I am writing in regard to the comic strip “1,000,000 Fatal Fables” by Eric Stars. I have been a reader and fan of this strip since it first premiered.
The Oct. 24 comic is particularly brilliant and worthy of intense critical scrutiny.
Stars regularly eschews the traditional setup-punchline comic strip formula, and this comic is a shining illustration of this tendency.
In the first panel, Kevin Nash is presumably searching for porn (most likely something grotesque and/or very offensive). In a traditional two-to-four-panel comic, it would be unthinkable to include jokes in the first panel.
Stars has no problem making his audience laugh from the start with this ridiculous situation.
In the second panel, Stars includes two punchlines. First, Nash states that he played Super Shredder in the second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie-a true statement. This statement is humorous because it is (or seems to be) such an unsatisfactory response to the problem at hand. The lab attendant, though, takes this non sequitur as a satisfactory response and allows Kevin Nash to continue his porn-searching session.
We could assume that the lab attendant enjoyed the second Turtles movie and thus has great respect for Nash. The attendant could also have seen the second Turtles movie and been frightened by Super Shredder, and now he misplaces his fear toward Nash.
Regardless of the interpretation, the second panel is packed with humor. As you should now be able to see, this comic is a brilliant satire of contemporary mores and nonstop rakish hilarity at the same time.
Joe Boettcher is a graduate student in computer engineering.