I was 21 in 2008, and I’d been a fan of Ctrl Alt Del since near it’s beginning. I was a huge web comic fan in general, and I got intensely emotionally invested in them, even the silly ones.
This strip hit me exactly as he intended it to. It resonated with me I guess because of my brother and sister in law going through a miscarriage shortly before. Either way, it had a powerful impact on me and I didn’t see this “tonal shift” as a problem. That’s kinda dumb if you ask me, lots and lots of comedies have serious moments.
Anyway, I didn’t know this meme until a few years ago and it always makes me sad. It’s dumb, I know.
I’m super sensitive to negativity, which is why I was always a lurker in reddit, I always got shat on whenever I shared anything, to the point that I’d just delete my account and hide from the internet for a while.
Tbh, the “tonal shift” had been happening for a long time. This was not out of the blue at all. It was only unexpected for the “A comic must and can only be funny” crowd.
It felt more like he was trying to exploit the concept for attention and popularity in the most tone-deaf, transparent way possible.
I still think it was more of a business decision than anything else.
Because there may be people who have yet to experience this meme: https://amp.knowyourmeme.com/memes/loss
Too bad there’s so much link rot in there. I still don’t get it tbh.
Here’s a link with the actual pictures instead of the amp bullshit.
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/lossTL;DR: light-hearted comic has a sad moment and people lose their shit
… I don’t get it
