My cat elicits a similar response from me and others. From xkcd.com.As I got a little older, I gravitated toward a slightly more mature (but still juvenile) brand of humor. In junior high I had a weekly calendar composed of Far Side comics, which are beautiful in their simplicity, sometimes not even requiring a caption:
The history of American cartoons goes back to Ben Franklin, but the modern era began in the 1920's when The New Yorker was founded on the basis of the urban, New York-centric humor that filled its pages. New Yorker cartoons have become iconic -- die-hards enter the caption contest every week and dream of the day their caption is chosen -- and remain a large part of the identity of one of the world's most respected magazines.
The comic format is straightforward and endlessly replicable. In just a few frames (or just one), a joke, a one-liner, is executed in classic fashion: foundation, build-up, punchline. This form of comedy is so simple and yet often so badly executed (ex. the last many seasons of SNL). But done well, the humor can be subtle, outrageous, thought-provoking, uproarious -- the good stuff touches a nerve in some way. It taps into pop culture, or shared experience, or human nature. Comics are a succinct, expert rendering of short-form comedy.
Luckily for us, the comics don't have to go down with the newsprint ship. The Internet has swooped in to save frame-by-frame humor. Below are the webcomics that make me laugh and that I purport to keep up with on a semi-regular basis. Warning: I appreciate webcomic humor that incorporates wordplay, existential crises, rampant pop culture references and occasionally the voice of God.
xkcd - A classic, and the first webcomic I ever read. One day, while really, really, really bored in college, I went back and read every single one. (There are almost 900, and the first few are sparse save the suggestion that the author had some deep thoughts to work out on graph paper while sitting in class.) Published M/W/F and billed as "a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language," xkcd is particularly popular with the tech nerds who probably understand the 20% of the comics that go completely over my head. The other 80% is pure gold for everyone, though, especially if you're even the slightest bit geeky/bereft/pretentious about language/a pop culture junkie.
garfield minus garfield - For the particularly angst-ridden among us. Or those who enjoy the Garfield cartoons with Garfield erased, leaving a severely depressed and lonely Jon talking to himself in the suburbs. For some reason I find it funny, and if that makes me a bad person, then so be it. At least I'm not alone. This isn't one to be "kept up with" as much as checked out every once in awhile when you need reminding of how inconsequential your own problems really are.
Dinosaur Comics - Probably the most existential comic on the list, DC utilizes the same artwork every day, changing around only the dialogue. And it's bloody brilliant. It's published almost every weekday and usually deals with some sort of personal realization or crisis in the life of "27-year-old" T-Rex, with an occasional cameo from God (in bold print because, you know, he's God). Be sure to look for the Easter eggs in captions and RSS feed descriptors. (Hint: Look at my blogroll on the right!)
Hyperbole and a Half - With a completely different format than most webcomics - author Allie Brosh creates individual, crudely drawn frames interspersed with autobiographical text -- the humor of this one sometimes feels manic. In short, I like it alot.
Cowbirds in Love - The most recent addition to my webcomic repertoire, I'm not completely sold yet but some funny moments have kept me coming back, like this one. Not exactly laugh-out-loud, but still funny.
My knowledge of webcomics is minuscule compared to what's out there; I left out a number of notables that are amusing but not as much my style (Homestar Runner, Penny Arcade, etc.), so if you're still not satisfied, the good people over at Mashable and Cracked.com have a few more suggestions for you. Whatever your personal webcomic style, rejoice in the knowledge that we can all share in a form of writing that is as robust in the Internet age as it was when New Yorker founder Harold Ross and his jocular compatriots gathered around the Algonquin Round Table in the 1920's.
Other comics I should be reading? I can't promise anything -- my time is so valuable, after all -- but give me a shout in the comments.
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UPDATE, 12:15 pm: I just realized one of the primary reasons webcomics have a leg up on newspaper comics! No censorship.
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