Perhaps the serious is in contrast to comical.
i.e. a couple of inches opposed to a foot.

Spam is best not thought about too hard. Some spam is so pointless it doesn’t even direct you anywhere. Why would someone do that?

Spam amuses me as well as confuses.

I’ve had some true gems in the past - some so supreme I’ve been tempted to let them through akismet.

And I think the general consensus on the pointless spam is that it is to confuse filters such as Akismet and Spam Karma that work on feedback from users - both systems ‘learn’ what is and isn’t spam by you marking false-positives. If a few genuine pieces are let through then next time Akismet sees something from that IP it goes “oh, I’ve let that through before, so it’s not spam”.

At least that’s the theory.

So long as I get to amuse myself occasionally with the truly bizarre and, well, funny, I don’t mind

Well you could use Bad Behavior 2. Personally that’s a little better than Spam Karma because Akismet is already intuitive. Bad Behavior just blocks out the automated spam and I don’t have to clean it up at all. Akismet deals with the manual ones that gets through and that works well hand in hand.

As for a good size…I don’t know…centimeters? I wouldn’t really know. I’m not that insecure.

Last time I tried combining Akismet with something else (Spam Karma) I was mere seconds away from nuking my entire comments database. *eek* I don’t think my installation plays well with others!

And I like the random bits that I get to see, just so long as they don’t reach the blog! I’m not quite sure where along the line the spambots thought I was such a good target for the particular brand of … stuff… they are promoting, but it is rather unsavoury.