Thursday, November 20, 2008

Daisy, daisy...

I waited until today to see where this was going... But yesterday's strip (Excuses, excuses) is an example of what I like to call "lazy writing." I don't know what professionals call it, but I'm guessing "top shelf" isn't it. (I'll save Scott (and perhaps Paul) the trouble -- "Hey FSM: Fuck you asshole." Fair enough.)

In what universe would any person interpret a declined Thanksgiving invitation as a total personal rejection? I understand that good feelings for Max are in short supply, but Thanksgiving is traditionally a time for family and any reasonable person would accept Cole and Brent's family-related excuses as understandable.

This could have easily been fixed.

Scenario 1:

Max: Hey guys! I'm on my own for Thanksgiving this year and was looking for some company.

Cole &/or Brent: Uh, sorry Dude, we've got plans with our families.

Max: Ah, of course, I just thought I'd ask. Well... how about the weekend after?


... At which point excuses can get thinner, and negative inferences can be more reasonably drawn by Max.

Or, scenario 2:

Max: Hey guys! I'm on my own for Thanksgiving this year and was looking for some company.

Cole &/or Brent: What, are you kidding? I wouldn't spend Thanksgiving with you if you stuffed yourself with a duck stuffed inside a chicken stuffed inside a goose.


At which point their distaste for Max has become obvious, and Max can let fly with the hurt feelings.

If I sound grumpy today, it's because I am. Sorry!! >kisses<

(On the up side I think I just came up with my Halloween costume for next year.)

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thing about it is, it's supposed to imply that he's been picking up on the "hatred" for a long time now. He just chose now to bring it up.

My main gripe is with today's strip.

I can't see a married man still being hung up on something like that.

The only time something like that should ever matter is if you're that old and still single.

Seriously, what would Cole's wife say if she heard him say that?

Anonymous said...

I don't know. I read it as Max always having noticed Cole's thinly veiled contemp for him, and this was the straw that made him finally ask WTF.

If Francis, or Brent of Jade or any other PVP person were alone on thanksgiving, Cole would be the first to invite them over. But not Max. So I see where Max could notice this...

Just my observation

R.W.McGee said...

PvP: 90210

Unknown said...

Seriously? Do you really read the strip that superficially?

For a supposed "commentator" you seem to miss quite a lot of what's going on in the work you're commentating on.

Think about the world for more than 5 seconds before forming an opinion.

Ben Sunshine-Hill said...

I agree with Anonymous and rook here. This wasn't a "heeeey... this proves something altogether new!" moment. It was just an opportunity to bring up the subject. Haven't you ever had a situation where you were pissed about something, and some particular occurrence set you off, even though in retrospect that occurrence wasn't a particularly good example of the sort of thing you were pissed about in the first place?

I'm iffy about the art in the last couple of strips. Waay too much over-the-shoulder. I guess perhaps Kurtz is doing an us-vs-him, me-vs-them thing, but the effect is that reaction expressions often aren't visible. That's too bad, because Kurtz has been really kicking ass with expressions as a whole recently. In particular, I like what he's doing with Max's face. The bags under the eyes and the nose-brow lines are stylized yet not too jarring. It actually reminds me a lot of Terry Colon's work, which given his work at suck.com, sorta fits Max's "Business 2.0" theme. Probably not intentional on SK's part, but that's what it made me think of.

Jai said...

Other people's interpretations of Max have always been more interesting than SK's take on the subject. And now we're getting an eyeful of messy, dumb Max drama straight from the master. At least when it happened with the panda, well, it's not like anyone really CARES if the panda's one-note "character" is "ruined".

I am, however, highly intrigued on the turducken Hallowe'en costume idea. Can you give us any more details on that?

Dan said...

What made Max's character was the fact that he was Cole's unknowing nemesis. Now that that's gone, I wonder if we'll see more of him or if he's gone?

Sko said...

Now Cole has his 'reason', no matter how bizarre it is, him having one does make Brent look a little like a petty bastard.

Oh well, maybe it'll all straighten out in the end. Fingers crossed for an actual gag somewhere down the line, though.

A Nonny Mouse said...

I interpreted it as Max having been aware of it for a while too, but I also thought he chose a pretty sloppy catalyst for broaching the subject.

Brett Schiller (Sage) said...

@rook543a
I would agree with your assessment but like I said before inviting yourself to a Thanksgiving and get rejected makes Max the jerk instead of trying to make Cole and Brent petty.

I can understand Brent not liking Max because a) his best friend doesn't like him b) Max appears
(or at least appeared) to be a annoying egotistical jerk. c) he knows of Max's stealing of Cole's gf (how far back are they friends?)

R.W.McGee said...

What I'm most frightened of is that this is going to play out with Max actually being gay, because I know PvP has something relevant to say on THAT subject, but I'm sure Kurtz won't...oh wait...THAT JUST HAPPENED.

Brett Schiller (Sage) said...

Well with this strip does that just make the year of 2008 the year of Cole being a total douche?

Anonymous said...

I don't believe Max was inviting himself to their Thanksgiving dinners, but was inviting them to join him.

I feel the his phrasing supports this, and it also makes far more sense overall.

On a side note, this is the 8th time (and 2nd computer, browser and PVPMMS post) that I've tried to make this comment. Blogger must not like me.

Anonymous said...

Correction, it seems Blogger doesn't like me using my Livejournal for OpenID

Alex Tucker said...

Interesting. It's 1:24 in the afternoon on a Friday and no post yet about Max being gay. Checking back in a bit...

R.W.McGee said...

Yes, well, since it's the most yawn inducing reveal in the history of modern literature, I doubt they felt it necessary to rush out with OMG he's GAY! Posts.

Ian said...

Maybe he's using this to turn Cole into less of an asshat. I doubt (by that I mean I really, really hope) that this will turn into a bad series of gay jokes.

P.S. I kind of liked the Panda.

Ian said...

forgot a word in there - I meant I really, really hope that this WON'T

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