Comic 575: Forced Humor

Oh my god this comic violates so many standards of what makes decent comedy that I just want to throw up all over it.

The most fundamental flaw is that while something like this may be amusing if it was a real life challenge, in comic form, we all know that Randy just thought up some song title combinations. If he couldn't think of a good combination for lesbian voyeurism, he would have come up with something else for Girl to say, after being prompted by some other challenge from Guy. These things are funny when they happen in real life precisely because they are improvised, and so seeing it in comic form will never be funny, no matter how clever it is.

But that is not the only problem! We have the glaringly stilted exposition of "SO I HEAR YOU CAN COMBINE SONG TITLES TO MEET ANY CRAZY DEMAND, EH?" first line. Might as well start The Hound of the Baskervilles with "SO YOU'RE SCARED OF A BIG OLD DOG THAT'S ON YOUR PROPERTY?" it just thrusts the reader into this horribly contrived scenario that doesn't make any sense or have any resemblance to real life - and the terribly awkward phrasing of that sentence is an effect of this.

Obviously this comic fits all the usual xkcd problems of creepy (take normal songs and make them lesbian for me! and have me WATCHING.) but on the second one, hell, it's not even lesbian. You don't know what gender the narrator is. Sure the girl is female, but then any love song to a girl would become lesbian. You only have one and a half examples, here, randy!

Look: We all know what happened. You thought of this one only mildly amusing mash-up and constructed a comic to use it as a punchline. And forced yourself to think of a second title, and failed to make it fit the category. Good job! you do not understand comics.

In other news, hey! Randall posted something funny on his blog! ha ha, but it was just because it was a quote from Joey Comeau.

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heads up by the way that next week i will be off to Mysterious Lands yet again, and everyone's best friend Commenter Jay will be taking over posting. I don't think he's posted yet so play nice everyone.

A friendly message from blogger.com

Just got this in the old inbox:

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P.S. Just one more reminder: Unless you request a review, your blog will be deleted in 20 days

Now, they did say I wouldn't be able to post, and apparently I can, so who knows. I smell....shenanigans!

Anyway, long story short: People think I am secretly randall munroe but finally I have proven otherwise: I am really a robot! Specifically, the DoucheBagger9000

Comic 574: The Pig Disease

So yes, what you are all thinking is correct, this comic is just a poor shadow of the youtube one. The difference being that youtube is actually full of the dumbest people you will ever see, and twitter has that but also has smart people. When it comes to diseases and stuff, this new superfast communication can actually have some really interesting effects- as I recall, Google was able to track the spread of a more common flu a few months ago by seeing where people were searching for certain symptoms, and that actually traced the illness faster than the CDC could do it. ANYWAY that's what I thought this comic would be about, in the grand "i am xkcd and I have discovered something NEW to show you!" tradition, but I was wrong.

What we have, of course, is just "Hur hurrr, inter-net peepol R dum peepel", exactly like we had in YouTube Comic. And this was done on purpose! That is to say, Randy knew he was referencing it, because he included user "crackmonkey74" on both.

And that is actually where it gets weird: In addition to just putting dumb internet quotes out there, he made a lot of the users...other webcomic people. I didn't recognize them all, but from what I can tell, apparently Jeffrey Rowland is suggesting that Joey Comeau has been up to some type of pig fuckin' antics.

I'm not sure what the point of those references is - is he actually trying to say that those people are writing those things? I suspect not. Is he just trying to reference them so they link to him? Mission accomplished, I'm afraid. Is he just trying to make his readers who recognize the names think that this is the greatest comic ever? Probably. Does he end up making a much more confused joke than he intended? Yes!

long story short: References can be funny, but they have to mean something. Also be accurate, Jeffrey Rowland does not talk like that. He is much angrier and spells things wrong and makes up words. Here is a hint: if you can just replace the name of the person ("wigu") with any other name and have it still make sense, congratulations! you are being too vague in your reference!

And as long as we are discussing Overcompensating, I am happy to say that I am within 10 months of catching up to the present in the overcompensating archives! Guys: I have never been happier. this is a great comic. just beware: whenever he mentions his spider bite, do not click the link! his spider bite is so gross!

Oh also randy: if jeffrey rowland really loved you, your shirts would be on sale at his store, like all the good webcomics.



update: Jay, if you don't e-mail me, I can't tell you the secret for how to be a guest poster! Then Rob will have to guest post and we all know that no one wants that to happen.

Comic 573: Fucking with people

This comic is dumb in about five ways and I have written a whole bunch of different opening lines to this post but none can sufficiently contain the dumb glare this comic inspired in me. So consider these the ravings of a half-insane me, in no particular order:

-Really? We're supposed to assume that this girl has never been upset once before? That she hasn't noticed her horrible speech problem ever in her life?

-Also, I don't get it - if she doesn't believe her dad, why is she upset at all?

-Fucking up someone's vocal chords doesn't count as "trolling," it falls into the related category of "violent physical abuse"

-I am so fucking tired of rickrolling. Stop it. ok?

-Rickrolling does not, and never will, represent our generation to the next one, no matter how hard you try. Our pranks are awesome: We troll people by invading their countries and destroying everything, so beat that, future kids.

-Ha ha, the idea of messing with young children so you can control them later in life is so funny! I laughed almost as hard as when you did this the first time!

-I guess the crazy hair is supposed to be because it is The Future? That and the fact that we have apparently invented chairs that people merely float above! Oh, the future will be an exciting time - oh no wait, Randall always draws floaty people. Well, that 70s Ikea chair can be the indication that we are in The Future. Also the hugely specific label declaring this to be "The Future."

There's a truly terrible trope, among lousy comedians, that this comic has perfectly: I can't quite describe it, but it's where you loudly refer to some crazy and unlikely occurrence, only to have that thing happen right then. When done poorly, as here, it just feels very staged and terribly unrealistic. "We made it so your vocal chords are messed up!" "No you didn blargh hareghasdg." For the perfect example of this, read the alt text to Comic 533. Doesn't that feel so very contrived? Doesn't that make you feel all gross?


I'm not sure this post captures my rage as well as I'd like, but just so it's clear: I hate this comic.

Comic 572: Keep Looking

I feel a little conflicted on this one. I do appreciate the "ha ha, fuck YOU" element of the guy's whole life being for such a trivial thing as a scavenger hunt, but still: must everything end up with a destroyed romance?

The whole thing - this sort of lifelong charade of friendship, suddenly tossed away at the end - reminded me far too much of that recent PFSC that I loved so much. I know the Randall-Defenders will say that they are completely different, but I just mean the feel: Life progressing quickly and then suddenly being brought back to where we started. No? I think so.

Speaking of which, did anyone else think the most recent Penny Arcade seemed awful damn close to a recent Amazing Super Powers? Oh, well then read the title of PA and the alt-text of ASP again, and you will. COME ON, penny arcade, you are better than this. Thanks to secret agent PR for pointing that one out.

I don't usually write about art stuff because it's something I just don't care about as much, but I'm finding something starting to bug me about the shot of the front door with the stairs leading down from it, seen in panel 6. But also seen in this panel 1, these panels 7 and 8, and this whole comic. Also: the shrivled old people heads creep me out. Also: Why is the cane floating in panel 8. Also: do you think the other two old people in panles 7 and 8 are supposed to be the same as the people in the background of panel 1? I suppose it makes a little more sense.
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Um so: today is this blog's 1 year anniversary. I was going to write something long about it but then decided that would be boring. Goodness, April 2008, what a long time ago. Thanks to all of you readers, thanks for commenting if you did, unless you were stupid in which case go to hell, thanks to people who e-mailed me, thanks to guest writers as well. Thanks to Jonathan Harford, the first person to really comment on the blog, which was terribly encouraging.

Guys: let's keep making our little corner of the internet a less sucky place, for however many years it takes.