The Brother of Jared's Bright Idea

The world wasn't ready...

FTOYWDKM 2

I'm waging a one-man war against this ridiculous sacrament talk intro. It's going about as well as you'd expect.

Graduation Season

I have yet to be to a graduation ceremony that didn't feel like it was going to last for eternity. This one literally might.

Today's Gag Made Possible Thanks To AI

Today's gag was inspired by AI. To explain, please follow me on my short journey through AI. Based on the results, I may not be returning anytime soon.

It all started when my son sent me the following image from Gemini. He sent a prompt through the program to analysis the work on this webpage then generate its own comic.

Artwork is good (maybe better than my own). There doesn't seem to be a joke attached with it, though. My son agreed and asked Gemini what was funny about it. This was its reply: 

As a member, this hits right at the heart of the classic "missionary optimism" trope!

Here is why this scenario plays perfectly into our cultural humor:

The Unwavering Optimism: Missionaries are constantly taught to be faith-filled, follow promptings, and trust that there are people out there "prepared to hear the message." You spend your mission trying to maintain a relentlessly positive attitude, even when faced with endless rejection or difficult circumstances.

The Absurd Reality: The joke is the extreme, almost naive exaggeration of that optimism. This Elder is standing in a completely desolate, frozen wasteland, knocking on a random igloo. The addition of the penguin just heightens the absurdity of how lost or remote they are.

The "Tracting" Experience: Almost every returned missionary has a story about tracting (door-to-door knocking) in miserable weather, strange neighborhoods, or seemingly empty streets, all while serving with a companion who absolutely refuses to let the enthusiasm die.

It perfectly blends that sincere, earnest faith we value with a completely ridiculous visual. It’s exactly the kind of affectionate self-awareness that makes "Ward Cartoonist" style jokes so relatable in Sunday School or Elders Quorum!

Unconvinced, he asked Gemini to create another gag. Here's what it came up with.

I have no idea what kind of chapel this ward worships in or why the choir director is going to kill Brother Jensen. (Maybe AI likes to make little inside jokes about the violent death of their "meat sack" overlords.)

Needless to say, my son's work opened a whole new world for me. Just think how easy it will be for me to generate comics day after day now! With that it mind, I went ahead and tried my hand and generating my own.

I'm not sure what is going on here (maybe those triple-dark chocolate chippers are laced with something powerful).

Not sure what is funny about this one. Maybe it's that there is a Latter-day Saint missionary outside a Jewish Synagogue (check your spelling, Gemini), behind a Christian podium. Maybe the next one will be better!

Nope.

Speech bubbles seem to be a real challenge for AI. I'm pretty sure the adult is supposed to be speaking here, just like I think the old lady above with the cookies was talking and not the backpack wearing dog.

Finally, I managed to have AI generate one that has potential:

Again there is the issue with the speech bubble, unless the AI on her tablet has finally become sentient. It was that chilling thought that finally convinced me to abandon AI generated gags for this website. But at least this final "gag" inspired the one I opened with so the exercise wasn't a total waste.

Galactus

Thanks to everyone who participated in our first ever Ward Cartoonist caption contest. It was so much fun, we are definitely doing it again!

Here's the annotation of all my co-creators:

• Do you have... (greghumphreys1986)
• The power of the... (Klinton)
• Well OK but... (Shawn Lindseth)
• Where do planets... (bigben126)
• Take me to... (Tom Brand)
• Wait...you're saying... (Brett Bates)
• For those of you... (jon.freestone)
• Define large in... (Anonymous)
• Tell me more... (joelvandegraaff)
• Turns out the one... (Janeal Lynn Shippen)
• Wait, does this.../Every superhero.../Gigantor went looking... (jena_vdg)

It was so fun to see submissions from former mission companions, a fellow cartoonist, another fellow cartoonist's padawan, and a couple of my siblings (even if one of them didn't recognize who Galactus is). If I had to pick one, I would have gone with Brett Bates' submission, although jon.freestone's made me literally laugh out loud.

Okay, that's it for the summer movie preview week. Back to the regular schedule Monday.

The Other Dynamic Duo

I suppose if I'm going to dedicate an entire week to a summer movie preview, I maybe ought talk about the movies coming out this summer. Here's a list of links of gags I've done for some of the IPs coming out this summer: 

1. Mandalorian & Grogu
2. Masters of the Universe
3. Minions 3
4. Spider-Man: Brand New Day 

Elder Loki

Yesterday I argued that the superhero genre is in danger of losing its spot as the biggest moneymaker in Hollywood. Want proof? Consider the timing of these posts. Usually, I'll post my summer movie preview* the first weekend of May to correspond to Star Wars day (May the Fourth) and Free Comic Book Day. That's a good week to post the summer preview because there is always some big geeky movie coming out that weekend to kick of the summer movie schedule. This year that weekend was dominated by The Devil Wears Prada 2. 

So superhero movies are in trouble. What's next, you might ask? My guess, video game movies. Super Mario is doing gangbusters. Minecraft was a huge hit. This despite the fact that none of those movies were particularly good (although it was fun to watch Minecraft in a theater with a bunch of prepubescents losing their minds).

Yep, I'm calling it now. Video game movies are going to dominate Hollywood for the next decade...either that or fashion magazine movies.

(Today's gag comes from faithful reader Abby V. who probably wants to remind you that one of Loki's powers is the ability to create the illusion of duplicates of himself.)

*Where I guarantee not to actually preview any summer movies.