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Minimalism and humor...
Linked from the blog at Killroy and Tina ... this is one of the most fascinating examples I've ever seen of the way that dialogue and pacing can affect a joke.
http://www.truthandbeautybombs.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=4997
(Note: the first few image links are broken, but if you keep going, there are more images farther down the thread, and quite a lot of them on the next page.)
What they've done is taken the strip "Garfield" -- possibly one of the least funny comics ever created -- and removed all of Garfield's dialogue. The result is a somewhat sad and surrealistic strip about a loser who talks to his cat ... and surprisingly, it's genuinely *funny*. Three panels of Jon Arbuckle talking to a cat who answers back is just sort of lame, but the exact same three panels of the character talking to a cat that stares off into nowhere and ignores him is actually funny. Wordless reaction shot = funny; same reaction shot with a lame one-liner = not funny.
It's very interesting from a writing point of view. (And some of the strips actually made me laugh. I don't think I've laughed at a Garfield cartoon since I was six years old.)
http://www.truthandbeautybombs.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=4997
(Note: the first few image links are broken, but if you keep going, there are more images farther down the thread, and quite a lot of them on the next page.)
What they've done is taken the strip "Garfield" -- possibly one of the least funny comics ever created -- and removed all of Garfield's dialogue. The result is a somewhat sad and surrealistic strip about a loser who talks to his cat ... and surprisingly, it's genuinely *funny*. Three panels of Jon Arbuckle talking to a cat who answers back is just sort of lame, but the exact same three panels of the character talking to a cat that stares off into nowhere and ignores him is actually funny. Wordless reaction shot = funny; same reaction shot with a lame one-liner = not funny.
It's very interesting from a writing point of view. (And some of the strips actually made me laugh. I don't think I've laughed at a Garfield cartoon since I was six years old.)
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Oh. Nevermind.