The Perry Bible Fellowship

Gurewitch, Nicholas. "Now Showing." The Perry Bible Fellowship. http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF209-Now_Showing.jpg. Accessed 3.29.09.

The Perry Bible Fellowship is a web comic that highlights absurdity or irony in mostly fictional settings and focuses heavily on the artistic aspects of the medium. Rarely does the strip express political views or attempt to change the reader’s opinions with a joke, but it sometimes makes observations about modern culture (this comic being one of those cases). This strip is obviously critiquing our society’s view of ancient wars and conflicts. Instead of learning any lessons from these historical events, the general populous seems to only want to see some stupefied and epic version of what was once a serious conflict. So the author turns it around on us. Instead of going to see a movie like Troy, people in the future may go to see a movie about World War II (which is an event still in the recent memory of our society) that is equally as shallow and nonsensical, and this hypocrisy is what allows for a humorous look at our culture.

The End of the World

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/end This flash animation first appeared on the internet a few years ago, but I can’t find where it was originally published, or who the author was. This version is posted on the website Albino Blacksheep (based in Toronto, Canada), which relies on members to submit content.
This classic flash animation attempts to explain how the world will end and it mostly pokes fun at two things: the political position that the world and its most powerful nations are in and cultural stereotypes. The eagerness of President Bush to wildly fire off America’s nuclear arsenal and create a nuclear holocaust is obviously an attack on his cowboy attitude, while the cigarette smoking, lazy, and effeminate Frenchmen play directly into their stereotype. Although making fun of stereotypes is not exactly the highest form of comedy, I think the nonsensical and silly attitude that the animation takes on allows for this somewhat distasteful humor to be pretty funny. On the whole, I think the flash is simply laughing in the face of death, while poking fun at the human race and all of its absurd qualities.