REDUX: Toasty the Toast Man

Sometime in late 2007, after I'd stopped writing Canned Laughter, I came up with an amazingly hilarious idea for a comic while in the shower. I didn't bother to write it down, and sadly all I can recall of the idea now was that it involved a talking piece of toast.

In late 2010, as my ridiculously long stretch of contributing to Critic was wrapping up and I was preparing to write my final column, I decided to bring things full-circle and submit one last Canned Laughter. I thought I'd finally use my toast idea, but try as I might I couldn't remember what the goddamn joke was meant to be. Eventually I came up with this strip instead, which isn't too bad I suppose (though in many ways it's just a retread of this one). Still, the mystery of the original joke still haunts me to this day.

And so ends my mission to upload all of the old comics. Now I'm going to get to work on uploading my old columns on my new blog Infinity Plus One. Check 'em out!

Laughter, Canned

After already threatening to put an end to Canned Laughter once, the strain of doing a comic every week during my honours year proved too much and I bailed once and for all at the end of the first semester. (From memory, I'd already written half the comics before uni even began, and it was still too much work to keep it up.) 

I switched over to writing weekly columns for the second semester, which was less time-consuming and allowed me to do different kinds of jokes. I ended up writing columns right through until the end of 2010, and they are all collected here.  

And so, Canned Laughter was done. For now... 

Don't Change a Thing

Bad parenting comic #3. Now I think about it, this could be a young Edgar. Poor Edgar.

Melzar Fails Again

Why Gilmore Girls? It just felt right.

The Sacred Elixir of Master Rishi

I think those spotty hills behind the guys were supposed to be sand dunes?

How Was Your Summer?

I remember that this was a polarising strip - some people said they loved it, others not so much. For the record, 'Summer of '69' may be my most hated song of all time, for reasons I can't really put my finger on.

Keep Out!

Continuing the bad parenting theme of '07.

A Generous Offer

I suppose this is a loose sequel to this comic, despite the fact that the two dudes are clearly different.

The Forager

This comic, along with two of my later columns, was submitted by the Critic editor for consideration for the 2007 ASPA awards. I didn't realise I was nominated until I got an e-mail saying that I'd won Best Humour Writer, which to this day is probably still the greatest achievement of my life. Happy birthday to me, bitches!

The Confession

I'm not exactly sure what visual style I was trying to emulate here, but the final result didn't quite match what I had in my head. Still, I think this one works.

Get Help!

I found the idea of mixing pedantry and cruelty intriguing, and I probably could've done more comics with this strange moustachioed man if I'd had the urge. 

I also remember smudging this one a lot (I think my pen was going a bit wonky), and you can see the twink marks all over this. Yep, I was running a pretty high-tech operation back then.

カンド ラフター

Another experiment with a different comic style. People who can read Japanese will notice that the text is completely different to the translation (yes, that ol' chestnut), although the Japanese joke is kind of ruined by the fact that when I was drawing the comic I was so preoccupied with making it look authentic that I forgot to include one sentence. (The dialogue in the fourth panel should read "いや、違う。俺はあの兄貴や。")

Timmy

I've only just noticed that bad parenting was a recurring theme in the 2007 run of comics. First up, little Timmy gets neglected.

The Robinsons

After threatening to end Canned Laughter, I decided to come back for one last semester in 2007. First up was another 'returning from the summer holidays' comic, which I think turned out pretty darn good (especially given the difficulty I had with drawing the interior of the car - man, those seats look uncomfortable).

Possibly The Last Canned Laughter Ever

2006 was probably my best year for Canned Laughter, but I'd still found writing a comic every week hard work on top of all the other stuff I was doing. So, I was pretty sure that I was done at this stage. (In the end, I came back for one last semester.)

This is an interesting look into my mind circa late 2006: things like Mike Patton, Lil Jon and cereals with a lot of fruit were a big part of my life back then.

Note: First name redacted to try to retain a shred of anonymity.

Bad Dream

It was fun to get a bit artistic with this one. And yeah, accountants are a bit of an easy target, but in a strange way I feel like they have it coming. 

Merge Like a Zip!

I had Jim's wife sit in the backseat because it was easier to draw, but I realise now that the implication that he doesn't let her sit in the front makes him even more of a jerk.

You Crazy Trickster!

I think this one contains my favourite punchline of all the comics I did. So unnecessarily rough. 

The Five Basic Personality Types

Some people actually asked who I was referring to in number five, but of course the joke is that it could be anyone. (At least that’s what I told them. You know who I was really referring to, don’t you? Dick.)

The Assignment

I spent way too long trying to get the dude's face right in the second panel, and I'm not entirely sure I did. Also, the dialogue in the fifth panel borders on Engrish for some reason. Other than that, I think this one turned out pretty darn good.

The Wine Drinker

Looking back at this one, I'm not sure it's obvious why the dude punches the wine drinker. The idea was that he's so annoyed by the guy blathering on about wine (I guess he got stuck with him at a party) that he just feels the need to punch him. Reading it now, it kind of looks like the guy takes personal offense at the wine guy's critique, as if he made the wine himself. But no.

(That's supposed to be a chainsaw in the last panel, by the way.)

Jen's Bad Day

This was meant to be a bit of an anti-joke: the set-up builds to the classic "At least things can't get any worse..." trope, and then nothing happens. Hey, I thought it was funny, whether anyone else did is up for debate.

This comic was coincidentally in Critic’s annual ‘Women’s Issue’, which led one of my flatmates to ask "Oh, is the joke is that she’s a woman, and her life is shit?" Uh… no.

Pete Comes to Dinner

This particular week I'd been stuck for ideas. I was doing the dishes the evening before the submission deadline, noticed a box of Moroccan Spice on the windowsill, and Pete's disastrous pun was born.

Extreme Survival Tips

It'd been a while since I did this kind of comic. This one's a little text-heavy, but this format was always a good way to cram in a lot of jokes. 

This strip was also pretty rough on eternal easy target Kenny G, but I hear he's actually a fan of the comic and found this one pretty funny.*

* Not true. 

You're an Idiot

I'd had the last panel of this comic worked out for a long time, and I'd cycled through various scenarios to set it up before settling on this one. It'd probably help to be familiar with the classic riddle he's trying to tell, but hopefully this works without it.

Shooting Cans

I remember feeling like I'd nailed this one after I finished it, and looking back it probably still is the comic I'm most proud of. I never thought I'd be able to make two giant cans sitting in a car look menacing, but I think I pulled it off.

Flatting Life, Part II

In which I reveal that it was me all along! Hah! Whether or not this was a genuine surprise for some readers, I'll never know. 

At this stage I'd obviously decided that Edgar and pretentious art dude were the most appropriate ambassadors for the comic (along with the bloodthirsty Huggable Playtime Pal). Sounds about right.  

Flatting Life, Part I

This was my first comic of the second semester, and the idea was to fool everyone into thinking that Canned Laughter had been replaced by this shitty, pandering-to-the-masses flatting-themed comic. Most of my friends saw right through it, of course – I used the same pen, for a start, and it was just the kind of thing that I would do. A few people stopped me and asked what happened to Canned Laughter, though, so it kind of worked. Whether the general reader noticed or even cared, I have no idea.

The Glasses

It was fun doing a comic with no dialogue, although the lack of speech bubbles really meant that I had more space than I knew what to do with.

The Short Film

One of the rare times I brought a character back. I remember sketching the idea for this in a stats lecture, of all places. 

'Not if I run' may just be my favourite single line in Canned Laughter. (I worked at Kmart when I was a teenager, and I used to have recurring nightmares that I was back there. To me that represented having failed at life.)

The Huggable Playtime Pals

This was the first time I tried any crosshatching. I think it worked...? 

I Hope No One Sees This...

"Local Woman Large, In Charge" was a fake headline I'd wanted to use for a while, and my dream was finally realised in this comic. 

Surrealism Outbreak

That dude at the end really deserved his own spin-off comic.

Did I Just Hit Something?

I have a fantasy of 'revealing' that everyone is on a hidden camera show whenever I find myself in an awkward situation involving strangers. 

I'm yet to follow through.

Edgar's First Day

Poor old Edgar. I've seen this happen a few times in real life: someone makes a moderately funny joke, gets a few laughs, and then takes that as encouragement to keep making increasingly terrible jokes. Love it.

Lesser-Known Legendary Beasts

I don't know why I find references to Tony Danza funny.

Shunned by the Establishment

I would read the shit out of that book.

Mr. Can't-Take-a-Hint

Loosely based on actual experiences where people wouldn't take the hint and just leave already. I had played with the idea of bringing Mr. Can't-Take-a-Hint back in different scenarios (getting rejected by a girl, getting fired, etc.), but it never really happened.

Also, drawing people lying in bed was surprisingly tricky.

Conversation Killers

Drawing people's reactions was the most fun part of this comic. Also, the final panel contains the last meta-gag I ever did. (Really. I checked.)

What I Did in My Holiday's

This was the first comic of 2006 (after a long summer break), which began what I consider to be my  best year of Canned Laughter. The strips were looking better, and I had (mostly) ditched the self-referential humour for actual setups and punchlines. First up, a homage to my five year-old self.

Closed for the Summer

The last comic of 2005. Now I think about it, it was kind of morbid to imply that I'd die over the summer. (I didn't.)

Just For Kids!

I like to think that this is the kids' page in the same newspaper as this comic strip. My only regret now is that I should've made the maze even more insultingly easy. 

Canned Laughter Guide to Space Travel

This companion piece to the Guide to Time Travel contains a rare Otago-specific reference (this very comic was written in a freezing student flat), as well as an overt Spinal Tap reference. 

The Adventures of Cheap Prescription Drugs

Well, here we have it: the thrilling conclusion to the 'New Character' trilogy. This is the last time we see the big-chinned guy, or any 'host' of Canned Laughter, which marks a turn into less self-referential humour and more straight-up ol' fashioned jokes. 

If I remember correctly, the phrase 'crotch-achingly awful' was from a review for 'The Master of Disguise' in Empire magazine. The film has a fresh rating of 1% on Rotten Tomatoes and is indeed terrible. Highly recommended.

Canned Laughter Official Character Poll

I thought this whole idea was pretty darn clever at the time. Whether people actually thought it was funny, of course, was a whole different story.

I like the idea that Jeremy Sprinkler got the most 'real' votes. (Of course, in reality no one actually voted. Which is fine.)

Mailbag #5: New Character

The last mailbag comic I did. The previous 'host' of Canned Laughter had to be replaced, since he was drawn in the old style, so instead we get this large-chinned gentleman reading our mail. This new guy didn't last long, as I was phasing out this kind of self-referential humour anyway, but at least he went out in a blaze of glory: this comic is the first installment of my highly ambitious three-part 'New Character' saga.

Long-time fans (i.e. my family) will know that Sneaky Weasel was the eponymous character in a series of comics I wrote when I was a teenager. It's also interesting to note that I was offered a TV deal for Stuart Pencil, M.D., which went on to be the longest-running stationery-themed medical drama of all time.

Tinned Humour

I'd had the idea of doing a British version of the comic called Tinned Humour for quite a while, so it was fun to finally make it happen. This was one example of having more space than I knew what to do with, and I'm not sure that the awkwardly-drawn top hat really helped.

The Funniest Cartoon in the World

I guess the joke here is the idea that you could create the funniest cartoon in the world simply by drawing a lot of 'wacky' stuff in the same place. It was probably more fun to draw than it was to read, but I'm okay with that. I included a lot of references to previous comics (oh my god, it's The Square!) that I'm sure went unnoticed by almost everybody. 

The Canned Laughter Guide to Time Travel

The first 'guide to' in a while. This one's pretty text-heavy, but I think it works.

The Funny Pages

This was inspired by lame newspaper comics such as Hagar the Horrible and was a shitload of fun to draw. The text above the comic comes from Mr. Bungle's Platypus, which reflects my ongoing obsession with all things Mike Patton at the time. Of course, all I notice when I look at this comic now is that the 'p' in 'problem' (top-left corner) is inexplicably too big.