The original reaction to the comic was kind of a collective chuckle of “Whahahahat the fuck?” Because the comic was like discount store brand Penny Arcade, irreverent bullshit gamer humor, and then comes the sudden plotline that the girlfriend character has a miscarriage.
Like, Loss itself isn’t bad in and of itself; telling the story of the character’s journey through the hospital with no dialog, it’s competent…but it stood in such contrast to what the comic had been about for so long and the audience just wasn’t on board with it that it became a controversy. And Buckley’s clap back against it and the following drama made it memetic.
At some point, the imagery became so recognizeable even in the abstract that it became a prank to communicate the idea of the comic in as abstract a form as possible, hence the “Is this Loss” meme. Somewhere between rickrolling and “you just lost the game.”
At this point we’re like three jokes deep.
The original reaction to the comic was kind of a collective chuckle of “Whahahahat the fuck?” Because the comic was like discount store brand Penny Arcade, irreverent bullshit gamer humor, and then comes the sudden plotline that the girlfriend character has a miscarriage.
Like, Loss itself isn’t bad in and of itself; telling the story of the character’s journey through the hospital with no dialog, it’s competent…but it stood in such contrast to what the comic had been about for so long and the audience just wasn’t on board with it that it became a controversy. And Buckley’s clap back against it and the following drama made it memetic.
At some point, the imagery became so recognizeable even in the abstract that it became a prank to communicate the idea of the comic in as abstract a form as possible, hence the “Is this Loss” meme. Somewhere between rickrolling and “you just lost the game.”