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Post by daveshn on Apr 17, 2012 18:46:19 GMT -6
THIS IS NOT A THREAD TO POST RAGE COMICS AND MEMES. IF YOU FIND ONE THAT YOU THINK IS FUNNY, POST IT HERE* In another thread, Cabinet and I were discussing Rage Comics and Memes. My argument for them was: The reason they're so popular is that a lot of people want to make online comics and are skilled with humor and have funny stories to tell, but lack the free time [Recon joke here] and artistic skills to make them. What rage comics [and memes] do is they let average Joes take an hour or two out of their lives and put their two-cents worth of humor on the Internet. Also, I think of rage faces like slap-stick. It's mostly about timing and build-up rather than whatever face is used at the end. Think of the Three Stooges. In an era where so many were doing slap-stick, they became immortal because of their characters, their timing, and the script that set it all up. Think of Road Runner cartoons. Those have no dialogue, no story, heck, 9 times out of 10, you know exactly how Wiley Coyote's plan will backfire. But you're always laughing because of the way it's done. Are all rage comics good? Of course not. But a good one gives you a great joke that you can relate to. His argument against them was: The bar is set so low any idiot can do one. Every idiot does do this though. Then there's a massive influx of really, really awful things. These diminish what little comedic value these faces have. For me, and most people, these faces kill of any humor to be had in the joke. I don't know how many joke images I've seen that I go "heh, that's pretty good!" then I scroll down and it's closed off with [TROLLFACE] U MAD? Then I just go "ugh" and ignore anything else that person has. Meme humor in general is pretty goddamn awful. It's all about taking something kinda funny and beating the joke so far into the ground it shoots through the Earth's crust, gets launched into space, hits Mercury, goes through Mercury, hits Venus, goes through Venus, hits the Sun, goes through it, back through Mercury and Venus, back to and through Earth to hit the joke maker in the face where it flies on to and through Mars, then thr... What do you guys think? Do you like them or do you hate them? *Tentatively, I am ok with posting the link to a comic or meme IF YOU WANT TO USE IT AS AN EXAMPLE. However, you should not need more than one link per post, if you need a link at all. Don't post the image.
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Post by Mucho The Soybean Lover on Apr 17, 2012 19:59:13 GMT -6
If they're creative enough, they can tell a humorous little story without taking too much time. But; when people just take an image and add a Brazzers logo or "You don't say?" on the end, it seems pretty pointless. Usually only a moron would need the joke pointed out like that. I also agree that throwing in random trollfaces and other stuff is annoying, too.
It just needs to be something simple yet somewhat unique, which isn't too hard.
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Post by Gooman on Apr 17, 2012 20:12:35 GMT -6
Cabinet is suffering from good old burnt-out syndrome. Just because you've seen the joke five thousand times doesn't mean others have; a lot of the rage comic memes are still funny for me just because I don't see them that often, so they're still fairly fresh. Except for troll face and "you don't say", I have gotten sick of those. But that's just me, and because the pages I follow on facebook use them a lot (they don't really beat it into the ground themselves, it's just I follow some 70 active pages). I actually completely lost interest in the "you don't say" one immediately after I found out it wasn't Adam Sandler, but again, that's just my opinion.
Plus, what Dave said. Just like with fanfics, music, and pretty much everything on the internet, you have to dig through all the crapola in order to find the gems.
Edit: And Cabinet, you got your planet order mixed up. It's Earth => Venus => Mercury => Sun.
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Post by SeriousJupiter on Apr 17, 2012 21:29:25 GMT -6
I have a quite neutral opinion on memes. Sometimes they're funny, sometimes they're not. Even the old annoying trollface amuses me sometimes if it's used correctly. No, I can't tell you how to use it correctly, because I have no idea. Perhaps it varies on what kind of mood I'm in when I see it or some other overused meme being used in a comic. Right now I'm feeling quite relaxed which is probably the reason I said I'm neutral on memes. I remember ranting about certain memes in a fanbase of a certain show I love (and Cabinet used to love and he was one of the reasons I learned to love it in the first place so now I feel really resentful toward him when he mocks it and I resent Dave even more when he brings it up so Cabinet can agree with him like quite recently in the thread that is the origin of this thread about memes and rage comics and whether they're funny or not) because I see them used all. The. Fucking. Time. Fortunately sometimes I manage to just ignore them and don't bother snapping at those who use them because I know it will do no good except when I do snap at those people and then start an argument. It's like Goomane said, if you see a meme used five thousand times, it loses its humor (assuming it's ever funny in the first place, which is not the case in some memes I hate).
And Mucho, I hate to burst your bubble, but coming up with something simple yet unique on the Internet IS hard. No matter how original you think you are, it is extremely likely that someone else has come up with the same idea or joke before and used it and you may never even find out. Can you blame people who use memes because they have no originality? They may get ignored or insulted, but some people still get a laugh out of their work, which is hopefully what they're after unless they're malicious trolls who love causing trouble.
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dravarian26
Moderate Trainer
AKA D_Master_Funk (Squid)
Posts: 265
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Post by dravarian26 on Apr 17, 2012 21:32:43 GMT -6
I think another reason rage comics have become so popular (on tumblr at least, that's where I see all of mine) is because people can relate to them. There are so many feelings or ideas that you think you are weird for having, but then you see a rage comic describing your exact emotion. It's thrilling to feel connecting to people like that.
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mechy
Moderate Trainer
*chomp*
Posts: 348
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Post by mechy on Apr 17, 2012 23:46:04 GMT -6
Meh, don't got much to say. Way I see it, like Dave said with his example about slapstick and the Three Stooges in the other thread... they can be funny if used well. However people tend to just slap on any ol' thing or sling 'em around in any manner without a care, leading to them being used in tiresome or even facepalm worthy ways.
Basically, I don't so much have a problem with the rage comics and memes themselves... just their execution (and frequency).
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Post by Zombie Clown on Apr 18, 2012 0:57:44 GMT -6
The problem is that, it's no longer unique to those who use the internet, for example one of my favourite memes used to be "Haters gonna Hate" because it was used in the right context 90% of the time, but now its just a social medium to boost ones ego. It's lost its taste, and that is what ruins things like, memes and rage comics. Its the social medium of the internet that opens it up, specifically websites like 9gag, Memebase, 4chan (for those brave enough to venture there) and tumblr. What used to be a unique little joke on the internet, has become a damn right nuisance because 90% of the ones I see make no sense, or aren't even remotely funny. Which is saying something because I still laugh in biology when the teacher uses words like penis, and fecal matter.
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Post by Mucho The Soybean Lover on Apr 18, 2012 13:36:13 GMT -6
When I said 'simple yet somewhat unique', I only meant that they have to be more than just a caption on a picture. I mean things like Success Kid and such can be entertaining, but if you just take something out of media and add it to a picture, it gets old fast. All those 'arrow to the knee' jokes that came from Skyrim got pretty annoying because they were invading other memes and was pretty much impossible to incorporate into something outside of just slapping it on. Just stick to a single meme that isn't a game of Mad Libs.
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Post by chaoman45 on Apr 18, 2012 14:23:10 GMT -6
Depends on the meme. Some macros are funny. Dolan is crap. And yeah, anybody can make a meme, even if they don't understand it. People do find humour through memes or repeating something recognisable. Did you ever use a movie quote to get laughs? What about using a meme via text to sound silly like AMERICA frick YEAH or whatever.
I will admit that memes can discourage creativity and originality, but that seems like a reflection on society, if anything (opinion).
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Post by Cabi.net on Apr 18, 2012 15:02:39 GMT -6
I've already made my argument, but I'll give a quick run down again. My whole problem with meme humor is that it so goddamn lazy. There is no effort put into any of it. Sure, Dave and other people say the low entry point is good because it lets people who don't have the talent to draw get something out there. The problem is that a lot of people are painfully unfunny and shouldn't they don't add anything but white noise. Or the opposite, there are some genuinely talented and funny people who use these when they could be doing so many better things. It's all so lazy and uninteresting. Memes such as the Wonka ones and Advice Dog stuff [Impact text on top or bottom, follow a style for each variation] are Family Guy humor, at best. "Remember that time" or "Remember when" and then applying it to something that happened to them, or throwing out a stereotype. It's not humor. It's putting "something that happened/occurred to me today" and putting it in a template. You know how the joke is going to end every time. The Granny is "owned" for being stuck in a different era. Wonka is sooooo sarcastic at you because you think your tough. He stubbed his toe! FUUUU- Now this is where Dave's argument comes in again. Yeah, sure. 9/10 times we know how the joke is going to end. We know that Coyote is going to blow up somehow or Tom is going to get caught in the mousetraps he lay out for Jerry. The difference is that there's some thought put into these things. There is never any subtly in rage comics and meme humor. It's all taken on face value and they are worthless. Okay now I'm going to reply directly to other people. It just needs to be something simple yet somewhat unique, which isn't too hard. But that's the problem. Rage faces and meme humor are not unique. They are the same joke repeated over and over and over. Cabinet is suffering from good old burnt-out syndrome. Just because you've seen the joke five thousand times doesn't mean others have; That doesn't matter. The joke has still been told 5,000 times with no twist on it. It's like telling a "why did the chicken cross the road?" joke to a five year old. Yeah, sure, they'll laugh at it then. But by the time they are seven they know that those jokes were stupid and want Knock Knock jokes. I actually completely lost interest in the "you don't say" one immediately after I found out it wasn't Adam Sandler Adam Sandler hasn't been funny since the mid 90's. Namaste. (Also the whole "remember the 90's/the 90's were great!!!" stuff is stupid as hell now. You don't have the right to be nostalgiac of your kid days when you're, at the oldest, 30.) Edit: And Cabinet, you got your planet order mixed up. It's Earth => Venus => Mercury => Sun. The planets were orbiting really weirdly that day. And Mucho, I hate to burst your bubble, but coming up with something simple yet unique on the Internet IS hard. No matter how original you think you are, it is extremely likely that someone else has come up with the same idea or joke before and used it and you may never even find out. Can you blame people who use memes because they have no originality? Yes, we can. Just because it's hard doesn't mean we shouldn't try. If we never tired we'd still be wallowing in the primordial soup. If you want to make something funny, try and try hard. Otherwise don't do it. Same goes with art, stories, or anything else you do to try and lighten other's lives. It all reflects back on you. If you can't put a bit of effort into making a joke for the internet, but you really want to make a joke for the internet, why shouldn't you? I think another reason rage comics have become so popular (on tumblr at least, that's where I see all of mine) is because people can relate to them. (...) It's thrilling to feel connecting to people like that. If you need rage comics to feel a personal connection to someone you need to get out a lot more. Or change up where you're posting because Jesus Christ. Yeah, they are supposed to be "relateable" but they are only relatable in a "teen advice" sense. They are regurgitated "feel good" phrases and situations that are 99% of the time either racist, homophobic or sexist. These are not good things. The problem is that, it's no longer unique to those who use the internet, for example one of my favourite memes used to be "Haters gonna Hate" because it was used in the right context 90% of the time, but now its just a social medium... These jokes were dead long before they hit other websites. They jut drove it further down. Also every one of those websites are pretty damn awful. Except Tumblr because you can unfollow people who post that bullshit. Replace Tumblr with FunnyJunk and Reddit and you have All_The_Websites_You_Shouldn't_Visit.txt
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Post by Gooman on Apr 21, 2012 19:23:52 GMT -6
I just thought I'd leave this here.
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