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[HolySkinnyAgent]

I have a question that I would like to pose to the QC forum audience.

It may be confusing. Perhaps even offensive. But please understand, this is just a question that has been building up for years. It has to come out.

I have been reading QC for years now; I have read every comic. And the one thing that I keep coming back to is that I thoroughly dislike it. Now all of you are beautiful, and Jeph is beautiful, and I love you all very much. But that doesn't change the fact that I really don't like this comic at all! I actually get pretty angry at how much I dislike most of the strips.

So I am curious to see if I am the only person who reads them this way; does anyone else take most of their pleasure from the comic in the silent insulting of the characters? It is, perhaps, similar to one who watches a reality tv show just to make fun of all the contestants. It could very well come back to that area of human weakness that creates the desire to put something else down in order to feel better about oneself. Or it could be more of a bizarre fixation on a culture that seems so radically outside my own that I could never hope to penetrate it.

Or something. Any takers?

Stay snazzy.

[Vendetagainst]

Oh God, my mind--He is fucked.

^^I'd like to point out that the above refers to my mind under the third person pronoun, "he".

[GenericName]

That's kind of how I feel about Ctrl-Alt-Del except I stopped going back to that, also their forums are really uninviting.

[HolySkinnyAgent]

Yeah, see, i can't stop though. I don't know the number of times I have deleted and then re-added QC to my bookmarks. When I'm up late at night it's just SOMETHING TO DO. I am addicted to this comic.

Do you know where your kids are?

Are they reading webcomics?

[Surgoshan]

... Um.

When I stop enjoying things, I stop doing them.  I've eliminated about half a dozen comics from my daily read for not being funny.  I still check out girls' asses because they're still hot.  I just don't do things I don't enjoy.

Perhaps you've confused yourself and pigeon-holed QC as being just for the funny and have forgotten that it's okay to like drama?

[HolySkinnyAgent]

An EXCELLENT point. When I consider that the same point always comes up, which is basically trying to understand why people like drama in the first place. I think the biggest reason is because people relate to the characters that they are investigating, and apply what they see to their own lives. But I don't feel like I relate to any of these characters, and the only thing I see them as are examples of ways I would like to not conduct myself. Which is why it makes me wonder if i'm just being a bastard and simply choosing to hate something.

(uh sorry i'm not trying to turn this into some kind of therapy session it's just, it's hard to understate how good it feels to finally talk about this, even if it is on a forum)

[Vendetagainst]

I prescribe an L-Dopa/Prozac cocktail, chased with 300 ccs of Absinthe. Then have a good night sleep and mull it all over in the morning.

[ashashash]

Hah, you're not alone.  I don't necessarily hate QC at all, but the super-slow pace gets on my nerves and I don't care about probably 4/5s of the strips; if I wasn't already reading it, I wouldn't start now.

But sometimes there are still strips that are pure gold, or plot twists that grab my interest.  So ... I mean.  I still do enjoy it.  But I definitely see where you're coming from.

[tuna ketchup x]

Seven layers of irony, right here.

I think there must be something you like about the comic if you keep on reading it. You may not "like" it, but it compells you. Maybe that's the way some people feel about soap operas, or comic book series. I know there are authors I still read, even though I don't like their later stuff so much, more out of habit than anything. But there is something you like about QC if you keep reading it and posting about it, even if it's just the familiarity of the characters. Or you absolutely HATE it, and just like the mental snarking. That's why I watched the RNC. Either way it counts as a click and Jeph gets his money so wins and Internets all around.

[benji]

I certainly know what you're talking about. I don't feel this way with QC, but there are certainly elements of popular culture that I find fascinating simply because I can't figure out why they appeal to people. I've certainly watched episodes of popular TV shows at times just to ask myself "what is it about this that people like?" I used to avidly follow the top 10 lists for movies and music, partly because I enjoyed my sense of bewilderment when something I regarded as completely awful would find its way to number 1. I don't do that nearly as much any more, but I still understand the sentiment.

[tuna ketchup x]

I think me and my SO may have discovered my closest parallel for this OP: Fox's "new sensation" Hole in the Wall, which is a remake of a crazy Japanese game show. It delayed the Simpsons last night, but instead of turning it off and waiting 1/2 hour we were strangely compelled. It actually caused us great amounts of mental pain to watch the thing but we couldn't turn it off. We were torn between "what the shit kind of show is THIS?!" and "but will they make it?" After it finished I felt really ashamed of myself but I'm probably going to watch it again on Tuesday. Hole in MY BRAIN!!!

[hapaxLegomina]

I don't care about probably 4/5s of the strips; if I wasn't already reading it, I wouldn't start now.

That's more or less the amount of strips that Hannelore has appeared in lately. Your sentiment is completely understandable.

[Toba]

When I squeeze my wrist it hurts and there are some clicking sounds sometimes.

Oh, isn't this the thread for posting shit that nobody cares about?

[HolySkinnyAgent]

dude.

hole in the wall is GENIUS. if someone made a webcomic that was just about contestants on hole in the wall i would never leave my room.

[CarrionMan]

I already made the joke to one of my friends, so, might as well do it again…

Isn't Hole in the Wall that guessing game with a glory hole?

[KamikaziCal]

I already made the joke to one of my friends, so, might as well do it again…

Isn't Hole in the Wall that guessing game with a glory hole?

I would have gone with the same basic idea, but delivered it better.

something along the lines of "Isn't Hole in the Wall that website...?" but even better.

[CarrionMan]

Ever play Hole in the Wall? I won 50 bucks off of it.

[SuperSUGA]

I think the nature of ongoing stories like QC is to draw you in and keep you coming back, it's pretty much how soap operas succeed. Replace the 30 minute commitment required to watch a soap episode with the 30 seconds it takes to read a webcomic strip and you've got something that's easy to get into the habit of doing every day.

Of course there's a difference between liking something and enjoying it. There are a few comics I enjoy keeping up to date on but don't think are terribly good.

[tuna ketchup x]

Oh, isn't this the thread for posting shit that nobody cares about?

I was gonna make a new post about this show but it didn't seem worth it. Especially since it ties into the OP a little.

And please do tell me about the glory hole version.

[HolySkinnyAgent]

today's is actually a perfect example of what i'm talking about here:

VAGUE AMBIGUOUS SEXUAL INNUENDO BETWEEN TWO COMPLETELY DISINTERESTED PEOPLE

[La]

I think I understand what you mean. I don't hate QC by any stretch of the imagination, but I can be very frustrated at it, like I used to get at soaps when I watched them, and I do find myself hating the main characters more often than not. Like, I pretty much want to slap the stupid out of Dora 99% of the time, and I went for the LONGEST disliking both Raven and Hannelore (now I'm at the point where I am resigned to them, and they have their good moments sometimes). Marten is fine, too plain for me to get riled up about one way or the other, and though I love both Faye and Sven they both irk me quite frequently too.

With me, the individual strips/punchlines can be hit or miss, but I stick around for the fun and always-improving art, the overall story, the occasional "lol" strip, and seeing wtf happens to these stupid people that I've become interested in.

(woah, so totally did not mean to write a novel titled "O HAI, HERE'S WHAT I THINK TL;DR")

[ashashash]

That actually summed up my thoughts in a much better way than I did.

[Thorbard]

I understand where you're coming from sort of.

I used to read Tales of MU regularly. Sometimes I'd go back several times a day to check if there was a new chapter up. It was good at first, which got me hooked, but as it went on I realised I hated the characters. Well, not exactly the characters, the way they were written. Took me alot of effort, even when I wasn't enjoying it at all, to stop reading.

QC though... no, don't really feel that way about it.

[masquerade]

This is how I feel about Stephanie Meyers' Twilight series. I read all of them but the last one (because a bastard on a forum site ruined it for me ::shakes fist:, but as time went on, I loathed the "heroine" more and more. She's weak, whiny, annoying, immature, ungrateful, and stupid. Also, I hate Twilight fans with a burning intensity. Fucking bandwagon harpies.

Anyway, the only thing that REALLY irks me about QC is the slow pace. It takes forever for a story arc to come full circle. I like how the characters have developed, though, and I love clicking the "First" link and being shocked every now and then at how much Jeph's art has improved.

[glwtta]

It is, perhaps, similar to one who watches a reality tv show just to make fun of all the contestants.

Nobody actually does this.  Some people say they do things like that, but only because they don't want to admit they like watching crappy reality shows.  Same thing with watching the Superbowl "for the commercials" - nobody does that, either.

Anyway, I enjoy QC in a fairly straightforward manner, so I guess I can't shed any light on your situation.

[BootsyMarie]

Same thing with watching the Superbowl "for the commercials" - nobody does that, either.

I swear, it's possible! I have NO IDEA how the game is played!