Congratulations on losing a reader

[digitaldiscipline]

An open letter to Gabe and Tycho:

So, Penny Arcade finally got me to flip you guys off and not look back. After some of the stupid, genderist shit that's been blogged by the authors (mostly Mike) lately, the ridiculous "vagina" acronym in today's strip was the last straw. The strip wasn't funny, the acronym wasn't funny, and, frankly, the joke was more like something you'd pull out of the orifice EVERYONE has between their legs, not just lady-bits.

You're in august, if inane company, among webcomics that lost me through their own decay: MegaTokyo, PvP, Sluggy Freelance, User Friendly... Garfield.

Have fun being twelve, boys.

Comments

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I don't understand what's going on here. Usually when they do stuff like this, they're mocking something stupid that the game is doing (like with the infamous Strawberry Shortcake one), or the social ineptitude of a particular demographic of players. This one...I don't get the joke. I never read the blog, so haven't seen the stuff you've mentioned. What's going on?

[etcet.livejournal.com]

There's a passel of shit, from the "Dickwolves" strip to the Tentacle Bento endorsement (http://www.shakesville.com/2012/05/today-in-rape-culture.html - there is a bucket of rape trigger warnings at the top of that post, in case the URL didn't make it abundantly clear what's discussed)

good linky timeline for many of the accretions which led up to my saying "fuck it" today - http://debacle.tumblr.com/post/3041940865/the-pratfall-of-penny-arcade-a-timeline

http://kirbybits.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/here-is-a-thought-why-i%E2%80%99m-not-speaking-at-pax-east-2011/ (also referenced in the timeline, but worth a specific callout; there is also some maddening backlash to her post, which i'm not going to bother linking to, because i'd rather feed the author to a wood chipper)

but today's PA strip? it was just lazy and lame. anyone who is going to be so apathetic with their gender dismissal is obviously really, really, way too fucking comfortable with it for me to want to be anywhere near them.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Cool. Thanks.

ETA: "It's possible you read our cartoon, and became a rapist as a direct result. If you're raping someone right now, stop. Apologize. And leave. Go, and rape no more."



WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

Are you shitting me??? I haven't dared go look yet. (also, I love that .gif - where is it from?)

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I got the gif from Fuck Yeah Reactions (http://fuckyeahreactions.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr. It looks like it's from some sort of game show, doesn't it? But I have no idea for sure. What sort of game show would be so cool as to have Martin Freeman as a contestant?

[yelena-r0ssini.livejournal.com]

Q.I., probably. That looks like the set of Q.I., which, if you've never watched it, you should check out.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks for the referral!

[vatine]

It would've been funnier without the initial acronym. It would've been funnier with another punch-line. If they'd changed both, it would actually have been a joke.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

It would have been funnier as Marmaduke.

[cheez-ball.livejournal.com]

Well...they are well-known neckbeards. So it shouldn't be surprising that their humor is...neckbeardian.

I gave up on them long ago.

[drcuriosity]

Colour me unsurprised. They have rare flashes of amusement, but by and large it's achingly tired and immature material. Aside from the occasional link, I haven't followed them for years.

[yelena-r0ssini.livejournal.com]

They made me laugh like twice over the span of too many years now for me to put up with crap like this. I will still occasionally re-read "I Hope You Like Text" and laugh my ass off but that's enough.