Comic Post #2

In the previous comic, a man and a woman were seen shopping with nothing but undergarments on but they didn’t seem to be bothered by the fact that they were out of place. Several convenience stores have what is known as a “no shirt, no shoes, no service” policy in tact which prohibits anyone who is not following as the rule says from entering in to the store. Many people, store managers being at the head of this group, believe it is unsanitary to not wear shoes into a public place. They see it as being more of a health risk to other customers and to themselves more than anything. There is no law in the state of Nebraska that says you cannot wear shoes into public places, but rather it is up to the establishment itself to determine whether or not you are allowed to wear them. This policy, however, is very different from indecent exposure.

Indecent exposure is defined as “The deliberate exposure by a person of a portion or portions of his or her own body under circumstances where such an exposure is likely to be seen as contrary to the local commonly accepted standards of decency, and may in fact be a violation of law. In some countries a breach of the standards of modesty is considered to be public indecency.” The key part of this definition is understanding that it is only thought of as indecent exposure when the local commonly accepted standards of decency have been violated. If these people would have been sporting their lovely underwear around, say a colony of nudists, they would be much more welcomed. Clearly in this photo we have two citizens who have indecently exposed themselves. Although this is against the law and these people could be fined for it (of course, this is a comic) we as the audience find this humorous. Why? Over the past several years America’s idea of humor and acceptable clothing has radically changed. Humor is “the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement.” (Wikipedia) Humor occurs when the brain recognizes a pattern that surprises it which is why we find the old people funny... We are surprised by the fact that they would not be wearing clothes in public.

1910, Anette Kellerman was arrested for wearing a one piece swimsuit in Australia. Nowadays, women’s one piece swimsuits are thought of as being the kind of swimsuit to wear when you don’t want to show too much skin. Also, American society today finds nudity and sexual based jokes funnier than it used to. Some of today’s “funniest” movies are full of indecent exposure and sexual innuendoes. Take “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” for example. If this movie wouldn’t have been banned from movie screens ten or twenty years ago solely because of its name, it would definitely have been banned due to its incredibly bawdy content. But in today’s society this movie was able to make $57,368,762. This is including DVD sales as well. Humor is something that is evolving with the human race. Future generations will find some things funnier than what, say, freshmen in college find funny. As humor keeps changing, it will continue to surprise humans.

Comic Post #1

This comic illustrates three people who are shopping at a convenience store. The two people on the left look very worn and shaggy, almost like they had just gotten out of bed and they appear to be older, and possibly retired. They also are much heavier set than than the other citizen shopping alongside them. The woman says “We usually shop in the comfort of our own home but the bloody computer crashed.” The woman standing next to the disheveled couple is very taken aback by what she sees at the convenience store, after all it isn’t every day that you see people openly wearing nothing but undergarments out in public. It is clear that the woman on the right is confused as to what she sees because of her tilted head and her the fact that her eyes are slightly sagging, but what makes this comic so funny as that the older couple seem to not be aware that it is not normal to go out in public in the kind of condition that they are in. They are completely oblivious to the fact that they are making a scene at the convenience store.

The audience can tell from what the woman is saying that there is clearly no evidence of her being aware of the fact that she is completely out of place in her environment. The audience is also intrigued by the partially clothed couple solely because of the fact that in our society today, it is not acceptable to go out in public when you do not have “proper” clothes on. In almost any convenience store today these kind of people would be either arrested, asked to leave, or thought of as senile for so casually walking around in public.

The text in this comic is written in a goofy looking font. The woman saying this also has her tongue out and has a sort of “can you believe this?” look on her face. We are able to tell that the lady on the left is being serious but doesn’t understand that no one else is able to take her seriously because of her physical appearance. She is given a goofy persona by the way the text is written, the curly, unkempt hair, and because of the clueless look on her face. The man on the left adds an incredible amount of character to the comic. Although he doesn’t say anything in the comic, he is clearly just as oblivious to being out of place as his wife is. He also shows signs of being bed ridden because of his scruffy beard and frilly hair.

The pun in this comic is the fact that nowadays many people do their shopping online. Internet sites like ebay.com, and Amazon.com often advertise with sayings that hint towards shopping being so easy that you can do it in the comfort of your own home. Overall, this comic was very clever and gave me a good laugh.