You know, I began to think that we are far too sarcastic in my house when my then-two-year-old began using sarcasm to emphasise her points. Correctly.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
C+A+D is hit and miss for me. Sometimes the comic feels like a obvious PA rip-off (and several other web comics), but then sometimes it's got a genius of its own. This particular comic fell flat because of the smarminess of the last panel. It annoys me, and that's speaking as an athiest myself. The little smile on Lucas' face as he triumphs over the religious fools or whatever they're trying to make out the world's religions to be just makes me want to reach out and smack the author.
The best humor is one based on some kind of truth. You can have your characters do all sorts of things that are rediculous, but someone has to be the straight-man. Someone has to react in a way that is believable and appropriate to the situation (see Monty Python's Parrot Sketch for John Cleese doing a classic straight-man routine). The last thing anyone would do when faced with a mob of murderous religious zealots is question their religion's a priori assumptions, and I know of few religious leaders who would personally take part it the breakup of a pseudo religion.
So you've got three things:
Stupid gag involving "video game religion" that wasn't even funny and had me rolling my eyes from the start.
Group of religious leaders who are obviously intolerant (and would therefore be unable to cooperate) out to beat the crap out of Ethan for starting his stupid religion.
Lucas' timely, and unintentionally ironic, Deus Ex Machina.
Putting them all together on the same panel is not funny. The bias of the author shines through in a write yourself in as the hero of the story fanfic kind of way. Lucas sweeps down and saves the day for everyone by pointing out that the whole religion thing is a bunch of crap and those religious dorks know it.
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Good thing thats just your opinion and completely unimportant in the grander scheme as Tim still makes money from that comic. As it is pretty obvious other people liked it.
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quote:Originally posted by Blayne Bradley: Good thing thats just your opinion and completely unimportant in the grander scheme as Tim still makes money from that comic. As it is pretty obvious other people liked it.
Pretty sure that comic is not the epitome of what the comic is capable of. Also its doubtful long time readers now see that comic as vindication for all their years of readership. It might alienate some of his readers, it might garner him more readership.
I thought a better punchline would have been something like, "Defeat him in his own element! He challenged you all to a round of DDR!"
Just the image of them all bouncing on DDR mats makes me snicker.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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A Mary Sue isn't always a bad thing, but a Mary Sue that's there to show how right you are and how awful others are...yawn.
Posts: 544 | Registered: Mar 2007
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Blayne, stop getting so defensive. You are not Ctrl-Alt-Del, just a reader. It's anyone's right to disagree with you. And every once in a while they'll be right!
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I've found another analogy: Lucas' smile in the last panel annoys me like George Bush's little grins annoy me when he's being grilled.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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All the comic means to me is that the writer has no idea on any level of what honest religious debate is about. It's not funny, it's just sad. I'm speechless too, but that's largely because when I hear people spouting ignorant lines like that, I just shut my mouth and walk away.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Heh, I laughed more at Blackblade's idea of DDR than I did at what was actually in the comic. I didn't mind the video game religion when it first started, but I think this little mini-arc has already gone too far. Wintereenmas amuses me, this feels like he is harping on it now.
And I know exactly what PC means about Bush's smile, and now that he's brought it up, I'm annoyed by Lucas' smile too.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Maybe if he had some serious orange fret skills he could have done something with it!
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
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dude, its a web comic not social commentary your meant not to take it seriously sheesh. MY baptist/christian friend whose studying to be a theologian would undoubtably find it funny and find an argument that Lucas can't turn against him.
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Does anyone else crack up every time they hear Jon Stewart doing his Bush laugh? It's not even that great of an impression, and yet it tickles me so.
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I do, that and his Cheney impression. Neither are particularly "good" impressions, but they're still hysterical.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:its a web comic not social commentary your meant not to take it seriously sheesh
I'm trying to think of any definition of social commentary that your link doesn't fit into. Perhaps you could help. How, as you say, is it not social commentary?
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
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Because its a joke on social commentary.
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I had never heard of the author and therefore completely misinerpreted the comic. I originally thought the look on the clegyman's face was a "wow, this guy's an idiot" look, not a "I have no comeback" look.
However, that's probably just because I'm in high school. While I am becoming more spiritual, 99% of my peers are becoming less spiritual.
My problem is not with athiests. My problem is with my classmates who are not religious because they are too lazy to follow any religions' rules. Unlike true athiests, they have no facts to back up their philosophies. Therefore, when they ask questions like the guy in the comic, I think to myself "wow, what an idiot."
Posts: 77 | Registered: Apr 2007
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"My problem is not with athiests. My problem is with my classmates who are not religious because they are too lazy to follow any religions' rules. Unlike true athiests, they have no facts to back up their philosophies."
How do you know that's why they're not religious? Also, what is a "true atheist"?
Posts: 1945 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: Heh, I laughed more at Blackblade's idea of DDR than I did at what was actually in the comic. I didn't mind the video game religion when it first started, but I think this little mini-arc has already gone too far. Wintereenmas amuses me, this feels like he is harping on it now.
And I know exactly what PC means about Bush's smile, and now that he's brought it up, I'm annoyed by Lucas' smile too.
I agree. A DDR showdown would have been funny.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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quote: "My problem is not with athiests. My problem is with my classmates who are not religious because they are too lazy to follow any religions' rules. Unlike true athiests, they have no facts to back up their philosophies."
How do you know that's why they're not religious? Also, what is a "true atheist"?
How do I know? Here is what a conversation with the type of person I'm talking about might go like.
Joe: You still go to religious school once a week? Me: Yeah, how about you Joe? Joe: I'm atheist. Me: Oh. Do you believe that God never existed, or that God is already dead. Joe: Ummm... I don't really think about those things. I just always thought that religious school is boring.
Meanwhile, while "true atheists" don't believe in God, they still have their own set of beliefs, philosophies, and ideas.
Posts: 77 | Registered: Apr 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Blayne Bradley: Because its a joke on social commentary.
Poking fun at the FSM would possibly have been a joke on social commentary, but that's a real stretch of an interpretation of this comic. This comic isn't making fun of any commentary, it's (clumsily) making fun of "reality." That, of course, being social commentary, as Primal Curve pointed out.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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I'm not sure I have a problem with this Joe's response. Lots of things bore the heck out of me, and I generally don't give them any more thought than is absolutely necessary. Am I therefore lazy? Lack of interest and laziness are not synonymous.
Posts: 1945 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Nick: *inserts definition of agnostic here*
I'm not sure if a debate on what constitutes atheism or agnosticism would be entirely appropriate or welcome in this thread, but I guess I'll go ahead and put my two cents in.
I am both agnostic and atheist. I am agnostic in the sense that I have no knowledge of the existence of a god. I am atheist in the sense that I believe there is no god.
Posts: 1945 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
In other webcomic news, xkcd was fairly funny today. Not nearly at the level that the best of xkcd reaches, but still mildly amusing. Wednesday's was absolutely hysterical, though.
Posts: 2437 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by rollainm: I am both agnostic and atheist. I am agnostic in the sense that I have no knowledge of the existence of a god. I am atheist in the sense that I believe there is no god.
You are an atheist because of your belief that God does not exist. If you know that God doesn't exist, how then can you be an agnostic in any sense, since agnostics believe that the existence of God is unknowable?
Blayne, I agree with PC on the comic, it just... wasn't funny. You shouldn't be offended when people don't laugh a the same comics you do. Posts: 4229 | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
Agnostic: Greek for "without knowledge" ("a" meaning "without," "gnosis" meaning "knowledge")
I do not claim to have knowledge of the existence of a god.
Atheist: "without belief" (in a god)
I lack belief in the existence of a god, or I believe there is no god. A belief does not necessarily require knowledge in order to be justified. I base this particular belief on, among other reasons, a lack of evidence FOR the existence of a god.
Therefore, I believe there is no god (atheism), but I lack the knowledge (agnostic) that this belief is true or false.
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I always thought of atheism as being absolutely positive there is no God, and agnostic as not being sure. A no room for/room waiting kind of deal.. I'm sure if you play the semantics a certain way you can claim to be both but it seems to me it betrays their purpose to simply convey something in a conversation, or I've been listening to people wrong. I'm definitely an atheist, I really really feel I know there is no Lord above, in my bones, but there's no way I can know that's true as far as evidence goes at this point.
As for the comic, I think it's silly because anyone can win an argument if they write the script, and the reaction to the "finishing blow" struck me as pretty goofy for that reason - but it's a fun lil' web thing that's not out to pick a fight.
Posts: 299 | Registered: Jan 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Primal Curve: C+A+D is hit and miss for me. Sometimes the comic feels like a obvious PA rip-off (and several other web comics), but then sometimes it's got a genius of its own.
I agree with this. There are times when I really enjoy it, and other times when I just shrug and move on to the next comic in my list.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
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quote:Originally posted by The Flying Dracula Hair: I always thought of atheism as being absolutely positive there is no God, and agnostic as not being sure. A no room for/room waiting kind of deal.. I'm sure if you play the semantics a certain way you can claim to be both but it seems to me it betrays their purpose to simply convey something in a conversation, or I've been listening to people wrong. I'm definitely an atheist, I really really feel I know there is no Lord above, in my bones, but there's no way I can know that's true as far as evidence goes at this point.
Maybe I'm just playing the semantics, but I always thought atheist and agnostic were saying two different things. Agnostic means you don't know and/or can't know the answer.
One you discover that, you decide where your beliefs are and where the probabilities lay. So, you can be agnostic and christian (I don't know, but I believe it and I'm almost sure) as well as being agnostic and atheist (I don't know, but I'm almost sure).
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You shouldn't be offended when people don't laugh a the same comics you do. 
