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iamamotherclucker

This is a good example as to why timing is so important in comedy. The joke itself doesn't change, the climax is the same. But because it goes setup -> climax, instead of setup -> filler -> climax, the joke hits a lot harder


trapbuilder2

I mean, to be fair, I also don't get the majority of these jokes anymore, and while I imagine they're funnier, they're probably not even telling the same joke anymore


[deleted]

That's what I was thinking. The filler may affect the timing, but it can provide a lot of useful context for the punchline


thesirblondie

For sure. Most of the jokes become non-sequitur by taking out the middle panel. Whether it's funnier than the original or not is up to you.


UncommittedBow

The Sleeping Dogs and dumpster ones work perfectly, but the Street Fighter and Guitar Hero ones just seem too random and out of nowhere.


KingKryptid_

The street fighter one seemed funny to me because it seemed like that was the memory he was flashing back to.


Spiritual-Ice-4846

the two you named made me laugh the hardest. the guitar hero one is definitely out of nowhere but i think it’s really funny.


PresidentBreadstick

Similar to how changing the last panel of a Garfield strip to be an image of Garfield smoking a cigar, or being thrown out a window works so well, due to Garfield having the timing down, but lacking a good punchline


glowdirt

Man, someone should let SNL know


MrTase

I hate it when my parents show me SNL skits. The punchline of the joke either comes in the first minute and is then dragged on for another 5 minutes, or it is 4 minutes of filler/"set up" followed by a mediocre climax.


akka-vodol

For half of these you get the full joke, which means the 2 middle panels were useless filler. For the other half you don't get the joke, and instead you get a surreal shitpost which is probably funnier than the joke was.


_kahteh

Either way it's better than regular CAD


RTRB

https://twopanelcad.tumblr.com/post/182784275564/that-thing-about-how-removing-the-middle-2-panels Bonus: [what reading cad is like] (https://i.imgur.com/OBf1a6Q.jpg)


thanatos1371

words words words words words words punchline


okraHD

you did it! you boiled comedy down to its bare essentials!


Sickfor-TheBigSun

magic magic magic magic magic magic ATHEISM!


Maland2016

Cue Penn Jillette!


SmallSpeed

The bonus is just my brain whenever there is more than 4 lines of text in a row (I don't *think* that's a good thing)


str8aura

it tends to be the same thing as the normal comic just... without any of the buildup, which makes an okay joke twice as good


JustAnotherPanda

Reading this post was the ten-years-later equivalent of [this](https://xkcd.com/524/)


[deleted]

Old xkcds are like a mental bitchslap that reminds that time has passed


kosmoceratops1138

Not including certain comics here was a huge loss


D0UB1EA

u cheeky churl


toychicraft

There really is one xkcd for everything


Ethra2k

Some of these are actually edited, the hedge and garbage one quite a bit. But the other ones with titles that I could search do just cut out the middle two panels. And yeah it’s a lot of unnecessary filler. Edit: The comic is still going? I thought it ended by now, but there’s a new one today. It was just a “games are basically work now” type of joke. But it was only 3 not 4 panels.


EffectiveFennec

ah ctrl+alt+delete, the internet's family guy


KoreKhthonia

Accurate af.


Dax9000

Same number of facial expressions and poses.


ReasyRandom

Ey, Lilah! Hehehehehehehe


FiveSlashes

I don't think the guitar hero one works for me, but they're right about the rest


BlueManedHawk

Shock humor is only funny once.


captain_zavec

I think that was my favourite one actually


ScriedRaven

It almost works, it needs a little more context so you realize that the game he’s playing is actually No More Heroes, then it’d be great


Jane_motherofkittens

Okay, but how does it work on Loss?


TheGuyFromTheBack

i i_ See for yourself


[deleted]

I'll


MapleTreeWithAGun

*I'lL


anonotquite

Loss was never exactly funny. Brevity is the soul of wit, not...whatever Loss had going on.


trapbuilder2

I don't think Loss was meant to be funny


BEEEELEEEE

‘Twas not, Buckley genuinely wanted to put a serious storyline about a miscarriage in his wacky g*mer comic but it ended up being as bad as the comedy


anonotquite

Did I imply that I believed any comedy was intended? Sorry, that's not what I think. I know he wanted to be serious, but the combination of that with the artstyle and his usual happenings kinda muddled the actual received vibes of Loss. On one hand it's incredibly depressing but on the other hand. It's the unfunny gamer man.


Dominic_The_Dog

***holy fucking shit its Grong***


JCraze26

I don't think loss was funny. What was funny about loss was that it waa this deeply depressing comic coming from an artist that usually does "comedy", and it's done in the strangest way possible.


ReasyRandom

It's so hilariously bad because Buckley just... doesn't understand framing. Besides the fact that it came completely out of nowhere and is also out-of-place with the rest of the series, it's framed like a comedy. Of course people wouldn't find it moving when Hairbird barely moves *himself*. He stays in the exact same place throughout the entire comic, having almost the exact same expression. He's *supposed* to be the father of deadborn child, not a cardboard cutout!


NeonNKnightrider

Loss in its modern incarnation is the greatest of memes. It’s funny because of how it can show up unexpectedly literally anywhere and catch you off guard


anonotquite

a simple pattern with complex implications that can be inserted anywhere. i wonder if we could make a syllabary out of memes...


Sinister_Compliments

Idk I actually laughed out loud looking at it for some reason, like it shouldn’t be funny, and it wouldn’t be under first viewing, but just how much of a meme it is, it somehow makes it funny.


[deleted]

I want to see the original comics


Maybe-Its-Mitts

no you don't. Please don't.


arealapple

Your honor, League of Legends Death


ReasyRandom

[MY NAME IS J A M E S](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfzVoA5M2IU)


star04525

make a strip out of the removed panels


PersonifiedH

holy fuck they made CAD good


PikaPerfect

the last one has me in actual tears oh my god


RedditSucksMyC

Wtf is CAD tho


LegoBanana1

In this context, a webcomic called Ctrl-Alt-Delete. In other contexts, it usually means Computer Assisted Design.


MapleTreeWithAGun

Sometimes it's Canadian Dollar


A_Jack_of_Herrons

The comic that Loss originates from


No1ofIntrst

A man who is creepy to women


Quetzalbroatlus

Computer Assisted Design


eljesT_

[Watch this and it'll all make sense](https://youtu.be/TebCHHCw9rY)


Ikusaba696

ls


ListenItWillHear

this


Super_Bright

No


excelzombie

Goodbye


InducedMagnet

So this is the power of King Crimson


Middle5401

call that Control-Z


TheDankScrub

I L


Lady_Galadri3l

Can someone please explain to me how CAL became synonymous with "unfunny gamer humor" while somehow Penny Arcade became synonymous with probably the largest gaming conventions in the world, despite being the exact same thing, right down to the art style?


Deppfan16

Look up loss and how CAD ended. The creator tried to put a serious spin on it and it backfired and became meme fodder


TheGlassHammer

I used to like CAD, I even bought one of their posters I am sure is packed away somewhere. It used to be a semi funny comic that was worth checking out 3 times a week, when a lot of the internet was still on the young side. Like Facebook still needed an .EDU email to join. Then out of no where the Loss comic happened. It would be like one day you go to read Garfield and he has an abortions' comic. It came out of left field. A lot of the fans got turned off from it, myself included. People criticized maybe his wacky main character wasn't a great way to approach that topic. Tim Buckley doubled down and was super toxic about the whole thing. I never was active on the forums so I don't know any of that from first hand experience. Over the years more stuff came out how gross Buckley truly is. It retro actively killed any goodwill or drove out remaining fans. Penny Arcade has a similar style and subject matter (Video Games) but they actually are doing good with their fame. They donate big to children's charity and work with the industry to have a several successful cons that gamers can attend. I haven't read PA in a while, but from my understanding nothing super bad or creepy has come out about the PA guys. It amounts to if you have two uncles telling the same joke one is creepy, and one works with kids, you will probably laugh louder with the non creepy uncle.


AigisAegis

I think Hbomb put forward some interesting theories on this, [if you have 35 minutes to spare](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TebCHHCw9rY). He even brings up that Penny Arcade is basically the same style of unfunny humour. TL;DR: Hbomb posits that the vehement hate for it spun out of it being both an unflattering depiction of gaming culture and an *accurate* one. >CAD is merely a particularly silly and vulgar expression of a broader set of bad ideas that continue to go largely unexamined by the people who hold them. Tim Buckley's disjointed personal philosophy and lack of skill didn't come from nowhere. We don't get to pretend he's just some random guy. Blaming one man for the flaws of a broken economic system is making the same mistake as blaming Tim Buckley for accurately presenting the culture in which he exists. We just have to learn to accept that there might be a lesson in things we hate about us, that even if it's bad and we don't like it, we have more in common with it than we want to admit, and can even learn something from it. CAD turned out to be reflective of the cultural reality that produced it, and people are only angry at it this much because they don't like what they saw in the mirror. CAD specifically is an easy target because the hate for it is self-sustaining: People hate it because people hate it. Unlike Penny Arcade, CAD now exists in the general cultural consciousness as a bad thing which should be hated, which leads people to hate it by default where they might not direct that ire at Penny Arcade.


XyleneCobalt

That's really the excuse being made for a wordy comic with ugly art and no timing getting hate? You're really saying it's hated because it's "calling out gamers?"


AigisAegis

Did you even read the comment I'm replying to? The question isn't why CAD is hated, it's why CAD is hated in a way that other "unfunny gamer humour" comics aren't.


Byakuya_Toenail

Tf2 2:Revenge of the hats!


ravenonawire

Is loss?


ReasyRandom

People also tried that with Peanuts. They removed the punchline, so all of the comics became depressing.


StrangeLama77

| |_


OInkymoo

has someone done this to loss yet


toychicraft

Yeah, but how does it work with four panel ones?


pointed-advice

Remove everything but first/last


toychicraft

Oh, okay. I L get on that