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vermeil — Slow Business
by-nc-sa
Published: 2007-09-16 21:43:21 +0000 UTC; Views: 360; Favourites: 1; Downloads: 10
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Description
I'm sure this joke has been used a few times already, but I really wanted to make a picture out of it.Made with Inkscape.
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Comments: 5
I laughed... but actually about me taking so long to understand the joke 
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Thank you, I think
It would be very helpful if you could give me some of your thoughts about it. What do you see in the picture? Why is the joke obscure? Etc.
I know that the composition is bad, and I probably should have left the house elf out, but beyond that I really don't know what the problem is. I can see that it didn't turn out well, but I don't know why.
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Ok, I'll give it a try... So there's a kissing booth set up, but who runs it? This was the first thing I wasn't sure about; I just assumed it was supposed to be death, although I would have expected the usual hooded figure with a scythe (not very imaginative, but recognizable). Then there's the sign... it's easy to see that the price has been reduced several times (k is the currency Krone, right?), but what was the starting price? 4 Sickles? Are sickles a kind of currency? This one really puzzled me. I figured if the actual agricultural tool is meant, this might speak for my death theory. After all, if death likes to carry a scythe, perhaps he's eager to possess many sickles as well... Can you see the confusion? The elf was the easiest to figure out, I think: I see him as a more or less clueless bystander, kinda dumb with his wide staring eyes, the dorky teeth and the nose-picking gesture (on second thought: is he really picking his nose, or is this a "I'm thinking terribly hard" gesture? Then I would suggest pointing his finger at his chin). He seems to be considering using the booth, despite little doubts he can't really figure out.
So in short, I think the gag boils down to this: Death is setting up a kissing booth, which is a rediculously bad idea, because potential customers would obviously avoid such an offer, as they don't want to die (kiss of death). Hence the slow business. Assuming I figured this one out correctly, the idea itself isn't a problem here at all. Sure it is groan-worthy (you admitted yourself it had probably been done before), but I could actually imagine Gary Larson doing something like this (but even masters like him got the readers confused from time to time. "cow tools" anyone?). The composition didn't bother me either, but the confusing elements i mentioned before removed much of the impact of the punchline. Trying too hard to figure out a joke that isn't complicated kills the fun.
Here are some subjective suggestions (not sure if they would all work):
- Make death recognizable.
- Give him a fake salesman's smile (trying hard to keep it up & play the role of an innocent) - i think that would be funnier than making him so obviously threatening
- Clarify the currency thing (sickles?)
- Don't give the elf wide staring eyes. Give him either a more contemplative look or a puzzled look like this: o_O
Ooof... i hope this made some sense and could be somewhat helpful.
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Yikes... I really messed this one up, apparently.
First of all, the floaty boothkeeper is supposed to be a dementor from the Harry Potter mythos. Most people would rather eat glass shards than kiss one, so his (her? its?) business is sure to be slow. My intent was to give the dementor a bewildered "uh, is it my breath?" expression, as if it didn't realize how destructive its kisses are*. To clarify the context, I added the house elf and the small "Hogsmeade Fair" tag on the booth, and used HP currency on the sign (k = knuts).
(My original vision had a varied lot of booths and a throng of visitors to the fair, leaving an empty area around the kissing booth. As I was unable to get a government grant for producing it, I settled for this simplified image.)
Anyway, thank you very much for your reply, it was indeed helpful.
*) AFAICT a dementor doesn't actually have eyes, but I thought I needed to give it eyes in order for it to have an expression.
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