This is my attempt at starting a serious discussion about funny strips. The idea is that we post strips that are funny and discuss why they work.

I'm learning lately that it's not just a punchline that makes for a funny comic. There are other very important elements, such as timing, context, and pacing.

Some of these things we do by instinct. We have learned to employ them by reading newspaper comics or watching comedies, even if we haven't conciously taken note. So in this forum, I guess I am trying to take note. What makes a specific strip funny?

I'll kick this off with the ever-classic Cowboy Phsycis:

[Click to view comic: 'Cowboy physics']

So, why is this funny? Personally, I think it's the pause in the middle. If you take out that middle panel, it just falls flat. The blank panel translates into a comic beat or an awkward silence. Remove the pause and the reaction "What the fuck are you talking about?" becomes more conversation or argument than punchline.

Well, that's my take on it.

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...Trot and Cap'n Bill were free from anxiety and care. Button-Bright never worried about anything. The Scarecrow, not being able to sleep, looked out of the window and tried to count the stars.

Maybe I just skip over the middle too fast, but I have never found this strip or any other cowboy physics strip to be funny.

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FPD is the foremost plague on discussion boards. Do your part to stomp out FPD.

This is always a difficult topic for discussion, as different people will laugh at different things, and at the same thing for different reasons. nevertheless, here's my two cents worth.

I think this is funny because the initial, slightly unusual situation (cowboys talking about gravitons) sets you up to expect a proper punchline. Instead, you just get a pause, followed by "What the fuck are you talking about?". Much of comedy is dependent on surprise and a shift in perception.

Variations on the theme are either funny for the same reasons, or just as 'an old friend'.

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No names have been changed to protect the innocent, since God Almighty protects the innocent as a matter of Heavenly routine.

Tastes vary. Although it's not one of my favourites on the site, I'll conform and say that I find Cowboy Physics pretty funny. To my mind, every element in it (except possibly the background) is essential to its success: even the narration at the start, which tricks the reader into expecting a pair of yokels discussing steers, bales of hay and whatever matters concern the inhabitants of a ranch.

Why is this funny? (if it shows up. If it doesn't, it'll be funny for a whole different reason)

The humour in most Dilbert strips is based either on the incompetence of the management, or on the sarcasm of the workers. The above strip is only funny to me because of the total lack of motivation the workers have in regard to their job. I'm pretty unmotivated about work myself, so I'm not sure why that should be amusing, but it is. Someone working hard wouldn't be anywhere near as funny. Most central characters in comic strips are wasters, as they're deemed to be funnier. Why should that be? I can't tell, but most of the time they are.

On the other hand, take Animal Crackers (please): in my opinion, the worst strip in the world. It beggars belief that someone is being paid for spending two minutes a day on that crap. One of its recent punchlines, for instance, involved a member of a school of fish carrying a schoolbag. Could even the most naive old woman find that funny?

I have to admit that when I first saw this strip, I thought it was only mildly amusing. But my boss laughed hysterically when he read it.

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...Trot and Cap'n Bill were free from anxiety and care. Button-Bright never worried about anything. The Scarecrow, not being able to sleep, looked out of the window and tried to count the stars.

Most central characters are losers because people would get jealous if they read about too much success.

This is also why tabloids sell. Well, that and boobies.

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No names have been changed to protect the innocent, since God Almighty protects the innocent as a matter of Heavenly routine.

[Click to view comic: 'In Search Of... The Loch Ness Monster']

This one is funny. It sets you up for Leonard Nimoy reciting a script, perhaps casting doubt on the existence of the Loch Ness Monster, but it ends with an unscripted comment brought about by an actual encounter with the monster. Yet instead of turning into the predictable cries for help, he works his unscripted response into the narration for the show.

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FPD is the foremost plague on discussion boards. Do your part to stomp out FPD.

quote:

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The humour in most Dilbert strips is based either on the incompetence of the management, or on the sarcasm of the workers.

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The "pregnant pause" in the middle of Cowboy Physics is a fairly common device in many of the comics I love. It can be used to illustrate an intellectually vacuous person trying desperately to come to some sort conclusion about something, it can illustrate tension, anger rising, the slight extension of an emotion... part of the pregnant pauses effect also comes from the facial expression of the characters involved, since that denotes exactly why a character might be silent for that pregnant pause. It gives a glint of what's going on in their mind, and thus is part of the joke.

Don't forget Rule # 31 of the comic strip handbook:

Comic strips with 4 panels are funny than those with 3 panels.

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"Nothing expresses the brutal grandeur of rectal polyps and anal fistulae quite like the mother-tongue of Goethe."

Actually...

...I think the "pregnant pause" in the middle acts more like a veil that casts a nice ambiguity over what goes through the character's head (and over what the reader "should" be thinking). It can shatter expectations or bring an awkward feeling to the strip or do something else entirely. My favorite comic that uses this technique to great success is "Red Meat" by Max Cannon. (You can find this comic in The Onion if you are not familiar with it.) Uncertainty, confusion, and non-determinism are some of the most powerful tools in the humorist's toolkit, I think - especially for the minimalist humorist. :)

The cowboy physics strip was really funny! I enjoy reading the comics on this site very much.

-Z

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What is the music?

The daily funnies are mostly innocuous and repetitious cack, which is why I get my comic fix here instead. Dilbert for example has an edge to it and trends above the norm, but even it subsists in a box from which it can't escape and (like all it's kin) has become comfortable by virtue of it's predictability. It's humor is suffering a long, slow death.

I'd rather see beloved old characters that are capable of exploring truely interesting new situations (ala Doonesbury's Duke, a personal favorite) or else completely new characters each day (ala the defunct Far Side).

Shit. Gotta run off to work, or I'd continue with an example of the kind of comic you won't see in the funny papers, from one of the many great examples crafted by folks on this site.

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"You'll burn for this. Burn in jail!"

One thing I've noticed is that a strip that is part of a series doesn't require quite the laugh-out-loud impact that you need to make a single strip effective. A smile will do, which lends itself to a dryer type of wit.

That's why I tend to do series. Most of the time my jokes work pretty well in the context of a series, but wouldn't stand up well on their own in a contest, where a more a bigger laugh is needed. Hence my stunning string of losses in the Comic Competitions (the Cup victory notwithstanding, which is a different matter). The closest I came to winning a competition was when it required a series.

The other beauty of series (and daily strips) is that you can use a smaller joke in one strip to set up a bigger laugh in the next one, like so:

[Click to view comic: 'TOBOR IN CHAINS! - Episode 21']

[Click to view comic: 'TOBOR IN CHAINS! - Episode 22']

The second strip makes no sense without the first one. There other elements that make it work, too (the timing and the surprise of the mention of the clavicle), but the setup from the previous strip is critical.

I'm mentioning this because it also seems to be one of the keys to how daily comic series work. They don't have to be that funny on a daily basis.

Of course, this still doesn't explain the awfulness of Animal Crackers.

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...Trot and Cap'n Bill were free from anxiety and care. Button-Bright never worried about anything. The Scarecrow, not being able to sleep, looked out of the window and tried to count the stars.

It's funny that you should mention Far Side, since that was one of my long time favorites before it was sent out to pasture... which is why I chose it for parody when I had to "Pick an established comic from the real world" in Comic Cup II. I can only guess that it was funny since it advanced to the next round.

[Click to view comic: 'The Far Side']

Zapp, that is certainly another good way of describing the Pregnant Pause and it works just as well.

As for a strip of mine that I know for certain is funny...

[Click to view comic: 'I'm so glad I'm not working here anymore...']

Sadly, I know exactly why this is funny... I had to live through it in real life.

I would just like to go on record and admit that I have never found Cowboy Physics to be particularly funny. I think it is cute, but I don't think it even raised a smile from me on first reading, let alone a laugh. I enjoy parodies on the Cowboy Physics theme, however, I think because I like to see the many ways the same basic format can be used effectively.

This discussion may lead on to something OI have been intending to do for a while. On the regulars page (which I will update in the next week or so, I promise) I want to include a "best strip" link with each person. To choose this strip, I want go through each person in turn, ask people to read his or her strips, and nominate some as their best. Then I would ask everyone to vote on which nominee they like best.

Yeah, I know it will take ages, but I might do parallel threads , see if I can get a few people done each week.

Incidentally, I have written only a handful of strips which have the power to make me laugh when I re-read them. I think the best of them is probably either of these two...

[Click to view comic: 'The Big C strkes a minor snag...'][Click to view comic: 'TOBOR IN TIME!!! - 2001 A.D. (four)']

Both of these use the setup/detour idea mentioned earlier - they set up a situation which has a predictable range of outcomes, and then hits you with something completely unexpected, and in both of these cases, unexpectedly human. Cthulhu has destroyed the earth, but now, like a child, he's bored. Tobor and Tobor are just roaring at each other, but the third panel suggests they derive human-like satisfaction from this "conversation".

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This signature has performed an illegal operation and has been shut down.

DexX is a country bumpkin.

I have to admit that those two are some of the better ones on this site. In fact, I saw your Bored Cthulhu comic come up randomly a few days ago. This reminds me of another funny one I've written...

[Click to view comic: 'Starstruck']

I think this was pretty good for just my second strip. The humor to me comes from the classic "mistaken identity" shtick, coupled with the completely oblivious hentai fan who seemingly doesn't notice that the world is being annihilated because he's... well... starstruck. This on top of the fact that Chtulhu himself is dumbstruck to the point that all he can do is just stand there saying "um..."

I can't plug this series enough by the way. It may not be finished, but I think it certainly is worth a read and am rather proud of it.

DexX, I think nominating a favorite comic from each regular is a great idea. Additionally, you should put a link to both the most popular comic of a stripper, and the stripper's own personal favorite comic from their library.

I don't think it's really fair to pick your own. And of course this will just make it take even MORE ages, but could we perhaps weed through each others' comics and pick out just one from each person that we particularly like? I have somewhat of a favorite from each person in mind already, which I don't know if anyone would side with me on any of them. For example, this is one I particularly like of Drexle's collection:

[ Posted comic does not exist ]

What do you think?

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Mediocrity at its most average.

I like that one, but unfortunately, I was reading through Descolada's strips a while back and noticed that he'd done that one before me.

Great Minds, I guess...

Oh, why wouldn't it be fair for us to pick our own alongside the one voted most popular by the others? It would just be two hyperlinks next to our picture instead of just one.

And since you were all nice about actually picking one of mine as being good...

[Click to view comic: 'Acting classes #2 - Playing the Part']

This one makes me laugh today just as much as it did when I first read it.

I hope
you will beware of putting comedy
under the microscope.
To dissect it
first you must kill it,
you must lose the thrill, chill it.
I don't wish my fish
to be a fillet.
Would you beach a whale
merely for teaching porpoises?
I don't want to appear
on a graph
and I don't want to dread
what comes after
the laughter's dead
and that's it, I said.
And as I was leaving the class,
I fell on my arse.

A short address at the comedy college - John Hegley

"Both of these use the setup/detour idea mentioned earlier - they set up a situation which has a predictable range of outcomes, and then hits you with something completely unexpected, and in both of these cases, unexpectedly human."

I think that non sequitur transitions are some of my favorite transitions in sequential art. It seems like American comics are only just now (well, past 5 years or so) embracing non sequitur / indeterminacy techniques, whereas European comics have used the technique well for decades (I think I read this in Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics," but I left my copy in another state, so I'm not sure :( ). Part of the fun of setting up patterns is deviating from them or ignoring them altogether.

Incidentally, are there any newbie-specific contests running these days? I must admit that all these veteran stripcreator users can be intimidatingly funny. :)

-Z

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What is the music?

I agree with most of what was said here, but I felt to say this:
A strip that traps itself in it's characters becomes so predictable to read that it looses much of its value. I can't hardly bear to read Foxtrot anymore: I have most of the books and have read the others as well, and you find that he has a repeating theme based on the characters personalities: Geeky-Jason, Blond-Socialpath-Paige, Sterotypical-16yearold-Peter, ReceedingHairline-AgingDad-Roger, and English-Major-StricterThanDad-OrderlyMom-Andy. There are strips through the years that have exactly the same theme, even series with the same idea or subject, and just a few words have been changed. I myself prefer Far Side, or some strip where the humor is based on a concept and less on a the interactions of a unique personality.
This is what makes Herb & Jamal better than Foxtrot, because it doesn't cling so tightly to the idea of just letting the characters play themselves out. Dilbert, Zits and Beetle Baily also avoid this, though the revolve around set characters.

Hello again.

I wanted to see what people thought about how well jokes that are meant to be told live (in person) transfer over to comics, and what issues, complications, etc. arise. Here's one that I think worked pretty well after the transition:

[Click to view comic: 'Farmer's Daughters']

The biggest problem is that the farmer is supposed to have a shotgun and kill the last suitor outright. However, I don't think that's a joke->comic problem so much as it is a side effect of the minimalist-style-only comics that can be made here. I'm more worried about timing details that are lost in joke-comic transitions. Plus facial expressions, voice inflection, yada yada yada...

I dunno. I'm just on a verbal joke kick right now as a way to get started with all this. :)

-Z

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What is the music?