I have mixed feelings on this one. Before I get started, yes, the art is quite cool. Someone has found the "gradient" tool on photoshop, and I am proud of that Someone.I do appreciate the comedic framework here. Serious and somber, solemn, reflective (ha!) etc, and then a sudden jump to a dick joke. Basically there is no way around the following fact - which I personally had told to me in a disappointed tone of voice from a former member of the Upright Citizens Brigade, so he knows what he's talking about - a dick joke can be as complicated or clever as you want, but in the end, it's just a dick joke. Anyone can make one because we are so awkward about sexual stuff that it will always be funny in a sort of instinctive way. And I was hearing this in response to a joke I had made - nay, a joke I had crafted. I thought it was great, and I had actually sat down and made it as good a joke as I could, and so I was of course very biased, but looking back now, it was not so special.
In fact, I once knew a webcomic that mocked how easy these jokes were...
Which isn't to say this is bad, relatively speaking. The sudden jump from serious to penis-y is good, if formulaic. And the vaguely supervillian, Mr. Burns-stealing-the-sun-style alt-text amused me as well. But in the end, yeah, ok, DUDE HALF OF THE WORLD HAS ONE OF THOSE so it's not really that funny.
Penises. They Exist.
Now can we please, as a culture, move on?
Actually the punchline is the supervillainish one, and the penis joke is in the alt-text.
ReplyDeleteYeah.
I think Max is either doing an April fools' thing or just sees the lines working backwards, the way you can see a cube popping out or facing in when drawn in 2-D. I think it's funnier (and intended to be read) the way you've read it, though.
ReplyDeleteAnd I got warm fuzzy feelings from your critique this time! What happened to the anger I love to hate? (Or more correctly, perhaps, where did it come from? I'm not reading in order...)
When max said that, I guess an ocean of sperm is what he meant. <_<
ReplyDeleteI thought #450 was funny. I mean, thats what a joke is a really, really short story with an out-of-whack plot twist at the end, right? Seriously, find something else to do with your life besides criticize every single one of Randell's works. Some of his stuff is actually quite funny. :-)
ReplyDeleteHmm, ok so I just found this blog and from waht I've read generally agree with Carl. But in this instance, I saw it the way Max did, and found it pretty c;ever for once. When the comic said "one of those pumps" I thought the guy being spiteful toward the ocean making him seem small, so he wanted to drain it which is kind of a funny and original reversal. Then the alt-text made it funnier by taking what was established in the comic and making it mean something else (even if that is just "penis, haha"). Did Randall intend it this way? I don't know, but I hope so 'cause its funnier from my point of view.
ReplyDeleteThe line about pumps seems normal, but it's the alt text that turns it into a penis joke. so it's more of a Schroedinger's cat.
ReplyDeleteI dunno, I think if you look at it that way then the main joke ("i will drain the sea") is really, really lame. I guess it can go both ways. But I'm sticking with my interpretation.
ReplyDelete