EPT
Nedroid Picture Diary - Beartato Candy
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/oT44fUA.png)
Source: Nedroid Picture Diary
I am generally a huge fan of Nedroid Picture Diary. I like the art, I like the thoughts, I just like it in general. I particularly like this strip. It's funny and thoughtful and just a little bit absurd. It's the strip I show people to introduce them to Nedroid Picture Diary, and it has all the elements that are crucial to NPD's success.
Most people I show it to find it funny, though some don't. Also, and this is interesting, I don't think anyone over the age of 40 has found this particular strip funny. Part of it may be my delivery, but I think there's more to it than that. Think about it this way. You find this strip funny. How would you explain it to someone who didn't get the joke?
Now, generally explaining a joke to someone doesn't make them laugh, but usually at the end they’re like "ok yeah now I understand". I think it would be fairly difficult to explain this joke enough that someone could say "ah, I get it" afterwards and actually mean it, if they didn't already get it. The way I went about it was a little roundabout, so I'm not even sure if I actually understand the joke-- I just know I find it funny.
The humor in this strip is mostly implied or contextual. For example, part of the humor stems from the art and the medium. It's a comic strip with talking animals, it's varying shades of blue, the animals have arms and legs and look generally friendly and child-oriented. This art style clashes mightily with the message-- a lot of the humor comes from that. Also, the first panel seems pedestrian, almost like a Garfield cartoon, but the second panel is an extreme closeup of the featureless bird face with an existential question that is a total non sequitur. Even leaving out everything else, having someone follow up a casual conversation about candy with "Does it quell the roaring emptiness inside of you?" is so absurd and "out there" that you almost want to laugh just to dissipate the tension.
Panel 3 really drives it home, though. Beartato plays it absolutely straight and says, "Briefly", without punctuation, just as he said "Candy" without punctuation in Panel 3. This entire time, he hasn't moved-- every frame in which he is visible features him shoving candy in his mouth. You can imagine that he barely wants to stop chewing and swallowing candy for the moment needed to give 2 syllables of reply. He doesn't stop eating. The initial frame is now completely subverted-- both characters take the roaring emptiness seriously.
The final panel is them eating in silence. There's no happy ending, there isn't even a punchline. IT's just silence as they eat, evidently to quell the roaring emptiness. At this point everything is so at odds with the style and the first panel that it seems depressing and soul-sapping. Reginald could have said, "sounds good to me!" or something similar, and ruined it. Instead, he just starts eating, grabbing items with both hands so that he has a second one ready to go.
It would be like if dora the explorer were walking down the middle of the street, and she asks "Why aren't I walking on the sidewalk?" and after a brief pause, looks into the camera and says in a deadpan:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Kg69T8r.png)
"We feel safer like this. For some reason, we just feel safe like that. we never like to walk past trees and stuff, there's too much stuff going on. 'Too much stuff going on' is shorthand here for the shootings, the fights, the craziness. It's better to walk down the middle of the street, where you can keep a broad view of things, and where you have a few more seconds to run if you need to.If they shoot, don't run. Because if you run, you'll probably get shot in the back or something like that. So I just fall to the ground. Most people shoot from-- say if we in front of my house-- will shoot from the corner. Or do a drive-by in a car. So I just fall to the ground."
It's funny, but only in the context of like, someone who is familiar with the medium. You have to understand webcomics. And you have to know what comics and topic animals are normally for. And you have to get the clues the art style gives you, then be surprised by the panels after the first.
And you have to hear to roaring emptiness inside you.
