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I don't know anything about this Pizzacake person, but I don't think this specific comic is any worse than the average newspaper gag strip, except they wouldn't tackle a subject like this. It didn't make me laugh, but I also wouldn't call it awful. I'd definitely read this over literally any Dilbert strip ever.
Dilbert is just proletariat office life
Uhhh what is going on in the comments? Who is Pizzacakecomic? And why almost everyone here hate them?
Pizzacake is a popular comic artist over on Reddit. She gained popularity mostly because she is extremely active in the comments of all of her posts. She is constantly chatting and attempting to make friends.
As for why she is disliked, there's a few reasons.
The one she sites the most is sexism though there isn't actually a lot of evidence of this outside of her own testimony.
Another is that she won't stop talking about how people who don't like her are sexist. She's made multiple comics about how her critics don't read her comics and just dislike them due to woman.
Her jokes also tend to be the easiest possible punchline for every joke. this has a kinda weird double effect because it means that her comics are extremely applicable to most people because they are generic enough that you can fit most of them into most situations. On the flip side, if you don't like one the comics... You probably won't like any of them... They're all similar enough to be mostly indistinguishable other than the topic itself. along that same train of thought, if you like one... You'll probably like them all.
As for my own opinion, I don't really care one way or the other. She's fine. I've heard accusations of her paying for likes on Reddit for promoting her own comics and so on but honestly I haven't seen any proof myself so I can't confirm or deny any of those.
The one she sites the most is sexism though there isn’t actually a lot of evidence of this outside of her own testimony.
Sexism is so rampant on Reddit that saying "I'm a woman" and getting bombarded by creeps and freaks is trivial. Less a commentary on her, specifically, and more on the degenerate nature of the community.
She’s made multiple comics about how her critics don’t read her comics and just dislike them due to woman.
She's producing liberal political comics, and she's a woman, so the chuds will be out in full force screaming at her.
At a certain point, though, its just...
She’s fine.
She's very clearly low effort. The art is flat, the comedy is mid, the political edginess is ten years out of date.
I wonder if Netflix will be signing her any time soon.
The art being flat as a way of saying it's low effort is an argument I genuinely don't understand. Comics are all low effort art wise... That's part of the whole thing.
Comics historically have been the lowest quality you can get away with since they have to be put out every day for the newspaper. I know XKCD does more than 1 thing but the art style is literally stick figures and they're one of the most popular web comics.
You may not like the art but I would call it a mediocre art style more than a low effort one.
Everything else I fully agree with. She gets the (unfortunately) normal amount of hate a woman gets online for being a woman. Which is why I made sure to do italics for it when I said lot. She tends to get significantly more support than hate in pretty much everything she does either way.
Comics are all low effort art wise…
I strongly disagree. Plenty of comics have some very high quality and detailed art. Other comics really evolve over time, from the more basic sketches to these fully realized complex images, as the artists themselves improve. Still others are sloppy-but-ambitious, with these poorly conceived but legitimately daring efforts at capturing visuals.
I know XKCD does more than 1 thing but the art style is literally stick figures and they’re one of the most popular web comics.
XKCD is a great example of raw ambition in art. They routinely do shit with flash or with clever perspective tricks or panel gags that leverage a relatively simple style into something more. Case in point:
Perspective, emotion, action, comedy, a very well-established cast of characters from simplistic visuals. All from stick-figures. There was some real thought put into this.
Oh I'm definitely not saying anything negative about XKCD. I LOVE those comics. My point is simply that even stick figures can make good comics.
It's fine if you don't like the art as art tends to be subjective. I just don't think her art is any lower than any other average web/newspaper comic.
I guess I'm fine with pizzacake's awful zero-punchline comics being here on Lemmy, I just hope her stupid cult doesn't follow and this community doesn't turn into some pizzacake safe fan space where you literally aren't allowed to say anything that isn't directly kissing her ass, like /r/comics.
It would get boring if we get comments like this (i.e. that say nothing about the particular comic posted) underneath every comic though :/
I'm talking about the creator, relevant, and specifically referring to this particular comic (as well as their others) as awful and without a punchline, so that doesn't feel like nothing about the topic to me.
Negativity is a valid opinion and negativity isn't the same as incivility (and thus shouldn't be prohibited)
There is a punching in this comic.
There really isn't. The "punchline" here is predicated on the idea that the reader will assume the character will react with transphobia, as if transphobia is the default reaction, but if you don't assume that reaction either because that's not your worldview or you're familiar enough with the creator to understand the context of their work, then there is nothing left to serve as a punchline. I won't say "virtue signaling" because that's a stupid phrase and frankly there is legitimately some value to the signaling of virtue in the first place anyway (especially when said signal is one of welcoming to a disenfranchised community like our trans brothers and sisters), but the only "joke" here is pandering. It's "hey you expected me to be awful but I'm actually incredible!!," and that's not a punchline.
edit: typos
It is really a punchline. Also it isn't predicated on the reader's reaction being transphobia. The reader could simply be aware that transphobia exists and is a common reaction to the familiar situation she depicted. You don't need to self insert as literally one of the characters in the comics you read. She isn't saying that you are transphobe or that she is incredible. She is making a comment about how parents and society's reaction to a trope situation is changing.
I didn't say the reader, I said the character. She isn't making any "comment" about anything here; acknowledging a situation exists is not inherently making commentary on it nor injecting humor into it. This is at best pandering, at worst pandering with an appetizer of rage-baiting.
Do I hate this? No. Is it evil? No. Do I hate pizzacake? No. Do I even object to this awful non-punchline comic being posted here? No. The only thing I object to is the bullshit special treatment and kid gloves certain creators on the other site received for no worthwhile reasons, and am preemptively sounding the alarm that we should be wary that such behavior does not seep over here too.
Point being, if you enjoy this comic, punchline or not, that is okay. I'm not really interested in further spending time arguing the merits or non-merits of the work of somebody I'm not interested in with you, so if you still wish to argue that there is some deep commentary or punchline to be found here, I hope we simply land on agreeing to disagree on the topic.
Ok
"you're a dark autumn" is the edgiest I've ever heard someone talk to anyone else, unless they were literally discussing with an actual season. What the fuck?
I blocked pizzacake on Reddit because the comics are terrible and now I have to look at them here.
I feel like if you're on a comic strip community you should expect to see various comic strips even from artists you don't like, no? Just block the community or filter the word from titles
no but i want to be madddd
how dare you enjoy and spread this thing that i dont follow >:((((((
entire day. ruined. i downvoted your comment to let you know how much i dont care.
Man I hate "bad take roleplay" comments.
"How dare you [insert opposing reasonable take]".
They're so low effort and Reddit.
I always wanted a nice snappy title for this kind of weird trash, bad take roleplay is pretty good
It displays it on all and I don't mind seeing comics just not this creator because of how toxic she is.
I don't know anything about this artist, could you tell what toxic stuff she's done?
She is well known on Reddit for her and her fans to call people sexist just because they don't like her comics.
[citation needed]
Pizzacake is also known for buying upvotes to promote her unfunny comics. This one in particular is wholesome, but most of them are garbage.
I got instantly permabanned from r/comics just for saying it felt fishy how quick they gained upvotes. Which it was
Here is just a couple of examples. I don't like going to Reddit anymore so if you want more citations, you can search Reddit yourself.
All these don't specifically show her calling anyone sexist, you can see her overall demeanor.
Ok, that IS obnoxious
Great these terrible comics have made their way here, too
They do suck and a lot of people agree, but oh no don't ever try to go against the popular opinion... Geez
How dare you trashtalk pizzamommy😡
I would pay at least a bit to never have to see these again. I’m not even some crazy hater, I just find them super low effort and the loyalty they have to be very very strange.
Same. I’ll admit a few overall have made me nose laugh but most are just “yep, that’s a joke/statement I see online 20 times a week put to picture”. It’s not that I inherently dislike them, but they’re not my cup of tea and I preferred when I could just not see them.