[GeoLeo]

This is a pretty funny comic http://www.applexnet.com/node/524 pitting Zune against the Nano.

[dcmacdaddy]

SPAM!

Reported.

[GeoLeo]

Um.... so I guess you didn't find it funny?

[Oneota]

Sorry. Not funny.

[production_coordinator]

Not all that great®

[GeoLeo]

Can any of you explain WHY it's not funny and or not "that great?"

[moonmonkey]

There is no joke, what's funny about it?

[xi_hyperon]

I did not lol.

[Big Mac]

It's up now, and I thought it was cute. How do you know the author is definitely a spammer?

[ort888]

Art B
Funny D-

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

It's up now

Now that's funny.

greg

[imitchellg5]

That's dumb©.

[Chuckit]

I…don't get it. So, she doesn't like the Zune and she likes the Nano. What am I supposed to be laughing at?

[itai195]

I don't get it either... but I think that chick is a guy

[Gossamer]

It's funnay because it bashes "Micro-suck"

HAHAHA

[Rumor]

I would have laughed, but I think I left my humor at home.

[olePigeon]

That was about as funny as Family Circus.

[mac128k-1984]

Seemed kinda of lame to me.

[Kerrigan]

It was actually so lame that I chuckled. There, are you happy GeoLeo?

Also the idea that a piece of "crap" can "squirt" (j!zz) on a woman is funny in a horrible way.

Lastly, kudos for not falling back onto lesbian stereotypes in the depiction of their encounter.

[Kerrigan]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

It's up now, and I thought it was cute. How do you know the author is definitely a spammer?

He's not a spammer as such, he just drew this comic and wants us to see it. The connection is quite obvious: GeoMacManiac = GeoLeo

Another of his comics:

[Salty]

The drawings aren't that bad. The problem is they're not really witty. The last one plays off the fact that there's a brown zune, so they compare it to crap. It's not... I dono it just isn't funny, it just is.

Actually honestly who the heck calls a woman purdy chica? And how many girls do you know that actually use the term wifi?

[mitchell_pgh]

I think the drawings are actually rather good... but there just isn't any steak... just sizzle.

[Peter]

wow he really hates microsoft.

[ort888]

For some reason his strips remind me of Chick Tracks. Expect replace Jesus with an iPod and Satan with Microsoft.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

It's up now, and I thought it was cute. How do you know the author is definitely a spammer?

Uhm, ok, let me see.

1) Just registered this month.
2) First time post with link to own website
3) No other posts outside this thread

Yeah, I have no idea why anyone would think this is spam

-t

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally Posted by what_the_heck 

Uhm, ok, let me see.

1) Just registered this month.
2) First time post with link to own website
3) No other posts outside this thread

Yeah, I have no idea why anyone would think this is spam

-t

I must agree...

[GeoLeo]

Fare enough. I appreciate your responses.

Kudos to Kerrigan for doing the research and finding out that, yes, I am the author.

I'm not doing this for money. Just fun and maybe it's spam, but I am not going around and posting in a bunch of forums. I chose this one just to get some reaction. And yes, I really hate Microsoft.

These comics are a hobby. If you're up on current Apple tech news, then you should get the punch line. Maybe my sense of humor is not common, but I'm not doing this for everyone. Mostly myself. I thought fellow Mac users would find them interesting and amusing.

Perhaps this one might be more your style? It's as basic as it gets. Casting Votes | AppleX Net

[Paco500]

I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but really not that funny. Any of them.

The dog poop one was a bit like a not very funny political cartoon. Or very insightful.

Nice drawing style. Perhaps you should solicit a writing partner and illustrate their ideas.

[vmarks]

a) there was no research needed to see that you're the author. It's plainly obvious.

b) this is the problem with your humor: It is likewise dead obvious. You don't make the reader think, you don't make the reader relate, you don't make offer the reader an opportunity to laugh at you, or at himself.

It isn't that your sense of humor isn't common, it's that it was dead on arrival. Deceased. Not mostly dead, but really very sincerely dead.

What's more sad than you having no sense of humor whatsoever, is that you inflicted it on the rest of the world as well.

Developing a great sense of humor is a commitment.

You took the time to learn to draw, now you must take the time to learn to be write humor. In order to do that, you have to learn to be funny.

On your iPod / Zune and girl comics: Blue humor is a comedy-cop out. It’s too easy to tell a sex joke. Leave that style of humor to the lazy and less inspired. Unless your name is Bill Cosby (and he doesn't tell them anymore) or Richard Pryor (and he also doesn't tell them anymore, because he's deceased. Of course, some would say the same for the Cos, these days...) don't do it. You won't pull it off.

Understand what makes humor tick. Humor is primarily about surprise and relationships. One of the basic principles of telling a joke is keeping the punchline and punchword disguised until the end of the joke. The punchword is the word that triggers the laugh. Ideally it should be the last word you say. And the element of surprise is the reason it’s best not to say: Here’s something funny that happened to me on the way over here. That’s called telegraphing the joke, and it works against you. -- Humor Power � Blog Archive � 10 Ways To Make Your Boss Laugh

Your dog and Zune four panel telegraphed the joke way ahead of time. It's brown. Six hours later. We had the joke at the first or second panel, and it was bad then.

Also a critical concept of humor is relationships. A good joke or cartoon is almost always a connection of two previously unrelated thoughts. I arrived early before a speech and noticed two signs over the exit door in the back of the room. The signs were not related, but posted one above the other. The lower sign said “Capacity 475″ and the upper sign said “Restrooms”… In my opening remarks I observed that the SIGN over the back door said “Restrooms capacity 475…I guess that means there’s no waiting.” It got a big laugh. The humor connected two previously unrelated signs. Get into the habit of looking for connections and relationships. It’s the number one skill for creating your own humor. For more insights on what really makes humor tick: Being Funny On Purpose--Developing Original Humor For Your Talk

Go to toastmasters.org. Learning to tell speeches often involves learning to tell jokes, learning to be spontaneous, learning to relax. It will help your humor.

Humor is about surprise and relationships between unrelated things. It's about being disarming and poking fun at yourself. It's about smiling and getting people to smile with you instead of thinking you're weird for smiling.

Now, I've been harsh and cruel to you here. That's my scathing sarcastic sense of humor sneaking out, and it may well be called being a humorless jerk.

But I have suggested how you can fix this. It's going to take work. Go to comedy clubs at every opportunity and take notes. Study the content of the joke, the surprise, and the relationship involved in it.

[Gossamer]

Originally Posted by GeoLeo 

These comics are a hobby. If you're up on current Apple tech news, then you should get the punch line. Maybe my sense of humor is not common, but I'm not doing this for everyone. Mostly myself. I thought fellow Mac users would find them interesting and amusing.

Perhaps this one might be more your style? It's as basic as it gets. Casting Votes | AppleX Net

Everybody understands the joke, but it's just too obvious and lame to be funny. The entire joke is that Microsoft sucks. Not that funny.

[GeoLeo]

Vmarks,

Thanks for an honest, well-thought response.

Yes, perhaph you all are right.
I will work on the humor.

[kmkkid]

I sort of liked the dog one. It made me giggle for a second.

[Kerrigan]

The dog one should have gone like this:

A man in a "stem cell research" t-shirt pats the dog on the head and gives him a little biscuit

The dog starts sweating, jumping around, and yelling "wooooo!"

His stomach bursts open and partially formed, little brown Balmer clones come flying out, a la Alien.

[sek929]

Then they all start chanting "developers! developers! developers!"

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by sek929 

Then they all start chanting "developers! developers! developers!"

Now, that would have been funny.

[Kerrigan]

Well there you have it: draw it for us GeoLeo.

except we need to somehow remove the digression that occurs from "developers developers" back to "woooo"

[Todd Madson]

The art is great, now the humor just needs a little amping up.

I did like it when the girl called it a "brown piece of crap" though.

[SirCastor]

Humor is essentially absurdity from the normal situation. We have paradigms of our world that are 'normal' to us. When that normalcy is broken by such a wide gap (absurdity) and it's not inherently threatening, it's funny.

The Capactity 475 restroom example is excellent. Both the "capacity 475" and the bathroom exist in normal conditions, but only under the absurdity of viewing them together does the joke take place.

There was also mention about blue humor. Toilet humor, whatever you want to call it. The reason that The Simpsons (early on, we've become accustomed to it now), South Park, and the Family Guy have such wide appeal is that they aim their humor at the lowest common denomenator. Every 3rd grader gets fart jokes. They can always count on a laugh from the witless audience which buys into it. They also can play on their "that's them over there, we can make fun of them" option. Everyone can laugh at the gay people except the gays, everyone can laugh at the conservative christians except the conservative christians, everyone can laugh at etc etc.

Good humor, In my opinion, plays on the Greatest common denomenator. I cite Bill Cosby in his album "himself". Everyone has been to the dentist and can associate with the 'normalcy' of it. Then Cosby points out how really absurd it is. Another example is Jerry Seinfeld. Everyone sees the normalcy in his Life, and he takes time to point out how absurd some things are. That was the basis of his show.

So find the highest, not the lowest, commonality in people's lives (in your case the Mac community) and play off that.

[The Godfather]

I like the art, personally

I RSS'd it.

[Tuoder]

Originally Posted by xi_hyperon 

I did not lol.

http://homepage.mac.com/cdlogan/.Pictures/tehfunny.png

^
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Funny!

The cartoons are not.

[- - e r i k - -]

Art is awesome. Get a writer.

[Jawbone54]

The longer I stayed to read this thread, the more I hated myself.

I'm going to go eat some Doritos now.

[drnkn_stylz]

That comic was weak sauce.

[Gamoe]

Well, I see we've suddenly got a lot of humor experts here. How funny (pun intended). Anyway, GeoLeo, good artwork! What others have said (though I would have said it in a nicer way) is true, however.

You should work on your humor. I also found it a little crude for my tastes. Sometimes you can insinuate something without actually showing it- still making your meaning clear, but avoiding unnecessary crudeness that might turn off some potential readers. Of course, that's all up to you. Some people like their humor lewd and crude. I tend not to. At least for comics, that is.

Don't let people turn you off from making your comics, though. I'm fond of the Joy of Tech comics myself. It's not crude, but gets it's message across just fine. Sometimes it makes me laugh, but almost always it makes me smile, at least. The authors also use the comic to make some social/moral/semi-political comments which I like, so there's meat to them, too, beyond just a joke.

[- - e r i k - -]

Originally Posted by Gabriel Morales 

Well, I see we've suddenly got a lot of humor experts here. How funny (pun intended).

How ironic, that's not a pun.

[Gamoe]

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - - 

How ironic, that's not a pun.

It's a pretty weak/bad pun, I admit, but if you take funny to mean both "odd" as well as "comical" then it does serve as one.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Gabriel Morales 

It's a pretty weak/bad pun, I admit, but if you take funny to mean both "odd" as well as "comical" then it does serve as one.

Yep, puns that need an explanation are bad by definition.

-t

[Gamoe]

Originally Posted by what_the_heck 

Yep, puns that need an explanation are bad by definition.

<Insert shrug emoticon.>

[ort888]

Originally Posted by SirCastor 

Toilet humor, whatever you want to call it. The reason that The Simpsons (early on, we've become accustomed to it now), South Park, and the Family Guy have such wide appeal is that they aim their humor at the lowest common denomenator. Every 3rd grader gets fart jokes. They can always count on a laugh from the witless audience which buys into it.

You haven't watched enough South Park or Simpsons if you think it's simple toilet humor aimed at the lowest common denominator.