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<blockquote data-quote="Peni Griffin" data-source="post: 3442048" data-attributes="member: 50322">But the plot is the humor.&nbsp; The plot is funny.&nbsp; Silliness gets old quickly; an overall driving plot that is also funny is absolutely necessary to maintain a long-term humor strip in this medium, to which people have to consciously return day after day after day, through late postings etc.Also, there is a metalevel of enjoyment in the discussion. Nitpicking the rules is how a lot of people enjoy the comic and is part of the humor of it for them.&nbsp; Many people who seem to be taking the story &quot;too seriously&quot; are laughing at themselves as they nitpick; others find the humor spoiled if it is inconsistent.&nbsp; This is partly a recognition of the skill needed to pull off a humorous story in absolute consistency with a set of arbitrary rules and also ties in to the universal tendency to attempt to predict the plot in a series.&nbsp; If the series pulls a suspense thread out too long with no resolution or does not develop plot points logically according to the internal system,&nbsp; the audience begins to feel the futility of its speculation, gets bored, and loses enjoyment, but a properly paced series can mulitply the enjoyment of the audience by giving them lots of opportunities to create metaseries rewards for themselves in discussion threads.Stories are the most important thing in my life.&nbsp; I wouldn't want to be part of a genre subculture where at least a few people didn't take them &quot;too seriously.&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Peni Griffin, post: 3442048, member: 50322"] But the plot is the humor. The plot is funny. Silliness gets old quickly; an overall driving plot that is also funny is absolutely necessary to maintain a long-term humor strip in this medium, to which people have to consciously return day after day after day, through late postings etc. Also, there is a metalevel of enjoyment in the discussion. Nitpicking the rules is how a lot of people enjoy the comic and is part of the humor of it for them. Many people who seem to be taking the story "too seriously" are laughing at themselves as they nitpick; others find the humor spoiled if it is inconsistent. This is partly a recognition of the skill needed to pull off a humorous story in absolute consistency with a set of arbitrary rules and also ties in to the universal tendency to attempt to predict the plot in a series. If the series pulls a suspense thread out too long with no resolution or does not develop plot points logically according to the internal system, the audience begins to feel the futility of its speculation, gets bored, and loses enjoyment, but a properly paced series can mulitply the enjoyment of the audience by giving them lots of opportunities to create metaseries rewards for themselves in discussion threads. Stories are the most important thing in my life. I wouldn't want to be part of a genre subculture where at least a few people didn't take them "too seriously." [/QUOTE]

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