Sorry if this has been discussed before; I did a cursory search and hadn't found anything*, so here goes:

I really like the Comic Competitions and how they seem to encourage people to make each other laugh by providing a common theme / problem, etc.. I tried entering a couple of the alternate ones, but I noticed that if I read the previous entries and found one a certain kind of "terribly funny", I feel less like trying to make one of my own and more like observing. It's weird, because I don't think I'm really concerned with winning - mostly with giving it what I might think at the time is a decent shot.

Here's an example of an entry I thought was so funny it stopped me in my tracks:

[Click to view comic: 'Of Rice and Men (CC 376)']

It could be I have this wrong, and that I'm more reacting to the openness of this particular competition (i.e. the theme of "parodies"), but it still makes me want to ask if and how competition affects making comics for people. I'm not wondering "is it good or bad", nor am I implying or asking for criticism, but rather wondering how people think about trying to make funny things.

*turns out the little bugger keeps jumping to the end of whatever I type.

Uh.

Well if somebody makes a comic that's perfect I might not enter a competition, but that really depends on whether what I turn out will be shitty or not. A few years ago I entered the "Lucky Life" series in one of biped's competitions, and despite the fact that I was the first or second poster and got PMs from a bunch of people telling me that I probably already won, it ended up being a several page long comp. In fact, a lot of the people that PMed me entered.

I suppose it's really just personal preference, laziness, and how funny the topic is that motivates someone to enter.

As for being competitively funny... I really don't try to be competitively funny with anyone, even in the competitions. I just try and make a comic that I think is funny and submit it hoping the feeling is shared.

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the kid's getting old, the kid's getting old

No shame in trying. The last comp I won (a long time ago I think) I threw together four stupid comics at the last minute and they won. Even if you find a comic perfect and hilarious, it doesn't mean that the creator of that competition thinks the same.

I enter comics contests with the unwaverable conviction that I'm the greatest and my comics are vastly superior to everyone else's, and if I lose it's just because of other people's stupidity.

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Legend, oh legend, the third wheel legend...always in the way.

biped

I think that applies to just about everyone.