Art Imitating Life
This strip was inspired by a guy I work with who points at my shirt ALMOST EVERY DAY, trying to get me to look. I've never looked. That's what drives him on. My shirt has become his white whale.
All of the humor is drained out of it now, not that there was ever much humor in it to begin with. Every day he comes up, pokes me in the chest and says "you've got something on your shirt."
I look him in the eye and say, "I respect you a little less every time you say that." Then we both laugh a slow, mirthless laugh.
Sometimes, as he slinks away, he tells me my shoe-laces are untied. Jokes aren't supposed to make you sad.
All of the humor is drained out of it now, not that there was ever much humor in it to begin with. Every day he comes up, pokes me in the chest and says "you've got something on your shirt."
I look him in the eye and say, "I respect you a little less every time you say that." Then we both laugh a slow, mirthless laugh.
Sometimes, as he slinks away, he tells me my shoe-laces are untied. Jokes aren't supposed to make you sad.
posted by Scott Meyer at Wednesday, November 14, 2007
15 Comments:
Are you taking any new pictures? Who does? I imagine you ambushing your friends with a digital camera, asking them to look dumb. Seriously, a comic on how to get people to pose for a picture, or a blog on how you do it, would either/or/both be great.
Does he ever ask you the time while you are holding a drink?
You could always try beating him to the punch. When you see him look down at your shirt and say "There's nothing on my shirt. But there appears to be something on yours." Then smack him.
Ok so that may be a little too violent, but honestly some people deserve it.
Love the twist at the end of today's strip - I totally didn't see it coming
A have a similar story. A friend of mine was the one doing this, but I'll tell it in first person, as it sounds better this way:
I used to work at KB Toy Stores. One of the managers there, Brian, prided himself on never swearing. In my pursuit to morally corrupt anyone around me, I decided to make him swear. The answer laid in the Seinfeld "jerkstore" joke (The jerkstore called. They're running out of you). So, every day I'd say this to him, trying to wear him down. It wasn't working. One day, on my day off, I decide to call the store. Brian picks up. I say to him "Hello Brian, this is the jerkstore calling..." Before I could finish, he yells "SON OF A B*TCH" into the phone and slams it down. With my goal acheived, I decided to quit a week later (my friend, not me).
Nice comic today!
As an idea for a new comic: how to say no to your boss?
And/or how to say no to a colleague?
how to ask a girl out?
how to choose a lane in a traffic jam?
how to jell at your computer without upsetting everybody?
how to cook a desent meal?
I love your comic strips! They're all very funny! :-D
I try to drop by at least once a day for a good laugh. Helps relieve the stress from my daily grind..
Thanks and do keep it up!
I had a roommate who used to do that to me, and I fell for it EVERY time! Even when I knew it was coming, I fell for it - which is why he kept doing it. The memory alone makes me cringe!
Please please please write more ;-)
If it weren't Sunday, people in the office would be looking at me funny. Because of the laughing. About the strip, not your pathetic coworker.
I love your blog- I laugh out loud- regularly- when reading it.
More ideas:
-How to successfully navigate computer phone systems/trees
-How to cover up when you think someone was waving to you, but they weren't
-how to avoid socializing with someone but not let them know you're avoiding them
-how to get your spouse to do an errand they wouldn't like to do, but think it's their idea...
Thanks for the comics! Keep them coming.
Next time he says you have something on your shirt, ask him if it's blood from his severed carotid artery?
Having read what the difference is, I now see you use vastly fewer words, which irks me. Your panache is in your wordiness. Not to say your prior wordiness wasn't, well, TOO wordy, but this croses the line the other way. It just din't irk me enough to say anything about it until prompted. So there. When you stay away from human-skin-poncho jokes, yours is the only comic strip that makes me mlaugh about 75% of the time, or about 72% more than others. Keep it up. (That all was meant as a compliment. My natural straightforward Germanic straightforwardness can get confusing. Sorry).
yes, I see it now... You have removed all the secondary clauses from your narration. The Narration moves swiftly, which is great when the jokes are all in the dialogue. However it seems to me, without any specific strip springing to mind, that the joke is sometimes in the narration. In this strip the less-wordy version is sleek and effective, like a ninja, or a race car. Or a ninja in a race car.
I liked the longer form version much better. As other's have said--your commentary is part of the charm. So much about your work is unique, and balanced. Whatever feedback you got about streamlining was either misguided...or poorly implemented (in this case).
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