Inside The Joke

US election Results

2008-11-03T10:01:00.001-05:00

PA election Results

2008-11-03T10:00:00.001-05:00

NEW UPDATE

2006-06-09T16:03:00.001-04:00

For the few of you that do read this rarely updated blog, there is a new strip up on our comic site: theinsidejoke.net

Here's a link straight to it. Clicky.

Enjoy!

-J

The Anouncement of the Century

2006-04-19T23:06:00.001-04:00

WE HAVE A SITE!

Oh yeah, I said it. We have a site. The webcomic now will reside at:

http://theinsidejoke.net

Now go! Patronize!

*Homer Simpsone fist shake* Patroniiiize!

-J

Wheeeee!

2006-04-18T15:40:00.001-04:00

Yet another reason to get FireFox.

Ya know, besides the good ones...

Star Wars Geekdom At Its Best

2006-04-13T15:54:00.001-04:00

Quite possibly the coolest thing I have ever seen:

I gotta say, I'm more than a little jealous.

-J

2006-04-09T00:57:00.001-04:00

Two quick things (unrelated but equally exciting):

1. The strip is coming back this summer, complete with a website, so stay tuned!

2. Here is a little example of the best case scenario:

-Joe

Let me explain...

2006-02-06T11:06:00.001-05:00

"Bet on it." is swahili for divide Pitt's score by 3.3 and then switch them.

Sorry for the confusion, and any actual "betting" inconveniences that took place.

-J

The Game of Games on the Day of Days

2006-02-05T14:14:00.001-05:00

Prediction:

Pitt - 33
Seattle - 21

Bet on it.

-J

What do you mean the army isn't ready? Look how prepared they are to TAKE A NAP

2006-01-25T20:44:00.001-05:00

A recent CNN.com article reported on a study that indicates that the army is at its breaking point. Judging by the soldiers captured in the corresponding photo they are. The article states "The Krepinevich assessment is the latest in the debate over whether the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have worn out the Army..." They do look a little worn out, and at the breaking point for some midday army "Nap-Time"

Rumsfeld responded with a stern, "Nuh-uh" and admitted that he "has not read the study but took issue with its conclusions." Well no kidding, you do. It makes you look bad. But I suppose you know a thing or two about looking bad.

Im out.
-J

P.S. check out the caption on the photo, and see who they were listening too. yeah. maybe doctors should prescribe some ignorance and idoicy along with the ambien.

Never Put Beer-Lovers In Charge of the Beer

2005-12-24T17:32:00.001-05:00

Christmas Eve Day events this year included cleaning the house and then decorating said house. Needless to say, such events involved "dusting." My father instructed my brother and I to "dust" various furniture pieces and nick-nacky things around the house. He looked upon our futile attempts at cleanliness as he did earlier in my life when we tried to build a fort out of the couch cushions (bricks) and peanut butter (mortar). Thats about the time he sent us out the door to "help out" and get beer and some flowers. Only later did I realize this was a job that was only given to us to get us "the hell out of the way" and just slightly beat out the job assignment of arranging the shoes descending alphabetical order by brand names.

This trip was supposed to take us 30 minutes. We were gone for 2 hours.

This is why you don't put beer lovers in charge of the beer. We sat there trying to make what seemed to us as an extremely important choice. Of course we asked our dad what he wanted and left it up to "whatever you want." That was a mistake.

We, at first glance, narrowed it down to about 45 brands.
Then that became about 10-15.

The beer that you buy says a lot. Not only about the kind of person you are, but what you think about the people you buy it for. Here are some examples of what we encountered today...

Any Pale Ale:
About You (AY): "I'm a Polly Prissy Pants!"
About Them (AT): "I laugh at your weak stomach, and taunt your lack of taste! But I will appease you so I don't have to listen to you whine."

Any Stout (i.e. Guiness):
AY: "I am a man's man. But not in that way."
AT: "I challenge you to match my sighs of satisfaction with your gags of weakness!"

Any Local Micro Brew:
AY: "I support the community. I am a local hero"
AT: "You need some culture, outsider. Now git!"

Bud, Coors, Miller:
AY: "I'm a consumer whore! Oooh! Look at the shiny bottles!"
AT: "I have no idea what I'm doing, and don't care enough about you to try."

Any Natural Ice, Milwakee's Best, or Equivalent:
AY: "I hate myself"
AT: "I hate you"

And those are just a few examples. PA beer distributers carry a bigger selection with equally bigger implications. So the next time you're gonna just "run in" to the beer store, please take the time to think about what you are saying with your beer. Or at least who you are insulting.

Happy Holidays,
Joe

Crimes against Journalism

2005-12-14T17:16:00.001-05:00

In interest of time I will make this short, due to my insanely busy schedule, but I just couldn't not show people this phenomenon. This is a very simple postulate that I have concocted after hours of painstaking research using nothing but my intuition and....ok it was about 5 minutes of lookin' around with a firefox browser.
I call it the "Fox News Theory of Blind Conservatism and Idiocy in Reporting Information that Should Be Based on Facts" or FNTBCIRISBBF. Allbeit not a catchy acronym (I'm working on it), it is a continuous theme that pervades Fox News' entire existence. I will present one aspect of it here for your intellectual betterment.

Observe!

George Bush today announced that he was responsible for going to war in Iraq based on faulty information (I know, I couldn't believe it either). I give you a sample of Theoretically Unbiased (BBC), Intermediate (CNN), Liberal (NPR) and Criddity-Crazy/Conservative (FOX NEWS) examples of the front page stories reporting on this major historic event.

Theoretically Unbiased - BBC

Intermediate - CNN

Liberal - NPR

...wow... -FOX NEWS

Note that the wonderful people at FOX don't have a single story on the front page that has any reference to the admittance of guilt by the president. You might want to note the little story there about the democratic "assault" on the president's plans. There is not a single story on this page that has any bad spin on the war whatsoever. It's actually pretty optimistic. "Story of Freedom"? More like "Story of Imperialism"! But thats a whole different post.

Note the presentation of the facts in an unbiased way by the other sources, even the Liberal (NPR) source.

Just thought I would point this out. For other crimes against journalism, see the "Really Fake News" link to your right.

Now back to work.

-Joe

Not related to the comic...

2005-10-16T23:22:00.000-04:00

I quite simply don't get women. I don't get them at all. I know this has nothing to do with our comic strip but it needs to be said. I don't get them. I understand that men are never supposed to completely understand the twisted, convoluted thoughts of the female kind but I've been around and dated my fair share of women (admittedly most of them were crazy) and I was under the impression that I it down. Imagine my surprise when I found myself looking at a girl the same way I look at an algebra equation.
The cause of my puzzled, hopeless look is the materialism that has come smashing into our culture like Godzilla through Tokyo. Seven years ago, if you I told you about the Shoe and Purse Cult of women worshiping all things designer that we see to day you would have told me I was out of my mind. Being a history major, I am well aware that since the emergence of civilization women have always been concerned with shoes and purses. Be it the latest from Proda or the 4000 BC equivalent of a sack made of not-so-mangled animal skin and stones to walk on that sanded more then the average arrowhead, that has always been the way of things. But this materialism on methamphetamines we have today creates a much different climate for men who are trying their hardest to date these girls. How do women expect us to take them seriously when they view us men as nothing more then accessories?
Years ago we were judged on criteria that were easy to understand. It was things like if we were watching a game did we freak out and trash the place when a) our team lost or b) our team won the championship. If we didn't dress like rolled out of bed and stumbled out of our closet wearing what ever came off the hanger. If we made her best friend laugh even though we really didn't like the friend because they were always tell her to leave the loser (us) and date this doctor friend of theirs. Simple things like if we didn't come home at four in the morning reeking of smoke, cheap alcohol and even cheaper perfume. But the most important of all the criteria were things like if we could remember approximately seventy-five percent of what she said the day before and how much or little we cried every time she brought up marriage. I had mastered this rubric, knew all the loopholes, and the best part was I was genuine through all of it (being the decent guy that I am). But all of this was shattered when Candice Bushnell smacked men right in the face with her book Sex and the City. This book spawned the absurdly popular HBO special and it was game over. We no longer held any chance of getting with in five feet of an attractive woman ever again. Women suddenly realized that the space in their lives normally set aside for men could be filled with overpriced designer stuff, some of which make women look down right silly.
Now I can understand the feminist argument to all of this would be that the women characterized in that show were strong, self sustaining women who should be idealized and made into heroines. That they were not defined by men nor were they subjected or repressed, that were their own personalities and were defined by the bond they had with each other and were not afraid of their healthy sexual appetites. And all that is fine and I have no problem with any of what was said. In fact I like that in a woman. I will be honest and agree women have seen the crappy side of, well, everything for centuries. But even Gloria Steinem would smack these women around for throwing the movement back thirty years. Instead of being independent girls they are materialistic princesses who play with men at whim. If we're being punished for the whole not letting you vote thing, we're sorry. Really, really sorry. But come on that was, like, eighty years ago. Can't we just move on? No? I didn't think so.
But seriously this leads to the other problem I mentioned before, attempting to date an attractive women who is a member of this ever growing cult. Before all this, I was under the impression that under all the shopping sprees and obscene credit card bills was a girl who really just wanted a guy to love her, make her laugh, treat her with respect, be loyal, and pamper her from time to time. All of which I think is totally acceptable. But now I have absolutely no idea what the hell it is girls want out of guys. I'd guess they want money from us, but I honestly have no idea anymore.
What's worse is I have no idea of the signals now. I used to know the signals well enough to fumble my way through a date and fall into a relationship. I knew that if coach scratches his ear, picks his nose, readjusts himself, all in that order that I should steal second. But now I'm looking at a girl thinking to myself "I wish coach was here". I spend the night out with a girl analyzing her body language to see if she is moving closer to me in conversation. I rack my brain trying to figure out if her laugh is one of social grace or if she actually thinks I'm funny. The worst is deciding if I should touch her harmlessly in conversation and see if that leads to more touching or if I should respect her bubble of personal space.
I am back to square one when it comes to flirting, a true novice. I admit this is not a direct result of Candice Bushnell, who if I ever meet I am going to stuff in a trash bag and leave her in the woods. But this new girl code is a by-product of the Shoe and Purse Cult. I find myself reading the fashion section of the New York Times just so I can maybe learn part of the code and if nothing else be a little knowledgeable when she starts to go off about what designers are making the holy grail of jeans.
The other problem I have now is I have no concept of what a real, honest-to-God date is these days. In the good old days I used to nervously ask a girl out to a movie and dinner with the hope I could be at least a little charming while focusing all my energy on not making an ass out of myself. Now I go out to movies then to the bar and have no clue as to the social context of the evening. Am I supposed to make a move or are we just friends hanging out? Is the reason she's never brought up any other guy is because she likes me or just hasn't found a contextual time to bring another guy up? This is all secondary to what happens if God smiles on me and I actually find myself with this girl, she is the one who is commitment-phobic. Not the guy! Not like I would be asking for her hand anytime soon but how do I know that if I let this get serious I won't be better dealed for a guy in an Armani outfit? Sort answer: I don't. I'd like to think I'd know the girl well enough to know that would never happen, but I was view as a walking equivalent of a good pair of ear rings from the start the odds on that changing are against my favor.
Now there is a slight chance that I am wrong. I hope that I am wrong. It would make me so happy if all of this was complete and utter crap and this was just a waste of cyberspace. Because hopefully there is another side to this and contemporary women are not as shallow and heartless as they sometimes come off. I would love a woman in the Shoe and Purse Cult to show me a whole other side of all this that makes me less inclined to think I am witnessing the end of Western Civilization. I do admit that this is a rather harsh generalization and while I have watched the worshiped show I do not have an intimate knowledge of it. But I do have an intimate knowledge of what it’s like to be a funny, smart, decent guy trying to survive in this increasingly hostile dating world. I haven't seen any evidence to the contrary of what I have ranted about and while I don't think I will find any soon, I will continue to go out on the town and keep trying. I know there is a wonderful girl buried under all the designer labels and I promise I will find her.

2005-07-31T20:13:00.000-04:00

Here is the link to the store since I forgot to mention it in my last post. http://www.cafepress.com/insidejokecomic

GIMME THEM PAPERS!

2005-07-31T20:11:00.000-04:00

In the immortal words of (now controversial) Carl from GTA San Andreas we are bringing you a new part of Inside Joke. We now have T-shirts you can buy with only the best in prints.....well the best of the prints we have made so far. You can choose from Jay's "Band" shirt, Andy's "Wide Load" shirt, Ethan's "Bird Droppings.net" shirt (which if that was an actual site, the real Ethan would be member) and Joe's "Randel the Alien" shirt. Speaking of Randel, he is the frist inside joke that was created while we were making the strip. He's the alien that pops up in the background or the title panel from time to time. Sadly my button down shirt is not up for sale since my shirt is actually quite boring. But we encourage you to check them out and buy in bulk. There is no mark up on our part so you are buying them at cost. As always we encourage our 5 readers to show our strip to their friends and complete strangers. Untill the next strip, hey I'll see ya.

Holy Update Batman!

2005-07-21T00:32:00.000-04:00

An Update! Hope is not lost! Hope just got sidetracked for a little while and had to "find itself" or some crap like that. Its all good now though!

Its a sign of the Endtimes....

2005-06-08T23:47:00.000-04:00

Its a sign of the Endtimes when we update more then once a month! WE'RE GOING TO DIE! REPENT! REPENT! No, no I'm kidding. But seriously though, more to come.

Another Update? This may become a habit!

2005-06-06T14:41:00.000-04:00

The Journey! Another update? Hell yes. This ain't no Hollaback strip!

WTF!?!?! An update??

2005-05-25T00:11:00.000-04:00

Yes, after a long hiatus theres finally another strip! Gentleman, start your engines!

The journey

2005-04-21T22:29:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. Its been a while since we've seen a new strip (or a new post for that matter) but fear not more are on the way! The next set of strips is called "Journey" and is the stroy arc where the gang go to the Jersey shore. The strips are taken from the various trips to the beach we've taken over the years. A few trips to Ocean City NJ and our Senior Week trip to Ocean City MD. Of course I've taken some creative liberties with a few of the jokes and outright made up others. But they're all funny so who cares! As for the name, we needed something to call our first road trip after Senior Week and since we all have a flair for the dramatic we needed something cool. Andy came through and said "let's call it Journey" which was tool cool to say no to. Since then there have been three Journies and I am sure there will be more in the future. Back to the strips, I have to say this is the funniest stuff we've done yet. So with that in mind I hope you enjoy them. By the way, if you get a chance, tell Joe how good his art is. If you zoom in on the strips there is an amazing amount of detail there. Untill next time may fortune smile on you and may you always get the joke.

Time is of the essence...

2005-04-12T14:33:00.000-04:00

Ok...
So, it looks as though I'll be lucky if a strip comes out by the end of the week. Time is in very short supply becuase I have to squeeze two weeks worth of stuff into one, since next week I will be gone due to this.

You (aka Nick Walker) may say:
"Hey Joe, you're just making excuses, and frankly I don't really care! I want my strip!"

This is all true. I'll do my best. The next strip will start a series that will run for a while, so it has to start off right. And I promise, it will come out, and be good. Its just a matter of when.

stressed,
- joe

Update(s)!?

2005-04-05T15:51:00.000-04:00

Greetings Loyal Fans!

Question: How often is this going to be updated?

Answer: Well...here's the deal. This comic more or less just launched as of my spring break (last week) due to the extra time that I had when I wasn't writing my thesis...which was all the time (Thesisesque!). That gave us the power to produce 5 strips in 1 week. Now that school/work is back in swing for me, we are probably looking at a once a week update, i.e. a weekend strip. If we can update faster than that, then we will post them as they are completed, cause we're not a bunch of hold outs or anything (but we are looking to be sell outs if any of you successful companies are interested...).

We have a couple things on the horizon that might also delay the strip as they will take some work. TheInsideJoke.net needs to get off the ground, but before that we are looking at getting hosted either on KeenSpace.com, or on GutterFlyComix.com...but we'll see. If any of you have opinions about either site (or about the comic in general) please let me know. We have a couple good scripts ready so production should resume shortly.

Stay Tuned!

-joe

2005-04-02T18:04:00.000-05:00

This just in! "Not Worth It" with Jay and Adam...and many apologies to you sympathetic vomiters out there...

2005-04-01T17:39:00.000-05:00

Its the "Planet of the Apes" with Ethan and Joe...blarghhhh....whew...excuse me...

P.O.T.A. is up!

2005-04-01T04:25:00.000-05:00

The 4th strip is up guys! Enjoy!
Please post comments on the strips you love/hate and tell us what you think!

till next time...
-joe

2005-03-31T15:03:00.000-05:00

"Mud" with Adam and Joe. Becuase you're gonna end up there anyway...

It's my first time, be gentle...

2005-03-31T01:55:00.000-05:00

This is my first post on Inside the Joke. For those who don't know me I'm the guy in the first comic strip who told Andy his head looked like a box of french fries. Which is pretty standard, I'm kinda the resident dick of the group. Now don't take that the wrong way, I'm not a bad guy. *sigh* I take that back. I am a bad person but I'm lovable. That's got to count for something right? Right? Anyway, this is the one and only time I will be boringly biographical so get ready. I grew up in Mechanicsburg with the rest of the guys and eventually moved to Bloomsburg PA to go to college. College was great. You know the routine, move two hours north, cram yourself into a room with two other guys who were best friends from home and completely exclude you from everything, try to party but are too scared of the cops busting the place SWAT team style (which they really do in Bloomsburg...I've seen it), and try not to fail each and every class you attend. Not to mention the enormous pressure to make friends, failing at it, then spending the best days of your youth staring at four cinderblock walls watching porn and Star Trek. Both were very exciding, but for different reasons. Skip ahead, skip ahead. I made a few friends, got a girlfriend, got dumped by said girlfriend, moved off campus, graduated early, and am currently living in Limbo. By Limbo I mean working at a book store for so little money it might as well be a foreign currency. Anyway. Enough of that crap. Let me share a little bit of what I do for the strip. The comic strip, as you know, is the entire reason we started this blog site and the forthcoming www.theinsidejoke.net. Inside Joke was Joe's creation and he does all the drawing and publishing. I do most of the scripting for IJ and we all contribute material. Most of our material is based on actual inside jokes that have lived on through the years as stories that get told everytime the five of us are the same room. The rest of the material is our collective Id crudly drawn out. Which, can I tell you, is very cathartic. We all have a lot of pent up hostilty, espically me. Lastly I leave you with the offical invitation to comment on our strip, our blogs, or just our personalites and opinions themselves. Trust me, you'll get a lot of opinions from me. I encourage all who read our little piece of cyberspace to join us in the joke and become a part of our group. If you play your cards right you might just become a cartoon like us. With that I leave you for tonight. May fortune smile on you and may you get the joke.

Adam

p.s. I highly recomend you check out our link to www.freelanceninja.net. The site belongs to my roommate Brian and it is very well done. Its his baby and you really should give it a good look. Its full of pictures and his editorials on life and the world. If you would give it a click I would really appericate it. Thanks.

Hey Everybody!

2005-03-30T19:19:00.000-05:00

So we now have two strips up and I'm finally getting the hang of this photoshop thing. I am pretty pleased with how its turned out so far. Please feel free to email me with any comments or suggestions about the strip, and tell me what you think. Any criticism is welcome, but constructive is preferred. ;)

In other news we now have a domain name for the webcomic:

www.theinsidejoke.net

'course, there's nothing there yet but a placeholder, but all of the cool, sleak stuff you are used to seeing on webcomic sites will all come in time. Once that is up, this is will serve the role of what it should be: a blog. The other site will house the comic itself and everything will be tits. ("Tits" is Adams new word for "cool"...i tried to use it finally...and yep...still hate it).

Thats it for now, fankids. Watch for a new strip in the coming days!

-joe

2005-03-30T02:51:00.000-05:00

"Bird Droppings" with Ethan and Joe. Always a good time.

I"m in

2005-03-29T21:58:00.000-05:00

Hey what's going on guys. I'm here and this is my first post. I'll try and post every week, but we all know me and I'll probably get bored in like three days, so we'll see.

2005-03-29T19:12:00.000-05:00

Hey guys, here is the first strip! Enjoy! (left is Adam, right is Andy)

I've signed up

2005-03-29T07:27:00.000-05:00

Ok, so, I've signed up. Now what?

The Beginning of an Era

2005-03-29T03:11:00.000-05:00

Hey kids...
Its about that time. The time that the crew evolves and moves onto something else. Finally, the time that something we said that we would do actually happens.

That, ladies and gents, is Inside Joke.

Inside Joke is going to be a webcomic devoted to the shenanigans, high jinks, and tomfoolery of the crew. The crew at the moment consists only of myself, Adam, Ethan, Andy and Jay. Not to worry, though, once these characters have been finalized, we will expand it to others in the group, and even *gasp* girls! (Girls, just as a heads up, you will be last. Not becuase we don't like you, but simply becuase we just haven't figured out how to draw you yet.)

Multiple strips have been scripted, so what remains is the actual drawing itself. I expect to have a strip out by the end of the week (if not two or three).
Prepare yourself for hilarity...or at least "huh..."

signing out...

-joe