Is Electric Retard funny?

[sexydecoy]

     Yesterday, at work, I stumbled upon a webcomic called Electric Retard and spent a good chunk of the day holding in bursts of laughter as I read through all 24 installments. Though I work at a comedy club, where humor is not only encouraged but served as our means to make ends meet, I refrained from laughing out loud as best I could. It should

Comments

not funny.

[evergreentrees]

example: http://www.electricretard.com/0020.html

Re: not funny.

[sexydecoy]

That one's one of my favorites.

Re: not funny.

[sexydecoy]

But what I'm interested in is why. It is very hard to justify why I think something like this is so funny, but very easy for someone like you to explain why it would be offensive. Clearly, as I've pointed out, the process by which one finds something funny is much more complex and abstract than what one would consider in bad taste. The trick here, however, is that I'm not so much interested in why one may or may not find something offensive (and to use that as an explanation), but what it means for something to be or not be specifically funny, and to explain that. I would suspect that this task would prove to be much more challenging

Re: not funny.

[evergreentrees]

Well, I totally agree with you there. There is no simple answer as to why or why not something is funny. I can actually see how someone would think this Electric Retard comic is funny, but it's not in the same way that you know, comedians and movies and television shows are funny. This comic is just kind of absurd, and you laugh because - duh - these are crude drawings of ice cream truck drivers jumping out of their vans naked. I think the humor in this cartoon is partially due to the fact that it is so strange and shocking and repulsive, mixed with the aesthetic of child-like crayon drawings. I think a lot of people would find this stuff funny, because it's bizarre. You can't be totally offended by it - even though it depicts some pretty heavy shit - so the other side of that reaction, I think, is to laugh. The line between what's acceptable and what's offensive is thin, and always changing, and I think a lot of comedy uses that as an advantage. I don't know, personally, this comic didn't offend me or enthrall me, I just kind of

[gofishygo]

"We've had this conversation!"

[sexydecoy]

Well, yes, but not with such elegance I hope.

[gofishygo]

Well I suppose we didn't go into why we find it funny... just that we do.

[flunkmaster]

I think *I* could probably draw Electric Retard and think it was hilarious, and rape and abuse etc is probably the things I and my friends joke about most frequently, but the comic is just super-disturbing to me... Would not read again.