Triggerhappy
This author responded to a review on the site and his/her reply can be found here in the "Reactions" section. |
Original review author: | kyrtuck |
Webcomic name: | Triggerhappy |
Author: | Kukuruyoart |
Start Date: | As GamerGate Life: November 4th 2014, As "GamerGate Triggerhappy" October 3rd 2016, As just "Triggerhappy" December 20th 2017 |
End Date: | Ongoing. |
Genre: | Social-Political Satire Comedy |
Defining Flaw: | Lazyass jokes, reasoning and art. |
Rating Summary
Background
No, this is unfortunately not the Wierd Al song. This is just the renamed continuation of the previously reviewed Gamergate Life webcomic, which I never liked. But now I'm using the author's name change as an excuse for a new review! Bwoowahahahaha!
And one cannot help but be reminded of the fact that the old psychedelic band Jefferson Airplane would become Jefferson Starship and then simply Starship. And note that Wikipedia has separate entries for each incarnation of the band.
Downfall
Was always bad.
Writing Review
It's Just a Joke Dude
On the surface, first and foremost, this webcomic is meant to be funny. But with this being political humor, certain context into contemporary happenings is needed. Unlike all the other politically-based comics know, however, Triggerhappy tends to put little to no explanation of the context in the comic itself, using lengthy commentary and links outside of the comic as a crutch. People should not have to do work just to crack a smile at a three panel strip. And without precious context, all Triggerhappy has to offer is funny faces and hyperactivity, things accomplished by every single Boom!Box comic, and many a Calarts cartoon.
For a strip to claim to support freedom of voice and individuality, the nature of the punchlines are mind crushingly uniform. They're always some form of "ooh, lookit how mean the ugly SJWs (or related tangents) are. We (Kukuruyoart and whoever he happens to like) are so smart and handsome and kind by comparison!" Or occasionally he'll just throw in nonsense memes which age about as well as Miley Cyrus twerking to "Blurred Lines". What's that you say? These memes are what all true gamers strive for? I know! I just wonder what Kuku is up to...
And then another few strips are effectively jokeless. Here's one with Catalnoa and Spanish Police as wrestlers. And that's it. A setup without any zinger punchline. The author doesn't even have any stance on that particular issue, so why did he waste his oh so precious time on that non-joke? Here's another where its just his new brown piece of ass handpuppet laughing in Spanish. And that's it. Learn to laugh in English ya savage illegal!
Except When It's Not
While Kukuruyoart may try to use "Its just a silly comic" as a shield against criticism, its clear that he wants his messages taken seriously, be noticed, and spread about. He once made a big cringey butthurt article on his own site about his totes serious motives. He tells direct messages to the readers without jokes. In his smug commentary he tries to sound like some great masterful defender of Free Western media. He's bragged about "Gamergate isn't dead" in several instances. His comments from readers are filled with people getting angry over real life events they take completely seriously. So guess what Kuku? You can take your "eets jus ah seellee comick" defense and shove it where the sun don't shine. You can't have your kek and eat it too.
Bad Reasoning or Possible Cluelessness
Now, I am willing to believe he might be in the right about gaming journalism, game conventions, and all that other inane junk the bloated gaming industry grew out of its ass like fungal infections. I'm too poor to have a stake in that (I'm in the middle of playing Suikoden 5...SUIKODEN!) So I'll trust Kuku is something of an expert there. But in any other area, he will appear inexperienced (like not realizing busses have seat reserved for the handicapped) or very desperately reaching (here he thinks two rant videos qualify something as a "controversy" worthy of his time and "talent".) And Grid Girls? Come on, those are inane to racing as cheerleaders to Football, and their salary, inconclusive, and seeing as how cheerleaders were paid below minimum wage, I would not get my hopes up.
A great example of Kuku's clueless buffoonery is this strip here. He thinks that invaders don't influence nations. Wrong-o. Spain had become extra militant as a result of fighting Moors for centuries. The language, culture, and even royal bloodlines of England had been affected by Norman and Saxon invaders. West Germany, Japan and the Philippines had been changed by US occupation. Rome and Greece have had international influence lasting long after their empires collapsed.
The second part is where he claims "T'Challa is more nationalist and isolationist than Trump". How's that? The big attention grabbing MCU movie had T'Challa go against traditional Wakanda isolationism, and reach out to the rest of the world. More importantly, in the many years of comic, game and animation appearances, T'Challa is constantly helping out non-Wakanda characters, joining in on Avengers, Ultimates, Illuminati and The Crew, and a few times even accepted help from non-Wakanda characters to help Wakanda.
Indeed, when it comes to comics, it would appear as if he's only being spoonfed Comicsgate videos,such as claiming Kamala Khan was being used to promote Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. One: HRC was not in any Kamala Khan comic in any way, shape or form. Two: Kamala was not even supporting either candidate real or fictional, just giving viable information about voting in America.
He has a repeated hate boner on "muh forced diversity" in comics, but how does that work exactly? The experimental purge Marvel tried out on its big name characters from 2014-2017 has been completely undone. Marvel and DC comics are mostly centered on modern day, large American cities which is home to peoples of all colors, shapes, sizes, sexualities, languages and creeds. Are new characters reflecting this reality not allowed to be created? Perhaps Kuku's tiny brain would be fried by character diversity of decades past. A Chinese Batgirl? That was done with Cassandra Cain in the 90s. Mexican-Irish Spider-man? Miguel O-Hara, also from the 90s. A lesbian Native American superhero? Sarah Rainmaker from, you guessed it, the 90s. Black Woman Captain Marvel? Monica Rambeau from the 70s! Obese woman hero that didn't instantly die from a heart attack? Big Bertha from the 80s. And if goofy sidekicks count, then Etta Candy from the FUCKING FORTIES! A fat purple haired bespectacled socialist girl? Gertrude Yorkes from 2003, yes you read that right, there are TWO zeroes in between!
I could also bring up his assertion about Thundercats Roar style being made purely to appease tumblr SJWs, when it was far more about saving money through cheapness. Simple character designs are much easier to fluidly animate. I wonder how much he thought was ruined about Thundercats anyway? The original 80s show, while wonderfully animated, voiced and with great music, was nonetheless a tame, silly plotted toy advertisement...oh wait, he probably thought the 2011 Thundercats was the original. Typical.
Aside from that, his representation of "SJW" (the greatest blanket term of all) statements, and his arguments against them are of course reductive. Big boobs exist in real life? Certainly. But D-cups or higher on thin women are quite rare, unless by boobjob, which not everyone has the money for. Really, "unrealistic body image" is plain, simple basic suspension of disbelief being broken, like when dark skinned people are inserted into European Fairy Tales.
Or other times I question his grip on reality. SJWs worship all non-whites? How come I see SJW redditors bash on Dinesh D'souza, Ben Carson, Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell, and any other non-white Republican?
Overt Obsessiveness
Lastly, I must express discontent at his obsessive celebrations of Gawker being sued to death. Regardless of what Gawker did or deserved, the fact remains that copyright lawsuits very frequently lead to the same effects as censorship. Copyrights have forced the name changes of characters and things. Copyrights have had reviews taken off of youtube (wonder if Kuku would be hot on Daddy Derek too?). Copyright lawsuitshave even ended entire franchises, or had copies destroyed.
And since Kuku and his ilk readily scream "authoritarianism" at other things legal under Democratic Free Market Capitalism, such as protests, boycotts and private-owned companies banning or firing people they don't like, his love of copyright lawsuit is hypocritical, if not disconcerting.
And that's to say nothing of his figurative worship of Donald Trump.
"Characters"
There are of course, a collection of characters who serve either as mouthpieces for the author, or strawmen for the mouthpieces to foil. Most of them were introduced in these three comics. They are exceedingly flat and one dimensional, have word puns for names, and aren't even worth the effort of putting up profile pictures here.
The mouthpieces or gag characters
Vivian James- A bored jaded looking college student who just wants to play games, yet keeps willfully putting herself into political discussions, even when they're not remotely related to gaming. Doesn't do much beyond make small verbal snipes at SJWs.
Natalia Ursa- A college student who helped build Taytweets, and whose only purpose is to show that even non-white people can dislike SJWs. And, uh... boobs?
Taytweets- A reference to a real life tweet bot created by Microsoft. Doesn't do anything besides act incredibly stupid and useless, and occasionally has pointless spars with Kizuna A.I..
Mio- A parody of Milo Yiannopolous, which is many levels of bizarre, since Kukuruyo has already drawn Milo Yiannopolous numerous times in this comic. Seems his only purpose is to show that even gays can dislike SJWs. So he's just a diversity buddy, like Natalia. How paradoxically SJW-like of you, Kukuruyoart.
Connie Brooks- The Comicsgate representative who for some reason only likes white male characters. She only knows about the superhero genre, and doesn't even know that very well, if she naively thinks big famous characters in Marvel stay dead. And is lesbians with Natalia, maybe
The Strawmen
Lilian Wood- Vivian's recolored cousin who is the SJW generalist and most frequently appearing. There is a running gag of her and Vivian having incest, because for some reason that's what Kukuruyo and his readers like.
T. Ryger- An obese purple haired tumblr idiot that likes making up pronouns. Oddly enough, the one time she is shown eating, she's chowing down not on sweets, but a big meat sandwich. Does kukuruyoart have some kind of Vegan agenda going on to the side?
Victoria Timm- Shows off the hyppocrisy of SJWs hating men no matter what, and playing the victim card while bullying others. Fair points, but I think it falls flat, given all the times Kukuruyoart plays the victim card whenever it suits him.
Mel A. Ninn- A Black Lives Matter leader who is somehow wealthy, and hates white people, despite clearly working alongside them. A strangely specific character, hence his not appearing very often.
F. King Whitemale- A hipster programmer and moronic journalist. Oddly enough, he is the only straight white male recurring character in this comic, despite that being the one group SJWs hate the most.
Art Review
Kukuruyoart excels at drawing shiny anime boobs and butts. Kuku and his swarm of sycophants will gladly inform me that shiny anime boobs and butts are the greatest achievement possible in human civilization. That's fine. That's wonderful. Unfortunately, Kukuruyoart will falter at anything outside of shiny anime boobs and butts. He does not have any aptitude at drawing older people or children or crowds of people, or buildings, or plants or vehicles, or detailed backgrounds and its especially noticeable in Triggerhappy, where even hardcore fans admit he slacks off.
Most other political based webcomics at least cared about their topics enough to put out their best, for whatever that's worth. Diversity Lane, Sinfest, and Vegan Artbook could peddle their nonsense in a visually appealing manner. Kuku's art in Triggerhappy is pure shitpost, with the value of rapidly rusting pennies. Why doesn't he "Get Gud" with his own comic art? Take a moment and compare it with his commissions:
Kuku's lazy art in the webcomic suggests he doesn't care so much about the social political happenings he's attempting to lampoon. In Triggerhappy, the hastily-drawn figures are badly proportioned, have squashed faces often with no noses and oversized lips, occasionally lopsided, with globs of cel shading amid empty void backdrops. And sometimes he likes to do copypasta. Holy Tom Tomorrow, Batman! This makes his attempts to rag on Tumblr or Calarts styles ring hollow.
Author Biography
I can speculate wildly from what he posts, but nothing concrete on his personal life, other than he lives in Spain. His online personality can get quite irreverent from posting spoilers on a movie just because he considers the genre predictable, to making a joke out of Notre Dame burning. On occasion Kukuruyo also twists works to fit his narrative, like claiming that Fahrenheit 451 was about private citizens censoring and deplatforming. That may have been mentioned in the novel, but its greater focus was on people becoming shallow with short attention spans, and actual government persecution. Or there's this zinger that lacks self awareness since I never seen him say Gamergate was capable of any wrongs.
His other online comic work includes Guild Adventure, a highly derivative OC fantasy comic he made. My Little Eve, a comic based off League of Legends. Team Talon Blasts Off Again based off of Overwatch. And Monster Girls on Tour.
Indeed, he has a well confirmed taste for Monster Girls, AKA, exotic humans with animal parts attached. Holy Homestuck, Batman! He also has a growing taste in BDSM bondage, which suggests a hunger for personal power and control. I should know, since I myself have a similar taste, with an absurdly large, well organized, well backed up collection. Go on, try calling me a prude now!
Kukuruyoart's attitude is more SJW-like than he's willing to admit, with his deliberately seeking things to get mad at, politicizing everything, things no one made him read or watch. He'll complain that "SJWs ruined" things he never before shown any interest in. All of which greatly contrasts with the early Gamer Gate attitude of "I just want to play games, quit politicizing things". The title "Triggerhappy" could very well be applied to him and his ilk. He could even be considered Tom Preston-like with his habit of hiding behind female characters he made up. What's wrong? Ashamed of your own white male-ness? He also strikes me as insecure with all the times he has to convince his followers (or himself) that "Gamergate isn't dead". 4th Anniversary? Big deal, I can still see "freedom loving" people fly a certain flag created by Southern Democrats 150 years ago. Wake me when ya reach that milestone, double G. If Gamergate was as alive as it ever was then you wouldn't have to glomp onto Comicsgate and a bunch of other unrelated, useless gates. I suppose next he'll be praising Pizzagate and Deflategate.
Conclusion
This webcomic does have value from certain angles. People who are desperate for un-PC humor. Or people happily frolicking deep down the 4Chan Kek hole which this webcomic often panders to. Or people that are just desperate to see the Autistic-SJW-Commie-PC-Faggot-Soyboy-Cuck-Mangina-NPC-whatever-they're-being-called-this-week get bashed.
Other than that, let this webcomicrot in the rancid diseased jungles it belongs!
Other comics by this artist reviewed on BWW
- GamerGate Life - same webcomic under a different name
- Guild Adventure