Be Excellent To Each Other

... but I've become enslaved by their cartoons. I have to check each new one out every week and see, see for myself, see how... how...

... wrong they are.

Not wrong in the popular new meaning of 'ha ha sick' but wrong in the way of phrasing, of timing, of how panel flow works, of punchline. It's like they sort of have a notion of what makes a joke, and then they fail to hit it. Repeatedly. Again and again. In slow motion. With everyone watching.

I smile genuinely at around every one in ten gags, but even when they get a promising joke going they manage to somehow trip it up and send it spiralling off the cliff onto the jagged rocks of mirthlesness by their sheer ineptitude. I mean, it's just me? Does anyone else find them unfunny?

And yet the art is crisp and attractive, they clearly have brains and know what makes a good game, and what makes funny. Why are they so relentlessly poor? Why? Why?

It compels me to read them, to try to understand, and yet I fail.

Never could stand them, completely unfunny dross to me.

Penny Arcade is awful, I presumed this was a generally accepted fact amongst non proles.

Awkward, unfunny American piss. Also see the travesty that is xkcd.

But... but it's the fact they are so exactly poor. As if they've honed their incompetence to a high-art.

I'd say I find about one in five vaguely amusing. I have laughed out loud on a couple of occasions, but I suppose even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.

They're certainly an acquired taste, but I think that's largely down to the writing style - which is pretentious, pondering, smugly obsessed with it's own wordiness and unattractively dense. As you can tell from this, I'm no fan of them particularly, but I know people who love them.

That's my cue... I really, really like Penny Arcade. Always have done. Xkcd too. So pbbbbst to the lot of you.

I was standing in a pentacle summoning you as I typed that. In truth I kinda like the cartoons and can't stand his writing style. At all. xkcd is better.

This is also my own writing style, of course.

Thank god I didn't proof read your PhD for you, eh

I find PA marginally amusing occasionally. What I really hate is when they do a multi-episode wankfest about something that only the two of them find amusing.

The Stripcreator avalanche at A.D back in "the day" was funniest however.

PA is excellent, try reading CAD sometime.



vs



She SAYS "Twitch!"

We all know of course that the best webcomic is Nedroid Picture Diary.

http://nedroid.com/comic/comics/2009-06 ... rnblue.jpg

My god, Dudley just agreed with me. If only he knew.

Some webcomics really do seem do engender a disproportionate amount of hate. I like PA, it's quite funny sometimes. I like CAD, it's quite funny sometimes.

I quite like both PA and CAD. They're hit and miss, but then so are all webcomics, to be fair. Even the mighty Sinfest.

Meh.

I generally like PA stuff, not visited the site for yonks though.

Funnier than Shakespeare.

I like Penny Arcade. I own the print copies. So there.

Just the opening panel of today's strip has already made me laugh:

"Damn you, M Night Shamwow!"
"I don't think that's his real name. I think it's different."
"I don't have time for your facts!"

His name's M Night Scaryman. Everyone knows that.

M Night Schlamayamadingdong, surely?

It was funnier when Bender said it.

BETEO introduced me to Wondermark. I am forever grateful.

But it isn't. The man copies and pastes everything and can't write. It's also a comic about games but hasn't really mentioned a single one in years.

On SA people edit CAD merely by deleting things, THAT is sometimes funny but the man doesn't understand pacing at all.

He also shows his penis to underage girls and hits women but that's another matter.

What's CAD?

Ctrl-Alt-Delete. http://ctrlaltdel-online.com/

Never found Penny Arcade particularly funny. I'm much more of a Toothpaste for Dinner person.

I thought the most recent one was quite funny

Ah, comedy's objective now. I didn't get that memo.



It being his webcomic I'm pretty sure he can make it about whatever he likes.


Anyone else here read Something Positive?

When I read that this morning, I THOUGHT OF YOU. It's the sort of thing you say, possibly because you are channeling Penney Arcaed's malign influence.

While it has its moments, I find his art style hit its peak a few years ago and is now sliding back down (the way he now draws teeth, for example, spoils otherwise nice drawings) while the dialogue is either juvenile/swearing for swearing's sake/ebonics because ebonics is hella funny, yo; or builds to a punchline that never arrives.

You must know what I mean, Pete? It's like there's a fourth panel which is FUCKING HILARIOUS and they just consistently never include it. It's almost like Penny Arcade is a Garfield-without-Garfield experiment, and that they're trying to make some kind of point or other by deliberately leaving the crucial fourth panel off, so instead of the comic being funny it's just strange/surreal/confusing/shit.

CAD I find charming... Mrs Metal and I see a lot of ourselves in Ethan and Lilah (the recent one where Lilah is pointing and twirling a knife at him while cooking makes me think that Tim Buckley has hidden a camera in our kitchen) and while the storyline can drag on or just miss the point altogether ("Oh no, I just miscarried!") it generally makes me grin more than Penny Arcade does.

"twitch"

What, and Penny Arcade doesn't? Before they had their piles of money, your typical Penny Arcade Strip was just Gabe and Tycho standing there (Tycho even looked bored, to reflect nature of Penny Arcade dialogue in general) and for the second panel he'd paste in an arm raised that he drew weeks ago to make the art look different.

Seriously, the only strip I know that used copy-and-paste artwork more was Doonesbury.

Yes, and then he developed. Buckley hasn't changed a thing in 5 years.

Having tried to do a webcomic myself, I can safely say that he does a damned good job given his schedule. And that's just in terms of artwork - that the comic itself is actually good to read is an even bigger achievement.

This is all well and good, but Order Of The Stick knocks them both into a cocked hat. Many thanks to Grim... for bringing it to my attention.

Anyway, PA/CAD fight continue.

No one mentioned VG Cats yet? remememmber when they used to update? ahhhhh

I thought Penny Arcade was Ctrl Alt Del. I think they're both shit, for the record. Un-funny Americans with a bit of artistic skill and no sense of humour.

Tell you who is funny, though. Dimrill. That one he did where someone has a 666 on their forehead and is drinking from a tiny teacup. No exaggeration I laughed at it for about an hour. I still look at it occasionally because something about it is just fucking genius. Not arselicking here, honest.

This one: http://www.dimrill.com/index.asp?pic=177&sec=pics

The walking tattoo parlour is just about my favourite.

That's Ravey Davey Grimm. Wonder where he's got to.

I've just seen that. I'll be giggling for the rest of the evening.

It is the big toothy grin that gets me.

The Museum Visit one had me spitting tea.

I agree, this one is legendary. It's the little finger sticking out as Davydd holds the dainty cup. And the teapot spout for some reason also cracks me up.

I think it's the little finger combined with the look of pure evil/disgust that does it for me. And the outfit.

I'm about to regurgitate sake I drank an hour ago because of this one.

The Simcopter sounds are what truly 'make' it.

http://www.dimrill.com/index.asp?pic=73&sec=poor

The subtle cock and ball shots respectively in this one build anticipation, followed by a genius body-out-of-shot, cock-in-shot climax.

And that's without even considering the subject matter. Can we get a book deal over here?

You're all very kind and all that. That muppets dream went on for about 900 hours, it seemed. The muppet was moving more like Sadako in Ring 0, though, but instead of the bone cracking it was making trumpeting and drill sounds. Glad you noticed the SimCopter sounds.

I like CAD a lot, but I don't really get on with PA. My favourite webcomics:

Men in Hats - an acquired taste as it takes a while to get into.
Get Your War On - I like this so much I have it in print.
My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable - by the same guy as GYWO.
My New Filing Technique is Unstoppable - ditto.

I'm never too fussed about the artwork for a comic. Some of the very early Dilbert stuff is pretty badly drawn but still gets the joke across. Haven't been to Userfriendly in years but that had its moments despite the bloke behind it being seemingly unable to draw women at all. I'd rather a comic be consistently funny than consistently pretty.

Yeah, but he just copies and pastes stuff, so it's not funny.

I know you're taking the piss, but the clipart style of GYWO/MNFTIU is actually the entire point. It blatantly looks crap, but the humour transcends that. Or what Devilman said.

I thought that, and then I thought - nah, he's just lazy.

That dinosaurs one drives me up the fucking wall.