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Trailer Park Boys rule! hehe Bubbles!
Anyways, I don't want to 'copy' PA. Not at all, I'm just saying, even they use swears. I really don't want to, our comic doesn't need it.
You know, I think you have a good idea though about linking to other sites.
I'm going to look into it.
Would YOU be interested? ;)
AIM me at CBGRules
I don't mind a little foul language.
Now when someone has 104 F-words or just too damn many swears in a single post, then it begins to look mighty crass.
I've always followed the thought that PG comedy is the best comedy. I see swearing and such as a crutch, and truly great humor doesn’t need it.
That's not to say I don't swear ever, or don't make jokes with swearing, but most of the best humor I have seen doesn't need swearing to be funny.
so are you going to link your comic or not? I'm curious about it.
How to write funny you say....
I dunno. My attempts at humor are hit and miss, but since some people find them funny I'll give some of my techniques...
There is always the outrageous exageration technique, as seen in my "why I love Delaware" passage:
We don't have sales taxes. It's not so much the money saving aspect I like. I like the nice simple change I get when I pay for something.
When I buy something in Delaware, I always get either one penny or one nickle back because everything costs either $XX.99 or $XX.95. That single coin fits nicely in my pocket and does not jingle around, because single coins can't jingle. If I go to another state and buy something, the price is still $XX.99 or $XX.95, but the sales tax always adds something like 27.934 cents to the price so I end up with 4 pennys, 2 dimes, a nickle, 3 quarters, 2 silver dollars, 5 half dollars, a manufacturer's mail in rebate for $0.012 cents off surpluss Strawberry Shortcake cerial, a used buss ticket, and sometimes a hockey puck signed by Dion Sanders wrapped in a three dollar bill. And another penny. All of this stuff has to go in my pocket and it looks rediculous. The ladies see me and say "have you been shopping outside of Delaware or are you just happy to see me?". If I were the ghost of Christmas Past and I lost my chains, I would go outside of Delaware to buy new ones because all the crap in my pocket after paying would greatly add to the clanking sound the chains make when I walk (and it's all about clanking sounds with Christmas ghosts).
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Then there is the "make a statement that is very odd to think of in the first place, let alone say" technique:
I immagine the worst time for civilization to end would be in the morning right as you are finishing up brushing your teeth, but before you have a chance to rinse. You'd be spitting out dry white paste all day. Put that on top of the fact that civilization just ended, and your day is really fucked.
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(note that "fucked" is not needed, but "screwed" sounds too weak. Feel free to use something like "Smurfed" if an alternative is absolutly needed.)
Then there is the close cousin of the "where did that come from?" statement: The "where did that come from?" question.
Can an elaphant yell or roar or anything like that with his vocal chords? If so, can he harmonize with his own nose trumpet? I wonder how many times in the history of the world an elephant has hit a perfect fifth with his voice and his nose. I wonder if the other elephants noticed.
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Then there is the rarely-appreciated all-out lunacy technique as shown in my short, short story "Trout on the Bar Stool, Flounder in the Pretzel Bowl. Use with caution.
Trout on the bar stool: Hey flounder, did you ever get that lawnmower of yours working?
Flounder in the pretzel bowl: No.
Trout on the bar stool: That's a shame. That was always my favorite lawnmower. Some lawnmowers you can push around every single weekend for an entire summer, and by the time winter rolls around there is not one single lawnmower memory lingering in your head. But that lawnmower was different. I haven't even seen it since I borrowed it from you over that Labor Day weekend 15 years ago, and I still think about it every day. Heck, I didn't even mow the lawn with it. My wife and I just used it to create 4 little rectangular sections of matted down carpet fibers on our living room rug. Who would have thought it's wheels would have been so perfect for that?
Flounder in the pretzel bowl: I've always loved the matted down carpet fibers in your house.
Trout on the bar stool: Yup, that was one special lawnmower.
Flounder in the pretzel bowl: Ummm.... now that I think about it, I've never owned a lawnmower before.
Trout on the bar stool: I did think it was weird that a flounder would own a lawnmower. I probably don't own a carpet, either. I guess fish get pretty delusional when they've been sitting out of water as long as we have. How long have I been on this bar stool anyway?
Flounder in the pretzel bowl: About an hour.
Trout on the bar stool: Oh. *dies*
Flounder in the pretzel bowl: *dies*
The End
I agree. I mean, for example, I love Sinfest www.sinfest.net(The BEST webcomic in all the universe!!!), and it has no swears at all - just premium wit and fully entertaining flavor of jokes that never goes *pltt*:yuck:! AND I also give props to music artists/groups who can be funny/witty/get their point across without using the MF this, and the FU that, and most importantly, the Suck this b*tch.Quote:
Originally Posted by piku
One of my favorite comics, Brian Reagan, uses very few obscenities in his material. The same could be said about Kevin James. However, many other people that I find funny, such as Wanda Sykes, does use them, but it doesn't really hurt her act. I think that the same ideology can be applied to paper comics as stand up comics: swearing doesn't exactly hinder or help your message, but it more defines your audience and what type of comedy the writer is trying to create. Whichever road you decide to take, I think that it?s important to be consistent, so that your characters? personalities can be more defined.
Well, if you want to see our web-comic, it's at http://www.joystickadventures.com
Yesterday I got feedback about the design. Today I don't want people to bash our comics, I just need advice on how to write funnier.... which I am getting and thank you guys for.
As far as Nemo said, the affiliates idea is one I overlooked and I am all for it. If you noticed I dropped the latest reviews/forum access to the right and added an affiliates panel.
Underneath that will be the link to JA button once I complete it.
Thanks Nemo!
The first I usually do when writing my comics is I ALWAYS take into consideration my characters traits. ALWAYS. It's a must for me. I hope that shows through.
(Jonas is similar to Goofy, Henry is a childish fat guy and Baxter is similar to Donald. Goofy being silly and idiotic and Donald being ill tempered and violent at times.)
UPDATE: There, my site features a support JA button (2 actually). Thanks for the advice Nemo. Now I must shop around and find some affiliates.
I personally like seeing/using curse words, but it can't be thrown around a lot. I think if you use it sparingly, it's got more impact and gets a lot of feelings across quickly. Like instead of "I don't think so", you have "Fuck that!".
It has to fit the character and if a bunch of swears are used in every panel, it's overkill.
EDIT: I just checked out the comics up so far and it's pretty good. But in the latest one, in the second panel where the two are hiding from the Rancore, I know they are supposed to be sweating, but it really looks like someone hocked the biggest loogie on them.
I'm the cartoonist of Joystick Adventures, and I have to say that I agree wholeheartedly with Kid Nemo about the audience issue. I like drawing comics, I enjoy our comics and that's all I can do, really. I can't control anything but my work, and I'm sure somebody out there will appreciate it and, of course, as we get more experienced styles and such will change and we'll naturally get better at doing this thing.
As for the swearing issue, I'm not above using swear words to help evolve a punchline or character, but using swear words as the punchline really doesn't do anything for me. The latest Penny-Arcade Perhaps the Biggest Dorks Ever is an example of swearing taken too far with no real point. I don't find it funny, and think it just comes off as juvenile. But then again, somebody out there likes this and I'll still load up PA come Wednesday for the new comic. If swearing adds nothing to a comic or character, then it's pointless. Likewise for everything else.
lol, it does look like that now that you mention it. Perhaps droplets would have been a better choice.