Jar Jar, you’re a genius

By Shamus Posted Sunday Jul 6, 2008

Filed under: Nerd Culture 34 comments

Jar Jar, you’re a genius!

I really like how things are going with Darths & Droids. R2D2 is a jerk, and Jar Jar is clever and imaginative, if a little whimsical. It also leads to the phrase we see above, which apparently was never used once on the internet until now.

Speaking of webcomics:

Starting July 8th, my new webcomic will go live. It will not be on this site. It will, in fact, appear on another site.

Things will become more clear on Tuesday.

 


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34 thoughts on “Jar Jar, you’re a genius

  1. Kel'Thuzad says:

    I must have missed the memo, what’s the new webcomic?

    I can’t wait. Considering how funny DM of the Rings was…

  2. Factoid says:

    Kel’Thuzad: Based on the hints he’s dropped it’s a screencap comic based around video games. Specifically having something to do with this “change in attitude” towards MMOs.

    Sounds like something along the lines of “Confessions of an MMO vagabond”, moving from game to game, never putting down roots.

  3. Zukhramm says:

    Well Factoid, from the latest posts it seems Shamus is busy with puting down all his roots into WoW.

  4. folo4 says:

    Knowing that, if anything, this new web comic project will probably be influenced by WoW.

    Not the first strips, definitely, but at some point, it will.

    But I could be wrong.

  5. neminem says:

    Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a WoW-inspired comic, though I also wouldn’t be surprised if I was completely wrong. Either way, I will definitely be watching it soon as it goes live.

    Fifth post! ;)

  6. GEBIV says:

    Regarding Darths and Droids, Anakin makes a lot more sense now that we know his personality was created by a female drama student.

    And I can hardly wait to see your new Webcomic!

  7. Viktor says:

    HELL YA!

    That is all.

  8. Froody says:

    Ohmagod! New shamusy webcomic goodness!

    Really looking forward to this, though I hope it’s not a WoW-only comic…

  9. ngthagg says:

    I’ve been really impressed with Darths and Droids. I find it has some pretty insightful commentary on role-playing, especially because the original three characters (DM, Obi-wan, and Qui-Gon) are pretty close to my own gaming group in dispostion. The DM is both well meaning and generally competent (if unable to predict how the players will behave), and the players enjoy a mix of role playing and roll playing in varying degrees.

    And the justification and rationalization of Lucas’ story is nothing if not genius.

  10. General Karthos says:

    I trust it won’t be a WoW-only comic in the way DM of the Rings wasn’t a D&D-only or LotR-only comic. I’m sure it will appeal across a broad spectrum of people. Shamus has that gift it seems.

  11. Nihil says:

    Darths&Droids is absolutely great. I think it’s much better than DM of the Rings in terms of cleverness and twists, but it still has to produce punchlines that are as side-splitting as what one could find in Shamus’s parody.

    As for the new webcomic, well, if it turns out to indeed be about WoW, I hope it will fill out the void left by Flintlocke’s Guide to Azeroth, which was funny as hell, even for one such as myself who’s never played WoW (but after all this years has actually learnt a lot about the game).

  12. Shamus says:

    On the new comic: It will not be a Wowcomic. Although at the moment such a thing appeals to me, I suspect that well is probably nearly dry anyway.

  13. Alexis says:

    What I’m sick of are these comics with a kid/manchild and an animal, who have philosophical conversations while getting up to crazy mischief. So tired, yaaaawn ;)

    Sure the lowhanging fruit may have been taken… but people never seem to get tired of talking about people.

  14. Browncoat says:

    Darths & Droids is hillarious, and I look forward to Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays as I never have before.

    But DMotR was much, much better. (And if you see me saying the opposite over at the CI’s website, it’s only to make them feel good, okay? In fact, I may just copy this post and post it over there with the names changed. ;) )

    Oh, and I’m looking forward to your next comic, and that will be come clear to you on Tuesday. :)

  15. Browncoat says:

    Somehow I duplicated my comment. Sorry. If the host would delete this one, that would be cool.

    kthxbai

  16. Argon says:

    And with those words, the Comic Irregulars nearly collapsed the fabric of space-time.

  17. Sitte says:

    Nihil is exactly right. Darths & Droids has great twists and fantastic explanations of Lucas’s crazy, but very few laughs compared to DMotR.

    The earlier strips were much funnier – especially Summon Bigger Fish and Jar Jar’s explanation of Naboo politics. There are still laughs to be found, but Tatooine dragged out a bit too long.

  18. Hal says:

    Shamus? Back in the game?

    Yay!!!

    If you haven’t, Shamus, you ought to put a post on the Chainmail Bikini forum about this, since I know there will be some people there interested in this.

  19. Shinjin says:

    The earlier Darths & Droids were humorous, but I’ve only been continuing to follow the strip out of sheer curiosity about where things may be leading.

    Quite a few of the strips seem to be inside jokes (between the writers, not the gaming community) and it would help if they actually included punchlines in all the strips. Even those that are just setups for future punchlines (see Order of the Stick).

  20. R4byde says:

    A new webcomic from Shamus!? HUZZAH!! But, do I have enough supplies to last till the 8th?

    Time to check my provisions:
    Old pizza?
    Check.

    Carbonated cornsyrup?
    Check.

    Patience?
    No! I’ll never make it.

  21. Cuthalion says:

    Join the revolution. Google the phrase.

  22. Ben says:

    I had been really looking forward to seeing how the CI’s were going to handle the fight between Qui-gon and Darth Maul. Jim had pretty much become used to “Cheddar Monk” + “laser sword” = “one hit kill”. But I never expected the brilliance of Jar-Jar’s intellect.

  23. Nathanael says:

    I agree that Darths & Droids is very clever and fascinating, but lacks the regular delivery of punchlines that DMotR had that made it so much funny.

  24. Joshua says:

    So, are we off the WoW posts now?

    Please?

  25. Anonymous says:

    ANOTHER website? How preposterous. Our best naturalists insist that there are no other websites in the aether. Now let us leave such silly things to the musings of fools and children, and be on our way to the phrenology lecture.

    Other websites! What a lark!

  26. beno says:

    This will be interesting just to see if Shamus can actually sustain writing a web comic while WOW is still in the picture.

    It’s entertaining watching people do really difficult things! Just like watching those wacky Japanese game shows where the contestants are subjected to unreasonably difficult physical challenges…

  27. Joshua says:

    Sorry, can’t agree too much about the Darth and Droids comic. It got really inspired about the time they added Jar Jar, but went really downhill when they went to Tattoine. It started off as a parody in the same sense of DMotR, but it really isn’t that silly any more.

    Also, the caption at the end is usually more of a comment on deleted scenes of the movie rather than an extra, gut-busting punchline like DMotR.

    Finally, it’s just taking way, way too long. I think Shamus said that DMotR was roughly 45 comics per movie. D&D is currently at 123 comics in the first movie, and they’re maybe only 3/4 the way through. At this rate, it would be several years before the comic could wrap up. I think the one-year length of DMotR ended up being just about right.

  28. Mavis says:

    I have to say – the introduction of a genuine roleplayer to the group in darth and driods is brillant and frankly unexpected…

  29. Nazgul says:

    I’ve been following Darth & Droids, but not like I did DM of the Rings, or like I follow OOTS. I keep thinking of Homer banging his fist on the top of his tv and complaining, “Stupid tv, be more funny!”

    Like some of the others, I just don’t get many laughs from it. Early on they had a good joke – that many of the dopey things in the movie stemmed from a little girl’s spontaneous imagination – but then they beat that one to death, and then some. Granted, it would explain a lot of things…

    Also while I have some mixed feelings about them, overall I think the comments they include with every strip tend to detract from the experience. Too often, it’s like they’re explaining the joke.

  30. Bruce says:

    I enjoy Darths & Droids (thank you Shamus for the initial link, it helped me get over the sadness of DM of the Rings finishing). I think it is going a little way like OOTS went. Initially just for laughs but now tends towards more story with humourous bits. DM of the Rings was a total spoof (e.g. Airplane, Naked Gun, etc..) with each strip based around a central joke, while OOTS & Darths and Droids are more like telling a story using humour (e.g. a regular comedy such as Trains, Planes and Automobiles, Roxanne, etc…)

  31. Huckleberry says:

    Is it Tuesday yet? Is it Tuesday yet?

    And now?

  32. Eric says:

    The new webcomic’s premises is this: A group of D&D players taken through the Golden Girls universe.

  33. Kevin says:

    Looking forward to the 11th!

  34. TheRailwayMan says:

    Not to insult you or anything, but I believe you should know that the number of the post you are announcing your new comic in is also the identifiction tag of the main character in the Halo trilogy: Spartan 117, or, as he is most commonly referred to as the Master Chief.

    Did I mention I am a Halo fan? Please don’t bar me from the site.

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