Comic 952: Dud Finder

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Oh. It's this strip.


Title: Stud Finder; alt-text: According to every stud finder I've tried to use, my walls contain a rapidly shifting network of hundreds and hundreds of studs.

You know what, I'll start with the good this time. I'm always accusing Randy of having decent ideas but flat-out awful execution. Well, he's turned that around this time. The execution is (surprisingly) good here. He doesn't explain the joke, and he even leaves the punchline understood, rather than explicit. The alt-text is a supplement to the joke without restating or further explaining the punchline.

Sadly, that's where the good ends. The actual content of the strip is, as expected, pretty awful. It's just repeating an old, now unfunny (if it ever was funny) joke that everyone's heard. And you know who's making the joke? Mr. Hat. Why? Because Randall's decided that "he's kind of a dick" is a sufficient description of this character. Never mind that most of the faceless, nameless people in his strip have the same characteristic.

Remember the good old days? When Mr. Hat wasn't just a dick, but someone who would go to disproportionately extreme measures for his own convenience or just to make a point? Remember when he was a goofy but ultimately psychotic madman? Now he's just some tool who makes "stud finder finder" jokes.

So yeah. The usual. Watered down character (in a strip that's in severe need of decent ones), lousy joke, and overall suckiness. It seems Randall's modus operandi is something like "good idea or good execution; pick up to one." Why won't you pick both, Randall? WHY WON'T YOU PICK BOTH. JUST PICK BOTH.


P.S. Upon looking at the forums, it's little surprise that Randall explains his jokes so often. His fans are IDIOTS. (Though that poster does have a point about the joke not fitting very well.)

P.P.S. It appears that the guy is about to hang his picture with screws. You know, because you attach the frame of the picture directly to the wall, and it's not like there's a big string hanging off it to put on a nail or anything. Nah. (Incidentally, I don't know of a single picture that HANGS like that. The slot or the wire is always short enough that it doesn't extend past the frame.)

P.P.P.S. You know what? I bet this comic was inspired by Randall's new wife saying, "Randy, we need some pictures in our house!" and Randall having absolutely no idea what that entails. Poor girl; looks like her "stud finder" was defective. Zing!