What now?!
on March 29, 2013 at 12:01 amChapter: Howard Can Dress Himself
Characters: Howard Lesse, Joe Rosenthal
Location: Danny and Joe's dorm room, Howard's dorm room
I’m not even sure who we’re supposed to identify with in this strip. Are we supposed to empathize with Joe? With Howard? I just don’t know.
What is this strip.
Stupid. That’s what it is.
… Showing its age is what it is. That is an old-looking computer.
No kidding. Nowadays when the “tower” is horizontal and fits under the monitor, the computer is either FREAKING OLD or nowhere near “state of the art” (i.e. only good for office work, if that)
If it’s sideways, it’s a “desktop” not a tower.
Man, back when Desktop, Tower and Mini-Tower were useful terms…
See, I don’t remember the word “desktop” even being used in that way!
So,
Joe went in Howard’s bedroom, they looked in each other’s eyes intensely, and in next panel, Howie is almost naked.
Not sure what exactly happened between those two panels, but in any case, I ship it now.
>What is this strip.
What is love?
<insert .gif here>
What is love?
Baby don’t hurt me… don’t hurt me… no more…
This strip is… telling a joke??
I never really felt to read more into it than that.
Also hey, site finally caught up to Daylight Saving Time. Woo, yay.
Is it? What’s the joke, then? Willis’s commentary points out that there really isn’t one.
What I find funny is that, these days, you’re one of the “cool” kids if you have a brand-new computer.
I love that even the title of the strip almost seems to be questioning this.
I think the only way the joke even slightly works is if we sympathize with Joe.
The joke is that Joe is a dick.
And yet, Howard will not leave him alone.
I thought the joke was that they have the same haircut.
Bit of an Odie/Garfield dynamic here. Sorry David, I’m sure you love that comparison 😛
I bet it has a 28k Modem, 32Mb RAM and over 500Mb of hard drive memory.
HACK THE PLANET!!
Dehumanizing nerds if they annoy you is funny, thats the joke. Its an outdated sense of humor, I would hope.
…he is naked, isn’t he?
Oh, Joe… 😛
Either there’s a lamp growing out of the top of that computer, or it’s an alien in disguise.
Heeeeeey Joe.
What are doing with that nerd in your hand?
Heeeeeey Joe.
What are doing with that nerd in your hand?
I’m going to hang him from a hook!
I caught him messing around with my prescious my time!
And that ain’t too cool.
I thought that the joke was that Joe assaulted Howard in order to steal his amazing new computer.
You mentioned Danny’s hand in the commentary for the strip after this one, but not Howard’s insanely-huge hand here?
I’m not sure why you’re confused, Willis. I mean, haven’t we all been in that situation where someone is annoying you and you’re compelled to tear that person’s clothes off and hang him from a hook like he was Judas Iscariot? Right? We’ve all been there, ya know.
The joke is that Howard is dumb.
(And can’t tell when people are itching for murder.)Originally posted:
September 29, 1998