Comments on: True Stuff: Metahumor from 1927

By: King AdBeck

King AdBeck — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:27:00 +0000

Good sir,
I am perfectly overwhelmed with the splendour of your site; I never expected to see comics of such mirth and vivacity, nor could I have believed the inter-net contained a biting wit such as yours. Would you honour me, a respectable ratepayer and householder, by adding my site to your blogroll – that it might better expand its audience of thinking young men and women concerned with light literary matters? It is titled Rebeldog Comics, and I hope you shall find it an entertaining miscellany of original comic literature worthy of your patronage.

Humbly yours,
King AdBeck

By: Gabriel

Gabriel — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:26:34 +0000

I was JUST gonna say that here in Chile, and other places where the Chilean comic strip Condorito is sold, the falling over backwards effect has even entered into the language. You’ll frequently hear in Chilean Spanish the phrase, “quedó plop” which means someone figuratively fell over backwards, most often in surprise or shock.

That’s interesting to know that Condorito is as much a product of its times, since it launched in 1949, and that North American comics influenced artists everywhere.

By: Roy

Roy — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:19:25 +0000

Whoa! A friend and I spend a good part of the week boggling our minds over the fall-over-backwards-at-punchline effect in Spanish-language cartoons like Condorito.

We figured it was some sort of cultural divide we’d never be able to bridge… but to find that it was picked up from an older form of comic is amazing!

Although these examples didn’t have Condorito’s signature “PLOP!” associated with the falling over or flying inexplicably out of frame.

By: Gavin Baker

Gavin Baker — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:55:06 +0000

Omigod, the Ben Franklin is totally awesome.

Slap it on a shirt and sell it — gold mine.

By: J. Todd Leffar

J. Todd Leffar — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:12:23 +0000

James Lileks refers to the classic fall-backward-upon-punchline-delivery as the Givney Flip, but that’s fairly specific to a comic strip called “Jerry on the Job.” He has coined a name for the punchline, though — The Violently Ordinary Rejoinder.

http://www.lileks.com/comics/jerry/1.html