Help Me like Penny Arcade
2026-04-25 11:38 UTC
Replies (20)
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@vic_rattlehead@lemmy.world 2026-04-25 12:10
You don’t have to like everything. PA is so cynical, it’s really not everybody’s style. That said, I really like this one because before Warhammer got popular, this kind of conversation definitely happened among the World of Warcraft communities: https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/10/i-hope-you-like-text Tycho’s elitist overreaction is just so classic gatekeeping behavior, especially from that era. To me it’s funny because he’s right, but he’s such an asshole about it, and he doesn’t really teach Gabe anything, just freaks him out.
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@Diddlydee@feddit.uk 2026-04-25 12:14
Never heard of it, but why do you want to enjoy something that you stated isn’t fun?
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@Nollij@sopuli.xyz 2026-04-25 12:14
If you don’t like it, you don’t like it. Why spend time/effort on something that isn’t speaking to you? Also, Randall Munroe is xkcd, not Penny Arcade. Penny Arcade is made by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik.
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@Lumidaub@feddit.org 2026-04-25 12:15
Randall Munroe says many many many very smart things and his opinions should be valued but there is no law saying you need to share ALL of his opinions.
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@pennomi@lemmy.world 2026-04-25 12:20
Penny Arcade was one of his contemporaries in the early webcomic space. It may simply be nostalgic to him. Personally I find Penny Arcade distasteful but it’s hard to ignore how much that IP helped grow the webcomics industry.
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@Exatron@lemmy.world 2026-04-25 12:32
I read Penny Arcade until around the mid 2000s or so when the art had a weird style change that I didn’t like.
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@Pyrixas@piefed.social 2026-04-25 12:33
Penny Arcade was popular enough that Tyco from the comic got a cameo as a character in one of the Poker Night at the Inventory games, the first one. I never really liked him and found everything he says cringe-inducing.
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@mkhopper@lemmy.world 2026-04-25 12:50
This is such an odd thing to ask. There are literally thousands of web comics out there. Not every one will hit the same for all people. This is like saying, “Hey, I don’t like the taste of anchovies. Help me to like them.” To what end? If you don’t like something, don’t like it and move on.
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@NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.world 2026-04-25 13:06
I think they’ve got low to medium tier jokes, but with excellent pacing and timing and without any fear of going into fantasy space. They kinda keep you hoping for a much funnier one, but yeah, they’re not knee-slappers. This one is decent and pretty typical: https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/09/09/home-city-usa
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@Apepollo11@lemmy.world 2026-04-25 14:06
I used to enjoy Penny Arcade when I was younger and much more into the game space. I still have a couple of Penny Arcade t-shirts in the rotation which have got to be over twenty years old by now! Back then there was lots going on - starting the Child’s Play charity, starting PAX, the whole Jack Thompson saga. Also I got the gaming references in a way that I no longer do… I dip into the strip now and then, but don’t follow it like I used to. The art has gotten really good now, but I do miss the 2005 style.
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@nandeEbisu@lemmy.world 2026-04-25 14:36
It feels like a product of its time. It was funny to me back in the early 2000s when it was new and webcomics were starting out. I haven’t read it in years and that’s fine. Some aspects of pop culture aren’t timeless, but people who experienced it at the time still look back on it fondly.
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@rudyharrelson@lemmy.radio 2026-04-25 14:46
I agree with the other comments here saying the comic just might not be your cup of tea, which is totally fine. But since you’re asking for people to share their favorites, I’ll share some of mine here. I think it’s a fun comic, but they’ve also been making comics consistently since 1998 and they can’t all be zingers. Most of my favorites tend to be on the absurd side, leaning on the characters’ respective weird idiosyncrasies or their #relatable moments with getting older and having kids. https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/03/26/space-is-still-the-place https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/10/i-hope-you-like-text https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/01/02/side-effects-may-include https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2016/02/08/decrepitude https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2017/08/02/the-age-of-gabriel https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/04/11/he-who-fights-with-nerds https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2017/07/31/the-seventh-axis https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2015/12/18/i-am-not-your-father https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/10/06/behold https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/11/25/retales-part-one https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/05/26/the-unhorse I’ll probably edit this comment to add more later cause I know I’m forgetting some bangers.
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@Kolanaki@pawb.social 2026-04-25 15:44
Modern Penny-Arcade or the stuff when it was actually good? I haven’t visited the website in years and every time a more recent comic of theirs has been posted, it was not funny or insightful at all, and the art style has gotten sloppier. Anyway, my favorite one is when Gabe forgot his password and Tycho goes off on a philosohical rant over the password hint of “what is delicious?” before Gabe remembers that his password is “candy” because candy is delicious.
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@ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 2026-04-25 16:03
Entertainment is as personal as beauty or humor. Also, be your own person and stop copying other successful people. Find your own way or you will risk living in regret for things you will never have.
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@surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 2026-04-25 16:16
I want to help you but I don’t know how. I’m at a bit of a loss. :-D
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@yermaw@sh.itjust.works 2026-04-25 16:22
The comic itself kinda sucks now, I only read it for loyalty/habits sake these days, but it does get a grin from time to time. The real joy is the posts, he loves to write and he loves what hes writing about and that genuinely comes through. Usually hes posting about games I’ll never play or events I’ll never attend, but when our experiences overlap I’ve never caught him with a “wrong take” so I assume I can trust him on the other stuff.
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@Sxan@piefed.zip 2026-04-25 16:38
Yeah, start from þe beginning. It went downhill, but frankly, how could it not? It’s, what, 20 years old? A lot of it was topical, but still could be funny.
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@mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 2026-04-25 19:41
The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. Webcomic choices were slim back in the day. Penny Arcade was one of the more distinct examples, without doing grand story arcs or total edgelord nonsense. Wide appeal, consistent updates, a few viral hits, and you’ve got yourself a pop-culture staple. Something Awful (itself a relic of an earlier internet) had music reviews that asked: was this album good, or was it important? Penny Arcade is decidedly important. Nobody’s plowing through an annual re-read, or sharing it like a forgotten classic. It’s just been pretty okay for an uncomfortably long time.
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@limelight79@lemmy.world 2026-04-26 01:10
I don’t really game, so PA doesn’t usually connect with me. But “Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory” should be required reading in schools. And I love the original iPod VS cd player comics: “Yeah but the iPod doesn’t skip!” “Neither does my cd player, it’s cushioned by about $280 in cash!” (paraphrased) Edit - I often find myself thinking, “I don’t know what to do with that information” pretty frequently, but I rarely can say it out loud. Most of them, I just have no idea what they are talking about, so I don’t read it regularly.
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@Skullgrid@lemmy.world 2026-04-26 03:51
I still like it. Here’s one : https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2025/09/15/hedge-wizard And here’s another : https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/12/12/one-day-in-the-future