Lowering the Bar
Today's installment of Control Alt Delete is the new worst CAD comic ever. If there were an award for botching a comic in the peculiar way that CAD tends to (we can call this award a Caddie), this comic would be the all-time strongest contender.
Allow me to (over)explain what is wrong with this comic, and how it exemplifies CAD perfectly.
(1) The premise isn't actually that bad. The idea of Bomberman attempting to deal with airport security is actually pretty amusing. Sadly, however, Tim Buckley is on the case, ready to sap whatever comedic potential is had by this premise.
(2) Don't tell the joke that well. See, if you notice, the word "Bomberman" is used multiple times. But, the entire joke hinges on you already recognizing Bomberman. If you don't recognize him, then there is no joke, and if you do, then you don't need his name to be repeated multiple times in the second panel.
(3) Cram in awkwardly written "bonus" jokes. The federal agents call him "Bomberman Al Hussain." See, it wasn't enough that they thought Bomberman, a man whose essence is to drop bombs near-constantly, might be planning some sort of airplane bombing, that wasn't funny by itself (hint: it was), instead we need a ham-fisted attempt to associate bombing with a stereotype of a terrorist (i.e. that he is arabic).
(4) Overexplain the joke. See, that third panel? In case you didn't get it before, the third panel is there to make sure you understand that the federal agents are concerned that bomberman might be planning to bomb something.
(4) Confusingly dated attempt to be hip. So, notice that in panel 3, which was already noted to be superfluous, there is a god damned all your base reference. Thanks Buckley, welcome to six years ago. Way to jack yourself in to the heartbeat of internet culture.
(5) After the punchline, make sure you have an additional panel (or in this case, an additional two and a half panels), ruining whatever comedic effect you might have been going for. Consistently, Tim "Ham-Hands" Buckley will include additional dialogue, overexplaining the joke, or in the case of the fourth panel here, distracting from the joke. See, the only reason that the agents are beating up bomberman in the final panel is because Buckley had to fill a fourth panel, and had already overexplained in the second and third panels. Thus, without the ability to do so in the fourth panel, he had to turn to a different and unrelated "gag": the assault of bomberman by the feds.
The sad, sad moral: Look at the comic and just read the first two panels (ignoring the final speech bubble in the second panel). This excerpt from Buckley's comic is in fact, the concise, comedic version of the joke. It is, however, ultimately buried in a sea of Buckleyesque flailing, which distracts from and ultimately intereferes with any humor the strip might have had.
Congratulations, Tim, no one knows how to butcher a joke like you do.
four comments:
Meh, Niego already did a bomberman joke in this vein
Scott (Email) (URL) - 27 07 07 - 23:49
I think the first panel is superfluous too. It’s basically the second panel without dialog, and with a cigarette. And then you get a one-panel joke. It’s like Buckley doesn’t realize that most comics are four panels because it’s natural, not because of the heavenly law.
[William] (Email) (URL) - 28 07 07 - 23:42
Scott: To be honest, I actually think Niego buried the real gag in his version as well. I think that the joke would be conveyed optimally in a single panel, with Bomberman looking on as his bags are searched. The fact that he is bomberman and the fact that everyone knows about airport security do all the rest of the work for you.
Lewis Powell (Email) (URL) - 29 07 07 - 00:20
I know I might be a month late lending my thoughts, but I have to disagree – I find that some of the sexist or similarly sleezy CAD comics to overwhelm this one for pure awfulness.
On the other hand, it does take true skill to take a perfectly good joke and butcher it to this extent, and I think you did a perfect job of pinpointing exactly how Buckley failed so hard on this level. So props for that!
Myth (Email) (URL) - 21 08 07 - 12:18
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