Column: Welcome to the GameSetWatch Comic - 'Welcome to the Persona 3 part 2'
['Welcome to the GameSetWatch Comic' is, once again, a weekly comic by Jonathan "Persona" Kim about the continuing adventures of our society, cultural postdialectic theory, and video games. This second in a series of two pokes fun at Atlus' cult PS2 RPG Persona 3.]
(SPOILER: Persona explains of this one to me, for those terminally confused - OK, with slight paraphrasing by the GSW editors: "In case you're wondering what this week's comic is about, in Persona 3, one of the main characters, Junpei, is always wearing his hat - even in the hot springs and the beach. This has lead me to assume he has a shiny noggin.")
[Jonathan "Persona" Kim is a character animation student at the California Institute of the Arts. When not working on doujinshi material, he continues the Mecha Fetus revolution on the Mecha Fetus Visublog.]
Comments
Judging from panel 1, that Lovers S-Link is in REVERSE status...
Posted by: Scypher | June 29, 2008 12:22 AM
Yeah...if you have to explain a joke, it probably isn't funny.
Posted by: Justin Phillips | June 29, 2008 5:16 AM
I said last time that I wasn't even sure that these comics were supposed to be funny. Now, I'm certain that they aren't.
Justin is right, if you have to explain a joke, then it probably isn't funny. But this strip isn't even funny for someone who *has* played Persona 3.
Which is sad, because it shouldn't be too hard to write a four panel bald joke better than the above, without even needing explanation.
So much space is wasted at the start, taking three panels to deliver one line of text set-up with no visual set-up. All to weakly deliver a punchline that doesn't even come off as the focus of the last panel. (The last panel is stolen by the pointless "Sup dudes?" appearance.)
Posted by: Baines | June 29, 2008 2:34 PM
The "Sup dudes?" appearance isn't pointless - it shows that Junpei actually has hair. That's the whole joke!
I'm not saying it's hilarious or anything, but it does at least play with conventions a bit.
Also he's explaining the joke to the editor. Anyone whose played Persona 3 doesn't need an explanation.
Posted by: Ebrey | June 30, 2008 1:36 PM
Baines, the reason why so much space is wasted setting up the joke is because it's a serial joke that repeats throughout the course of the doujinshi this comic was originally in. The build up is paid off when the later comics repeat the joke in variations, like how comedians build up jokes in 3s or whatnot.
Anyway, a lot is lost seeing it in just this single format.
Posted by: Persona | July 6, 2008 2:41 AM