For my first review of the Book Club I seemed to have picked a doozy. The name from the beginning gave me a rather precognitive idea of what I was to find. But I didn't expect it to be this bad.
Humor is a very fine art. And a science, too. Like Art, it can lead to sublime and jubilant expressions... and like Chemistry, it can lead to some pretty awful results. There are wonderful parodists that can make tears flow from your eyes and your stomach ache as if it had been pounded by a hundred medicine balls... like Douglas Addams, Terry Pratchett, Eddie Izzard, Anna Russell, Josie Lawrence.... and then, then there's Buttlord.
What childish, infantile, immature and entirely uncreative mind could have come up with ButtlordGT is entirely out of my comprehension. Furthermore, what infantile, immature and entirely banal, vulgar mind could actually LIKE this abortion of the web is also beyond my comprehension.
Perhaps if one could consider giggling at dog droppings on the sidewalk, or going into mystifying fits of nearly-epileptic laughter at the word "Gay", humor, then yes, Buttlord is quite humorous.
If one thinks homosexuals exist entirely to be the aim of detrimental, uncreative and unrefined name-calling parodies, and call this humor then yes, Buttlord is full of 'humor'
Then again,'Humor' in the renaissance was considered to be viscuous substance inhabiting in the blood, the most notable of which being the Dark Humor which had detrimental effects on mental stability. Considering this bit, yes, ButtlordGT is VERY humorous.
The art.... Well, what can I say? The art is anime-style and it parodies the DBZ style. Now, I quite LOVE some good anime art. Unfortunately, this isn't it.
It's a parody of DBZ art, of course, and one can't expect much from it, seeing as DBZ is the lowest exponent of that particular media. In that sense, it is quite apt in its mimicking, and I do think the artist could be capable of doing more in this front. OK or even inferior art is not necessarily a detriment, as Elf Only Inn used cut-and-paste art during its first season (now the art has grown quite refined) to emphasize what it was making fun of. While resplendent and marvelous art can mask a faulty plotline sometimes... inferior art often realies on good writing to make such things allowable (it's the way our culture works, it seems)... and this is where we come to the fun part.
Note that I use 'fun' here in the same way that a forensics investigator has fun examining the cadavers resulting from a triple homicide with a chainsaw after a 10.3 magnitude earthquake and six tons of rubble, not the play-with-your-puppy 'fun'.
Through personal experience or by word of mouth, we are all familiar with the DragonBallZ formula, which comprehends a confrontation, endless posturing, Deus Ex Machina moments, Pulling Unexpected Powers out Of Your Own Unmentionable Regions, and more drama than congress.
Considering all these hyperboles, one could say the 'comic' is effective in parodying all of these things. However, I've met 12 year olds who have come up with much more stimulating parodies. Often in fanfictions that were honestly intended to be serious rather than parodies, the effects of which were much more histerical than anything this comic professes.
As far as the characterization goes, one really can't have much to say. Sporting names such as Glute and Huge, the characters are obvious DBZ parodies, placed into the story after a healthy dragging through the gutter and probably a few toilets as well. There's no subtle humor here, boys and girls.
Not that humor has to be subtle all the time. There is mastery in slapstick, there is mastery in even vulgarity, if carried well (Just read Aristophanes' raunchier comedies for an example of that), but then again, to carry these effectively, it requires a certain level of mastery. I am afraid the authors must have slept through that particular class.
While "Kisses form heaven, c---holes" and the 'banter' between the characters doesn't exactly cause me to giggle, I am reminded of both the interactions and the vocabulary of some of my peers in highschool, and I realize this is probably the mentality this comic is trying to attract: that particular group of people who thought they were quite funny, histerical, 'hip' and 'cool' in highschool. And yes, they are just as sad and uninspiring people now as they were back then.
And then comes the second tidbit of this. The comic itself is a puerile, infantile and quite pathetic 'parody' directed at homosexuality. Anyone who thinks homosexuals are there to be placed at the center of ridicule and denigrated... well, let's just say that a hard wake-up call is in order. Then again, this sort of mentality often ends up winning a Darwin Award runner-up here and there, so perhaps we shouldn't worry too much.
There are a lot of parodies that poke fun at straight and homosexuals alike, "The Birdcage" and originally "La cage aux folles" are supreme examples of this. Buttlord, on the other hand, is the sad effort of , apparently, some teenagers with a toilet mentality and the same approach to humor as Florence Foster Jenkins had for singing: Missing the mark by at least four octaves and three tonalities.
Considering things, and considering some of the thigs I have seen on the web, It's not nearly as bad as it could have been, but it's bad enough for me to be indifferent to it. I couldn't read through it, I had to quit at page 53 or 64 and then put in Eddie Izzard on the DVD player so as not to offend the gods of humor and allow some good humor into my mind. Otherwise I am afraid my spleen would have crawled up through my body, throttled my brain and then committed ritualistic suicide to spare me.
Who would like to read this comic? I honestly have no idea, except, perhaps, for those with a strong homophobic streak, or a rather simple outlook of the world (to be charitable), or if you're DESPERATE to find a DragonballZ parody on the web (I am sure there are much better parodies out there, trust me. By the simple law of existence that if something THIS bad exists, then its opposite must exist somewhere in the nebulous world of the internet).
Whom would I recommend this comic to? My worst enemies, but then again I do tend to be rather ruthless against them. Otherwise, if your level of humor is higher than the level it takes for someone to break into giggles at the mention of "Poop" and "Ur SO Ghey!", then avoid this comic like the plague. If you've got taste, then run far, far away and don't look back.
Since we're not allowed to give negative scores, I give this comic 1 out of 10, and that 1 is just because I thought the artist was talented enough to do better. |
