1447 Shark Week.

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In fairness to Reggie, Mike just keeps setting these jabs up perfectly. I’ve had a problem with this all my life. People blather on about whatever nonsense is important to them and throw out perfect setups for jokes at their expense. When I was young I jumped in as soon as they set something up. It’s like comedy catnip for me. Now I try to give someone a grace period of about three good lines before I can’t control myself any longer. That’s usually enough to escape an interaction without feelings getting hurt. The thing is, most of the time I don’t do it out of a desire to be malicious. The insults aren’t usually something I feel in any real way, they’re just the funniest line I thought of. My friends are all exceptional people and very rarely leave openings for that sort of thing, because we all tend to speak precisely and in ways that don’t invite retorts. The casual parlance of the average is a playground though. So many ways to slide in little jibes.

“I just can’t seem to get motivated today”. “That’s not really a deviation from the norm…”

“I can’t find anything in this place.” “Yes, and all these clearly labeled signs just muddy the waters, as it were…”

Years and years of having nothing but words to defend myself with made me capable of zeroing in on weakness very quickly. Eventually it passed in to habit. So much so that I would say very insensitive things without so much as a thought. Then, when I gained some real anger and frustration in my life, I started reveling in the hurt I could cause. If I was made to suffer then the whole world needed to suffer at least as much, if not more. I was like that deep into my twenties. Everything just kept piling up, and I stored more and more rage, but the problem with rage is that it’s toxic to its host over time. A little bit is necessary in life, but living with it constantly is like sipping a slow poison in hopes that it will kill your enemies. That is where Reggie comes from. Misguided anger trying to resolve itself. Lashing out at everything because of unrelated slights. Sometimes the things that hurt you most can’t be resolved. You have to learn to let go. Forgive if you can, forget if you must. The alternative is slowly suffocating under the weight of what you refuse to deal with.

27 Comments

Well, Crave, it isn’t easy to forgive or forget when everyone around you is purely moronic and doesn’t invest effort into enlightening themselves, thereby giving them some common conversational ground with you. Not to mention how our society’s food is bland, toxic, and highly fattening, which works against our naturally active physiology. There quite literally is nothing that is incapable of infuriating you at some point.

However, like you and Aunt May said, “Vengeance is like a poison. It will slowly consume you until nothing remains.” That doesn’t help when my flaws, others’ flaws, and miscellaneous injustices add up to the point where your blessings are outnumbered. What’s worse, Trent Reznor taught us that “Love Isn’t Enough” and doesn’t tell us how much more is needed to be happy with a significant other.

Capping this all off with a dislike for pain, a borderline addiction to pleasure, and a fear of being alone when I’m not socially wired, and we have the makings of a monster.

Sometimes you just have to learn to look at the bright side of the dark things. Not trying to sound preachy by any means; I’m still learning to do this myself, and this post is more of a reminder to myself than trying to hand out advice. But with time, I’ve learned that if you look for the dark, you usually find it. If you look for the light, you usually find that. There are exceptions to every rule, but you aren’t ever alone, because we’re all muddling through life the same way, no matter what airs we put on. To borrow the line from J.T., Life is what happens Between Failures.

“Always look on the bright side of life…”

— Er, sorry; you’re totally right, but I get these attacks of CPD (Chronic Python Diso).

“Classy Adjacent”. I love it!

I want CA as my job title! You know, like: chief executive, manager, assistant chef, classy adjacent…etc.

Hey c’mon, Reggie…no big people or fat jokes.
Or maybe Reggie only promised John- That Reggie won’t zing any girls/females with big people jokes! ;D

Maybe this comic should have been entitled “Snark Week”! ;-)

Sometimes good characters come from bringing out your obnoxious side. Chuck Jones once said of Daffy Duck, “Good comedy arises from the ability to bring to the surface, without shame, parts of yourself you would rather keep hidden. A character such as Daffy can act out things that you are not particularly interested in having anyone associate with you, but that you are perfectly willing to associate with someone you draw.”

Charles Schulz had the same idea in mind when he created Lucy for his Peanuts comic strip. I had the same idea when I created Cannon for my webcomic (Although he’s also half-based off my best friend, who has referred to himself as my “evil twin”.). And it’s good that you have Reggie for that in your comic. Because even though everyone’s used this idea for fictional characters, everyone’s obnoxious side is a little different. Daffy, Lucy, Cannon, Reggie… it’s like an obnoxious rainbow!

Which would probably have a pot of electric bills at the end. And instead of having a leprechaun, there’d be a troll. And if people wanted to taste the rainbow, it would taste like black licorice.

…My mind goes to weird places this early in the morning…

With my circle of friends, for the ones that could be way too mean, I’ll give warning. Generally, they want to know what the zing was. And I’ll ham it up a bit. That way, it’s a performance, and not an attack.

I can’t decide if how I feel about the whole KS wholesome women thing or the whole KS shark women thing . . . unless of course I am Big Blue (female great white shark) then I totally ok with both comparisons. :) (and yes . . . there are lots of comebacks to made from this but sometimes I set things up just see who will take the bait . . .)

I do like myself a good jibe among friends. So I tend to set myself up for one on purpose every so often. Usually my friends bite, but often leave themselves open for a retort and it becomes a zing-fest all around.

It’s hilarious! :D

Why is Shark Week a thing? Why has it EVER been a thing? (Don’t answer that, I know it was started due to the whole shark scare a ways back when shark attacks were commonplace, and channels wanted to up ratings by preying on our fears)
Amended: Why is Shark Week STILL a thing? What can they possibly tell us about sharks that we don’t know or want to know about them? Moderately irritating for me.

Pffft…sorry Mike, after moving to a small town in what is supposed to be the heartland (not Kansas) and all that goodness you think you hear about…biggest place of cheats and some of the worst people. Bigger cities tend to have better people in my experience.

Or maybe it just seems more obvious in small towns :p

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