Penny Arcade

Dog · July 2020

Penny Arcade - Comic - Adamant

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

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Protected · July 2020

Addamant, Jerry.

Johnny17 · July 2020

I feel the urge to take the center frame out of context and bring it to a political rally.

Mundius · July 2020

Jerry, when you send stuff to Mike, you gotta make sure it's clear of typos. It's not a "move", it's a "movie".

dennis · July 2020

Movie, Jerry.

(Edit: The tychpo has now been fixed.)

areadmg · July 2020

Me: "You should check out Avatar: The Last Airbender!"
Other person a little later: "I watched that Last Airbender movie and it was awful. Why would you like that?"
Me: "Oh no......"

Same energy, really.

RatherDashing89 · July 2020

My mom is in her sixties and will talk about how she doesn't understand why my dad likes Star Wars (which he saw when it came out). She talks about how she can't stand the bad acting. So I asked her about it, like, I know the effects and writing are a little dated, but the acting?

She responded, "yeah, the one guy is all like, 'I love you Padme'..."

EmperorSeth · July 2020

You know, I enjoyed the 90s movies, buuuuut....didn't it seem like the Adams were a little to murder-y in them. I mean, the Adams were always morbid, but in the old show, wasn't the point that they were always friendly and neighborly in contrast to their image?

Of course, the movie gave me my lifelong crush on Christina Ricci, so I can't complain that much.

Solvent · July 2020

Yeah not really intimately familiar with the content, specifically, but the joke has broad appeal!

Rhesus Positive · July 2020

EmperorSeth wrote: »

You know, I enjoyed the 90s movies, buuuuut....didn't it seem like the Adams were a little to murder-y in them. I mean, the Adams were always morbid, but in the old show, wasn't the point that they were always friendly and neighborly in contrast to their image?

Of course, the movie gave me my lifelong crush on Christina Ricci, so I can't complain that much.

Remember their family motto: "We Gladly Feast on Those Who Would Subdue Us"

There are more antagonists in the movies, so the family get to react more to adversity rather than just random neighbours turning up

Jam Warrior · July 2020

EmperorSeth wrote: »

You know, I enjoyed the 90s movies, buuuuut....didn't it seem like the Adams were a little to murder-y in them. I mean, the Adams were always morbid, but in the old show, wasn't the point that they were always friendly and neighborly in contrast to their image?

Of course, the movie gave me my lifelong crush on Christina Ricci, so I can't complain that much.

The original original source is comic strips which were closer in tone to the 90s movie incarnation than the live action TV show.

Essentially it's all about the fun. If innocent people really died where would be the fun? So they don't. At least not obviously on screen. Thinks back to Pugsley's stop sign collection...

Whether you put that down to in universe supernatural curses etc or from a more meta side because it's all just a comic/show/film for light hearted entertainment and doesn't intend to be thought about that hard, is up to you.

dennis · July 2020

EmperorSeth wrote: »

You know, I enjoyed the 90s movies, buuuuut....didn't it seem like the Adams were a little to murder-y in them. I mean, the Adams were always morbid, but in the old show, wasn't the point that they were always friendly and neighborly in contrast to their image?

Of course, the movie gave me my lifelong crush on Christina Ricci, so I can't complain that much.

I feel like "good" in entertainment is pretty... flexible. I mean, Luke Skywalker was a good kid, right? But he dropped a bomb that killed between hundreds of thousands and millions of regular Joes who were just working food service, janitorial, IT, etc. All the movie had to say about that was, "Great shot, kid!"

Tofystedeth · July 2020

dennis wrote: »

EmperorSeth wrote: »

You know, I enjoyed the 90s movies, buuuuut....didn't it seem like the Adams were a little to murder-y in them. I mean, the Adams were always morbid, but in the old show, wasn't the point that they were always friendly and neighborly in contrast to their image?

Of course, the movie gave me my lifelong crush on Christina Ricci, so I can't complain that much.

I feel like "good" in entertainment is pretty... flexible. I mean, Luke Skywalker was a good kid, right? But he dropped a bomb that killed between hundreds of thousands and millions of regular Joes who were just working food service, janitorial, IT, etc. All the movie had to say about that was, "Great shot, kid!"

Look they didn't have any janitors or food service on the death star. It was mostly automated.

He did kill roughly 500,000 of those adorable mouse droids however.

YoungFrey · July 2020

The fact that even the good guys in Star Wars have a whole slave race (races) of sentient droids is messed up. They just wipe their memory at will, essentially killing them.

RatherDashing89 · July 2020

Jokes about friendly spooky bois are always kind of a thin line to walk. The Addams Family are friendly and nice, but are caricatures of murderous monsters. So you have to not think too hard about some of the jokes or it just doesn't work.

Nightmare Before Christmas has plenty of lines that make the assertion "but we're not mean" quite hard to believe, unless you start bending over backwards trying to discern what death actually means in the land of Halloween.

That aspect always made it hard for me to take Harry Potter seriously too. They throw just enough jokes in there about Quidditch or various curriculum being deadly to students that when the story does become serious, I'm just not buying that the teachers have the best interests of the kids at heart.

MichaelLC · July 2020

Every adult in Hogwarts and the larger wizzarding world are awful to kids; they lie to them, they put them in danger constantly.

zeromh · July 2020

dennis wrote: »

EmperorSeth wrote: »

You know, I enjoyed the 90s movies, buuuuut....didn't it seem like the Adams were a little to murder-y in them. I mean, the Adams were always morbid, but in the old show, wasn't the point that they were always friendly and neighborly in contrast to their image?

Of course, the movie gave me my lifelong crush on Christina Ricci, so I can't complain that much.

I feel like "good" in entertainment is pretty... flexible. I mean, Luke Skywalker was a good kid, right? But he dropped a bomb that killed between hundreds of thousands and millions of regular Joes who were just working food service, janitorial, IT, etc. All the movie had to say about that was, "Great shot, kid!"

But that tracks exactly with how people typically think of that sort of thing in the real world. If you destroy an enemy battleship, you're killing non-combatant cooks and medics, but few people focus on that. The Death Star had more personnel, but personally I don't think that changes the calculus on destroying enemy vessels.

War is awful. Destroying the Death Star was just as "good" as a lot of the decisions armies make in war.

dennis · July 2020

zeromh wrote: »

dennis wrote: »

EmperorSeth wrote: »

You know, I enjoyed the 90s movies, buuuuut....didn't it seem like the Adams were a little to murder-y in them. I mean, the Adams were always morbid, but in the old show, wasn't the point that they were always friendly and neighborly in contrast to their image?

Of course, the movie gave me my lifelong crush on Christina Ricci, so I can't complain that much.

I feel like "good" in entertainment is pretty... flexible. I mean, Luke Skywalker was a good kid, right? But he dropped a bomb that killed between hundreds of thousands and millions of regular Joes who were just working food service, janitorial, IT, etc. All the movie had to say about that was, "Great shot, kid!"

But that tracks exactly with how people typically think of that sort of thing in the real world. If you destroy an enemy battleship, you're killing non-combatant cooks and medics, but few people focus on that. The Death Star had more personnel, but personally I don't think that changes the calculus on destroying enemy vessels.

War is awful. Destroying the Death Star was just as "good" as a lot of the decisions armies make in war.

People tend to not think of that kind of thing as light entertainment suitable for children, though.

H3Knuckles · July 2020

dennis wrote: »

zeromh wrote: »

dennis wrote: »

EmperorSeth wrote: »

You know, I enjoyed the 90s movies, buuuuut....didn't it seem like the Adams were a little to murder-y in them. I mean, the Adams were always morbid, but in the old show, wasn't the point that they were always friendly and neighborly in contrast to their image?

Of course, the movie gave me my lifelong crush on Christina Ricci, so I can't complain that much.

I feel like "good" in entertainment is pretty... flexible. I mean, Luke Skywalker was a good kid, right? But he dropped a bomb that killed between hundreds of thousands and millions of regular Joes who were just working food service, janitorial, IT, etc. All the movie had to say about that was, "Great shot, kid!"

But that tracks exactly with how people typically think of that sort of thing in the real world. If you destroy an enemy battleship, you're killing non-combatant cooks and medics, but few people focus on that. The Death Star had more personnel, but personally I don't think that changes the calculus on destroying enemy vessels.

War is awful. Destroying the Death Star was just as "good" as a lot of the decisions armies make in war.

People tend to not think of that kind of thing as light entertainment suitable for children, though.

Having recently rewatched the compilation movies of the original Gundam TV series, Japan would beg to differ.

Zoku Gojira · July 2020

The last panel reminds me that I’m currently riding out the pandemic without a fancy goblet. Some nice 1L beer mugs in the freezer, but no drinking implement that might adorn a kingly table, or possibly contain fire. And I cannot tell you how many sunrises this land has known since last I feasted on the roasted leg of an animal. You know, you think you’re prepared...

dennis · July 2020

H3Knuckles wrote: »

dennis wrote: »

zeromh wrote: »

dennis wrote: »

EmperorSeth wrote: »

You know, I enjoyed the 90s movies, buuuuut....didn't it seem like the Adams were a little to murder-y in them. I mean, the Adams were always morbid, but in the old show, wasn't the point that they were always friendly and neighborly in contrast to their image?

Of course, the movie gave me my lifelong crush on Christina Ricci, so I can't complain that much.

I feel like "good" in entertainment is pretty... flexible. I mean, Luke Skywalker was a good kid, right? But he dropped a bomb that killed between hundreds of thousands and millions of regular Joes who were just working food service, janitorial, IT, etc. All the movie had to say about that was, "Great shot, kid!"

But that tracks exactly with how people typically think of that sort of thing in the real world. If you destroy an enemy battleship, you're killing non-combatant cooks and medics, but few people focus on that. The Death Star had more personnel, but personally I don't think that changes the calculus on destroying enemy vessels.

War is awful. Destroying the Death Star was just as "good" as a lot of the decisions armies make in war.

People tend to not think of that kind of thing as light entertainment suitable for children, though.

Having recently rewatched the compilation movies of the original Gundam TV series, Japan would beg to differ.

Well, Japan has different cultural mores in general, so there's that. Much like how in Europe nudity isn't considered the horrible thing and on-screen violence isn't considered ho hum like in America.

But leaving aside that, it seems like you're implying "it's an anime" = "it's targeted at children". That's not generally the case in Japan. I'm not privy to how Gundam is marketed/targeted there, but anime has a much different place in their entertainment offerings than animated stuff here.

H3Knuckles · July 2020

dennis wrote: »

H3Knuckles wrote: »

dennis wrote: »

zeromh wrote: »

dennis wrote: »

EmperorSeth wrote: »

You know, I enjoyed the 90s movies, buuuuut....didn't it seem like the Adams were a little to murder-y in them. I mean, the Adams were always morbid, but in the old show, wasn't the point that they were always friendly and neighborly in contrast to their image?

Of course, the movie gave me my lifelong crush on Christina Ricci, so I can't complain that much.

I feel like "good" in entertainment is pretty... flexible. I mean, Luke Skywalker was a good kid, right? But he dropped a bomb that killed between hundreds of thousands and millions of regular Joes who were just working food service, janitorial, IT, etc. All the movie had to say about that was, "Great shot, kid!"

But that tracks exactly with how people typically think of that sort of thing in the real world. If you destroy an enemy battleship, you're killing non-combatant cooks and medics, but few people focus on that. The Death Star had more personnel, but personally I don't think that changes the calculus on destroying enemy vessels.

War is awful. Destroying the Death Star was just as "good" as a lot of the decisions armies make in war.

People tend to not think of that kind of thing as light entertainment suitable for children, though.

Having recently rewatched the compilation movies of the original Gundam TV series, Japan would beg to differ.

Well, Japan has different cultural mores in general, so there's that. Much like how in Europe nudity isn't considered the horrible thing and on-screen violence isn't considered ho hum like in America.

But leaving aside that, it seems like you're implying "it's an anime" = "it's targeted at children". That's not generally the case in Japan. I'm not privy to how Gundam is marketed/targeted there, but anime has a much different place in their entertainment offerings than animated stuff here.

No, original Gundam was very definitely marketed to kids. I'm well aware that anime is just a medium and not any particular genre or demographic. I just thought it would be funny to bring up as a counterpoint, as that series really doesn't pull punches about what war is like.

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