The dude needs to hire a gag writer and an artist.

I don’t get it. I’m going to assume I just don’t know enough about the movie “Earth’, rather than it being like that last gag cartoon about the people in line to meet warner brothers cartoon characters. Is this another one of those post modern Andy Kaufman meta wtf ‘find the jokes’ jokes? Or does loocy want to splain?

Not Funny.

Okay, is the gag supposed to be that Disney is the evil empire, a name that has been lovingly and unlovingly been bandied about for Disneys Corporate practices ever since Walt died? Or does this somehow tie into the content of the movie Earth, itself?

Was “Earth” nihilistic, a downer of a film, or was the cartoonist merely taking an opportunity to tag Disney with the tired old every day “evil empire” thing again? Was it funny because “Earth” was slapped together to take advantage of the sales of “Planet Earth” with whatever careless or typical attention Disney may sometimes show?

Okay, let me ask it this way. Would the gag be as funny, or more funny, if the movie they saw was “Bolt”?

Jarrett, did you ‘get it’ or did you send it to Jerry for purposes of non sequitor cognitive dissonance?

I do think its funny that people post panel gags to CartoonBrew just to get a response of “Wheres the joke?”

Hey, guys. My name is Tom Brazelton. I am the artist and writer of Theater Hopper.

I noticed a lot of referral hits coming from Cartoon Brew and thought I would check it out. I didn’t ask Jerrett to post my comic here, but he must have enjoyed it enough that he wanted to share it. So, thanks, Jerrett.

I’m sorry if some of you don’t think the writing or art is up to snuff. Perhaps if you went back to my site and combed through the archives a little bit, you might find something you enjoy.

To clear up any confusion about the joke, the set up was that there have been a lot of popular movies with dark themes lately and the woman in comic wanted to see something nice and uplifting. The assumption was that because it was produced by Disney, the film would fit that need.

Instead, I characterized “Earth” as just another dark, nihilistic film framed within the context of Disney being an evil empire (i.e. Even Disney is following the trend of films with darker subject matter – Dark Knight, Watchmen, etc.) The humor is supposed to be derived from the juxtaposition.

Thanks for the analysis, though. It’s good to know people take cartoons so seriously. We wouldn’t want anyone who is still learning or perhaps cartooning for the fun of it to break into the medium prematurely.

Wow you guys, being a bit harsh. The joke is in the male/female relationship and the kinds of flicks each stereotypically get off on with an unexpected outcome. I have this same tête à tête with my wife on a daily basis.

As for judgments on ability when it comes to writing and drawing, how about constructive criticism, or get off your butt and post your own worthwhile content. Sheesh indeed.

No, I’m NOT going to “Lighten up…”.
It’s a stupid cartoon panel and I ain’t gonna pretend that it isn’t.
It’s the OLDEST Disney joke on the planet and it’s dumb and way overused.
And, maybe worst of all, it isn’t funny.
RK

Buy a ticket to “Earth” and Disney will plant a tree in your honor.

REFUSE to buy a ticket, and Disney will BURN DOWN A FOREST, and it’ll be YOUR fault! :-)

“Would the gag be as funny, or more funny, if the movie they saw was “Bolt”?”

Err, it wouldn’t be funny at all because it wouldn’t really even make sense.

After all, why would a movie called ‘Bolt’ be, in any way, about Disney trying to take over the world? ‘Earth’, otoh, could easily be misconstrued in that way and, at least to me, it makes sense.

Now, Randy, dude, you *really* need to lighten up. You know what tells me that? The fact that you outright say ‘I’m NOT going to “Lighten up…”‘. If a comic offends you that much, you really need to look into relaxation techniques.

And, sometimes, old jokes, even those that are overused, remain funny. And if they aren’t funny to you, maybe you aren’t the audience?

I mean, I’m not the audience for gay porn. I’m not about to call out a gay porno as being unrealistic, lacking plot or being devoid of actual emotion, because I’m not the target audience and I’m smart enough to recognize that.

As for people complaining about the art. Well, sure (no offense Tom, I’ve talked to you on Twitter and donated back when you had the HD crash), the art isn’t the best on the Internet. There’s better, there’s worse.

But, he puts his heart into it, the jokes are (by and large) on (even Penny Arcade and PvP have off days).

I long ago gave up on giving negative reviews of things when I didn’t like something and I couldn’t do anything better. So, those of you railing against the jokes, the art, the writing, show us what you got.

For what it’s worth, I don’t need to see someone else’s artistic output to comparatively measure the value of my own work. Personally, I critique things all the time in which I have no experience. The performance of certain actors, for instance. Could I do better? Probably not. But, to paraphrase the old saying, “…I know what I like.”

But before any criticism can be taken seriously, it should have some kind of thoughtful foundation. To simply say “it isn’t funny” and leave it at that is a completely subjective and worthless observation.

I had dismissed Billy Batz’s original comments entirely. But he came back with a more thoughtful response and pointed out ways the comic could have been better. I can see his point of view more clearly now. His criticism has merit.

I guess the error was that this comic was meant for the general public, rather than specifically the animation community. The idea of Disney as “cute and harmless” is much more prevalent in popular culture than “Disney as monolithic empire”. The empire bit, it seems to me, acts as an aside to add additional layers to the main joke of an uncharacteristic Mickey Mouse and recent movie trends.

What I love about Theater Hopper is that it reads like a movie, the juxtapositions play out more like a montage, and you can almost hear it and see it play out in movement. There is a strong and particular comedic timing that Mr. Brazelton utilizes through framing each “shot”, and it’s very effective.

Frankly, I thought it was quite funny, and still do.

Actually, Randy Koger’s comment of “… It’s the OLDEST Disney joke on the planet and it’s dumb and way overused… ” made me laugh out loud as well. If you’re want to eliminate anything that’s “overused” in our culture, you’d better get started.