2014-09-21

XKCD Isn't Funny - #1423 - CONVERSATION


I'm sorry that this post was late, guys, I really am. I just couldn't form any full opinion about this comic. It's just... weird, I can't find a better word to describe it.

So, two people are on some kind of date (wineglasses, oddly shaped chairs, magical vanishing candle, all standard). Guy asks Girl a causal 'getting to know you' question, Girl replies with something that may or may not be a joke. Girl leaves, that line is her entire set of conversational skills; it begs the question as to how they got to 'getting to know you', nevermind how they started dating.

Is this just another variation on 'I am so socially awkward'? If that's the case, I think Randy is doing something he doesn't often do: He's exaggerating a thing too much. There's a concept (that I don't have a clever shorthand for) where a bad writer will give a certain character overwhelming clumsiness in an attempt to make them look cute or to give them a flaw that doesn't actually affect anything. The problem is, writers that use this crutch lean on it so heavily that the character quickly stops looking cute and starts looking like they have a problem with their inner ear.

To quote The Pervocracy on similar phenomena:
I love scenes like this in books, because it plays as all sexually charged and stuff inside her head, but can you picture the scene from the outside? She's stammering and flustering and twitching because a cute guy shook her hand. It's less "lust at first sight" and more "do you need to lie down?"
Whatever.

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