A good friend of mine broke up with a girl about a year and a half ago. It was very painful for him at the time, and was very bitter for a very long time. Now he’s with a new girl and all is well.
Just recently, this friend of mine decided that it’d be fun to vent about his ex in his webcomic, and drew this strip. All was well until his ex saw it and went absolutely postal, threatening legal action for defamation of character (and threatening to get my friend expelled from school).
Now, I’m pretty sure that neither this comic nor the few that follow it can be classed as defamation of character, or anything else even remotely illegal (though if I’m wrong, that’d be good to know too). After all, he didn’t post anything except her first name, or accuse her of anything but cheating on him. Still I’m wondering, is it funny? Stupid? I’m looking for opinions, not on the comic itself as on the idea: is using your web space to tear someone a new one acceptable? Is it analogous to writing a Pit rant about them?
More generally…where is the line on something like this? Clearly giving out personal info (address, phone #, e-mail addresses that matter, etc) is a no-no, as is making the comic-her do nasty and degrading things. But what about a character named “Tracy” that looked nothing like the real-world one? A character with a different name that looked very much like the real life Tracy?
Very tacky. This comic isn’t funny, it’s kinda pathetic. He seems to be still very bitter. I’m surprised she is upset. It makes him look worse than her. Looks like he’s not over her.
Well, if it were funny I’d ask what the big deal was, but it wasn’t really even an attempt at satire so much as just spewing venom.
Definitely bad form, and if he didn’t change any names then I’d say her going postal is justified.
I think that a comic is a little different from a pit thread, in that in a comic there is a reasonable expectation that the characters are fictional, and the situations should be altered slightly from real life events. You don’t really have that expectation in a pit thread.
The only way I can see it being justified is if his comic is called “What I wish I could say to/about my ex-girlfriend but don’t have the guts to say in real life because I’m not incredibly witty”.
I think parts of it are funny - the brattiness of it alone, together with the overt message ‘I know I’m being bratty’ are kind of funny.
It would be funnier if it hadn’t gone quite as far - the ‘what’s the definition of forever? Oh, 6 months - I learned that the hard way,’ is funny, but the third and fourth panels much less so.
He probably should have changed her name, although one wonderful thing about it is how clear it is this is a real situation.
Definitely a dumb thing. Clearly the guy’s got artistic talent he’d be better off using in a positive light. The drawings are excellent, the strip as a whole is not.
The real problem with it is that the gags were already done on “the denise show” sketch on SNL (adam sandler, hilarious)
Yeah, probably in bad taste, but, hell, if you’re into that sort of thing, my brother wrote a song about his ex girlfriend called “you f**** whore I don’t love you anymore” one of those look for the hidden meaning metaphorical type songs, ya know?
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a little ex-hating in public forums. Using her real name may have been a bit much, but defamation of character? Nah, he really didn’t say anything damaging.
She does, at this point have the right to respond with a good egging of his car, or maybe some other malicious but immature stunt IMO.
Very bad form indeed; it’s obvious that the cartoonist has a real ex-girlfriend who he wants to insult and complain about, and it’s not even witty. Not funny, just icky–he’s ripping someone who doesn’t get to answer.
If anything, I’d think a pit thread would have stronger standards for what’s acceptable since, as you say, there’s less of an expectation of reality in comics, so people are less likely to read them and think, “That really happened!” On the other hand, the Pit is a great deal more anonymous.
I feel like I have to defend him a little, he is a pretty funny guy IRL…I’m not sure why he did draw it, actually. I found it amusing when I first read it, but then I’ve never seen “The Denise Show”.
I am going to have to go with “stupid”. He didn’t defame her character so much as his own. He made himself look like a pathetic loser, who is still not over a year-old break-up. Your friend probably isn’t a loser, but his comic made him look that way, and if I were the NEW girlfriend, I’d be a little annoyed that he is still even thinking about Tracy.