• Brannigan (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    The first XKCDs are the author trying to score a head from his girlfriend with pseudo-romantic emo doodles.

    The 1.5 isn't so bad, but my comic is STILL better.

    Seriously, these are really funny. Badly drawn, but you got a great sense of comic timing that's really difficult to put over in a comic. Start a blog with them in!

  • Jim Leonard (unregistered)

    While I hate to rag on a new comic as it is finding its place in the world, I wasn't happy to see Magneto combined with the finger-crushing character from Kids In The Hall.

  • Barf 4 Eva (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    The first XKCDs are the author trying to score a head from his girlfriend with pseudo-romantic emo doodles.

    The 1.5 isn't so bad, but my comic is STILL better. [image]

    actually liked your other ones a lot, but this one left a good deal to be desired... I thought MFD was funnier yet.

  • GotMilk (unregistered) in reply to ObiWayneKenobi
    This one sucked. Try harder next time.
    Not lost on my dirty little mind...
  • Barf 4 Eva (unregistered) in reply to Barf 4 Eva

    oops... forgot to add, your last comic strip with the vb dev shooting blood out his orifices was TOO FKN FUNNY!!!! keep em coming!!

  • (cs) in reply to Thomas Clark
    Thomas Clark:
    I think what is keeping your strip from appealing to a broader audience is the age group that it seems to represent. Your characters and the sophistication of your humor seem to reflect the humor and interests of someone about 20-25. Now, I've never seen any statistics for readership, but I can imagine that most people who read the Daily WTF are older than that, and probably salty, seasoned industry professionals trying to get to the end of a Friday. Here is what I humbly suggest to appeal to a wider audience:

    How to make a "WTF" on the rocks (web comic cocktail) -1 part Dilbert - for cynical irony -2 parts On The Fast Track - for clever puns -1 part Non-Sequitor - to compliment the flavor of the Dilbert -1 part cultural references - because television shows like "Family Guy" are able to stay afloat on these alone -1 part Doonesbury - remove political seeds first, ensuring witty dialog is not squished and bruised -1 part ideas you steal from www.XKCD.com or www.slashdot.com -some ice cubes (to make it just the right temperature)

    This cocktail will have the same taste and flavor of the well know Alex WTF columns, but will have a more graphic taste.

    Crush and combine in a tumbler. Serve shaken, not stirred. (see! there's a cultural reference now)

    Now, THAT made me laugh. And it contains quite a bit of ingenuity. I can't say either for today's comic.

  • (cs) in reply to Stewart Johnson
    Stewart Johnson:
    These comics are not funny. They are sh!t.

    I've commented on all of them so far to say that I don't want them in the feed for DailyWTF, but now I'm unsubscribing.

    Alex, you're probably thinking, "I'm not seeing a drop in my traffic" but I was subscribed using Google Reader which caches, so you won't notice the direct traffic. But know that you are definitely losing readership because of this poor decision to feature a crap comic.

    You apparently missed this post, which fits you to a T:

    [image]

    So yeah, go ahead and get outraged, moron.

  • (cs) in reply to Thomas Clark
    Thomas Clark:
    You should be more comprehensive in your surveys before you publish your analysis.
    It's not clear which 'you' or what analysis you refer to... I don't see any analysis from anybody between this and your previous post. Also you didn't seem to be referencing xkcd in the previous post except by suggesting that jokes be stolen from it, so I don't really understand how the rest of your post ties in either, unless you think that those particular jokes should be stolen. Could you explain?
  • FeepingCreature (unregistered)
    [image]

    .. Well, how did you think he'd crush a soul?

    Rigorous enforcement of the same pointless, boring set of rules and guidelines over and over and over again? Pleeeze. As if that'd work.

  • Your Name (unregistered)

    How about we just disable comments on Mandatory Fun Day for a while? The people that get a small chuckle will just continue on with their lives, and the whiners will only complain loudly, to seem like a majority.

    Also, I would like to see IP bans for those regions that seem to consistently not get sarcasm. But that's a whole other story.

  • (cs)

    Can you make an RSS feed for just MFD?

  • Tom Woolf (unregistered)

    Keep up the comics. I did like you comment on the way the boss dressed - it was not an explanation of the comment, but a passing reference to it, similar to what xkcd does with the mouse-over.

  • dbs (unregistered)

    Please, for the love of god, stop forcing this crap on the folks who are coming to TheDailyWTF to read STORIES. Either separate out a feed for the stories, or take this assinine comics out of the main feed.

    They're not funny. They're enot relevant to the site content. They do not belong on TheDailyWTF, but if you insist on including htem, at least give your readers an opt out.

  • anonymous (unregistered) in reply to that guy
    that guy:
    Will:
    Get rid of the crap cartoons and concentrate on publishing funny stories. The only WTF here is someone thinks these are good enough to publish

    A peek into "Will"'s day-to-day life ...

    ... wonderful cartoon removed ...

    The Real WTF(TM) is, of course, how MS paint can't pick a pallate for GIF files. Or maybe it's that I use MS Paint.

    Cool drawing. Particularly like the arms ;-)

  • bb (unregistered) in reply to onckelinx

    I can't care less if you keep wasting your time on your comic as I can easily avoid to read them in the future but I felt like voicing my opinion anyway.

    The drawing is ugly and the story are simply not funny. period.

    Good job, for the rest of the website though. I'll keep reading if you keep posting amusing stories and wtf! code samples.

  • YAYitsAndrew (unregistered)

    This is why the Comic Book Guy character from the simpsons is always saying Worst something Ever. It's an accurate portrayal of 95% of the comments here. You nerds will mystery-science-theatre anything you can if you think you know better.

    This comic was highly enjoyable. There's even some nice detail in it, like the cubicles are set up like a maze and there's a minotaur in it carrying an ax. This was the best comic yet.

    I suggest you start disabling comments, however. Most people have absolutely no experience with web comics outside of reading them, and you shouldn't be taking advice from self-proclaimed experts. No one here knows any better than you do, and it's your web comic, so you do with it what you want. The audience finds you.

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to Your Name
    Your Name:
    How about we just disable comments on Mandatory Fun Day for a while? The people that get a small chuckle will just continue on with their lives, and the whiners will only complain loudly, to seem like a majority.

    Also, I would like to see IP bans for those regions that seem to consistently not get sarcasm. But that's a whole other story.

    I must admit it, you hypocrites are damn funny. You go from saying that people who criticize the comic don't need to read it to saying that they should be banned, while you yourself can't ignore the comments you don't like.

    The door swings both ways.

  • JustAThought (unregistered) in reply to NSCoder

    yeah, i'm curious if the kids in the hall joke was intentional... and that guy's outfit takes me back to the days of ninja turtles

  • sweavo (unregistered) in reply to that guy
    that guy:
    Will:
    Get rid of the crap cartoons and concentrate on publishing funny stories. The only WTF here is someone thinks these are good enough to publish

    A peek into "Will"'s day-to-day life ...

    [image]

    The Real WTF(TM) is, of course, how MS paint can't pick a pallate for GIF files. Or maybe it's that I use MS Paint.

    It has satire, cruelty, and parody. Win.

  • (cs) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    The first XKCDs are the author trying to score a head from his girlfriend with pseudo-romantic emo doodles.

    The 1.5 isn't so bad, but my comic is STILL better. [image]

    You need to flip the setting, put the demon-guy on the right. We should read "Are you gay?" before we read "Bi", not after. It detracts from the joke to have to mentally reorder the conversation.

  • damn (unregistered)

    Stop it PLEASE.

    The comic sucks!

  • (cs) in reply to dbs
    dbs:
    Please, for the love of god, stop forcing this crap on the folks who are coming to TheDailyWTF
    "Forcing"! Roffle-mayo (pointing at dbs)
  • (cs) in reply to YAYitsAndrew
    Your Name:
    How about we just disable comments on Mandatory Fun Day for a while?
    YAYitsAndrew:
    I suggest you start disabling comments, however.
    Nope. Bad idea, for reasons to blatant to bother enumerating.
    Your Name:
    Also, I would like to see IP bans for those regions that seem to consistently not get sarcasm.
    No. We like having them here so we can make fun of them. It's part of what keeps this a happenin' place.
  • Jobmurmur (unregistered)

    The 4th panel, the one with the punchline, is missing!

  • (cs) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    The first XKCDs are the author trying to score a head from his girlfriend with pseudo-romantic emo doodles.

    The 1.5 isn't so bad, but my comic is STILL better. [image]

    Can we start posting these on the front page

    It's the same joke with the same sense of humor just 10000x funnier

  • (cs)

    Is that rat in the maze holding an axe or a hammer? I can't tell.

    Does it matter? - sure it does.

  • HG (unregistered)

    You really suck at this.

    What did we ever do to you to deserve this?

    Please stoppppppp!

  • The Piper (unregistered) in reply to not bhousel
    not bhousel:
    bhousel:
    Is there a way to remove Mandatory Fun Day from the site's rss feed? That's usually how I read it..

    what he said.

    http://pipes.yahoo.com/madpiper/dailywtf?_render=rss

  • Darth Mainer (unregistered)

    You are an imbecile. Take this shit out of the RSS feed.

  • dontmatter (unregistered)

    PLEASE STOP IDIOTIC CARTOONS!

  • (cs) in reply to Darth Mainer
    [image]
    HG:
    You really suck at this.

    What did we ever do to you to deserve this?

    Please stoppppppp!

    Darth Mainer:
    You are an imbecile. Take this shit out of the RSS feed.

  • big ears (unregistered)

    Nice cubicles. One day it might be 25% as good as Dilbert. A shame it won't be different; just inferior.

  • Siegfried von Schtauffen (unregistered) in reply to kipthegreat
    kipthegreat:
    Can you make an RSS feed for just MFD?

    Yes! Followed immediately by an RSS feed for just NOT mfd.

  • (cs)

    I like how it is apparently not cool to make fun of this on a site that exists purely to poke fun and laugh at substandard work. Way to go!

    I have indeed just been groaning at these and moving on, but this one made me groan loudly. I think it was the one-word-flipped punchline directly stolen from Kids in the Hall mixed with the setup panels that existed purely to justify this as a "computing joke".

    The buffet analogy is amusing but not completely apt. The truth is that it is official DailyWTF content, and lowers the overall content quality of the site. If a buffet started including more and more rancid meat in their offerings, you would indeed stop showing up.

    Comedy is a funny thing, and it does indeed take a while to work the kinks out and develop your own personal style and ability to know what is funny or will get a reaction.

    This is the standup comedy equivelent of going on the tonight show, telling a bunch of cliche and hack jokes, and then apologizing about how you are new at it. The audience groans, a few people may laugh (who haven't heard the jokes a thousand times already) and the comedian bombs.

    The fault lies not with comedian (or in this case, the webcomic author) but with the people who should have known better then to put them in the spotlight before it was their time.

  • D. T. North (unregistered) in reply to Will
    Will:
    Get rid of the crap cartoons and concentrate on publishing funny stories. The only WTF here is someone thinks these are good enough to publish

    Agree. Kill the cartoon. Not funny, and it brings down the site.

  • MW (unregistered)

    Having absolutely no experience with comic strips before in my life I can still honestly say without any hesitation or hint of sarcasm that I guarantee I could write a better comic strip given 10 minutes.

    It has nothing to do with simplicity of content, it's just that some people have a natural flair towards comedy (especially observational workplace humour)...s/he's the funny guy in the office (no, not the loudmouth who thinks he's funny, it's the quieter one who knows when to carefully place his witty aside).

    To all the people saying that we should give it a chance to improve, do you honestly think it's going to improve to a level that is even remotely funny? This comic shows absolutely NO promise whatsoever. None. Squat. Zero.

    Please quit while you have some incredibly small shred of dignity left because it's shrinking faster than my little-man-pirate in an ice cold pool.

  • Martin (unregistered) in reply to MW
    MW:
    To all the people saying that we should give it a chance to improve, do you honestly think it's going to improve to a level that is even remotely funny? This comic shows absolutely NO promise whatsoever. None. Squat. Zero.
    Honestly? I do. As a rule of tumb, the best way to publish a webcomic is by uploading about 10-15 strips at once, to set the story in motion. Just choose any comic (Penny Arcade, Applegeeks, Dilbert, XKCD, UserFriendly, whatever) and compare their first and last strips.
  • YAYitsAndrew (unregistered) in reply to MW

    This website should hold a contest where you write a webcomic strip as your entry so that everyone can see how unfunny they actually are when they aren't surrounded by their friends.

  • ~ (unregistered) in reply to repeater
    repeater:
    The buffet analogy is amusing but not completely apt. The truth is that it is official DailyWTF content, and lowers the overall content quality of the site. If a buffet started including more and more rancid meat in their offerings, you would indeed stop showing up.

    The other reason the buffet analogy fails miserably is because you get an option to eat whatever you want at a buffet. On The Daily WTF, Alex is literally sticking a gun to your head and forcing you to read every article that comes up. There is absolutely no way that anyone can bypass it in an RSS reader (that dastardly Alex made sure to disable the "next item" button on every reader) and you can't possibly skip it on the page (he even disabled "scroll bars").

    Oh, and you're right, this is exactly like rancid meat. Obviously, it is unsafe to view and not a single person likes it. Not even the site owner.

    My God people -- you are complaining about getting something extra (a comic) for free, on top of getting everything else for free (the website). What's the Real WTF here?

  • ~ (unregistered) in reply to MW
    MW:
    Having absolutely no experience with comic strips before in my life I can still honestly say without any hesitation or hint of sarcasm that I guarantee I could write a better comic strip given 10 minutes.

    It has nothing to do with simplicity of content, it's just that some people have a natural flair towards comedy...

    Please quit while you have some incredibly small shred of dignity left because it's shrinking faster than my little-man-pirate in an ice cold pool.

    Please warn us before unleashing your comedic gold!! My God, I almost ruptured my hernia laughing over your amazingly clever and completely original analogy. It was funny on so many levels, and then so many levels on top of that.

    MW, you are exactly the reason that people should be licensed to practice comedy. Really, please be careful in the future before writing such (literally) side-splittingly witty comments; the unexpecting masses could get injured!!!!

  • bhousel (unregistered) in reply to The Piper

    nice! thanks madpiper!!

  • (cs) in reply to Martin
    Martin:
    MW:
    To all the people saying that we should give it a chance to improve, do you honestly think it's going to improve to a level that is even remotely funny? This comic shows absolutely NO promise whatsoever. None. Squat. Zero.
    Honestly? I do. As a rule of tumb, the best way to publish a webcomic is by uploading about 10-15 strips at once, to set the story in motion. Just choose any comic (Penny Arcade, Applegeeks, Dilbert, XKCD, UserFriendly, whatever) and compare their first and last strips.

    Right, and in your example all of these comics started out being published somewhere with a huge readership right from the first strip, correct?

    Like I said earlier, I understand the need to let a writer stretch his/her legs and find their style and gain an audience. This is how anything creative works - from music to comedy to programming. You put out a ton of horrible work at first (or just keep it to yourself) - and by the time your audience find you those initial attempts are something everyone can look back on and chuckle at in amusement over how much it has grown and matured.

    Going through that process in prime time, however, sucks for the author (who is going to get ripped apart for it), the publisher (who is forced to either defend the content or throw the author to the wolves) and the readers (who have to put up with the whole mess).

    ~:
    repeater:
    The buffet analogy is amusing but not completely apt. The truth is that it is official DailyWTF content, and lowers the overall content quality of the site. If a buffet started including more and more rancid meat in their offerings, you would indeed stop showing up.

    The other reason the buffet analogy fails miserably is because you get an option to eat whatever you want at a buffet. On The Daily WTF, Alex is literally sticking a gun to your head and forcing you to read every article that comes up. There is absolutely no way that anyone can bypass it in an RSS reader (that dastardly Alex made sure to disable the "next item" button on every reader) and you can't possibly skip it on the page (he even disabled "scroll bars").

    Oh, and you're right, this is exactly like rancid meat. Obviously, it is unsafe to view and not a single person likes it. Not even the site owner.

    My God people -- you are complaining about getting something extra (a comic) for free, on top of getting everything else for free (the website). What's the Real WTF here?

    Good job burning me for that small quip and completely ignoring the point I was making and all my other talking points. I feel like I explained myself fairly well and wasn't attacking anyone, and if I am completely wrong here tell me why with an actual response.

    Not sure how to respond here. Seems like you just wanted to yell at those of us who don't like it, and explain to us how we have no right to state our opinions on the matter and are ungreatful jerks for doing so.

    The ol' "shut up and don't read it, nobody has a gun to your head" thing is pretty well-worn territory. Welcome to the internet, friend!

  • Anonymous Coward (unregistered)

    This one was crap. Liked the others, though. Don't lose heart with all the negativism, your style will adapt. And don't lose the comic! It has potential. Or something.

    I'll be back Arnie

  • (cs)

    I thought the fun was supposed to be mandatory.

    It's been disappointingly lacking so far.

    Cliched, derivative, unimaginative, unoriginal, unfunny. The jokes have been done before many times, from Dilbert to Office Space to The IT Crowd to Everybody Loves Eric Raymond; the situations are predictable, and the characters' responses stereotypical.

    I like the art, though; it's simple, plain line-art style, it's /your/ style, personal and individualistic, and I think it's fine to get started with and have no doubt it'll settle into a comfortable style as you get up to speed. But the scripts /aren't/ yours: they're everyone else's who's ever written on the subject, perhaps because you're trying to hard to look the part, to write what you think a comic about working in the computer biz /ought/ to be like. Relax, spend some time thinking about your characters as people, let them develop the stories how they will rather than treating them as playing-pieces to shove into positions for a set-piece joke, and hopefully the fun will follow of its own accord.

    I'll still be reading these for at least a while yet, hoping you get into your stride as the strip progresses. Good luck :)

  • Geckofiend (unregistered)

    Seriously please either drop the comic or start a new RSS feed just for it.

  • Geckofiend (unregistered)

    Seriously please either drop the comic or start a new RSS feed just for it.

  • (cs) in reply to Tim B
    Tim B:
    Publius:
    The pro-comic people's argument of "if you don't like it, don't read it" is pretty bogus.

    Then, two sentences later...

    Publius:
    We have every right to use our collective will to expel that which does not belong.

    Pot, meet kettle.

    I think you need to go look up what a PKB actually is. Those two sentences support each other.

  • (cs) in reply to DaveK
    DaveK:

    Cliched, derivative, unimaginative, unoriginal, unfunny. The jokes have been done before many times, from Dilbert to Office Space to The IT Crowd to Everybody Loves Eric Raymond; the situations are predictable, and the characters' responses stereotypical.

    ...

    I'll still be reading these for at least a while yet, hoping you get into your stride as the strip progresses. Good luck :)

    Very well put, and you said what I was trying to say a lot better than I did. There is a lot of promise here (I really really enjoyed the first strip, it was unique, interesting and made me smile) - and I don't want the author to give up at all.

    There really is no way to avoid writing hack when you start. EVERYONE goes through this, and you really have no choice but to burn through it and get every last drop out of your system before moving on to find your voice.

    The problem is that he will forever be known as "the guy with that bad comic from DailyWTF" instead of "the guy that came out of nowhere with an awesome comic, and hey look how this thing has progressed since it started".

    Move it off-site, I and others will surely keep an eye on it. The issue here is the venue, not the author.

  • Steve (unregistered)

    Why does this comic seem to be turning into a less funny version of Dilbert with better artwork?

  • ferd (unregistered)

    Hey good job stealing a joke from kids in the hall

    This is like dilbert but somehow shittier

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