The Comics Curmudgeon: Difference between revisions
Rescuing 1 sources and tagging 0 as dead.) #IABot (v2.0.8.2
m (Dai-Guard moved page The Comics Curmudgeon (Blog) to The Comics Curmudgeon over redirect: Remove TVT Namespaces from title) |
(Rescuing 1 sources and tagging 0 as dead.) #IABot (v2.0.8.2) |
||
| (8 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{work}}
A blog started by Josh Fruhlinger in July 2004, under its original title, ''I Read The Comics So You Don't Have To'' (a Boston-area newspaper that featured a similarly-titled column forced the name change). In it, Josh selects several [[Newspaper Comics|newspaper comic strips]] every day and offers (usually sarcastic) commentary on them. Over time, the blog has developed a great deal of media attention as the authors of many comics have discovered it. Some comic artists or writers are even fans of the blog, including Chris Browne (''[[Hagar the Horrible]]''), Mark Tatulli (''Lio'', ''Heart of the City''), Francesco Marciuliano (''[[Sally Forth
Josh has also developed a great deal of [[Running Gag
Read it [http://www.joshreads.com/ here].
----
{{tropenamer}}
* [[Nephewism]]
{{tropelist}}
* [[Alternative Character Interpretation]]: Much of the blog is based on this.
** His application of plothole logic to ''[[Slylock Fox]]'' can easily make you unable to see it as anything other than a hell dimension populated by poor souls cursed to be animals for all eternity, constantly under surveillance and presumed to be guilty of all accused crimes.
** [[Marmaduke]] is a ravenous, uncontrollable hellhound who regularly consumes his "owner"'s neighbors and buries their stripped bones in the back yard.
Line 19 ⟶ 21:
* [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick]]: "Marmaduke's owner can't get the dog to stay off the furniture, stop digging up the yard, or refrain from eating the neighbors"
* [[Caustic Critic]]: Josh can be this at times, especially to strips that he dislikes, though he's generally more sarcastic and jovial than outright hostile. Except for the one and only time he discussed political cartoons.
** Josh can get pretty hostile about strips he wants to see end, ''Crock'', ''[[Marvin (comic strip)|Marvin]]'', and ''[[Luann]]'' being among the hardest hit. Generally, though, he just mocks the on-going nature of long-running strips, often citing them as horribly out of touch with modern times (such as ''Crock'''s belief that kids these days "swap iTunes" as a sign of commitment).
*** He has come to genuinely and openly hate ''[[Funky Winkerbean]]''. Considering he had been ''impressed'' by the writer's willingness to go through with depicting Lisa's death from cancer, this should say something about the direction the strip has taken since then.
** Subverted by ''[[Mallard Fillmore]]''. He hates it, but has only talked about it once. Plus, mentioning it on his blog is a bannable offense.
Line 28 ⟶ 30:
* [[Child Eater]]: ''[[Marmaduke]]''
* [[Dissimile]]: His quip about ''The Family Circus'' [http://joshreads.com/?p=10713 here]:
{{quote|
* [[Don't Explain the Joke]]: Parodied. Josh often explains the punchline of a comic in the most outlandish and unfiltered manner possible.
* [[Fan Fiction]]: There was a post about a joke in ''Hi and Lois'' when one of the kids misunderstands a metaphor, and assumes that Beethoven was buried alive. [
* [[Fan Nickname]]: Many, many characters that catch either Josh or the readership's eyes have earned these, though for the sake of length, we'll spare listing them all here - check the pages for those strips however.
* [[Fetish Retardant]]: In-universe, Josh has noted that he's never turned on by highly sexualized female characters such as June Morgan or Blondie, yet is [[Perverse Sexual Lust|head-over-heels in love with]] Margo McGee. Part of it is his well documented love of strong, take-charge women.
* [[Fridge Brilliance]]: Josh has had some of this with a few comic strips.
* [[Furry Confusion]]: Josh notes that a dog plugger owning a pet dog is confusing. He says "Pluggers don't have health insurance, so they take their kids to the vet"
* [[Furry Fandom]]: Mocks this in ''[[
* [[Happily Married]]: Josh and his wife Amber make an incredibly cute couple. Seriously, whenever he mentions her in one of his Sunday metaposts it's always written with a tone of "Look how freaking awesome my wife is" glee. In his defense, Amber is pretty kickass.
* [[Ho Yay]]: Josh points this out about ''[[Beetle Bailey]]'' and Sarge.
Line 41 ⟶ 43:
** And ''Herb and Jamaal''.
* [[Human Mail]]: Josh [http://joshreads.com/?p=1555 interprets] a silly ''[[Hi and Lois]]'' strip this way.
* [[Hypocrisy Nod]]: Often, Josh complains heartily about some aspect of a comic, only to turn around and demand that the very next strip include more of what he disliked about the first comic. He always [[
* [[Insane Troll Logic]]: Josh writes some of his own for a ''[[Dennis the Menace US|Dennis the Menace]]'' riff. He says that Dennis hates baseball, America's favorite pastime. Therefore, he hates America, and is a terrorist/fascist/commie.
* [[Memetic Badass]]: In-universe, Mark Trail, Margo Magee, and Mary Worth when a '''peon''' interferes with her meddling.
* [[Memetic Molester]]: In-universe, Rex Morgan.
* [[Memetic Sex God|Memetic Sex Goddess]] / [[Ms. Fanservice]]: [[Slylock Fox
** [[Mark Trail|Kelly Welly]] as well.
** A [[Memetic Sex God]] is Buford Bull, who's dating Cassandra Cat.
Line 53 ⟶ 55:
* [[Perverse Sexual Lust]]: Josh has it for Margo McGee.
* [[Precision F-Strike]]
{{quote|
'''Josh:''' You sure got that right, you little fucker.
* [[Promoted Fanboy]]: Josh's constant riffing on newspaper ''[[Spider
* [[Rule 34]]: He found one of Cassandra Cat on someone else's blog and posted it to his own. It later got taken down from both blogs, at Bob Weber, Jr.'s request<ref>though the pic is easy to find, if you know where to look</ref>.
* [[Running Gag]]: Beyond all the [[Memetic Mutation]], other recurring gags include:
Line 66 ⟶ 68:
*** And those two being "on the down-low." You know what I'm talking about.
** ''[[Marmaduke]]'' being a demonspawned hellhound who can't stop killing and eating people, and his owner being Adolf Hitler.
** ''[[Marvin (comic strip)|Marvin]]'''s obsession with [[Toilet Humor]].
** ''[[Mary Worth]]'''s obsession with sanctimonious meddling (although that one is more or less canon).
** ''[[Archie]]'' being written by a sterile computer, the ''Archie Joke-Generating Laugh Unit 3000'', that "almost, but doesn't quite, understand humor."
** ''[[Mark Trail]]'' solving most of his problems by [[When All You Have Is a Hammer|punching bearded hillbillies]].
*** As well his [[Asexuality]]
*** Don't forget the abominations that are <s> Rusty's attempts at expressing emotion </s> the author's attempts to draw Rusty as something more resembling a human boy than some sort of hellspawn.
*** And all the giant animals running around, and even occasionally speaking.
** ''[[Dick Tracy]]'' is an authoritarian tyrant who believes violence is the solution to everything.
** The romance between Brad and Toni in ''[[Luann]]'' seems to make Josh physically ill. Also, TJ is probably gay.
** ''[[Crankshaft]]'' being a [[Jerkass]]
** Newspaper ''[[Spider
*** Along with jokes about everyone else in the strip being absolute morons.
** In Apartment 3-G, Luann is [[Dumb Blonde|vapid]], Tommie has the personality of cardboard, and Margo Magee is a memetic psychopath who would just as soon snap someone's neck as acknowledge they exist. Of course, no part of that diminishes Josh's [[Perverse Sexual Lust]] for her.
Line 83 ⟶ 85:
** The crazy pervert inbound visitors. See, when someone goes to the site from a search engine result, Josh can see what they searched, and he took to posting some of the most [[The Internet Is for Porn|creepy]] and [[Rule 34|outlandish]] ones for the amusement of readers.
** "Ha! It's funny because [some creepy reason]." The best part is that, for once, he's not extrapolating anything; these are always the intended joke.
** It's gotten to the point that he has a [[Running Gag]] where he wonders if he's overplaying a particular gag, only for a strip to take it to new and disturbing heights.
** The characters of ''[[Judge Parker]]'' being smug dicks, who see no problem with using their money to get whatever they want.
* [[Scunthorpe Problem]]: At one point the comment system's spam filter kept catching posts containing "MILF" . . . and ''Gil Thorp'' takes place in ''Milford''.
* [[Shout
** ''The Jumble'' (whose artist is a regular commenter) has included Josh in a few puzzles, including one where he is put on trial and found guilty by the entire newspaper comics page.
** ''Archie'' occasionally drops references to the AJGLU 3000 into background detail.
** The authors of ''[[Mary Worth]]'' have released "Aldomania" merchandise.
* [[Uncanny Valley]]: [http://joshreads.com/?p=3871 Whatever on Earth Rusty is].
* [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot]]: Josh loves pointing out a) potentially awesome ways the plot could develop and b) how boring the plot actually develops. When it ''does'' turn out awesome, however...
* [[Trope Name]]: [http://joshreads.com/?p=12345 This] entry.
Line 96 ⟶ 98:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:The Comics Curmudgeon]]▼
[[Category:Blog]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
| |||