See, it's funny because even though Brent is technically an adult and in a relationship, the mere sight of a fully clothed woman with large breasts makes him unable to function or think about anything other than boobies.And when I say "woman" here, I mean cardboard cutout of a woman traced from someone else's comic, since it's the same image cut'n'pasted into every panel but with slight change of expression.
Surprisingly, this was not written and drawn by a 15 year old.
9 comments:
I'm surprised to see you still reading PvP (though this is a pretty old strip from what I recall). Especially given that it was his interactions with you and StarmanMatt that were what led to me giving up on both the webcomic and the print version...
It's yesterday's strip.
But I see from the note accompanying today's episode that it is in fact recycled from one of the old print comics. And it's not traced; it actually is original Frank Cho art.
I don't read PVP regularly. There are a lot of comics I have bookmarked that I dip into now and again, and one of them is PVP.
I had a brief email exchange with Scott after the last time I wrote about PVP and I found him to be a much nicer person than I'd gathered from some of his rants. But that doesn't negate those rants, or excuse the immature attitude he often exhibits in his comics.
"See, it's funny because [...] the mere sight of a fully clothed woman with large breasts makes him unable to function or think about anything other than boobies".
To be fair, that IS the only joke in Cho's original strip.
I gave up on Kurtz right around "Pre Mystery Syndrome". Too much time wasted and too little payoff.
Sadly, I think Kurtz is one of those guys who wouldn't be even half as big if he started over now.
Why Cho puts up with him is beyond me.
Parachuting in from WFA,
I don't know anything about the ongoing strip in question, but I do know a little about murdering humour by analyzing it, so to further that goal:
Your analysis of why it's (supposed to be) funny is wrong, regardless of whether your general level of irritation at the execution is valid.
It's funny because it's a meta joke about clichéd Freudian slip themed humour (like Uncle Buck's "Hi, I'm Buck Melnoma, Moley Russell's Wart").
Anyway, carry on.
Eric:
1) Are you Scott Kurtz? Can you link me any quote from Scott Kurtz where he explains his intentions behind the humour in this comic? If not, then it's purely your opinion and it has no more validity than mine.
2) The male characters of the comic drooling at the prospect of boobies is not new to this comic. Indeed it's been done so often it might be considered a running gag.
3) Of course the freudian slips are part of the joke, but the cause of the slips is still a very immature attitude toward women, which was what I was complaining about.
4) Whichever interpretation you prefer, it's still not very funny.
1) No, I'm not SK. No, I have not looked for quoted intentions. Your 2) point weakens my contention, in that if this is amy analysis was based on a panel sequence consisting of set-up and punchline.
But on the other hand, your point 2) may tweak but enhance my point, I think if the main joke here were indeed "brainfart caused by viewing of mammaries", then the first three panels would be without word balloons, and the last panel would have the dialogue on the first panel.
But if mammaries/brainfart is a running gag, then the central gag of this specific strip is still "We've pretty much buried all the possible/plausible within-strip variations of this lame joke, so now we have to make a joke that breaks the fourth wall and points that out".
3) I don't have any particular quibble with your complaint, I just like tearing jokes apart to see how and if they work. Not knowing the strip, I also read a humour component specifically contrasting Frank Cho's drawing style and usual subject matter, contrasted with what I presume is this strips usual style.
My fav variation on this kind of sexy/brainfart gag was a 10 second "Smack the Pony" bit where a couple of business women are waiting for an elevator, when a naked man (slim but not particularly muscley, showing full monty) exits the lift, and walks past them. The women's heads swivel, then they both literally fall over rigid.
4) I think the joke punchline idea (the one I read as the core joke) is amusing enough, but the whole mammaries/brainfart schtick is sooo dead that it undermines the execution.
Here endeth the comment spam.
So then marionette, is it fair to say that you are against all portrayals of men as they are in reality? I can't count on two hands the number of guys I hang out with in a week that would do the same thing if they were prone to slips. He's showing a character's immaturity towards women, which is a defining trait in that character's personality. I see no problem with it.
LOL, people read "PvP"! ROFL, people actually read "Liberty Meadows"! When did life become so long that there is time to waste on that? Has everyone already read every last "Wigu" strip twice and memorized "Order of the Stick"? Is it so very painful waiting for "Perry Bible Fellowship" and "Orneryboy" to update?
Just Google random strings of words if you're that hard-up for entertainment. And if that doesn't work, maybe read "Penny Arcade". No, don't do that. Don't ever do that. I shouldn't even joke about that. Sorry.
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