Isaac Asimov's still dead, right? He would have probably just used an analogy involving Tinker Toys and slices of individually wrapped cheese and I would be perfectly content. -- Tjames Madison
Uh, I believe it's just MICROSOFT CHAT now, Gentlemen.
Tjames
Cool! And I guess you log it, and you can just pull out the
best stuff later?
We layout the strips with MSCHAT and then do some postCHAT
editing
Rands
Actually no... We have an humongous archive of FUNNY
THINGS WE'VE SAID...
Rands
Tjames
Me and Snatcher tried to use Comic Chat once, but
Failed.
Mr. Bad
Golly, pants, what do you think about that?
Mr. Bad
<insert pants response here>
Mr. Bad
I just wanted to add in some insertion points.
Mr. Bad
Sorry, carry on.
So, you go find your favorite, fire up Comic Chat, type in
the CRAP, and VIOLA! SERIOUS GAYNESS
Rands
Mr. Bad
!
Mr. Bad
That's really crazy.
Tjames
Oh, so it's really a recreation of previous gayness, in
other words.
Correct
Rands
Mr. Bad
But, seriously, doesn't using Microsoft Comic Chat put a
kind of cap on the popularity of the strip?
Mr. Bad
Like, eventually some MS bastard is going to find out and
come kill you all in your sleep.
Mr. Bad
They will rage like Thor in your bungholes with legal
whahoozits.
A lot of folks have NONE CLUE that we use Comic Chat...
Others rip on us for it... Microsoft is trying to kill MSCHAT, so less and less people have a
clue
Rands
Mr. Bad
Yeah, I was talking to someone about Jerk City and he
thought it was all hand-drawn.
Tjames
Yeah, I was reading your press mentions and whatnot, and a
lot of people seemed to have NO clue that you were doing anything 1) based on IRC or 2) with a
program like Comic chat. They just thought you were all really disturbed.
Actually, we got concerned at one point when we got
flooded with MSFT hits... so I reviewed the license included with MSCHAT... turns out it's the same
one as they ship with Office.
Rands
Mr. Bad
You have a reference to some crazy comic artist on your
site...
Jim Woodring -- He did the art for MSCHAT -- He loves us.
We love him.
Rands
Mr. Bad
Ah-HAH!
Mr. Bad
Really, he's seen your site?
We received a very nice letter from him recently asking
for a reciprocal link and ripping on MSFT.
Rands
Mr. Bad
!!!
Mr. Bad
That's really great. But wouldn't Microsoft own the license
to all the characters and stuff?
No, it's the same license as Word. I'll explain:
Rands
Tjames
If you guys get in trouble for this stuff, you should go on
the Palace and do it there. Then you could be generic happy face type people, who could possibly wear
hats. Or not.
Mr. Bad
NO! No way!
Mr. Bad
The characters are invested with too much personality now,
Tjames!
It'd be like if one of you guys used WORD and wrote a
letter threatening to kill the President
Rands
Microsoft's license says something like "We assume no
responsibility for any goofy shit that you do with our products"
Rands
Mr. Bad
Excelente!
Quite.
Rands
Mr. Bad
Man, you're in the clear. I can't believe it.
Tjames
Yeah, but you don't make money off it yet, do you?
ARE YOU TALKING EBUSINESS!?!?!?1
Rands
Mr. Bad
Yeah, tjames, so therefore it's totally invalid.
Tjames
I'm talking GAYBUSINESS.
Mr. Bad
Yeah, what's your BUSINESS PLAN?
Tjames
How will these windows affect my original documents?
Mr. Bad
Do you have a BURN RATE?
Jerkcity's popularity was a surprise.
Rands
Mr. Bad
Really?
And when you look at the hits/day, you think 'JESUS WE CAN
MAKE CA$H HERE SOMEHOW"
Rands
Mr. Bad
SO you underestimated the public's appetite for cocksucking
jokes?
But we have day jobs and ECOMMERCE IS HARD WORK.
Rands
Mr. Bad
MAKE MONEY FA$$T in your OWN HOME
Mr. Bad
WITH PRICKS
Tjames
We tried to make money with porn for awhile.
I'd expect t-shirts, bumperstickers, and CRAP LIKE
THAT
Rands
tjames: who hasn't?
Rands
Mr. Bad
That'd probably cross some line for MS, though, I bet.
Agreed. I'd imagine we'd use popular sayings rather than
artwork
Rands
Mr. Bad
Like, you can do a screenshot of the Paperclip, but you can't make a T-shirt.
Mr. Bad
Yes, that would work wonderfully.
Mr. Bad
But, selling T-shirts is a major pain in the ass, too.
Selling anything on the 'net is a hassle WHEN YOU'RE FAT
AND LAZY LIKE US
Rands
Tjames
I think Pigdog can relate to that.
Mr. Bad
So, the Jerk City content is mostly stuff from a long time
ago?
Mr. Bad
Do you get together now, and then feel all pressured to be
funny?
No. We're always online in this "chat room" -- tomorrow's
jerkcity could be from a conversation tonight
Rands
Tjames
They don't have to be funny. They just have to say things
like "Perhaps bonghits will fix my makefile."
That's just the kind of thing you say when you do too much IRCing.
Mr. Bad
Good, because it'd be really lame to have a lot of Milli
Vanilli jokes in tomorrow's Jerk City.
heheheh -- a great line.
Rands
In this "chat room
Rands
"
Rands
Mr. Bad
Yes, you can even have 4 plain panels, with nothing in
them.
We're always in character... It's pretty sick.
Rands
Mr. Bad
Well, are the characters -you-?
Mr. Bad
Or, rather, how you'd goof around anyways, with other
people?
Mr. Bad
Or do you become rands only in this particular
environment?
Yes, each character is "us" and has it's own
"characteristics"
Rands
Tjames
Who does the technical part of putting together the
site?
Pants does most of the webmastering at this point because
he's a PERL WIZARD
Rands
Tjames
Is it automated stuff, like dynamic HTML?
Mr. Bad
<insert pants response here>
He's always tinkering WITH SHIT AND BREAKING THINGS but
HE'S FAT
Tjames keeps the INternet in a box under his sink.
Mr. Bad
It sometimes gets drippy.
Mr. Bad
<insert manero.pitas.com stuff here>
[Quoted from manero.pitas.com:
[Thursday, January 20, 2000]
[11:01 p.m.]
pigdog
<rands> no clue what pigdog.org is -- BUT THEY WANT TO
INTERVIEW RANDS AND PANTS
<rands> actually, they really want to solve the leisuretown -v-
jerkcity mystery BUT FUCK DAT SHIT
]
That would explain my CRAPPY ISDN CONNECTION
Rands
Mr. Bad
Man, you still use ISDN?
Tjames
I'm sorry. I broke the Internet. I dropped a canteloupe on
it.
Mr. Bad
YOu need to get SUPERFAST DASMEL from the PACIFIC BELL
NETWORK.
Mr. Bad
With lots of pages and the AOL chat room window.
Ok, I see it.
Rands
Tjames
The cool thing about Mr. Bad is that he never has real
questions for interviews.
Mr. Bad
So, I have you CORNERED now.
Ah, Leisuretown -v- Jerkcity.
Rands
SO WHAT'S THE QUESTION?
Rands
Mr. Bad
Yes! What's the deal?
Mr. Bad
I thought it was just coinky-dink, and then I saw that
page, and I was further intrigued.
What's the question? :) <--- SMILIE TO INDICATE MY
GAYNESS
Rands
Tjames
So you admit you cannot answer the question owing to
gayness?
Mr. Bad
Is there really no connection, except respect and
admiration and shit? :-O <- cock face
Arkuat enters the IRC channel.
Tjames
Go away arkie!
Mr. Bad
Arkuat! Jesus!
That's the connection. Leisuretown and Jerkcity production
is entirely separate, but we do know each other
