I just don't want to stare long enough to figure out what.

This, yes. ;-)

Rumor has it that there's a way to get comments in your own style even for Basic accounts, but it's apparently dependent on you using one of a very small set of themes/layouts/whatever. I find myself disinclined to invest the time and effort, possibly screwing up my current settings along the way, for something that LJ will probably sabotage in another release or two anyway. :-P