SMBC Comics Forum

June 05, 2009:


seems he took his own votey to heart

The attitude solidified in 2010, when he wrote a rambling screed about how he was wrong about comedy, and that it is not just about making people laugh but about effecting social change.
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db ... 1761#comic

Social change..... that's.... suddenly I understand.

I honestly don't understand why Zach is allegedly not funny anymore.

I've seen most if not all of his comic strips and I've noticed two major changes in their humour:
1. They're text-heavier. This can be seen as good or bad, but it is a logical consequence of no. 2:
2. They deal with more complex themes.

I know it's a matter of opinion and personal interest, but I think that comics like this are more entertaining that comics like this (Ha, "Wanna spoon" has two meanings!)

I also remember an early comic in which a football coach has been doused with battery acid. How is this a piece of quality comedy while his newer works (for example, this) is unfunny and evidence that Zach has no ideas anymore?

The humour doesn't deal with more complex themes, the humour leaves the room while the comics gesture towards complex themes, mentioning aspects of them, maybe some famous examples, maybe an idea Zach read about today. I'm not even sure I'd say they were complex themes, just ideas for speculative fiction stories that are thankfully unwritten.

I notice in your post you stopped using the word funny when you had to bring up examples. Because they aren't funny, the rat one isn't funny. I dare you to laugh at the rat one. And your example of a good old one is a little too old for me, but I'd still say it's funnier than the rat one. For some examples of good, start here and go backwards and forwards however you like.

Your second pair of examples, come on you laughed at that? You laughed at a kind of obtuse observation. Alright, fine but I don't see how it's as good as this one which I arrived at that is like 5 comics after the sad truths one. It is a difference in opinion, the difference is YOUR WRONG BUDDY

look at this one

look at this one

look at this one

look at this one

Today for the first time, I didn't think his strips were funny. Maybe it's me.

it's you, everyone else here loves jokes about can manufacture

I'd been feeling a small drop in humor, but I think that his changing drawing style was the cause more than the writing itself.

Fortunately, yesterday's comic harked back more to the ~2500 range and was quite a bit funnier than they have been.

Liriodendron_fagotti wrote:I'd been feeling a small drop in humor, but I think that his changing drawing style was the cause more than the writing itself.

Fortunately, yesterday's comic harked back more to the ~2500 range and was quite a bit funnier than they have been.

I've noticed a large steaming drop in humour over the last 5 years.

Sorry, was I not supposed to bring up the elephant turd in the room?

I think he's just run out of steam. Here's one of his older comics:


And here's new one:


He's pretty much given up on being funny, and is focused more in trying to put a funny spin on his thoughts.

This isn't the first time he's self-plagiarized. I can't bring them up as proof, but I seem to recall at least two instances.

ThePeople wrote:I dare you to laugh at the rat one.

I laughed. I actually thought it was really funny, one of my favorites even.

Personally I haven't noticed any real change in humor. Just sometimes the new comic of the day is funny and sometimes it isn't so much. The only ones I find consistently less funny are the early ones (the ones without a votey, to be specific). Complain and moan on these forums all day if you want, I'm going to be reading comics and laughing at them.

I wonder if there's a rose-colored glasses effect going on here. It seems that wherever there's a very long-running series of some media, there's a large group of people who are adamant that the new content is of far less quality than the older content. The new Final Fantasy games are crap, Call of Duty stopped being good after 4, Bleach is only good for the first two seasons, etc. Can't help but think that it's all BS and it's just happening here too.

Powermad80 wrote:

ThePeople wrote:I dare you to laugh at the rat one.

I laughed. I actually thought it was really funny, one of my favorites even.

Personally I haven't noticed any real change in humor. Just sometimes the new comic of the day is funny and sometimes it isn't so much. The only ones I find consistently less funny are the early ones (the ones without a votey, to be specific). Complain and moan on these forums all day if you want, I'm going to be reading comics and laughing at them.

I wonder if there's a rose-colored glasses effect going on here. It seems that wherever there's a very long-running series of some media, there's a large group of people who are adamant that the new content is of far less quality than the older content. The new Final Fantasy games are crap, Call of Duty stopped being good after 4, Bleach is only good for the first two seasons, etc. Can't help but think that it's all BS and it's just happening here too.

actually zach has objectively changed his style of humor, to the point where some of them are incoherent without a decent background in science or philosophy. but you can keep getting all defensive if you want.

anus mcgee wrote: actually zach has objectively changed his style of humor, to the point where some of them are incoherent without a decent background in science or philosophy. but you can keep getting all defensive if you want.

Your argument can be summed up as, "You're wrong because you disagree with me."