Sometimes, when I write for this blog, I'll be going over a comic that's similar to one that Carl reviewed back in the day. "Oh man, this is my 'The joke has apparently been stolen'." I'll say to myself, reveling in how goddamn awesome I am.
And this, today's comic, is my "the fucking boomerang in space shit", which enjoys a happy life on the Angriest Rants list, leaving me a sizable legacy to live up to.
So, naturally, I'm two days late. Whelp, such is life.
In our first joke, Black Hat touches the miniature Earth in a way that causes a gigantic tsunami. I suspect that I'm going to get crap for saying this, but I didn't know what was going on with those panels until I checked explainxkcd. We don't see his hand or anything else that would show him as the cause of the tsunami in the forth panel, making it look disconnected from the previous one. It's also a strange artistic choice to have the "AAAAAAAA" above the waves, as opposed to being placed closer to the town from which it originates.
I'd like to point out that the exchange between Black Hat and Bald ("The Moon would be-" / "Hey, cool!" / "Um.") means that this comic passes the reverse Bechdel Test, but not the actual Bechdel Test.
It's also strange to me how Black Hat is the only one with a history of random douchebaggery, but he's the one who would have caused the least damage to the inhabitants of Mini Earth. In our second joke, Girl straight-up drowns the entire Mini Earth in ketchup for no reason, and that's not even a character trait of hers. It's like Randy wanted to do another Black Hat joke but couldn't, because he'd already used him. I wonder if this is supposed to be an expression of the angst that Randy feels when no one wants to hear him talk about dinosaurs.
I think the reason I'm so Let Down by the attacks on Mini Earth as a source of comedy is that it feels almost like squishing bugs, more Black Mage than Black Hat. They're tiny! We don't see them! This isn't Horton Hears A Who!
Why does the cat attack Mini Earth at all, anyway? I'm pretty well read on cat stereotypes, and I can't remember "enjoys attacking basketballs" being on the list. Yarn balls, sure, but not basketballs.
I guess the last set of panels is the best. The punchline follows naturally from the setup, instead of the punchline just being random assaults on a tiny planet. In the last joke, the punchline depends on the setup to make it make sense. With the other jokes, the setup could have been some other completely different things, "Black Hat is a dick for no reason" has been done before and better, with more visible consequences.
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