Very confused by this one...

This dude needs locking up - complete garbage!

Best not have too many like this, but as a one-off I found it charming. Five stars.

Strange.

Would that be the grid HotHamish,or the charming? Or both?,

what an idiot- is there a delete option so other people don't waste time doing this moron's grid?

I certainly hope that is sarcasm jamesd as there is nothing charming about this. It’s unfair on those of us who enjoy quizzing on this site to have people posting grids like this with no meaningful connections. To anyone who reads comments to select a grid to try, don’t bother with this.

It's best ,as I often say, to remember it's a game,to most of us anyway.

I took this as a commentary on the many grids posted here that are effectively impossible - you spend three minutes racking your brain, and then when the connections are revealed they're something like "anagrams of West Ham full backs from the 1980s". I'm talking about answers that rely on convoluted links rooted in an extremely specific area of knowledge that the compiler must know will be shared with a very small proportion of users.

In a second line, Bringiton takes aim wonderfully at the grids that leave you tearing your hair out because they're just plain wrong. An option is replaced with a similar word, or the answer given is just not correct.

What I feel makes this really charming satire is the execution. The wonderful group "All things that I've seen in real life" not only lampoons the connections based on the setter's personal knowledge, but also paints a great picture of the childlike character who is being portrayed: proud of having seen everything from Concorde to a lizard. Rolf Harris is a great addition there, but Breasts puts the icing on the cake of this imaginary pre-teen showoff.

That's then carried on with the even more personal and humorously scatalogical "things I've pooed in", before moving on to aim some blows at grids with poor fact checking. The Beatles group cleverly picks up on about the most obvious foursome possible, but robs you of the point on connections by claiming they're members of One Direction; and then we get the surrealist joke of "Things that don't exist" - including the moon and owls.

This sort of subversive comedy only works when played straight, and I feel Bringiton has done very well. The commentary on how some grids can be annoying is presented well, but also laid over the creation of a truly funny character in the supposed grid compiler. I suspect Bringiton may be an alter ego of a more regular name posting here, though that's pure conjecture.

Huh! Well it wasn't me mate. I just thought "well that's 3 minutes of my life I won't get back." Followed by profound sympathy for the person who had to launder the handkerchief

The more I think about this grid, the more I appreciate it. As JamesD explained, it's a well-crafted satire with a specific narrator's voice. The three minutes I spent gamely trying to match "things that have beards" or "things in the sky" adds to the experience; it's not too much time to invest in a novel joke, as long as this sort of whimsy remains a one-off.

I'm all for good satire...I must take another look.