Hieroglyph - eviltoast
    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      27·
      5 days ago

      Out of context Loss is actually pretty good, frankly. The thing is the context it was found in doesn’t deserve it. It came from a sub-boner humor gamer comic that suddenly got really dramatic. The tone whiplash just struck a nerve at the time, which is why the comic came to wide attention.

      Then there’s the “is this Loss” meme, which is kind of a prank game where you encode the layout of Loss as abstractly as possible, often with one line, to represent the character walking through the door alone, two lines, one tall and one short to represent him standing and the sitting nurse, two tall lines for him and the doctor standing, and then one vertical and one horizontal line to represent him standing and her lying down. The joke here lies in reminding people of this stupid thing in as abstract and distant a way as possible.

      • Comment105@lemm.eeEnglish
        116·
        5 days ago

        It was a stupid reaction.

        Buckley had every right to make that little comic, the amount of backlash for that was completely disproportional even if he had made a terrible comic about killing Skyrim children or something.

        A “bad tonal ahift” is nowhere near bad enough to warrant this kind of hate.

        • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          292·
          5 days ago

          He absolutely did have every right to make that comic. And his audience had every right to respond “Whahahahahahat the fuck was that?”

            • T156@lemmy.worldEnglish
              3·
              4 days ago

              That was the intended audience for the comic at the time, though.

              CAD was very much immature nerd humour (as was the style at the time), and it’d be inevitable that a sudden tonal whiplash to a serious tragedy around a miscarriage, out of seeming nowhere, would be received poorly.

    • Dasus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      4 days ago

      I’d agree.

      But saying “a part of younger millenials” just wouldn’t have the same impact as a joke

  • atro_city@fedia.io
    394·
    6 days ago

    What is this even talking about? Rick roll? Knives? Hieroglyphs? What do they have to do with each other?

    • Escew@lemm.eeEnglish
      63·
      6 days ago

      Rick roll refers to tricking someone into opening the YouTube video for Rick Ashley’s Never Gonna Give You Up. Knives are used to cut things, and in this case the father was arranging them to look like the loss comic. Without the context, the layout of the knives appears to just be a hieroglyph, which is a symbol used to convey information.

      When you bring this all together, you get a dad having fun with his kids by ironically referencing memes he doesn’t understand. Kind of like how grandma used to call every video game console a Nintendo or every Pokémon a pikachu.

    • Ephera@lemmy.mlEnglish
      28·
      6 days ago

      In case, you’re not familiar with the Loss comic, it’s this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_(Ctrl%2BAlt%2BDel)

      TL;DR: It’s an unexpectedly dark comic (hence the psychic damage), and it turned into somewhat of a meme to try to remind people of it, by producing ever more abstract representations of it.
      For example, you can post :.|:; here on Lemmy and someone will probably recognize it.

      The dad is creating such an abstract representation by arranging knives.

        • can@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          34·
          6 days ago

          ⠀⠀⠀⣴⣴⡤
          ⠀⣠⠀⢿⠇⡇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢰⢷⡗
          ⠀⢶⢽⠿⣗⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣼⡧⠂⠀⠀⣼⣷⡆
          ⠀⠀⣾⢶⠐⣱⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣤⣜⣻⣧⣲⣦⠤⣧⣿⠶
          ⠀⢀⣿⣿⣇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠛⠿⣿⣿⣷⣤⣄⡹⣿⣷
          ⠀⢸⣿⢸⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠙⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
          ⠀⠿⠃⠈⠿⠆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠹⠿⠿⠿

          ⠀⢀⢀⡀⠀⢀⣤⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⡀⡀
          ⠀⣿⡟⡇⠀⠭⡋⠅⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢰⣟⢿
          ⠀⣹⡌⠀⠀⣨⣾⣷⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀⢈⠔⠌
          ⠰⣷⣿⡀⢐⢿⣿⣿⢻⠀⠀⠀⢠⣿⡿⡤⣴⠄⢀⣀⡀
          ⠘⣿⣿⠂⠈⢸⣿⣿⣸⠀⠀⠀⢘⣿⣿⣀⡠⣠⣺⣿⣷
          ⠀⣿⣿⡆⠀⢸⣿⣿⣾⡇⠀⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣗⣻⡻⠿⠁
          ⠀⣿⣿⡇⠀⢸⣿⣿⡇⠀⠀⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠁

    • cobysev@lemmy.worldEnglish
      24·
      6 days ago

      The father used knives to create the Loss shorthand on the countertop. He called it “Rick-rolling” because he knows that word is associated with online trolling. He’s never seen the original Loss comic, so the arrangement of knives on the counter is more akin to hieroglyphics than anything; an arrangement of symbols to convey an idea.

        • cobysev@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          5 days ago

          Here’s the comic on the left (titled “Loss”) and its shorthand on the right that people sneak into everything to reference it.

          The webcomic (called “CTRL-ALT-DEL”) was mostly comedy, but then pivoted out of the blue with this dark, dramatic, wordless strip. The whiplash in tone led to a lot of jokes and people trying to meme it and slip references to it into everything.

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.eeEnglish
      193·
      6 days ago

      Even after reading all the explanations, it still seems very forced and contrived. And definitely not humorous at all, not even grin worthy.

      • VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        34·
        5 days ago

        Context is very important here, and maybe it’s impossible to find funny if you weren’t there for it.

        But as just my little take on an explanation, it’s less funny than it is shocking, which is what makes it funnier than it is shocking.

        I know that’s confusing, so let me explain. CTRL+ALT+DEL is like the be all end all of snarky gamer webcomics. Week after week, Tim Buckley would have his characters make nerdy 2000s-2010s gamer puns and complain about video games. It’s pretty straightforward, just basically imagine The Gamer™ stereotype and you’re pretty much there.

        Ex:

        So then out of nowhere, Tim starts uploading comics that really focus on relationship drama, culminating in Loss. Then he dropped the idea of being serious in that manner altogether.

        So this gamer comic about gaming drops an arc about a miscarriage then immediately goes back to being a gamer comic about gaming without a second thought.

        It’s truly shocking. So shocking that if you were enveloped in that world at the time, you couldn’t help but chuckle at Tim for releasing something like this. It’s that mix of shock and (if you know the comic) an utterly unexpected situation that has given Loss staying power.

        Remember, a meme is not a joke. A joke is something crafted to make us laugh, but a meme is just an idea with staying power. Yes, some memes have staying power due to their hilarity (I would say maybe “2 guys walk into a bar” jokes fall in this category - the idea is simple and can be set up to end in many different ways, but the goal and the way it’s remembered is comedic), but on the flip side a lot of memes have staying power because of the shock they cause (2 girls 1 cup, jarsquatter, Astolfo Monster can, Shrek is Love Shrek is Life).

        An element of shock memes that increases their prevalence is the game of “getting” your friends. A lot of those shock clips were circulated through people saying something similar to “oh hey check out this cookie recipe I found” and then deviously sending a link to something horrific instead, thus tricking the victim.

        Here’s where Loss comes back in, because there’s a third relevant category of meme here - “gotcha” memes. These memes play on the same “gotcha” value that helps spread shock memes… but they’re not necessarily shocking. People get a kick out of their friends’ reactions when they see that meme, so they send it to them to get that reaction without necessarily causing real trauma by actually sending horrific pornography.

        Examples of this include Loss, Rickrolling, Darude - Sandstorm, The Game, Updog. One common factor between these? They generally rely on shared cultural experiences. If you rickroll a 10-year-old they’re just going to be like “uhm I think you sent me the wrong link,” but it’s funny to people who were there for that moment in history.

        Another common factor is most of these are spread by people “getting got.” If you fall for “smells like Updog in here,” I guarantee the first thing you’re doing is going to try that out on someone else.

        In short, is Loss funny? Not really. But it’s not forced either. It’s widespread because people reading gamer comics got smacked in the face out of nowhere with a miscarriage plot and it was so outrageous that they spread that feeling of “what the fuck did I just see” all over the internet.

        But that’s just my two cents.

        • notabot@lemm.eeEnglish
          13·
          5 days ago

          But that’s just my two cents.

          That was definitely worth more than two cents. A good and thorough overview of what memes are. Thank you for making the point that memes are ideas not just jokes. The knowledge that rubbing two sticks together can start a fire is a meme.

          • VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            3·
            5 days ago

            Exactly! And that’s another category, too! Not one that would be mixed up with the others, so I didn’t include it, but memes that have real life use are among the oldest we have.

            Stop, drop, and roll is a meme ;)

        • Tanis Nikana@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          5 days ago

          I was about to ask what the hell “jarsquatter” is, but then my brain just went

          SHIVERS — And he didn’t even make a sound.

          So, uh, thanks for reminding me of that, I guess.

      • Taleya@aussie.zoneEnglish
        81·
        6 days ago

        Comic that got roasted for trying to be artsy and ended up being mockworthy. Then it got simplified to the lines. Then people started making variations in increasingly ridiculous ways. So kinda like how people run doom on their fridges

    • synae[he/him]@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      21·
      6 days ago

      There’s a bunch of other words in between those words that you should also read, in order, and then the meaning will be revealed

      • MsPenguinette@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        5 days ago

        I’d argue that the loss meme is unique in that people do their best to make it as abstract as possible.im sure I’ve missed so many loss memes cause there wasn’t a comment of “is this loss?”. There is something fun about the game in it cause I’ve seen some high quality attempts to sneak loss into other things

    • fibojoly@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      91·
      5 days ago

      Given that the author was genuinely inspired by something he lived (it’s never been cleared up for me whether he had a girlfriend experience miscarriage or what), I never really understood the vicious and now eternal mockery. Just goes to show the community…

      The meme itself is wonderfully elegant! It’s a reduction of the original comic to its simplest form. The sort of shit that should evolve over the course of centuries gets done in a few weeks in the Internet primordial soup. I could write it thus and I reckon it’s still recognizable : I Ii II I_

      Each bar represents a character in the otherwise silent comic. And is usually presented in a two by two pattern to reflect the comic layout. But it’s been deconstructed to much it’d still work as I’ve rendered it above.