Subject: One Word: Banter
Author:
Posted on: 2014-07-25 20:43:00 UTC
Agents bickering, snarking, and playing off each other is my bread and butter. I just absolutely love when writers make full use of their characters' personalities for comedic effect.
Even though I've mentioned this before, the only thing I honestly find funny about the PPC are the parts of a badfic that happen to be extremely disgusting, disturbing, violent, dark, or all of the above.
Sometimes agent behavior can make me laugh, but not most of the time.
So, the point is, what makes the PPC funny to you guys?
Agents bickering, snarking, and playing off each other is my bread and butter. I just absolutely love when writers make full use of their characters' personalities for comedic effect.
That incredibly unhelpful response aside, I really do laugh at what are supposed to be the jokes. I think most of the writers here do a very good job of creating interesting characters, and I enjoy their interactions. Typically it's the bits that happen 'around' the badfic that I find the funniest - to use an example from the Original Series, I still laugh my head off at the Cheese Elves.
"So you see, violence is the symptom of an unhealthy mind," said Socko the sock puppet.
"Speaking of violence, let's talk about the .2 strain of Gondor's national cheese," said Millie the sock puppet.
"You see, once a cheesemaker had five substrains of Gondor Blue Vein. So he called them all one cheese. But then he discovered another strain of Gondor Blue Vein. Oh, hello Acacia, is something wrong with your face? And so he said, 'Oh, NO! I have discovered another .3 piece of cheese!' But then his friend, a mathematician, said, 'No, silly, that's .2 of a strain of cheese...'"
Acacia's eyes flickered from Jay to Alex, noting with a fair amount of satisfaction the Sue's expression of stunned bewilderment. Torture. Fun.
Alex's eyes swiveled from one elf to another. Then she turned and ran away.
"Wait! We have pamphlets!" said Millie the sock puppet.
"I don't even want to know why you brought sock puppets with you on a mission," said Acacia. She sat down on a handy flat rock and sighed. "PTerry got it exactly right."
"Improvised them. And I know he did, but what is he right about this time?"
Acacia sighed again. "'Ninety percent of true love is acute, ear-burning embarrassment.'" She pulled out her book again, clearly hoping not to be asked more questions. She should be so lucky.
"Acacia, he's a fictional characteh!"
"So?"
"It's not healthy to be in love with fictional charactehs."
"Is it healthy to bring up cheese in a discussion of why violence is bad?"
"Thehe's neveh been a Stah Trek episode about THAT." Jay arched one fine eyebrow.
No?
hS
It's like going whoo! after a screaming rollercoaster hill. It's monkey for "that scary thing is over now."
Yes, I like the silly moments like punctuation storms. I also like the dramatic moments where things just go wrong. Then there are the character development moments.
I also like the things that I shouldn't laugh at, where agents get hurt (shows that they really need to be smart to survive) or the agents get really squicked, or they snap because of one-too-many attacks on their sensibilities.
It's not the humor that draws me in, either. My favorite part of the PPC is seeing a pair of wily agents outsmart a god-moding Mary-sue or slashwraith, or surviving crazy SPAG issues, or surviving each other's near-flamethrower-craziness. I've always enjoyed reading well-written battle or conflict, especially ones where the fight is closely matched and the combatants think outside the box to win the fight. It needn't be physical fighting; it can be court intrigue or hunting down a criminal or, on a lighter note, planning a really good prank.
The PPC really lends itself to that kind of thing because on the one hand, you have a nearly brainless and effectively non-sentient but extremely powerful reality-bender, and on the other side you have a couple of characters who are either ordinary people or ordinary for their continuum, but who are capable of thinking and planning and figuring things out, and in the end sneaking around and sticking a dagger where it needs to go. When PPC agents have talents or powers, they use them creatively. They make mistakes and get annoyed with each other and recover from setbacks. It's a really nice setup for conflict.
I think it's funny to see how they react to the parts that drive them up the wall. Also immature jokes. Heh, heh, 69. So sue me, I find them funny because I'm also immature like that. :P
But if you don't find the PPC funny, why do you read the missions? I'm just wondering because I don't tend to read stuff if it doesn't catch my interest.
Because It's cool to watch badfic get taken apart and mocked, in addition to the obvious squicky bits.