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Eric: Avoiding Piroism, without necessarily not sucking
(From Freefall. Click on the thumbnail for full sized genetic discussion whilst interspecies dating!)
As has been established elsewhere, it is on. However, that has to wait until tomorrow. For tonight, I want to talk about the concept of background business.
Background business isn't necessarily in the background, but it's not the focus of the strip, per se. Mad and Cracked Magazines both incorporated it -- little tiny figures running around in the background of panels, doing little crazy bits while the goofy puns happen in the foreground. It's not a bad thing at all. We like it.
Freefall's doing it well. The conversation is the point, but the ancient methods of French Ninja Waiters to keep them satisfied without being seen at least get me grinning. And isn't that the point?
Well? Isn't it?
Posted by Eric Burns-White at March 28, 2005 11:01 PM
Comments
Comment from: JackSlack posted at March 29, 2005 7:40 AM
I have a theory -- It works here because there's an actual punchline playing. I don't think it's the best one ever, but the punchline is there. You could lose the background elements entirely and this would still work.
Background humor is icing, not cake. The absolute best use of it I've ever seen was in the film Dogma by Kevin Smith, where in an early scene in an airport, one piece of background humor was so incidental to the scene that many people missed it... and those who spotted it were in stitches.
Comment from: larksilver posted at March 29, 2005 11:56 AM
I know this isn't anything really going to add much that's meaningful here, but I love this strip. There is often a great deal of this "layered" humor, where the background enhances the overall humor of the strip quite well.
The other thing that Freefall's backgrounds do (for me, at least), is flesh out this rather silly "sci-fi" world and make it more ordinary, somehow. Which makes it a bit less silly, and a bit more like something that might happen.. in a few centuries, or so. Not that realism is necessary (or even always desired) in a comic strip, but a little bit of grounding in reality never hurts. Besides, if you don't put in a bathroom, how can you have the occasional potty (or diaper) humor?
Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at March 29, 2005 12:32 PM
You know, it's been nearly six years since I first made a joke about French ninja babies (blame Rugrats). Now, finally, we finally answer why they exist - so they can grow up to be French ninja waiters.
And so, one of life's eternal questions was answered.
Comment from: JackSlack posted at March 29, 2005 5:15 PM
Oh, I hate those ninja babies. Little hands...
Comment from: quiller posted at March 29, 2005 5:48 PM
I'm not sure I get this title. I have to assume that it has nothing to do with the content itself, since I don't believe you mean to imply that Freefall sucks in anyway, and the only thing I could think of as piroism when it comes to details in the background would be using figures in the background to setup future events, which isn't particularly specific to Megatokyo.
So, the title, I guess is supposed to be referring to you, and it means you are avoiding ranting about your inability to produce anything while not necessarily producing anything good? Posting titles that have nothing to do with the subject matter is not the best idea in the world, IMHO.
Comment from: slabgar posted at March 29, 2005 10:56 PM
Another good movie for this sort of humor is LA Story, with Steve Martin.
(By the by, the first rule of not being Piroistic is not to mention Avoiding Pirosim. And under no circumstances should "Sad Snarky in the Snow" be linked...)
Other than that, I might as well take this opportunity to state that I adore Freefall.
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