Broke the Rating Scale: Difference between revisions

* '''Type 0:''' This is [[Discussed Trope|discussed]]--that—that is, the reviewer openly admits to being tempted to go outside the established bounds of the rating system, but ultimately the reviewer adheres to the rating scale.

* '''Type 1:''' The score is simply outside the established bounds of the reviewer's usual ratings scale (compare [[Rank Inflation]] and [[F Minus Minus]]);

* '''Type 2:''' The score is paired with a nonsensical or unusual unit of measure;

* '''Type 3:''' The score is ''itself'' a nonsensical value (and quite often a [[Take That]]);

* '''Type 4:''' The reviewer admits to having no idea what score to give it ([[Shrug of God|this is essentially a shrug]]);

* '''Type 5:''' And the [[Logical Extreme]], the reviewer simply--andsimply—and often explicitly -- ''refuses to assign a rating at all.'' This can be because the reviewer found the work downright repulsive, or the reviewer found the work to be unworthy of a rating, or it could be because the reviewer decided that a rating was otherwise inapplicable. Sometimes overlaps with [[Dancing Bear]].

* Spiderfan.org, which rates ''[[Spider-Man]]'' comic books on a scale of 1 to 5 webs, gave 1998's 'The Final Chapter' no webs, citing Aunt May's being brought [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]] with [[Voodoo Shark|a truly absurd explanation]], and general bad writing. The review concluded by saying the story was a waste of precious paper.

=== [[Film]] ===

* ''The Boston Globe'' gave ''[[The Human Centipede]] II'' no stars out of five.

=== [[Live-Action TV]] ===

* [[SF Debris]] gave the notorious ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Star Trek Voyager]]'' episode "Threshold" 0 on a one-to-ten scale, with an added message 'May God have mercy on your soul'. This opened the floodgates, as it were, and he's since handed out another for ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise|Enterprise]]'''s "A Night in Sickbay". A few horrible episodes only missed this mark because another is worse and he tries to keep the zero for the single worst episode of each series.

** He has since also given this score to "Code of Honor" of ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'', and has strongly implied that it will also be given to the ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "Profit and Lace".

* Keith D.A. Candido gave the fifth season ender of ''[[Highlander the Series]]'', "Archangel" a 0 out of a 1-10 scale, citing the episode's introduction of an ancient Zoroastrian demon into the Highlander universe, Richie's [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|death scene]] happening as a result of him being handed the [[Idiot Ball]], and a whole bunch of story elements that just don't make sense.

* For a while, back in the [[David Tennant]] run, the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' website contained episode reviews from a family who gave them a 'fear factor' from 1 (mildly scary) to 5 (extremely scary), shown by the children of the family holding up scorecards. For both [[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S2 E9S28/E09 The Satan Pit|"The Satan Pit"]] and [[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S3 S29/E10 Blink|"Blink"]], the children apparently made or found scorecards with sixes on them - a rating given in-text as "Beyond Fear".

=== [[Music]] ===

* [[Mark Prindle]] gave [[Madonna]]'s ''[http://markprindle.com/madonnaa.htm#american American Life]'' a zero out of ten. While he's known for often being a [[Caustic Critic]], this was the first (and still only) album to get a zero, and to "commemorate" this he used a new graphic rather than representing the score with those tiny records as usual.

=== [[Professional Wrestling]] ===

* [[Wrestlecrap]]'s description of the Black Scorpion's final appearance, where he landed in a spaceship, says, "On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the ultimate in stupidity, this rates 178."

=== [[VideoTabletop Games]] ===

* For a fictional example, there's [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/5/13/ this] ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]'' strip. After enough bribes have been heaped up, ''[[Donkey Konga]] 2'' winds up with an 11 out of 5 at Gamespy... (see [[Executive Meddling/Other Media|this page]] for more info)

* ''[[X-Play]]'' awarded that [[The Problem with Licensed Games|infamous]] ''[[The Problem with Licensed Games|E.T.]]'' [[The Problem with Licensed Games|game]] a "Zero" out of five, measured on a scale that bottoms out at 1.

* When the original ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]]'' was released in 1990, it broke several scales in the positive direction. ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]'' magazine, for example, rated it as six out of five stars.

* Averted by EGM -- atEGM—at the beginning and end of the column's lifespan, "[[Seanbaby]]'s Rest Of The Crap" was for games that would warrant zeroes and negative scores on the normal rating scale used by the other reviewers. Pretty much the only reason he was doing this was for the humor value, since, as the very premise states, even the best of the games he reviewed were all the worst in [[Shovelware]].

=== Other ===

==== Type 2 -- On a scale of 1-5: [[Mind Screw|5 Bananas]] ====

=== [[Live-Action TV]] ===

* On ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'''s Weekend Update recurring character [[wikipedia:Saturday Night Live characters appearing on Weekend Update#Aunt Linda|Aunt Linda]] (played by Kristen Wiig) gives such ratings as "seven "Ghaaas?" and one-and-a-half "Yougottabe Frigginkiddingme!" " (Note that those were both for one work.)

=== [[Video Games]] ===

=== [[Web Original]] ===

* ''Inverted'' by [[Desu Des Brigade|JesuOtaku]]. She normally scores things with some sort of strange unit out of 4 (i.e., ''[[Baccano!]]'' got "three [[Pulling Themselves Together|and a half]] [[Fingore|de-fingerings]]" and ''[[Princess Tutu]]'' got "four characters who [[Screw Destiny|just won't do what they're told]]"), but ''[[Now and Then, Here and There]]'' was so depressing she couldn't bring herself to make fun of it and just used stars.

* In one of the "Teen Girl Squad" shorts on ''[[Homestar Runner]]'', one girl's attempt at diving [[Makes Just as Much Sense in Context|into the mouth of a live lion]] is rated at "3 noses?"

* [[Jon TronJonTron|I give]] [[Donkey Kong Country Returns]] [[Jon TronJonTron|ten golden bananas plus out of]] [[Shigeru Miyamoto]].

==== Type 3 -- On a scale of 1-5: [[Precision F-Strike|Up Yours.]] ====

=== [[Anime]]Fan and [[MangaWorks]] ===

=== [[Film]] ===

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160505225234/http://www.mutantreviewers.com/rfireflies.html Sue] at ''Mutant Reviewers from Hell'' gave ''[[Grave of the Fireflies]]'' a rating of '''GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!'''

=== [[Literature]] ===

* ''[[Smart Bitches Trashy Books]]'' has a grade of "DNF", for books they Did Not Finish.

=== [[Music]] ===

* ''Terrorizer'' magazine gave [[Sunn O)))|SunnO)))]]'s most recent album ''Monoliths and Dimensions'' the rating O))). They actually intended this as a compliment, however, awarding it a glowing review.

=== [[Professional Wrestling]] ===

=== [[Video Games]] ===

* Sure, the rating scale of ''[[Screw AttackScrewAttack]]'s VGR'' show is pretty idiosyncratic in itself ("Buy It", "Rent It" and "F it"), but they still do occasionally play with the scale for certain games. For example, ''[[Modern Warfare]] 2'' was given a "rent it, just never return it" in protest of [[Activision|Activisions]]'s infamous price hike they demanded for that game.

* [[Jon TronJonTron]] has given scores that do not make sense at all, such as an A/5 for Sonic Colors and 6 Golden Bananas+/Shigeru Miyamoto.

=== [[Web Original]] ===

* [[Furcadia]] has a seasonal contest for minigames (called Dreams), and one well-known creator--knowncreator—known as Graphite--experiencedGraphite—experienced a variation of this (as his creations were contest entries, there were no ratings beyond First Place, Second Place, Third Place, etc.).<br />Graphite was sure his creation ColdFusion would win because his creation was so innovative--itinnovative—it was a complete [[Interface Screw]] that didn't resemble Furcadia at all in either appearance or gameplay.<br />[[Assumed Win|Unfortunately, this meant the judges had no idea how to rank it, and so placed it in a category all its own.]] To quote Graphite, [https://web.archive.org/web/20120514112759/http://www.bottledindigo.com/furcadia/contests.php#coldfusion "This dream was in fact so innovative that the judges decided to create a special category for my dream alone in which I ended up getting first place, last place, and every place in-between."]<br />The judges did agree that the dream was [[So Cool Its Awesome]] and awarded Graphite handsomely for essentially taking DragonSpeak and Patching [[Up to Eleven]] and essentially turning Furcadia into a game of Atomica. To quote Felorin (one of Furcadias Moderators), "This dream is going to receive a special Puzzling, Mind-boggling, Patching and DragonSpeak Mastering Trickster award of Triwings for Life and a dozen Purple Roses. (Whew that's a mouthful!)"<br />Sadly, every update made to Furcadia since then [[Game Breaker|makes the dream less and less compatable.]]

==== Type 4 -- On a scale of 1-5: [[Flat What|What.]] ====

=== [[Comic Books]] ===

* Paul O'Brien of ''The X-Axis'' picked up ''[[Quantum and Woody]]'' #32, on the assumption that a relaunch of a title, which had as its gimmick that stuff had happened in all the unpublished issues since the cancellation, would be a great out-of-context jumping-on point. He was wrong, and rated it [https://web.archive.org/web/20110810231657/http://www.esoterica.demon.co.uk/reviews/190999.html#quantum n/a], on the basis that he simply couldn't judge what someone who knew what the hell was going on might get out of it.

=== [[Music]] ===

* Similarly, Pitchfork's [http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6383-relaxation-of-the-asshole/ review] of Robert Pollard's ''Relaxation Of The Asshole'' gave it both a 0.0 ''and'' a 10.0.

=== [[Video Games]] ===

* When TOM from [[Toonami]] reviewed ''Dropship: United Peace Force'' for the [[Play StationPlayStation]] 2 the game game received a "?" rating. Tom had no idea how to rate the game since he could never get past the sixth level. This was accompanied by repeated footage of TOM losing on that level.

* In a case of it being this trope or [[Readings Are Off the Scale]], ''[[Touhou|Symposium of Post-mysticism]]'''s author Akyuu gives ratings for friendliness and power. Unlike ''Perfect Memento in Strict Sense'', which had definite ratings, she actually gives out "Unknown" ratings for when she cannot define the character. Reiuji Utsuho is a unique case: ''both areas'' are rated as "Unknown".

* [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]] refusesrefused to review ''[[One More Day]]'' for years, claiming it's so bad it doesndidn't even deserve a review. He eventually relented (for his 200th episode, mind), but his opinion of it went even lower.

=== [[Film]] ===

** From [https://web.archive.org/web/20110609183343/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19970411/REVIEWS/704110304/1023%2F19970411%2FREVIEWS%2F704110304%2F1023 his review] of ''[[Pink Flamingos]]'':

{{quote| '''Ebert''': "Note: I am not giving a star rating to ''[[Pink Flamingos]],'' because stars simply seem not to apply. It should be considered not as a film but as a fact, or perhaps as an object. "}}

** In [https://web.archive.org/web/20110806120639/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100505/REVIEWS/100509982%2F20100505%2FREVIEWS%2F100509982 his review] of ''[[The Human Centipede]]'', he was more explicit in his refusal:

{{quote| '''Ebert''': I am required to award stars to movies I review. This time, I refuse to do it. The star rating system is unsuited to this film. Is the movie good? Is it bad? Does it matter? It is what it is and occupies a world [[Stealth Pun|where the stars don't shine]].}}

=== [[Live-Action TV]] ===

=== [[Music]] ===

{{quote| What's most distressing is the possibility that ''Metal Machine Music'' isn't so much a knife slash at his detractors as perhaps a blade turned inward. At its very worst this album suggests masochism. He may be, to shift weaponry images, moving to the center of fire so that we critics-as-assassins can make a clean kill. Fine, Lou, go ahead. Just stand there. Don't move, But [sic] damned if I'll squeeze the trigger.}}

=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===

* The writer of the tier system for ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]] 3.5e'' refuses to give the truenamerTruenamer class a rating - due to poorly-written formulas, after the first few levels it can't use its powers at all without extremely heavy [[Min-Maxing]], and even then it's a [[Squishy Wizard]] with worse spells than some [[Magic Knight]] classes.

=== [[Video Games]] ===

* ''[[X-Play]]'' refused to rate ''[[Big Rigs Over the Road Racing]]'' because their system only went down to 1, ''[[Epic Fail|which would imply that it was actually a game]]'' -- although—although as mentioned under Type 1, they did not do the same for ''E.T.''. Other games featured in the "games you should never buy" segment, such as Barbie Horse Adventure or Flags (a "flag waving in the wind" simulator), also were not rated.

{{quote| "We didn’t think it would be possible for a single terrible game to change our entire scoring system. Congratulations, Duke, you’ve broken us."}}

=== [[Western Animation]] ===

* ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]'' usually commented on music videos, but in two cases ([[Music/Milli Vanilli|Milli Vanilli]] and [[Vanilla Ice]]), they just stared in silent horror for a while before changing the channel.

** A positive variation occurred when they spent an entire [[Music/Ramones|Ramones]] video headbanging.