A Softer World is a webcomic as surreal as its black humour. But... expect some water works if you find yourself reading more than you can handle.
- A Softer World must win the prize for most laconic tearjerker ever. Over a double-large image showing a building under construction and a blue sky, "I sing anyway" is written. It takes a few seconds to notice the small dark speck in the sky, implying that the person jumped off the building and is singing as they fall to their death.
- What starts as a "Two guys walk into a bar" joke swiftly turns tragic when the person says that he was so drunk that at first he couldn't understand when he received the call saying his mother was dying. The understated "Oh." of the alt-text makes it even worse.
- Even worse than that? If you assume "they" refers to the two drunk guys on the phone call, and they've called the woman's son to tell him his mother has died in a drunk driving accident.
- This◊ strip, presumably from where the series draws its name. Implying a softer, less cruel world just isn't possible for himanity to achieve for long.
- In a harsh subversion of the comedy part of Dead Baby Comedy, the 'joke' "How many dead babies does it take to turn every stomach pain into sick guilt?" and the alt-text of "Just one." implies that the narrator suffered a miscarriage or made a tragic mistake resulting in the death of a baby that they can never forgive themselves for.
- In #15, the narrator has recurring dreams of their dead sister taking their photo. While they plead with her not to get on the plane that killed her, the dreams make it clear that nothing changes and she still dies.
- The narrator's grandma in #30 starts to tell a knock-knock joke, but can't remember how it ends, leaving her in tears at the evidence of her declining mental facilities.
- The narrator's mother's obvious pride in "My son the astronaut", leaving him unable to tell her his fear of dying in the mission she's so proud of him for going on.
- This strip hits hard for anyone who ever held a grudge against someone who just...didn't care.
- When the narrator calls their therapist in panic that the sky might fall again, she responds "What if you fall in love?", implying that she thinks the narrator finding love is just as a remote possibility as the sky falling.
- In #369 the narrator discovers a spell to make someone fall in love in their mom's room, shattering their belief in their parent's happy marriage.
- In #530, the comic subverts the expected response to gaining powers via nuclear spill by the narrator explaining that they're actually dying of cancer. The taciturn summary of the experience, "It's no good", in the alt-text just makes it worse.
- For anyone who's held off on suicide because of how their loved ones would react, this◊ strip hits a little too close to home.
- The narrator of #575 wishes their uncle was a monster like a vampire of werewolf because "Movie monsters are meant to do horrible things". If he was inhuman they wouldn't struggle with feeling like his abuse was somehow their fault.
- The narrator tells their significant other that while "You're a good person and I love you", they aren't happy and the life they're living isn't the one they wanted to have.
- The narrator faking having an affair to try and make his wife feel something after she sinks into a depression following the death of their baby, even if it's anger at him. He pleads for her to please scream, or cry, or get out of bed.
- In 39, the narrator goes through his routine of getting ready on his mother's birthday, such as putting on his nicest suit and getting a hair cut. It ends with "I pretend she's coming home", a punch to the gut that reveals his mother is either dead or missing.
- In 27, the narrator says that when the person he's addressing is around, he counts binary in his head while "You count clouds." A very poetic way of saying that they're on completely different pages even though he's in love with them.
- "Love is totally punk rock." It's not THAT tear jerker, but it's really moving, to have that teenage vision of love.
- The response of the narrator's friend in 43 when they tell him that they want to mail their heart to their ex. "Why would you send her something broken?".
- The narrator says in 44 that they wish that the awful stories of crime and sorrow they read in the newspaper could end for once with saying that it was just a bad dream, "Really she's okay." It's a very kind wish, even though it's a hopeless one.
- In 359, the narrator says the most comforting thing they can say is "Nothing lasts forever". The bleak worldview that statement comes from is depressing on multiple levels.
- In 47, the narrator's daughter is killed in an accident, leaving them alone. In their grief, they start dressing up the family dog in her clothes and imaging what she might say.
- In 174, the narrator says that instead of the Power Perversion Potential that they had thought they'd like the power of invisibility for, now they want it because everyone is always staring because "I lived and you didn't."
- Sometimes I look around a crowded mall/and realize everyone there has a life of their own/and it's like watching infinity ignore itself. A billion universes just wanting to be left alone.
- 943 compares fighting with depression to slashing at ghosts, and says "Of course it's tempting to finally cut something real." A very succinct way to sum up depression and implicit self-harm. The alt-text of "knives weren't made for air." just drives the point home.
- 527's narrator starts by saying that everyone should have a plan for when the zombie apocalypse happens... and then abruptly changes gears to sad when they say their own is to "see my brother again."
- 924's narrator says that the word "suicidal" is ugly. They prefer to say instead that "I am just homesick for a better time." The photo for that comic is a piece of paper and a pen, implying the person is writing out their suicide note.
- 949 starts off saying that "Waking up is nice", but then abruptly turns that sentiment around to sad by continuing with "until you remember who and what you are."
- 981's narrator reflects that without the memories of their dead loved ones, "We would be empty." The alt text of "Emptier, I mean." and the comic's photo's simply showing boxes and suitcases with no people visible drive it home.
- A subverted "Knock Knock" Joke in 732 turns grim when it turns out the police, there to give the narrator some very bad news. (There... there's been an accident who?)
- The narrator of 116 momentarily forgetting the person they're narrating to is dead and smiling until they get to the kitchen and remember. "Middle of the night I smell coffee."
- The quiet, sad realization that the narrator of 666 has that while they'd do anything for the person they loved if something happened to them, "I'm not sure how to deal with us just drifting apart."
- A short one in 696. Its background is a photo of an empty cliff by a waterfall, with the implication being that the narrator is contemplating jumping. "Do you know why you never read about suicides in the newspaper?" "Because it isn't news."
- i wish had known this all along
- I don't want to be alive
- true love lite?
- buy your love by playing make believe.
- They light a candle every night
- I used to say I missed you every weekend.
- It's better to burn out than to have to keep living.
- I wish being in love was enough. I wish it counted for anything at all.
- We carry our own loneliness with us.
- "I think the internet used to make me happy. Something must have."
- I don't want to die alone
- "Things are easier since I stopped dreaming."
- i don't wish i were dead
- even though one is a wrist and the other a razor
- You and me will die the way we lived
- "I could just stop."
- Don't love someone to save yourself.
- my body is a temple and there's another funeral today
- I wish I could give you everything you want and still be me.
- even monsters are welcome when your home feels empty.
- You and I were meant to be together
- "I already had too many turns."
- "Maybe I would be happy without me, too."
- "Think how great sleeping would be if we never woke up."
- But I have bills to pay.
- "I just don't understand why it was a stranger who told me she was dead."
- "I used to hope for the apocalypse. Now there is no hope at all."
- I wish you were dead.
- "Loneliness leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to... well, more loneliness I guess."
- There are scads of "A Softer World" remix strips that fit lots of tears into three pictures.
- On June 1st, 2015, A Softer World officially ended with this strip, which talks about the beauty of the world on the very last day and says that we should appreciate it while we still can.The sun is shiningand the birds are singingand because todayis the very last daythey will sing forever.Alt text: listen while you can