Silly Putty Comic Summer 2005 - (Winner posted!)

A ninja clan was hired to assassinate an evil daimyo, so the clan leader sent his three best ninjas to do the job. Several hours later, one of the ninjas returned.

"Honorable master, I have failed," he said, "I made my way through the fortress, and evaded all his traps and guards, until I entered a room full of flunkies."

"Flunkies? How did they manage to stop you?" the clan leader asked.

"They had some strange power, honorable master. Everything I tried to do, I failed. I tried to attack them, and failed. I tried to get past them and failed. Eventually, I got frustrated and returned here to report."

The clan leader wondered at the strange power of the flunkies, but decided to wait for the other two ninjas to return before making other plans. Shortly after, another ninja returned, with a big bruise on his forehead.

"Honorable master, I have failed," he said, "I made my way through the fortress, and evaded all his traps and guards, until I entered a room full of donkeys."

"Donkeys? How did they manage to stop you?" the clan leader asked.

"They had some strange power, honorable master. They could speak with human voices, but in such monotonous and boring tones that I felt sleepy and collapsed. Fortunately, I hit my head on the floor and woke up. Fearful of being caught, I quickly left the room and returned here to report."

The clan leader wondered at the strange power of the donkeys, but decided to wait for the last ninja to return before making other plans. Shortly after, the third ninja staggered in and collapsed on the floor in front of the clan leader.

"What happened to you?" the clan leader asked, "Your clanmates encountered rooms full of flunkies and donkeys with strange powers, but managed to escape with little injury. Did you encounter something worse?"

"Yes, honorable master," the last ninja gasped. He raised his head, and the clan leader saw that it was covered with the marks of tiny fists and feet. "There's nothing worse than a room full of monkeys."

Wow. Two excellent jokes!

Must be the monkeys.

I'm impressed. Mine came out much better than I thought it would, and Firelances is good as well. Who would have thought Monkeys made for such intricate jokes though?

Everyone loves monkeys. They must drive people to excel.

Demiurge out.

DungeonmasterCal v. warlord

DungeonmasterCal v. warlord

Joshua_Dyal said:

DungeonmasterCal gets nice use of D&Disms for the joke, while warlord attempting to use Netspeak for the pun. However, I'm not sure I'm seeing what alignment has to do with warlord's scenario; it felt a bit forced into it just to arrive at the punchline. I'll give the edge to DungeonmasterCal.

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Rel said:

The alignment issue portion of the punchline flowed better for me with DMCal's joke than with Warlord's. And most of the Tolkien Fanboys I've met were neither Lawful nor Good. I gotta give the nod to DMCal on this one.

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reveal said:

Both entries are relatively weak. DMCal has a good setup, but it's relatively short and is to open to interpritation. warlord's on the other hand, really only appeals to "fanboys" of which I am not, nor are a lot of people I know. My vote goes to DungeonmasterCal.

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Judgement - DungeonmasterCal wins 3-0 and moves on to Round 2.

reveal said:

DungeonmasterCal v. warlord
Judgement - DungeonmasterCal wins 3-0 and moves on to Round 2.

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Wow. Thanks!

Bront v. FireLance

Bront v. FireLance

Rel said:

These both gave me a smile. I liked Bront's internal references to D&D within the joke. But the ending was a bit shaky for me as I grew lost in the concept of the fabric of the universe being torn apart but leaving the Genie and Wizard intact. I think it would have worked better for me if the Genie was sharing the punchline with another "Outsider" and saying, "Well that Wizard was right about one thing..."

Firelance immediately grabbed my attention with the ninjas who, as we all know are (a) Mammals and (2) Flip out and kill "stuff". I liked the rhyming scheme of guardians culminating with the monkeys and the image of the ninja with his face covered in tiny bruises was amusing enough to get my vote on this one.

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Joshua_Dyal said:

Both Bront and Firelance fit their jokes to the punchline very seamlessly, and neither felt forced at all. Both actually seemed like jokes someone might tell! I think the only weakness I could really spot in either was with Firelance's -- you don't expect either flunkies or donkeys to cause trouble to a ninja, but their special powers do. The monkeys, on the other hand, are the worst of the bunch, but why? It seems like it's missing a little piece to pull the whole picture together.

All in all, two very excellent entries, but by a hair, my favorite of the two is Bront's.

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reveal said:

Both of these jokes made me laugh out loud. There truly is nothing worse than a room full of monkeys. In the end, the image of a ninja with "marks of tiny fists and feet" put this one oer the top for me. FireLance gets my vote.

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Judgement - FireLance pulls it out 2-1 and advanced to Round 2.

Fair enough I liked Cal's joke better anyway. I just couldn't resist taking a shot at everyone who went crazy over my infamous first post.

Congrats to everyone who made it to Round 2.

I'm not going to post the next set of punchlines until sometime next Tuesday. With everything that's going on right now with Katrina and the fact that it's Labor Day weekend, it'll just be better for everyone involved.

Is there anyone in Round 2 who will not be able to check in next Tuesday?

Congrats Firelance. I'm impressed mine turned out as well as it did, but then, when you're writing it, it's kind of hard to tell sometimes.

I'm up for a consolation round if anyone wants, just for fun, but I think after labor day is a good idea.