Tyranogre Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 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". 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: 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: And once they made that discovery, they began to see Loss in places where it wasn't intended to be: 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: So, what are some of your favorite Loss edits? Marxforever and Kodiack 2 Quote Link to comment
Marxforever Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment
Edie Napier Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 this is about loss, i swear Quote Link to comment
Spring Posted June 3, 2018 Share Posted June 3, 2018 https://cad-comic.com/comic/found/ Quote Link to comment
Edie Napier Posted June 3, 2018 Share Posted June 3, 2018 15 minutes ago, chickadee said: https://cad-comic.com/comic/found/ life has become darkness Quote Link to comment
Tyranogre Posted June 3, 2018 Author Share Posted June 3, 2018 https://cad-comic.com/comic/loss/ It's back up now. Quote Link to comment
April Posted June 3, 2018 Share Posted June 3, 2018 On 6/2/2018 at 1:42 AM, Tyranogre said: oh my fucking god Quote Link to comment
Elemental Hero Posted June 3, 2018 Share Posted June 3, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment
Kezay Posted June 3, 2018 Share Posted June 3, 2018 I still remember when it was first making the rounds, cna't believe it's been ten years though O_o So many of the edits and the stuff that people see "loss" in are pretty incredible, though. Quote Link to comment
Sir Grim Locksmith VIII Posted June 5, 2018 Share Posted June 5, 2018 Wow. Didn't know the original webcomic was that old. Quote Link to comment
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