As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

Penny Arcade - Comic - On The Worst Day of Christmas, Part One

DogDog Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
edited December 2017 in The Penny Arcade Hub

imagePenny Arcade - Comic - On The Worst Day of Christmas, Part One

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

Read the full story here


Unknown User on

Posts

  • marsiliesmarsilies Registered User regular
    I was around that age when I thought of the perfect ruse to determine if Santa was real or not. First, think of two big presents you want, but also know Santa will only deliver one of them. Then, tell your parents that you want "Santa" to get you one of them. Then, write and mail, on your own, a letter to Santa asking for the other present. Don't trust those mall Santas, they could be colluding with your folks. Then, wait and see which present you get.

    Of course, I never did it because, even at that age, I already knew the maxim "don't look a gift horse in the mouth." Who cares if Santa is real or not? The point is I get an extra present!

  • MichaelLCMichaelLC In what furnace was thy brain? ChicagoRegistered User regular
    I finally figured it out when I saw the same Transformers - G1 metal mofos - from 'Santa' that we're in my parents' luggage. I think I was older then I should have been.

    Before that, I tried hiding under our dinning room table in order to catch him. Don't remember what my plan was after that, but thought I was pretty clever.

  • Virgil_Leads_YouVirgil_Leads_You Proud Father House GardenerRegistered User regular
    This is a good strip!

    VayBJ4e.png
  • armatur3armatur3 San DiegoRegistered User regular
    My sister's whole world crumbled when she found out Santa wasn't real. After Santa, she immediately asked about the tooth fairy... but the killer was asked through all her sniffling and tears,"but the Easter bunny is real right? he's gotta be!"

    That poor child.

  • 38thDoe38thDoe lets never be stupid again wait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered User regular
    Some years ago my wife and I were in the car and heard this crazy story on NPR about how this family had formed the most elaborate santa story ever, had employed far removed relatives to be found in the woods near their house dressed as santa and proclaiming that they worked for santa but were not santa. They had reindeer bones that they could use to summon sleighs, etc. They managed to keep this going through all of high school. The parents never admitted to it, even to this day.

    Sadly they interviewed the kids and after they had gone to college they were ridiculed and have trouble ever trusting anyone because their parents lied to them for their entire lives.

    Crazy story.

    38thDoE on steam
    🦀🦑🦀🦑🦀🦑🦀🦑🦀🦑🦀🦑🦀
    
  • marsiliesmarsilies Registered User regular
    38thDoe wrote: »
    Some years ago my wife and I were in the car and heard this crazy story on NPR about how this family had formed the most elaborate santa story ever...

    I found the story, on This American Life episode 482: Lights, Camera, Christmas! Act 1: Christmas in 3D, originally aired December 21, 2012:
    https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/482/lights-camera-christmas

    The details are a little different than you described. One of the sons believed up until he was 13, in middle school, even getting into an argument in class in 5th Grade. Then his grandma unintentionally gave it up during Christmas, assuming all the kids had stopped believing, and asking about which uncle played which "Santa" which year. He said it caused him not to trust his parents, and one Christmas he came back from college and said it was their fault he couldn't trust anyone.

    Also, the dad still won't admit to it, but the mom does own up to it, and says she told the son the truth when he demanded it (from context this seems to be when he was 13 and doubting due to his grandmother's statements).

    But yeah, one of the Santas had a reindeer bone, specifically Rudolph's, that he could summon other reindeer with by blowing on it to make an unhearable sound (like a dog whistle).

  • marsiliesmarsilies Registered User regular
    BTW, for a defense of believing in Santa, see Terry Pratchett's Hogfather.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIILp0jiXGs
    You're saying that humans need fantasies to make life bearable.
    NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
    With Tooth Fairies? Hogfathers?
    YES. THAT'S PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
    So we can believe the big ones?
    YES. JUSTICE, MERCY, DUTY, THAT SORT OF THING.
    They're not the same at all.
    YOU THINK SO?
    THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER, AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE, AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET... YOU TRY TO ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD. AS IF THERE IS SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE, BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.
    But people have got to believe that. What's the point?
    YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN'T TRUE.HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME?

    Read more: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=hogfather

  • JackJack Registered User regular
    My parents never did the Father Christmas thing with me. Actually, that's not quite true - we made a game of it, pretending to follow traditions while tacitly understanding that it was just for fun. My sister used to make jokes about how inefficient the local Tooth Fairy was because she never got her money the first night she put the tooth under her pillow, that sort of thing.

    But I always knew it wasn't true, and I'm glad. My parents lied to me about enough things.

  • poipoigirlpoipoigirl Registered User regular
    edited December 2017
    I hope they show us how they came to making this page. As for Santa... I figure it out myself at an young age. I kept it up after realizing the truth because it was fun. There was no drama or feeling of betrayal. Then again my parents really didn't invest alot of their time with me past the basics of keeping me alive. So figuring things out on my own was just the norm.

    poipoigirl on
  • Hugh B. HayveHugh B. Hayve Registered User regular
    If she's that sharp then she's smart enough to know her dad is full of shit.

  • MarcinMNMarcinMN Registered User regular
    I don't recall when I stopped believing in Santa, but I also don't remember my parents making a big deal of it beyond the occasional mention of his name or a present under the tree that said it was from Santa.

    I sometimes wonder why we all keep the Santa thing going from generation to generation. Yeah, I suppose it can be "fun." Maybe it's something I don't get because I don't have kids. On the other hand, if I did have kids, I can't see myself suddenly going all gung-ho on the Santa thing since I don't really associate much Christmas "magic" with the myth of Santa and thus I wouldn't be driven to recreate said magic with my children.

    But maybe I'm the exception on this one. I'll openly admit that I don't get into the spirit all that much nowadays. I buy gifts for family, but most years I don't even put up a tree or any lights.

    "It's just as I've always said. We are being digested by an amoral universe."

    -Tycho Brahe
  • Anon von ZilchAnon von Zilch Registered User regular
    Nothing in this world or the next is more vast and terrifying than Santa, known in the cold and forbidding land of my dwelling as the Yule Goat, or He Who Hungers for the Flesh of the Wayward Childe.

  • mindboundmindbound Riga, LatviaRegistered User new member
    Speaking of gibbering nameless horrors leaving gifts in stockings, Overtime by Charles Stross is pretty solid for a short story.

  • bsctgodbsctgod Registered User regular
    When I was either 4 or 5 one Christmas with relatives, Santa came in and brought us presents. I asked, where was Uncle Richard? My mom responded, he was out watching Santa's reindeer. That made total logical sense to me.

  • EnlongEnlong Registered User regular
    marsilies wrote: »
    BTW, for a defense of believing in Santa, see Terry Pratchett's Hogfather.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIILp0jiXGs
    You're saying that humans need fantasies to make life bearable.
    NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
    With Tooth Fairies? Hogfathers?
    YES. THAT'S PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
    So we can believe the big ones?
    YES. JUSTICE, MERCY, DUTY, THAT SORT OF THING.
    They're not the same at all.
    YOU THINK SO?
    THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER, AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE, AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET... YOU TRY TO ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD. AS IF THERE IS SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE, BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.
    But people have got to believe that. What's the point?
    YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN'T TRUE.HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME?

    Read more: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=hogfather

    Hogfather is so good.

  • QuidQuid Definitely not a banana Registered User regular
    marsilies wrote: »
    BTW, for a defense of believing in Santa, see Terry Pratchett's Hogfather.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIILp0jiXGs
    You're saying that humans need fantasies to make life bearable.
    NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
    With Tooth Fairies? Hogfathers?
    YES. THAT'S PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
    So we can believe the big ones?
    YES. JUSTICE, MERCY, DUTY, THAT SORT OF THING.
    They're not the same at all.
    YOU THINK SO?
    THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER, AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE, AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET... YOU TRY TO ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD. AS IF THERE IS SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE, BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.
    But people have got to believe that. What's the point?
    YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN'T TRUE.HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME?

    Read more: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=hogfather

    This post modernism.

    I took a class in ethics viewed through pop culture and probably a third of my writing sourced Pratchett’s novels. I knew his books were called stealth philosophy but appreciate that view a lot more now. You could probably teach an entire course through his work alone.

  • wallywestwallywest Registered User regular
    It warms my dark heart to see Pratchett mentioned by so many people these days. I am what you kids would call "old", and remember when it was damn difficult to find his books in the US. I visited London, walked into a book store and there were three or four large cases right inside the front door with nothing but Pratchett books. It was a revelation to me that he was actually popular over there, I assumed I was one of a half dozen fans or so given what I had to go through to find his books.

  • QuidQuid Definitely not a banana Registered User regular
    That’s really unfortunate. I started reading them about fifteen years ago and by that point they were in any major book store’s fantasy section that I walked in to.

  • YoungFreyYoungFrey Registered User regular
    15 years ago, Partchett's books were common in stores, but not all of them. The first maybe 10 were not being published here and were hard to get. I started with Small Gods, and it's still the book I recommend people start with.

  • wallywestwallywest Registered User regular
    Hehe, I got started reading Pratchett more like 30 years ago. The Discworld series only had like four or five books at the time.

  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    Wasn't he the most shoplifted author in the UK at one point?

    steam_sig.png
  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    Wasn't he the most shoplifted author in the UK at one point?

    That seems pretty unlikely. A bag that size would be kind of conspicuous.

  • marsiliesmarsilies Registered User regular
    Terry Pratchett has a soft spot in my heart because he's one of the things my wife and I instantly had in common when we first met, nearly 20 years ago. Also, he made buying my wife a birthday present super easy since he, like clockwork, had a new novel out every fall. I typically ordered the hardcovers from the UK to get the "good" covers, and also because they used to come out earlier there.

    I'm still getting some new Pratchett every year. They're releasing his short stories in compilations, and the UK got a reprint of the illustrated version of Faust Eric this year.

  • wallywestwallywest Registered User regular
    marsilies wrote: »
    Terry Pratchett has a soft spot in my heart because he's one of the things my wife and I instantly had in common when we first met, nearly 20 years ago. Also, he made buying my wife a birthday present super easy since he, like clockwork, had a new novel out every fall. I typically ordered the hardcovers from the UK to get the "good" covers, and also because they used to come out earlier there.

    I'm still getting some new Pratchett every year. They're releasing his short stories in compilations, and the UK got a reprint of the illustrated version of Faust Eric this year.

    That's a pretty good synopsis of my wife and I as well. I got her into his books, and she just loved them. I too would only get the UK versions since the US distributor insisted on changing the cover art. Which I never understood, given how awesome the real covers were.

    Met him once at a small bookstore during one of his last tours through the US. It wasn't public yet, but he had just been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Looking back that explains a few things. He seemed to lose his place in the conversation now and then, at the time I just chalked it up to being sick of talking to fans. It was great though, a small venue with not many people. He was quite popular by this time of course, but it wasn't one of the major stops on his tour and wasn't very well advertised either. The people who did show up got to basically sit around and chat with him for a while in a fairly informal setting. One of my best memories from any author, artist, etc... that I've met.

  • NotoriusBENNotoriusBEN Registered User regular
    I think I believed in santa until I was 7 or 8, but had the hope that it was maybe true until about 9 or 10 years old. I was smart about keeping it to myself since I watched all those old shows with kids getting ridiculed by others for believing. It kinda hurt hearing my parents say it out loud, but I'd already known it wasn't true.

    My brother was devastated though.

    a4irovn5uqjp.png
    Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
Sign In or Register to comment.