Websnark

Comment from: Abby L. posted at December 16, 2005 2:12 PM

OH GOD EVERYTHING IS IN BLOCKQUOTES!! It's like this dream I once had... But you don't want to hear about that...

Comment from: Eric Burns posted at December 16, 2005 2:13 PM

It's fixed, it's fixed.

Ecto goes a little nuts, sometime.

Comment from: Abby L. posted at December 16, 2005 2:14 PM

Haha. Yeah, by the time my comment actually posted, it was gone. Now it's REALLY like that dream I once had.

Anyway, now I want those books. Curse you Eric.

Comment from: NthDegree256 posted at December 16, 2005 2:33 PM

Damnation. I'd forgotten all about Origin of PCs. Now I can't live without it...

Comment from: Zaq posted at December 16, 2005 2:37 PM

Generally speaking, throughout the wide world of all Fantasy (literature, movies, comics, video games, whatever), I've never been a big dwarf fan in any form. Individual dwarves I'm fine with, but dwarves in the aggregate don't really fascinate me.

However.

Dwarf exclamations, which invariably reference "beards", never fail to make me laugh. "By Thor's beard!" "He's gone to the beard of the Great Dwarf!" "Trustworthy, my beard!" (and of course my personal favorite) "Great beards! We've been tricked!"

Great. Beards.
I'm sorry, but TELL me that's not funny.

...And I'm not even going to get into "Lali-ho."

Comment from: Phil Kahn posted at December 16, 2005 2:58 PM

Righteous. I loved The Prequel Book.

Comment from: Tangent posted at December 16, 2005 3:31 PM

GAH!!!!! Now I want to buy the Prequel book. And my best female friend will force me to! Gah!!! you're evil, Eric! Evil!!!!!

*twitch*

Rob H.

Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at December 16, 2005 3:33 PM

Lali-ho...

Man, of all the "Square can't afford a translator" jokes I've heard, it's been *ages* since I heard anyone pick on "Lali-ho!"... This might be because I still use a riff off of their most famous flub as an AIM screen name and nickname in some circles.

Personally, I love silly exclamations. My personal favorite has been the updated Perry White-ism, "By the shades of Elvis!" However, it's too good for me to use. My reliable one is "Sweet merciful monkey!"

Comment from: Milligan posted at December 16, 2005 3:39 PM

I have a pet peeve.

It's the use of "You're an idiot." as a punchline.

Uuugh. It's like nails on a chalkboard to me.

It just seems like such the crutch.

Now, before you all start scouring my archives to find it, I'm pretty sure I've never done it, but maybe I have on a very lazy off-day when nothing else was coming to me. I can't remember. On second thought, go ahead, scour, scour like the wind you little scour-monkeys!

Comment from: Archon Divinus posted at December 16, 2005 3:51 PM

I have that same pet peeve. It's a real cop-out punchline.

Comment from: Kirath posted at December 16, 2005 3:53 PM

It may be, but sometimes... sometimes it's the only thing you can say to someone and still keep your sanity.

Comment from: Paul Gadzikowski posted at December 16, 2005 4:02 PM

"Great golden Frith on a hill!"

Comment from: Shaenon posted at December 16, 2005 5:14 PM

Obviously, we should just replace all instances of "You're an idiot" with "Great Beard!"

Comment from: Tyck posted at December 16, 2005 5:40 PM

Personally, I think the "You're an idiot" punchline is really just an "Oh god" for those trying not Take any Names In Vain. It expands to "Get help. Your idiocy is like unto a great weight upon the relativistic rubber sheet of intelligence. I can feel my own smarts leaking out of my ears. Please, get help before it's too late. Ask your doctor if a brain transplant is right for you."

This might be because I still use a riff off of their most famous flub as an AIM screen name and nickname in some circles.

Which one do you think is the most famous flub? 'cause I'm pretty sure 'spoony' is the most famous translation thing, but it's a bowdlerization rather than a botched translation.

Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at December 16, 2005 5:53 PM

Huh... look at that, I didn't put in my AIM screen name into my TypeKey profile. I thought I had.

My screen name on AIM is TheSpoony1 (as you can tell, acquired back when ten characters was your limit). It's true, not an actual mistake so much as a humorous replacement for a censorship-related edit. Still, given that the original Japanese doesn't even remotely come close to anything resembling "You spoony bard!", I think "flub" is a good choice of words. Anyhow, if anyone had ever really wanted to talk to me, and has the patience to wait for me to log onto AIM, they now can.

I don't know who Frith is, and why he's both gold and on a hill, but I love that line, Paul.

Comment from: Thomas Blight posted at December 16, 2005 6:23 PM

The only norse exlamation funnier than "By Thor's beard!" would have to be "By Loki's object!", in which you can specify any number of any body part of any animal. Imagine the possiblities. (Don't you just love shapeshifters?)

"By Loki's nine penises!"

Comment from: Alexis Christoforides posted at December 16, 2005 6:53 PM

"By Toutatis!"

And I pity anyone who can't place that.

Also, if I may mention the "All Your Base" meme without getting irrationally lynched: I still think that the funniest line from that is "What You Say ! !", said while leaning on a desk, holding your head. Preferably with a bottle and glass of Black Label.

Order of the Stick rocks. I didn't even know about the existence of Book 0 for some reason. I'm ordering that today.

Comment from: thok posted at December 16, 2005 6:59 PM

So 32, are you guys going to have a review of the FF4 remake up soon?

Comment from: Scarybug posted at December 16, 2005 7:04 PM

Dwarves can also you "beardless" as an insult. As in:

"Die! Ye beardless green-skinned unicorn humper!"

Comment from: Scarybug posted at December 16, 2005 7:04 PM

and by "you" I meant "use".

Thanks for just sitting there, doing nothing, preview button!

Comment from: Tyck posted at December 16, 2005 7:12 PM

"Die! Ye beardless green-skinned unicorn humper!"

Ok, I'm with you on beardless and green-skinned here. Both fine traditional fantasy-dwarf insults. But "unicorn-humper"? This is rather insulting to the unicorns..

hmm. Since you are, traditionally, required to be virginal in order to approach a unicorn, I imagine the life of the unicorn-humper would be very unfulfilling.

Comment from: Eric Burns posted at December 16, 2005 7:25 PM

Or at least, hardly a long term career choice.

Comment from: nkuvu posted at December 16, 2005 8:34 PM

And there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Although I have the prequel book, my copy of Dungeon Crawlin' Fools is backordered.

Comment from: quiller posted at December 16, 2005 10:48 PM

I should probably get some copies for my D&D buddy, and thereby justify getting my own copies.

But you know sometime I should start a game based on the Catholic cult of the saints just so I can find an occassion to use an oath my ex-gf introduced me to. "By the piercèd balls of Saint Sebastian!"

And I can't believe Alexis had the gaul to use the oath By 'Toutatis'.

Comment from: Paul Gadzikowski posted at December 16, 2005 11:36 PM

Frith is the sun/creator god in the pantheon of the rabbits of Watership Down. "Great golden Frith on a hill!" is the exclamation of the Odysseus-figure rabbit (whose name escapes me) when he invents boating.

Also Michael K. Frith designs Muppets.

Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at December 17, 2005 1:20 AM

(Catches breath, wipes tear from eye) Okay, Eric, know how I'm very sparing with my compliments? I just want to establish that right now.

That comment you made on career paths is one of the funniest things I've ever read. Seriously.

Alexis, you hit on a greater truth than you know. "What You Say?!" has entered conversational dialogue of millions of video gamers (and possibly beyond, for all I know). Probably because it's easy for those unfamiliar to miss (given that it's only a minor mangle), but obvious if you are familiar with it. It's a meme reduced to a secret handshake.

As for the FF4 remake... first, let me get over the shock of having readers. Seriously, I can't get my own family to read what I write.

Beyond that, depends on what you mean, thok. If you mean the 2nd person plural, then yes, Netjak is going to have a review of it up soon. However, if you mean me, personally, then no. I don't even own the game yet, for one simple reason - it's perhaps the most obvious Christmas present anyone could give me (something about it being publicly known to be my favorite game of all time, I think). Rather than buy it and potentially ruin someone's great idea, I'm holding off. I know at least two other writers on Netjak have it, though, so a review will go up soon.

And if worst comes to worst, I already own 3 different copies of Final Fantasy IV on different formats. I can replay one of those to tide me over.

Comment from: Brian Smith posted at December 17, 2005 1:30 AM

I'd like to register a vote in favor of "You're an idiot," not as a punchline, but as a grace note -- something that calls attention to the line before it, and serves to point out to the reader or listener that something funny has just been said.

As evidence of this, I submit an episode of "Married With Children" in which Al uses the same basic line as Crystal ("There's no 'k' in "broke"), and it stands on its own, although the camera does linger long enough to let Al realize he's said something stupid.

As further evidence, I submit the Jennifer Lopez episode of "Saturday Night Live" in which she portrays a USO singer in World War II trying to entertain the soldiers with what amounts to enemy propaganda ("The Germans have all been training for years, and they're prob'ly gonna kill a lot of you!") These songs horrify almost everyone:

Will Farrell: "This is DEPRESSING!"

Chris Parnell: "Wow! Look at those gams!"

Will: "You're an IDIOT!"

In that case, "You're an idiot" isn't the punchline -- although, if you're a fan of Will Farrell, he really makes the line funny on its own. The song is the joke, and the reactions are what really sell it.

Giant digression over. Please return to discussions about literate things.

Comment from: Doctor Nick posted at December 17, 2005 1:34 AM

I just wanted to post to say that Matt Wilson doesn't care.

Comment from: Aerin posted at December 17, 2005 3:55 AM

I generally don't buy webcomics merchandise, because I have other fun things like my cell phone to pay for. But I own both OotS books, and bought them as soon as they were available. It just seemed like the only thing to do. Totally worth it, by the way. I'll probably be getting the next one right when it coms out as well, even if I'm totally broke at that point.

Comment from: Buzzfloyd posted at December 18, 2005 10:44 AM

OotS is, in my opinion, the best comic on the web. Well quoted, Eric.

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