Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT Strips 3231 - 3235 (30th May to 3rd June 2016)
APersonAmI:
The following quote is only part of Thrillho's comment.
--- Quote from: Thrillho on 31 May 2016, 08:34 ---It's for comic effect.
--- End quote ---
... Okay?
It is entirely possible I am completely missing your point here, but here is my response, regardless.
That doesn't make her behaviour any less real or any less of a subject to politeness norms than any other behaviour in the comic. Comedy is not some everything proof shield, anything said in jest is just as much spoken aloud as any other statement. Comedy is not wearing a Ring of Blinking, it is not some ethereal thing that's only real if you found it funny, and to be treated as if it is not there if you didn't.
A quote sometimes spoken is "nothing is sacred", a statement meant to imply that anything can be subjected to comedy. Okay, but if that premise is true, then comedy isn't sacred, either. If anything can be mocked, so can comedy be mocked. If anything can be wrong, so can comedy be wrong. If anything can be hurtful and mean, so can comedy be hurtful and mean.
What I am saying is, that to my consequentialist mind, saying someone did something wrong "for comedic effect" is kind of like saying someone did something wrong "because it was Wednesday" or "because they were sad". It is possible that it might give some insight into the catalyst for the bad behaviour, but it does not in any way make the behaviour less bad - the action stays the same, regardless of what the perpetrator was feeling at the time.
--- Quote from: pwhodges on 31 May 2016, 10:55 ---Why should he turn away from Brun because she has a mistrustful friend (who isn't even present)? Clinton has already shown that he is better than that.
We don't know what might have happened to either Brun or Renee to cause her to react that defensively, either.
--- End quote ---
True on both counts, and I agree. However, even if she has reasons, that does not make her behaviour reasonable, because her action is the same regardless of whether she has reasons or not.
Neko_Ali:
In this case 'for comic effect' means literally that. It's something that happens because it's a story, specifically a comedy. If everything in every comedy comic, show, movie or book was treated like real life they would be very dull, because many people would be in a lot of trouble for doing the things that happen in comedies. But we accept them for the story because absurd over reactions and exaggerated plot points are hallmarks of the genre.
Notice that nobody here is actually defending Renee for her actions. The closest I've seen is 'maybe she's had reason in the past to be distrustful of strange men'. But even then it's pretty universally agreed that she's totally in the wrong, not just in Clinton's case but in general. And that treating someone like that regardless of circumstances is pretty shitty. And overall, Renee seems like an unpleasant person. If this is the Renee we've seen before from The Secret Bakery... she IS a pretty unpleasant person. He's hostile, abusive, abrasive and really seems to not be much fun to be around.
Case:
Whelp, maybe that explains why Brun didn't call her 'enthusiastically protective' friend right away ...
---
I'd be curious to know the part of the conversation that Jeph imagined to happen between "He seems OK to me" and "I know. Still"
---
On the topic of threatening helpful strangers with improbable acts of physical violence:
I would neither make such threats, nor would I appreciate them, or let them pass uncommented IRL. That being said:
Clinton's behaviour - as commendable as it is - is also, sadly, highly unusual.
A lot of people have had the misfortune to learn that "odd behaviour" can (!) spell "red flag", or even "dangerous".
No, I'm no friend of the "Schroedinger's rapist"-meme, either. Can I claim I don't understand where the people who use it are coming from?
Sadly, I can't.
(And this is as far as I feel comfortable not justifying behaviour I would find highly offensive IRL ...)
---
--- Quote from: RMc on 31 May 2016, 10:18 ---... stuff ...
--- End quote ---
"People with mental health issues" = "Drama in my life" & "Funny papers" ?
Could you clarify, pls?
Zastie:
Not only is it someone that Renee doesn't know personally, but even to Brun Clinton is simply, "A man named Clinton was at the bar last night." "A man at the bar," isn't exactly the greatest impression to give, and any possible past drama for either Brun or Renee aside, most people would take that description with heavy caution. Some random Joe from a bar could mean all sorts of things.
Also yes, this is a comic we're talking about, and as we indeed have seen with Faye, exaggerated characters are not out of the realm of possibility in the QC universe (in regards to Renee's attitude).
APersonAmI:
Fair enough, Neko_Ali, I didn't realize that both parts of Thrillho's comment were referring to the realism of the situation, and I thank you for helpfully explaining that.
However, the jokes I like are the ones where the thing that is dull and realistic is the person being an ass, and the enjoyable thing is, for example, that the transphobe is shoved out the door by Emily mid-rant, or that the sexist store clerk is reprimanded by Sam, and that is indeed a uncommon and unlikely thing to have happen, so that makes it work as a joke.
If the joke is instead that someone is an ass, and then gets away with it, there are two problems with that. One, the unrealistic thing cannot be that they are more rude than people in reality are, because the ceiling for absurd rudeness in Questionable Content is significantly lower than in reality*, and any rudeness in the comic is therefore dull and realistic. Second, the unrealistic thing cannot be that they get away with being an ass, because that is often the default in real life, and is therefore dull and unrealistic.
Mind you, the above is not true for everyone. It is entirely possible that there are people for whom the default is that people are not very rude at all, and that any rudeness that does happen is swiftly discouraged. If that is so, I am very happy for them. I mean, I would love for rude people to be so absurd an idea that someone being rude and getting away with it was something unrealistic and absurd. That sounds lovely. I just mean that that kind of joke cannot work for me.
*For example, the real life version of the university Marten works at has not been so accepting of trans students as the Questionable Content version.
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