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Strip Search - Elimination #7
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o_O
1 - "Who wears stripes anymore?" <-- best comeback in the competition so far.
2 - I have to admit I was a little surprised Monica's comic apparently needed to be explained as much as they did. It seemed pretty straightforward, except maybe for the first panel (I initially thought he was moving, not just putting the skates away, not that it was an important distinction for the comic's purposes). But then, given I'm a writer and not an artist, I guess that means I was in Jerry's position of the two of them anyway, so.
3 - Am I the only one who cringed at Lexxy's post-competition remark re: "I don't think the competition was quite as tight this time around?" 'Cause dang, that's kinda...harsh. Been ignoring the general comments of dislike toward Lexxy up to this point, but I have to say that one remark could be taken pretty badly, even if it wasn't intended that way.
Monica set up a fully-realized character and told a story in a single page. It was deep, charming, romantic - and as a bonus told us something deeply personal about her.
Lexxy's comic was generic. If that were a guest strip in Sam & Fuzzy, it wouldn't look out of place, but I wouldn't remember it either. Making fun of OTT childrens' advertising from the 90s is practically a meme.
I'll admit I'm a bit biased because Monica was simply awesome in the way she interacted with Mike. But seriously, is it all about the laughs for those guys? And if so, surely they should have seen Lexxy's joke a hundred times before, with better execution too.
If the deliberation was a lot quicker this time around, then Lexxy was merely commenting that they didn't spend as much time picking a winner, so it wasn't as tight as it was with Tavis.
Monica isn't around in that moment to hear the comment so I don't think such an honest observation is offensive.
I don't think we have to theorize an intentional conspiracy to suspect that their friendship with Lexxy has shaded their decision-making at times.
Also, I tried the Elimination Comic today:
My Artist Corner Thread
Though she also noted in SE++ that the glimpse she did get of Monica's comic, even if she couldn't read it from where she was standing, made her waver in confidence about her joke. It wasn't as tight, but she knew she was in trouble again.
Your interpretation of Monica's comic is kind of bonkers.
I will admit that Lexxy's comic did stand to me as the winner though with its humor hit. It was also nice to actually Lexxy speak on why she was really there and speak a bit on her fear and hope then she shot it all to hell by riding her own narcissim to the finish line. I can't think of it as anything else now. When she did the job interview I had no idea where their fear of her wanting the spotlight came from; this show has made it clear why Khoo stated their fear about hiring her. She did a great comic and clearly has the skill to do this but I honestly can't stand watching her talk about how great she is.
My Artist Corner Thread
First and foremost being that the show has already been filmed, there's not much that anyone can do to work on how they were perceived... So it's not like she could have gone "hey a bunch of people that comment on the show think that I'm <insult of choice here>, so maybe I should be more careful about not seeming like a <insult of choice here>." So, until she wins/is eliminated, unintentionally negative interpretations of what she says is gonna be the norm... :P
I didn't think it was off though. Mostly because the actual amount of time IRL that they were waiting in the "shame hole" for a decision. I mean, seeing as Lexxy would have been there twice the fact that it didn't take as long for them to call them back (and they said it was their longest one the first time), would have been good indicator of how solidly either of them won. For us though, both sequences took about 5 minutes of playtime. Plus the entire atmosphere and body language of the people onset could have been different. Not "OH MAN THIS WAS TENSE", but more relaxed. But idk. Conjecture!
edit: beated by @Gosling. :P
Q: Do you think she deserves to go home?
A: Yes.
Monica has Asian mother sass powers.
Activate!
The joke, to me, seemed to be a sarcastic jab about how mean the people of Penny Arcade are. I doubt, however, that Mike actually thinks his coworkers are mean. But he's said that nothing Monica said offended him, so I'll take him at his word.
But today on his Twitter feed, Scott Kurtz (a man who, unlike Mike, has no reason to be diplomatic AND is a Penny Arcade occupant) came forward to say that he didn't like what Monica said. So, yeah, that does make me wonder how great she'd fit in there.
I thought the same thing. It looked to me like the dinosaur was breaking out the skates and going to light lamps. Actually, I thought she'd made it a fire-breathing dinosaur and that's how it was lighting the lamps, so I got a better laugh out of it than I imagine most people would have. So I'm super-bonkers.
I'm coming back to the rest of your comments in a moment, but I just needed to say: Please no!!
Not entirely true. Katie did, when she nearly lost to Ty and was told as much.
Erika has said that after getting eliminated, she was allowed to have a sit-down with Khoo. So what you are saying could actually be construed as evidence that Lexxy's not one of the top two, who most likely wouldn't have had such an opportunity yet.
OK, this is a serious stretch. Kurtz tweeted:
"I can’t conceive of a situation where I would tell Jim Davis or Charles Schulz to “Go fuck their mother.”"
To which Kris Straub hilariously replied:
"@pvponline it's the same situation where charles schulz asks who you wish would get cancer and/or aids"
Kurtz replied: "@krisstraub touché"
You're free to interpret Scott's original tweet how you want but IMO it was a lighthearted jab, a statement of bemused disbelief, not scorn.
Because how could anyone disagree with [Commenter]? That's crazy talk! Obviously if [Commenter] thinks something, then everybody else must also think it!
It's the worst kind of self-involved egoism and I despise it.
Origin ID: jazzmess
Amazon Wishlist
I dunno, Jim Davis is kind of a hack...
And anyway she didn't tell him to fuck his mother. She said she was going to. Big difference.
That and Charles Schultz and Jim Davis did/do a totally different kind of comic than PA.
A joke so offensive that they will never, ever repeat it.
And congrats to Lexxy! She lives to fight another day. Funny comic strip!
Gonna be a rough couple of eliminations ahead of us. Will it be weird when it comes down to three? Two will go into combat, leaving only one at home alone to await their final opponent. *dun dun duuuuuuuun!*
It would be cool if all the contestants showed up in the final elimination round (at least in the audience) or something. That would be neat.
I guess I was more looking at THIS tweet:
Scott Kurtz @pvponline 3h
@mfiume My mom died in 1996, and Mike’s Mom has always treated me like a son. So I didn’t like it, no.
But you're right, Lamp. I'm probably seeing something that isn't there.
edit: this is the conversation with context: link
edit2: added text of said conversation.
You aren't the only one, but it doesn't seem like you are necessarily part of the majority either. I agree with the assessment that is floating around which posits that the first portion is a little confusing. Personally, I thought the dinosaur was moving at first (possibly for his new job). It was only with a subsequent read through that it all came together for me. Don't get me wrong, I still thought the comic was quite good. However, I did find the beginning to be a little muddled.
Monica's comic was touching, but lacked the funny almost entirely. I don't know how (or if) she thought the PA guys would be into that. She seemed uncharacteristically resigned to losing, as if she just wanted to make one last point (about being a cartoonist no matter what?) before they kick her out.
Lexxy's, on the other hand, had a funny premise but no story that I could pick up on. Is it really enough to just say "what if the skates were dinos?" and call it a comic? It sounds more like a half-formed funny idea that goes nowhere ATM. If Monica had made it a challenge at all, it might have failed. (Or not, since they loved it for some reason. But I liked her clown porn thing much, much better.)
The rollerskates can represent any dream or aspiration of yours. The dinosaurs represent you, and those people who love you and want the best for you. It might be autobiographical, but it's powerful because it's meaningful to so many of us. Welcome to the wonderful world of metaphor!
Yes, they could be anything, but the combination of dinosaurs and rollerskating is quite poignant, because it's so ridiculous for a dinosaur to rollerskate. Use sensible things, hell even use "me" and "making webcomics" and not only does it lose charm, it also loses it's strength.
Monica's Dino is not "lighting lamps with fire breath." It is cold and night. It's just his breathing. A big sigh, and then some panting.
FYI: Image above links to my webcomic, and is (mostly) SFW. Steam ID: Obos Vent: Obos
Didn't like her behavior in the elimination challenge, though. I know it's irritating when you're trying to work and someone won't leave you alone, but she seemed to forget that she was on a game show.
edit - clarification: I don't care that she was shutting Mike and Jerry down. Abby did that last week and it was hilarious. Monica came across to me as someone who was resisting the challenge's construction. (That said, I love her and her work, I just don't think this was her best moment.)
I quite enjoy Monica's strip, and have read her entire archive. Never has she opened up like this. I feel like we got to see a piece of the real Monica, a glimpse of her soul. The Dino taking that one last skate off into the night... This was such a poignant image. I was touched, it's made me reflect. It's made me bloody want to see Monica succeed!
Brilliant. Just brilliant stuff.
Lexxy's art in these eliminations is not "Unfinished", it's Stylistic. It might not be a style you like, but it is far from half-assed. I'm happy to accept that it's a stylistic choice that lends itself well to the format, as it's black and white and quite minimalist - but it's not bad art. I'm happy to accept that it's a style you don't like, but it's not "just preliminary sketches".
For me, it's a style I love, and that I wish I could do myself.
Origin ID: jazzmess
Amazon Wishlist
I think she knew she had a comic to make and 90 minutes to make it and everything that got in the way of that needed to get out of her hair and let her work. I know the feeling. I've had it myself when writing. You have this great idea, but you don't have much time to get it down for whatever reason- you're under a time limit; you're worried about losing the idea- and all you can think about is completing your piece, and it needs to be done, and it needs to be done now, quickly, and anyone asking you for anything while you're working is doing you a great disservice and don't they know how important this is? Your muse strikes, it grabs hold of you, and you need to take advantage before the muse goes away. It can come anywhere. In front of your easel/keyboard/notebook/etc. (if you're lucky), in the break room at work, in the middle of a game show. That feeling exists. People in the creative arts get that feeling. I get it. Clearly Monica gets it. It can result in some of a person's absolute best work, but the process of getting there can be rather unpleasant for anyone who happens to get between the artist and completion of their piece.
I can't tell if this is supposed to be satire or what. While I agree Monica had the better strip, you went really kind of crazy at the end there with whatever that was.
Bottom line, better strip does not mean winning strip, or a strip the Creators like as a winning strip (even if it wins over another strip). They didn't like Katie's second strip, which I thought was great, but it wasn't really funny so much as an expression of stress and horror. That's kind of the same place Monica's strip was at. Lexxy actually made a funny strip, though. To put it succinctly, even though Monica's strip was beautiful and life-affirming, that's not the strip they're searching for. They want something more like Lexxy's. The first time Lexxy was eliminated, she produced something that wasn't really a Penny Arcade type strip they wanted to plug into their machine. As I've said before, it was more newspaper funny (tame), not the sort of humor Penny Arcade goes for. They thought it was wonderful and had potential in another format (a book), but it wasn't the strip they were searching for and they handed it back rather than burning it. With Monica, they likewise thought it was wonderful, and couldn't bring themselves to scan it in, drag it to the trash, and then drag the computer to the trash, but it wasn't the strip they were searching for because it wasn't really a joke.
Perhaps a big successful comic artist in a more serious vein of work will someday create a reality web show like Strip Search where more serious and long comics will be appreciated over shorter gag strips. It can be judged on art and emotional impact instead of humor. But Penny Arcade is definitely about the comedy and I think that's a reasonable thing to judge the strippers on, even if they weren't explicitly told they had to be funny to win.
(You just say the letters)
Lexxy's comic was very well done, much like the last one. Excellent art, amusing writing, and a strong final panel, although I think her clown strip was a bit more funny.
Lexxy's comment about the lower level of competition was a little arrogant and cruel, though not malicious.