Bonus ROFLs: Christian Lander (Stuff White People Like)

This is the last Bonus ROFL, and we’re ending with Christian Lander of Stuff White People Like fame.  I nabbed him after his panel…

Geoffrey: You weren’t actively going out promoting your blog.  The popularity just sort of happened.  Would you recommend promotion to other bloggers?  Or would you just say to write it for a few months and if it doesn’t catch on, try something else?

Christian: The most disappointing bit of advice that I have is, “if you want to make it, stop trying.”  It’s the worst thing I can say, because there’s no better advice than that.

It comes up over and over again in all the panels.  Everybody keeps saying, “I wasn’t trying to make this happen, and it just did.”  You’ve got to be true to yourself.  It’s got to be funny to you and if other people share your sense of humor, it’ll take off.  If you find it funny, someone else probably will too.

I really wish I had better advice than that.   It’s so unfair to be like, “Oh, I always dreamed about writing a book.  ‘How’d it happen?’  Well, I wasn’t trying.”  It’s ridiculous luck.

G: Do you wish critics would stop over-analyzing your site?  Or do you like how much time and effort people put into dissecting it?

I went to graduate school, and it is a dream that someone’s going to write a thesis about this, then interview me.  I’m going to ask for a copy of the thesis before the interview and refute every point they make, so they have to start over again.

No, I think it’s fine.  I mean, people analyze The Simpsons, which is fantastic, but they’ll analyze a tree [in the background].  Discourse and analyzation is what people do in academia, and that’s great.  I just don’t want to have to read it.

G: Who are your influences as a writer?

David Sedaris, of course.  The Onion.  Bill Murray.  The Simpsons.  Anything that’s funny, really.  80’s movies.  “Back To School” starring Rodney Dangerfield.  That’s inspired everything I do.  “Revenge of the Nerds,” too.

Bonus ROFLs: Rob, Kris and Matt (Cyanide and Happiness)

After their panel, I caught up with Rob, Kris and Matt — three of the four writers of Cyanide and Happiness.

Geoffrey: You guys have been creating a lot of animations recently.  Are you thinking about taking Cyanide and Happiness to TV or making a shorts DVD?

Rob: It’s definitely one step at a time.  We’re gonna take it slow, do some more shorts, definitely.  Just see what happens.  So far, people like the shorts.  However, I think a short gets about as much traffic in a week as a comic does in two hours, so there’s no real incentive to make a complete switch-over to that format.  But if people like it enough, maybe we’ll go that route.

G: I’m not trying to instigate a rivalry, but I know Randall Monroe (xkcd) is here, and you guys have similar art styles, but are so different personality-wise.  Has their been any back in forth between your camp and theirs?

Kris: We share a lot of the same audience with xkcd, and I’m glad to see that our simply drawn, mostly all-in-the-writing comics have floated to the top, as opposed to all video game references and story-based comics.  It’s kind of an unexpected takeover.

R: Our style is definitely similar, but our writing styles are polar opposites, which is why it surprises me so much that we share so many fans.  I made a direct reference to xkcd in one of my comics and got enormous feedback.  Fans were like “oh my god!”  Like finding out two people are related or something.

Matt:  I love xkcd.  It’s one of my daily reads.

G: Now that these Digg-friendly, minimally drawn “writer” strips are popular, do you see that continuing indefinitely?  Or do you see some other kind of strip coming on the horizon? 

K: We’re thinking of making the big move from being “Digg-friendly” to “boob friendly.”  Absolutely.

R:  I think there can be multiple waves.  So as long as people like what we do, and as long as we keep doing it well, nothing’s gonna take our slot.  We’re not gonna get canceled, you know?

Bonus ROFLs: Andy Ochiltree (Jib Jab)

Here’s our post-panel interview with Andy Ochiltree, head writer for Jib Jab…

Geoffrey: During the panel, you talked about the “perfect storm” that created the Jib Jab phenomenon. What does that mean? What were the elements of the storm?

Andy: People were really weary of this election — Bush and Kerry. The rhetoric was ridiculous. I don’t think there was a lot of respect on either side of the party lines. They were so ridiculous, and it was something a lot of people were talking about. The mudslinging and the name-calling. Gregg and Evan’s piece encapsulated that dialogue and it got out to America.

Other elements: a lot more people were using email. People like you and me have always been using email, but when it came to 2004, a slightly older demo started using it. People in their 30s and 40s. All of a sudden, it went mass, compared to the 2000 election when it wasn’t. That enabled us to spread it all over, through the people who helped us by sending links to their friends, by posting on their blogs and stuff.

That kind of explosion and mainstreaming of internet culture lead to its popularity, I guess.

G: Jib Jab did a very good job turning its meme into a corporation with major sponsors. How did that happen?

A: The founders were really smart and they knew how to leverage the audience they got into other forms of business. It’s about hitting the pavement. Gregg and Evan are networking constantly — aside from being brilliant, they get their ideas out there. They’re great promoters as well, and they should be promoting it, because it’s awesome stuff.

I think it’s just about seeing the opportunities that you’ve done has afforded you, and finding those areas you can really move into and capitalize. It’s about strategy and the founders know it.

Bonus ROFLs: Joe Mathlete (Marmaduke Explained)

This is Geoffrey from Overtime Comedy, happily guest blogging about teh awesome ROFLcon. I interviewed some of the guests after their panels, to squeeze extra knowledge out of them.

Here’s some more wisdom from memestar Joe Mathlete of Marmaduke Explained, post-panel…

Geoffrey: The panel was about making money on memes/websites. Have you been thinking about other ways to profit from Marmaduke Explained, apart from Google Ads and shirts? Or is it really just a hobby?

Joe: It’s barely even a hobby at this point. I stopped selling the shirts because it kinda weirded me out a little bit, and I’m not very good with the post office. I thought it was funny that the Chuck Norris Guy said he was a poor college student. He’s written a book. I was able to quit my job for a couple months, but I do that all the time anyway.

Yeah, it barely qualifies as a hobby — more like a fun obligation at this point.

G: Chuck Norris Guy was legally threatened by Chuck Norris’ people. Have you heard anything from Marmaduke’s creator or publishers?

J: No, no. Not a single thing. My theory for the longest time was that the guy who writes Marmaduke was too old to have a computer on the internet, and that maybe I generated some interest in the strip, so the publisher doesn’t care too much. I’m pretty sure I’ve never infringed any copyrights with the things I’ve sold. Never used the artwork. Sorta careful about that. I was kinda hoping at one point that I’d get a cease and desist, so I can move onto something else.

G: Have your eye on any other strips you might want to do next? Or what’s your next project, if it’s not comic-blog related?

J: Gonna get drunk for the rest of the day, probably.

I drew a nipple on Ziggy’s nose for about a week, just cause everyone told me I should do more comic strip stuff. They thought I was serious about that. (It was for a week.)

My future plans have not a lot to do with comic strips.