The Optimist

"The Optimist: The Only Comic On The Internet."

- Page Title

The Optimist is a weekly black & white comic strip of dumb gags, little complainy rants, parodies, designery crap, infographics, fake ads, and bad writing by Tom Pappalardo. The comic was named Whiskey! Tango! Foxtrot! from 2007-2008 (also archived on the site) before a new layout and name change in 2010. Pappalardo is also the author of Broken Lines, an illustrated story/graphic novel. The Optimist runs in The Valley Advocate weekly paper.


 * Amusing Injuries - ouch.
 * Art Evolution
 * Beat Panel - An often-used device in the comic, as seen here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and a double dose here and here.
 * Bland-Name Product - Stabbucks and Monsanta.
 * Character Overlap - The two kids from W!T!F! carried over into The Optimist
 * Comic Book Time
 * Complaining About Complaining
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Death Glare - An angry retail worker
 * Double Entendre - A hot steaming pile of double meanings
 * Eyes Always Shut - The grumpy kid scowled for almost the first two years of the strip.
 * Face Palm - What an incredible joke.
 * Four-Fingered Hands - here, here, and here.
 * Friendless Background - What a loser
 * Homage - A reference to The Family Circus
 * Humans Are the Real Monsters
 * Hypocritical Humor
 * Jerkass
 * Law of Disproportionate Response - Napkins. Grammar correction.
 * Lazy Artist - A single drawing is often reused over several panels w/ slight adjustments, as seen here and here.
 * New Years Resolution - In this comic and in this comic.
 * Political Correctness Gone Mad - In this strip
 * Rubber Hose Limbs - This guy has elbow issues here and here.
 * Self-Deprecation
 * Series Hiatus - Tom Pappalardo published the comic strip Whiskey! Tango! Foxtrot! from 2007-2008, took a year off, and returned in 2010 with a retooled layout & new name.
 * Strip Buffer - Most strips are drawn well in advance of publication, but occasionally semi-topical material is included.
 * Slice of Life
 * Strawman Political - In this comic
 * Take That
 * Unsound Effect - EXPIRE, THROW, GOUGE, FLEX & SWELL, REND & MASTICATE, SUBMIT & REFRESH, FOLD, and this comic and this comic have multiple examples. This comic has a very large unsound effect as a punchline.
 * Unwanted Glasses Plot- The fat kid gets a wrong prescription
 * Vitriolic Best Buds
 * With Friends Like These... - Those two WTF kids with no names.