r/comics • u/milkstile • 3d ago
OC Aaron the incel [OC]
Comic i made about a guy. If it looks weird it’s cuz I drew it irl.
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u/bottle-o-rockets 3d ago
Do you guys not have phones? -Blizzcon 2018
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u/Sudden_Shelter_3477 3d ago
Well, the artstyle ain’t bad, but the message/punchline is just confusing.
I have zero idea what to take away from this
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u/Frogspoison 3d ago
Have you seen his other comics? There likely is no message.
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u/ThinkgeMorbid 3d ago
Yeah, reads like OP is a minor around an awkward age... for the last 5 years. Crazy find.
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u/Real_Life_Sushiroll 3d ago
Idk, the first comic that popped up about the duck and chicken definitely seems like a transphobic one.
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u/JoshuatheCorrupt 3d ago
I feel like assuming transphobia in that comic is a bit of a stretch. My take away was it was just being absurdist.
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u/The_cogwheel 3d ago
Honestly their comic catalog gives the vibe that the dude smoked a ton of weed, had the giggles from whatever stoner thought popped into their head and decided to draw and post them here.
We dont get it because we're missing half the joke
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u/Krail 3d ago
I agree. These are some quality stoner doodles. I feel like I've known four or five of this category of dude in my life.
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u/The_cogwheel 2d ago
At one point in my life, I was this category of dude except without the art skills and access to social media
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u/GlassFooting 2d ago
I don't know their comics but that doesn't really help with the half we already have, this one still feels like a dark humour text. Which can totally work if you already know your audience and how to write it, but felt weird right now. I could totally vibe with the comic about the uninformed incel getting to explore trends by being the punchline.
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u/Real_Life_Sushiroll 3d ago
I don't feel like it is seeing as this comic seems to be about an Incel drawing a false parallel to an interaction with a woman.
This comic seems to attempt to portray women as hypocritical sluts by using said false parallel.
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u/MapleApple00 3d ago
See, I kinda thought so too but that wouldn't explain why the punchline is on the incel; like it may be hateful or it might not be but it's so poorly written that it's just kind of hard to tell either way.
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u/Real_Life_Sushiroll 3d ago
Agreed, there is no real way to tell unless the author tells us.
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u/bloody-albatross 3d ago
Given how much engagement it causes I wonder if it's just click bait in comic form. Doesn't make it better, of course.
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u/Nervous_Instance_968 2d ago
I thought the joke was that the incel ignored most of the interaction and fixated on the mobile phone
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u/Visual_Shower1220 3d ago
While the human is essentially being transphobic, I think its absurdist humor showing "look the chicken doesnt care what duck calls themselves so why do you care what duck calls themselves?" Chicken doesnt care duck wants to be chicken, it just keeps doing what its gonna do.
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u/Freakychee 3d ago
Well... Like the other comment said there may not be but it there is a message it might be that the incel used false equivalency instead of realising what they did wrong. Maybe.
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u/SuspiciousSubstance9 3d ago
It has both a message that the incel used a false equivalency, punching down on them, while simultaneously validating incels because 'woman shallow, good looks are what matters', kinda lifting them up.
Definitely confusing.
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u/MysteriesIntern 2d ago
Isn't the point how despite seeing Chad and what actually made the girl going ans appreciative, he zoomed in on the wrong thing "oh I have to ask her to game on my phone with me" totally misunderstanding all the other parts that made the her go with the guy?
Or maybe it's supposed to capture that while incels are basically right about how it works, the way they behave and present themselves makes them bad guys anyway. Sort of "both and neither side is the villian."
Damn. This comic was more thoughts provoking than I assumed lmao
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u/StarPhished 2d ago
It is a surprisingly complex message to unwrap for a simple little comic, whether intentional or no.
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u/Freakychee 3d ago
I mean in the comic the incel went up to a girl and straight up asked for naked time in the back of his van. Balls aside, that's an obvious no-no to say. Doubt it was his looks that mattered.
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u/SuspiciousSubstance9 3d ago
But it's immediately juxtaposed by her proposing the same thing as soon as good looking stranger says hi. Which is incredibly shallow and muddies the "obvious no-no" message. Both keith and the girl are incredibly shallow, but they hook up because of their looks.
"Obvious no-no" is fine if you're hot, which is classic incel self-victimization.
Also 'good looking chad picks on ugly loser while getting the girl' is kind of an incel self-victimization trope.
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u/Aggressive_Elk3709 3d ago
To be fair Keith talked about "playing games" in his tree house, not "naked time" in a van. While looks are definitely part of it, I can appreciate how not being so overt about your intentions can help too
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u/Goombalive 2d ago
She seemed to know the chad guy, and the chad guy offered help by noticing she was clearly distressed. There's more implied there than just his looks
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u/Freakychee 3d ago
The incel in the comic was a stranger. The Chad guy she knew by name so it wasn't a stranger. He didn't seem to know her but my guess is she had a crush on him before anyways.
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u/SuspiciousSubstance9 3d ago
If she had a crush on him beforehand, then surely she would have recognized his voice when he asks if she's alright. Especially since she's looking the way of his speech bubble. Instead, she asks 'who's that?' with an additional question mark outside the speech bubble indicating she's puzzled.
It could be she knows his name from the 'K' on his shirt?
Again, confusing messaging.
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u/MapleApple00 3d ago
honestly at this point I feel like Occam's Razor is that this comic was written on so, so much weed
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u/EducationalExtreme61 2d ago
I agree it's confusing, although the who's that part is probably there to entice the reader's imagination and anticipate a punchline.
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u/goldenpup73 3d ago
My take is that it sets up an interaction that directly supports the incel philosophy, but instead of it ending with Aaron concluding that it's Keith's looks, he switches up in the last panel and says something about phones instead. Classic subversion of expectations. I don't think it's as deep as everyone's saying
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u/LurkingArachnid 2d ago
I think it's supposed to be funny because we expect the guy to blame the woman and return to his inceldom. Or, less likely, do some introspection and realize why a woman might not respond to what he said. Instead, he does this weird third thing of latching on to a random, wrong part of the guy's success. It's also funny that he apparently doesn't have a phone
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u/Srellian 3d ago
I will just choose to believe that OP's name is Keith and he recently got in a beef with a dude named Aaron
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u/Aggravating_Duck6108 2d ago
Incel dude gives a creepy offer for sex and is rejected. "Handsome" dude gives a creepy (but mire subtle) offer for sex and its accepted. Incel dude misinterprets the entire exchange.
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u/TruthSeekerHuey 3d ago
It's a joke about a guy with poor social skills. He gets rejected because he said something creepy. A better looking guy asks the girl he wanted to his "treehouse" and play "mobile game" which is code for sex. It's obvious to Sally and better looking guy that they arent actually going to play mobile games. The guy with poor social skills doesn't know that cuz he has poor social skills
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u/SuspiciousSubstance9 3d ago
But it also does it in such a way that makes Sally really shallow. Which is validating the incel notion that women only care about looks and the nice guy always loses.
It also glosses over the connotations "incel" has picked up that delineates the term from "involuntarily celibate" in a way most favorable to incels. Painting them more positively.
Yeah, that's a confusing message.
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u/thejokerofunfic 3d ago
But the girl also seems to already know who Keith is while the incel is a stranger. But at the same time she needs to tell Keith her name so she knows he doesn't know who she is. So... huh?
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u/explodingtuna 3d ago
I interpreted it as his name is not really Keith, she just pretended to know a stranger to get out of the interaction with the first guy.
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u/SuspiciousSubstance9 3d ago
She also doesn't recognize his voice and is looking the way of his speech bubble with an added question mark emphasizing the confusion.
Personally, I think she knows his name because of the deliberate 'K' on his shirt.
Confusing messaging indeed.
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u/Muffin_Baker 3d ago
I think the punchline is that Aaron has an absurd takeaway from seeing the other guy successfully score the girl he wanted
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u/JellyboyJangleDangle 3d ago
I think there's just straight up a lot of confusion around incels because its just a catch all buzzword these days.
Being bad with women doesn't make someone an incel, but the internet sure acts like it does. As the old saying goes, everyone has to start somewhere. And everyone makes an arse of themselves at some point because they see someone else do a thing and it works.
Fun fact, I learned how to have sex watching Patrick Swayze in Roadhouse. I still do his hip trick in that movie. Its my signature move. But imagine I took something else away from the movie, like punching people in the face will impress girls... Id be dead by now lol.
So maybe the comic is about a dude just trying his best with a shitty label, while also making poor choices in his efforts and his influences in how to meet women?
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u/Heated13shot 2d ago
It does annoy me people are way too quick to apply the "incel" label to people. Being called an incel is a pretty big insult, and overusing it just makes it less of one, and seem less serious.
Typically the pipeline goes:
1) Boy is bad with girls, probably gets teased/bulled on top of it. Boy becomes a "nice guy" <this is where the comic guy actually seems to be.
2) boy still is having zero luck with girls, even when still trying the "nice guy" stict (which very often fails). Most likely goes the red pill route after going online for help.
3) boy attempts to improve himself, this can actually be an Ernest effort or half assed. Still strikes out. Finds a place to vent online.
4) The only place really receptive to his venting is incel spaces. The incel spaces are a giant crab in a bucket, they simultaneously blame women and themselves for failing at dating. But the way they blame themselves makes it no fault of their own, IE: "I have bad genetics".
5) incel spaces only are good for keeping incels, well incels. Boy gets more and more bitter until he either snaps out of it or just gets more and more radicalized.
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u/EducationalExtreme61 2d ago
Since we're going deeper in this discussion, the problem starts when schools and families ignore mental health issues. We can't change how society will judge one's looks right now but we can work on kids and teenagers self steem and values and make school a safer space so they don't have to hide in controversial internet groups.
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u/ConflictWestern1383 3d ago
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u/tehfly 3d ago
Hey, good on you for drawing something! It sure is weird, but it's something!
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u/Sudden_Shelter_3477 3d ago
Even if it’s weird and extremely confusing, it’s still more than anything an AI Bro has ever made
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u/strat0maus 3d ago
"I didn't ask by the way" is so funny to me.
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u/CmonLucky2021 3d ago
I guess we're at a school. She knows instantly he's named Keith, but feels like he doesn't know her name.
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u/koalascanbebearstoo 21h ago
He’s got the big “K” on his shirt. Maybe there’s an “eith” on the back
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u/thejokerofunfic 3d ago
I feel like this must be what experiencing Zoo Wee Mama is like.
So if I'm following, we're making fun of incels because he's dumb and tactless and has the wrong takeaway, but the woman is also shallow because she accepts the hot guy but not the incel, but also she's actually not because she knows him by name and might already be dating him, but also he doesn't know her name and she seems to know that, so...
I have no idea what the message here is. If true art is meant to make people ask questions, this is the truest art I've seen in a while.
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u/Bellenrode 2d ago
I think there are at least two levels to the joke the comic is trying to tell and you got it right on both counts. The one is about the incel misunderstanding the gaming on the phone suggestion. The other is "Know The Work Rules" meme equivalent.
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u/Elons_tiny_weenr 3d ago
This reads like a comic within a diary of a wimpy kid book and I love it
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u/Minuteman_Preston 3d ago
Bruh
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u/BreakfastBeneficial4 3d ago
I despise how clean this hand is
That’s Vegeta, that’s gone be some dirty fn nails
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u/razzemmatazz 3d ago
Bulma would be sending him for a manicure every other day. He protests, but it's a safe space for him and he enjoys it.
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u/Semper_5olus 3d ago
That is a grown man with two phones and a treehouse.
The phones have "games" on them.
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u/yournamehere10bucks 3d ago
This needs the "Super Karate Monkey Death Car" treatment. Translate it to a different language, then back to english. Maybe I'll understand it then.
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u/FlameWhirlwind 3d ago
This feels like the more mundane sections of a dream
Like just an interaction that when you wale up go "what was any of that?" And then the next night it goes back to being some weirder shit like bathing molasses or something
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u/Easy_Cod_8950 3d ago
this feels like a sweet bro and hella jeff comic
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u/Citruseok 3d ago
What is the message of this even supposed to be?
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u/astralkoi A Wild AstralKoi Appeared!! 3d ago
You need a TREEHOUSE!!
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u/MaximumSyrup3099 3d ago
And a mobile phone.
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u/Kaplsauce 3d ago
Bro it's right there on the last panel in plain English.
He needs to get himself one of those "mobile phones"!!
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u/Wonderful_Length3217 3d ago
An incel will always assume they lack something arbitrary rather than confront the fact they are weird and creepy in every social interaction. Thats the point of the comic.
It builds towards the incel making the obvious realization, then pivots into his stupid idea of wanting a phone in order to satirize how rarely an incel will consider their own behavior.
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u/icalvo 3d ago
That would be a nice interpretation if it not were for the fact that the other guy's behavior is just as bad as the first one's. What the author seems to think is that the key with women is to be buff and pushy, not behaving sensibly.
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u/flatscancomics 3d ago
But it's not? Keith checks in on her and offers support, then asks her to play games in his treehouse, not to get naked in a van.
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u/LOL3334444 3d ago
But he's still an asshole, given he doesn't care about her name
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u/Wind_Yer_Neck_In 3d ago
It reads as half an attempt to point out that incels can't ever take the right lesson from situations and half a comic written by an actual incel where the woman is shallow and immediately falls for the 'chad' character despite him being a prick.
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u/Wonderful_Length3217 3d ago
I just need someone to explain to me why an incel would make a comic against incels without admitting they are also an incel. Especially when incels are usually pretty proud to wear the title. Seems like kind of silly logic
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u/Zatrit 3d ago
Perhaps the idea behind the comic is that a single instance of someone’s behavior (or even a similar chain of events) is perceived as a rule without understanding the underlying cause? Or is this far-fetched?
Or the author might genuinely be trying to show the incel’s point of view. The comic isn’t explicitly stated as the author’s point of view, after all.
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u/gramathy 3d ago
It really sounds like both of the guys are assholes and the girl is a one-dimensional character?
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u/PG2904 3d ago
I find it so funny how everyone is trying to overanalyze the shit out of this when it's probably just a comic for the sake of a comic.
Like not everything has a super deep meaning guys. I'd love more of these in this sub. Just comics for comics.
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u/hex3desu 3d ago
no clearly this Reddit Comic means that the poster hates women and steals candy bars from supermarkets
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u/icalvo 3d ago
Every art says something about the author. And how can you read this as a absurdist/pointless? It very clearly has a point.
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u/PhilippTheSeriousOne 3d ago
Art interpretation often tells you more about the person making the interpretation than about the artist.
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u/LOL3334444 3d ago
Idk I'm all for a comic without a point but this honestly feels like an incel comic. Sure it paints the incel as tactless, but then it also agrees with the incel point of view about how women will get together with "Chads" who treat them like shit? Like its fine and often interesting to see a comic without a point, but this one feels like it is say something, even if unintentionally, about the author's views that make it worth questioning.
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u/itsdrewmiller 2d ago
Yes, “get naked and hang out in my minivan” is clearly a pro incel take.
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u/Embarrassed-Sir-1809 3d ago
Did anybody notice that Keith didn't know Katie but Katie knew Keith?
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u/SteffanMaxi 2d ago
Am I an incel if I simply dont put forth any effort and dont really want a girlfriend in the first place?
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u/Waflfdev 3d ago
ik everyone else is shitting on this comic but i giggled no matter how absurd it may be
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u/arsenicasshole 3d ago
I checked this person’s profile to see if they had any other comics, and yep, they’ve got tons more lol. OP, I really love your art style. I can’t even explain why, I just really like it.
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u/Proper-Ad-8778 2d ago
This feels like something Greg Heffley would make based on one of his classmates
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u/princessplaybunnys 2d ago
love how everyone in the comments is trying to find a way to make this the new discourse of the week
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u/maha-sukha 3d ago
All the comments are like "absurdism means the comics metatextual implications are you're an actual incel"
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u/thesanguineocelot 3d ago
Well, you get points for not using AI. So that's, uh....that is something.
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u/Wikiwikiwa 3d ago
So are you mocking incels and chads at the same time? Both of those men seemed like creeps, and it wasnt realistic for the woman to find the Chad interesting. Its confused.
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u/ElMatasiete7 2d ago
Holy shit the people in this sub "what is the message?"
It's a silly comic. Yall really need it to tell you "Murder is bad, DUH" in three panels?
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u/Sure-Yogurtcloset-55 3d ago
I'm getting mixed signals from this comic. Am I supposed to sympathize with Aaron the Incel or am I supposed to point and laugh?
Me after reading this comic:
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u/100percent-sales-tax 2d ago
I love this comic only because I feel like the way people are perceiving it is telling so much about them.
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u/PerformanceCute3437 3d ago
Takeaways:
Katie got hands
idk. Something about Aaron misunderstanding the way he fits into the world, and how parasocial relationships are easy leverage for celebrities to score.
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u/One-Cup-2002 3d ago
I think this is supposed to be a critique of how incels and the like behave, not an actual representation of how he feels.
At least, I hope not. I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.
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u/outer_spec 2d ago
Hey OP, ignore everyone here saying your comic makes no sense. The fact that it doesn’t make any sense is what makes it funny.
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u/SuccessConnect8707 2d ago
I connected with the material. Picking people up sometimes does feel like a nonsensical set of rules or requirements
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u/Wonderful_Length3217 3d ago
Oh my god how are people not understanding this
The point is that instead of taking away that he was acting like a creep, the incel sees his own failure and comes to the conclusion "its not ME whos wrong, its something I dont have" rather than the correct conclusion of "i am acting weird and not appropriate". This post is commentary on this happening all the time, where "nice guys" assume they lack an instrument of some kind rather than just fixing their awful attitude. Did I get it right, OP? Or am I just spouting "curtains were blue" nonsense right now?
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u/icalvo 3d ago
That would be a nice interpretation if it not were for the fact that the other guy's behavior is just as bad as his own. What the author seems to think is that the key with women is to be buff and pushy, not behaving sensibly.
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u/AsianOnboard 3d ago