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Hey all! Sorry about the lack of update last Thursday, and thank you for your patience. It was a tough week, the Gender Outlaws strip took the steam outta me, but it was worth it.
I want to make a short blurb about jokes, and editing them when you realize they’re not ok! See, originally, in this strip, I wrote the punchline as Brad saying something similar, but about a person of color, because our founding fathers, you know, owned slaved and were totally racist, by any standard (except maybe Glenn Beck’s, because he probably views the founders as infallible and, like, there were black founders too so what’s the big deal).  But I struggled with the wording, and it occurred to me that it wasn’t reading like a comment on the founding father’s racism, it was reading like Brad harassing a person of color. In a jokey ironic way, but still, it felt problematic. Brad’s white, and I’m white, and there’s not a lot of space in this scenario to explore if this would be an OK joke for Brad to make, or for me to make, and so, I didn’t make it. Like, it was that easy! Can you believe it? I made a different joke! One that I don’t feel I have to use my white privilege to defend! PROBLEMATIC JOKES: NOT THAT HARD TO NOT MAKE. I wish I could have commented on the founding fathers being racist without being squicked out by my own scenario. I don’t think that was impossible. So next time, I’ll try harder.
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↓ TranscriptBrad points at a nearby car.
BRAD: Egads! What sorcery is this?? These carriages move by no horse, no beast!
BRAD: Tell me, sir, has there been developed a means to shrink horses?
PROTESTOR: Don’t you care that homosexuals are taking over our neighborhood?
BRAD: Homo-what?
PROTESTOR: The gays! You’re with them, aren’t you?
BRAD: My good sir, is being affable and gay not essential for any man in the thorny field of business?
FEMALE PROTESTOR: You’re sick!
BRAD: Sir, kindly tell this woman you’re escorting that I feel quite well, and she best mind her tongue in public.
i like this guy already. does he do parties?
i <3 you. 🙂
Found your comic today. Just read every strip. Hope for 100’s more. Lost my first person pronouns.
<3
I don’t draw comics, but as someone who often uses sarcasm and reductio ad absurdem to make a point, I know what that thought process is like. Even if I’m trying to point out someone else’s racism, and even if it’s obvious I don’t approve and am trying to show how absurd it is, I’m still a white person saying words that are hurtful to people of color. Words that other people have said or will say about them. Is there a difference between satirical racism and hipster “ironic” racism? Intent, maybe, but as we all know, intent is not effing magic.
And the pwnage continues!!
Love the 3rd panel – reminds me of MC Lars’ “Everyone’s A Little Bit Gay”
“Dude, that band’s so gay!”
“Really? You mean they’re jovial, happy and good-spirited?”
“Wait, what? No, I mean their music sucks.”
“Oh, I thought you were trying to speak English just then. My bad.”