Given that the authors are apparently aware of "serious humor", who's to say that Death Note was only unintentionally funny? For all we know the potato chip thing was supposed to be joke.

Serious Humor, obviously.

The potato chip scene wasn't terribly funny in the manga, I don't think. It was the hamminess of the scene in the anime that lifted it to meme status... I think? LOL.

I never said they were good at serious humor.

Bad Bad Acting? :D

No seriously, I think they sincerely meant for that scene to be entirely serious.

edited 23rd Apr '10 8:14:04 PM by Yuen

Why? It seems like a textbook example of the kind of humor they're talking about here.

It feels like it was supposed to evoke feelings of "OMG THAT WAS AN INGENIOUS PLOY" and get us all amazed and awed at Light's intelligence and creativity and outrageous tactics (I mean, come on, buying a little TV just to discard it moments later is freaking epic) rather than "HAHA POTATO CHIPS HAHA".

As I said, in the manga it's much less hammy compared to the anime.

It can be both. Like in the Otters 11 example they talked about, it's supposed to be moving and dramatic, but funny at the same time, because it's done with an otter.

So serious humour is hamminess? Seriously? I thought hamminess isn't meant to be taken seriously.

No, Hamminess can definitely be taken seriously when it's used to show how crazy the character is or something like that.

Then if it was meant to taken seriously, wouldn't it be not funny?

Not necessarily. That's the point. And sometimes one level goes right over the reader's heads.

BTW, isn't the Otters 11 gag a very clear Shout Out to Soichiro Yagami's "I'm a drive a truck into the TV studio so that 2nd Kira can't see my face and kill me?"

I KNEW that scene looked familiar!

From what people are saying, it sounds like "serious humor" is essentially Narm. It's played seriously, but in such a way that as many people will find it ridiculous and laugh as will actually be moved by it.

Intentional Narm? Narm Charm? Army of Darkness?

This chapter was ridiculously meta.

http://www.onemanga.com/Bakuman/84/01/

Awesome.

edited 8th May '10 5:09:04 AM by Roman

So, whats everyone thoughts on the premise?

Its unique, but the unrealistic-ness of it is just kinda of distracting for me. Its not totally over the top gag manga unrealistic, its real life setting so its just breaks my willing suspension of disbelief because no real life person would do it.

I think it'll be funny for about ten issues, then it'll get old, but at least the settings flexible enough for them to change it to a different premise.

I mean, think about if Naruto was just him using the Harem no Jutsu every episode.

Naruto haters: Nobody likes you. Your Take Thats are not funny or original. Hold your tongue.

Well, luckily we don't actually have to read it so the narrative can just tell us that it stays interesting. I'm pretty sure that's the case for most of these premises; these are things the writers think sounded cool but didn't believe they could actually make into a full series. I mean, if they're so great why waste them here instead of making their own new best-seller using that premise afterwards?

Why? I mean, it starts funny, but what about Cerebus Syndrome into something as awesome as Ocean's Eleven or The Inside Man?

Oh, we have a The Perfect Crime trope page...

edited 9th May '10 2:15:49 PM by RawPower

I can't see why you think no real person would do it; it doesn't seem particularly far fetched to me.

What bugs me is that it has so little dramatic tension. If they fail, so what? They don't pull off a prank, and probably get a slap on the wrist sentence if they were doing anything technically illegal. The stakes are not only low, they're entirely self imposed. If a character decided "I don't care any more, I'm going to find something else to do with my time, " there would be no broader repercussions.

Essentially it's manga about Trolling, that is brilliant. Unless it unwittingly inspires the in-universe 2chan/4chan into more elaborate trolls, then its terrifying.

Then it must include Internet Trolling. But no 2chan, please.