to brief national attention for Sullivan and former columnist Amir Blumenfeld, who were selected to compete in Yahoo Messenger's IM Live Contest. The pair placed 3rd out of 7 pairs of contestants, narrowly getting eliminated on the next to last night after leading previous voting rounds, and establishing popularity with the younger audience for their antics.

Staff

Editor

• Court Sullivan discontinued his original column Points in Case in favor of a comedy blog. He also retired a spoof column called Deer Court, in which he wrote under the guise of a whitetail deer offering advice to college students. Between 2000 and 2003, almost all of the comedy articles featured on the site were authored by him.

Assistant Editor

• Mike Faerber helped advance the definition of "wet humor" with his joke and pun-saturated column The Hard Way.

Columnists

Points in Case began featuring weekly columnists in August 2003. Of the original 6 columnists, 4 continue to write for the site.

• Justin Rebello, the site's most popular and prolific writer, has garnered a cult following for his cynical rant on pop culture. He has also written several of the site's most well-known comedy articles including The Golden Rules of Instant Messenger and How to Argue with Females. His successful stand against the head of Northeastern University's School of Journalism over a controversial column rallied significant reader support against censorship of students.

• Emmanuel Witzman, a Canadian student, remains unaccounted for since May 2005. After disappearing and briefly returning, only to post a cryptic column blaming his absence on being arrested, some believe he may currently be in jail.

• Simonne Cullen resonates most clearly with the site's female audience, often publishing racy and openly sexual humor such as The Chicktionary and The Dicktionary.

• Nathan DeGraaf is best known for his sexist commentary and for his regular "Snippets" blog feature highlighting entertaining chunks of conversation from his everyday life. DeGraaf is perhaps the one PIC writer rivalling Rebello in terms of humor and popularity.

• Ali Wisch writes a borderline humor/advice column about the interactions between guys and girls, most often focusing on the relationship and hookup aspects.

• David Nelson (of Grudge Match), dissects a multitude of pop culture topics and gives them a purely comedic treatment. His Canadian background and text-heavy writing style have earned him comparisons to MIA columnist Emmanuel Witzman, who he once successfully impersonated in a ghost-written column on April Fool's Day 2006.

• Dan Opp takes current and obscure sports topics and spins them into funny and accessible articles, even for readers not following ESPN.

• Nick Gaudio, a student of West Virginia University, is known for writing angry, dark satire. He has been described by fellow Points in Case writer David Nelson as "PIC's rabid dog of justice" during a plagiarism scandal.

• E. Mike Tuckerson uses a sophisticated sense of humor and deeply-layered sarcasm to mock current events and college issues.

Bloggers

• Chad Chamley
• Scott Goodyer
• Mike Forest
• Dan Opp

The site also publishes weekly comedy articles submitted by over 50 contributing writers.

External links

• Points in Case

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