James May has made being dull cool and I've joined his band of merry 'dullsters'

One of the most exciting things to have happened to the internet in recent years is also one of the dullest. But then I guess the clue is in the name.

The Dull Men’s Club is a self-proclaimed forum where “dullsters” and their admirers can discuss the joys to be found in “everyday, mundane, dull things”. Its motto is “celebrating the ordinary”. Something that the US-founded global club’s members have been doing every day in their droves since DMC set up home on the social media addiction that is Facebook.

Confusingly, and proving that dullness is indeed contagious, there are several similar sounding clubs out there in cyberspace now. To be on the safe side and to spread my insipidness as far and wide as possible I’ve joined both the Dull Men’s Club with registered trademark and the one without. They each boast in excess of 1.4 million members and attract hundreds of posts every day. Smaller regional offshoots of DMC® and DMC also exist. And, naturally in these enlightened times, membership is not restricted to male dullsters.

James May, former Top Gear and Grand Tour presenter and all-round quite interesting and not-at-all-dull bloke.

As a bit of a newbie to the whole thing (though certainly not dullness - I’ve been practising that for more than 50 years) my digital interaction to date has been somewhat limited.

My first post regarding the rearranging of my poorly grouped personal collection of TV and audio remote control handsets into a more ordered line-up garnered some 40 reactions and 29 comments. My second attempt at engagement with my fellow duller-than-dull compatriots broached the sensitive subject of mixing two different brands of tinned beans and sausages to fulfil that evening’s dinner demands. Result? 633 reactions, 469 comments and three shares. Which just pips the 618 reactions/430 comments (and counting) from my latest post highlighting the differences between what constitutes a US and an imperial pint of beer.

Thinking about it, shouldn’t that first, clearly underwhelming, post of mine rank as my most successful? Being dull is surely a bit like the scoring system on the British TV quiz show Pointless? The lower the better. Perhaps, once the reactions tip over, say 500, it becomes just too exciting or mildly interesting to be deemed dull. Or maybe that's the point - all that interacting (comment counts frequently run well into the 1000s) is a measure of its success on the dull-o-meter.

Inevitably, this clamour for all that is mundane has attracted the attention of the reality television makers. James May and the Dull Men recently began airing on Discovery Plus. From his Wiltshire home, shed and pub, the former Top Gear and Grand Tour presenter embarks on a glorious “summer of dull”, creating his own solutions to some of the questions posed in said dull forums.

One of the author's 'dull' posts has raised the subject of the mixing of different canned food products. Picture: Scott Reid

I doubt you could choose a more appropriate person to front the show than a man who would be only too willing to spend an evening discussing the inner workings of a limited slip differential. Which would certainly get a thumbs up and a share from me.

Scott Reid is a business journalist at The Scotsman