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Today marks the tenth-year anniversary of something that has transcended being a mere internet meme and instead become something of a cultural landmark. I am talking, of course, of the  comic strip simply titled "Loss".

 

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What is Loss?

 

"Loss" refers to a four-panel strip of the webcomic "CTRL-ALT-DEL", created by Tim Buckley, in which the protagonist learns that his fiancee has suffered a miscarriage. Prior to this strip, the webcomic had already been the subject of widespread mockery for a variety of reason, including but not limited to:

 

*Being a sub-par rip-off of Penny Arcade.

*Its bland art-style, commonly referred to as "B^U", after what a typical character's face looks like when tilted to the side.

*Its tendency to over-explain "jokes" with massive walls of text.

*Stealing a character design from another artist.

*The author's numerous instances of douchebaggery, such as threatening to sue a fan for making an animation of his characters, stealing money from a charity to by an expensive drawing tablet, and allegedly sending a photograph of his penis to a 15-year-old girl.

 

It was this particular strip, however, that launched a massive flood of edits, ranging from simply altering the context of previous strips, mixing-and-matching with other characters from popular franchises, or re-creating the entire strip from screenshots:

 

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But miscarriages aren't funny! They're a serious tragedy!

 

You're absolutely right. However, the appeal of "Loss" is more than simply shock value over making fun of a sensitive subject. Rather, it's a mockery of Buckley's poorly-executed attempt to shoehorn drama into what had previously been a typical wacky ninja-cheese-monkey "gamer" comic. In fact, this wouldn't be the only one, either: the finale of the comic's main storyline prior to the reboot involved a dystopian future brought about by an army of robots built from XBox consoles. And it was played completely seriously.

 

Over time, however, people started to notice something: the original 4-panel comic could be re-created entirely with just straight lines:

 

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And once they made that discovery, they began to see Loss in places where it wasn't intended to be:

 

 

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It's now gotten to the point that any time someone sees a group of four images arranged in a square, the first thing their brain does is try to determine whether it's loss.

 

Whenever a game involves any sort of customization options or screenshot tools, people are roughly equally likely to create Loss as they are to try to make porn:

 

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So, what are some of your favorite Loss edits?

 

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I find stuff like this really fascinating actually. Some people will see meme's like these and say; "it's always hilarious don't take shit so seriously". While other will say; "it's always awful and proof of our degrading society". Personally, I believe it simply is what it is, a statement and it's rebuttal. Context is everything.

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The internet is strange.

 

First off, I've always hated (physically and intensely) the comic style that puts every character in positions that are both exaggerated and completely mundane. Always mouth wide open, hand out like they're Socrates... B^0

 

Also, it is incredible how this guy managed to make a scene about miscarriage be all about the man. The Know Your Meme page says CAD is/was notoriously sexist, and yep, I see it.

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