Crotch-kicking is always good for a laugh : Pharyngula

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Crotch-kicking is always good for a laugh

Category: Humor
Posted on: September 10, 2008 9:50 AM, by PZ Myers

Although, I've got to say, the message is somewhat attenuated by the fact that this is a comic strip about a talking cat having an argument with a troll.

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Comments

Posted by: Schmeer | September 10, 2008 10:01 AM

If magic isn't real then explain TROLLS & GIANTS!!!one!

What a great quote. Heh, "...kick in the nuts."

Posted by: Capital Dan | September 10, 2008 10:02 AM

Aren't we all just testicle-smashing cats having arguments with trolls, PZ?

Posted by: BMurray | September 10, 2008 10:09 AM

Typical Kurtz, re-hashing someone elses gag. "Vanished in a puff of logic" belongs to a better man.

Posted by: temminicki | September 10, 2008 10:09 AM

"ow, my balls"

Posted by: June | September 10, 2008 10:14 AM

Is a cat always right because it says 'science'? Is a magic square dumb because of the word 'magic'? Why does rationality want to kick testicles? It's sometimes hard to tell the cats from the trolls.

Posted by: Kylgar | September 10, 2008 10:15 AM

I like the subtle little nod that is the title of that particular strip: "candles in the dark."

Posted by: tsg | September 10, 2008 10:28 AM

Is a cat always right because it says 'science'?

No. It's just right more often.

Is a magic square dumb because of the word 'magic'?

Equivocation.

Why does rationality want to kick testicles?

Loaded question.

It's sometimes hard to tell the cats from the trolls.

Not from where I'm sitting.

Posted by: Deepsix | September 10, 2008 10:32 AM

That's a cat and a troll??

Posted by: Ranson | September 10, 2008 10:32 AM

I generally like Kurtz's style. He like science and pop culture, he doesn't hold with a lot of the silliness of religion, though he stops short of declaring himself completely irreligious. For someone running a daily strip, the humor is decent, and he's not afraid of taking risks to expand the media he works in.

Of course, the bone I have to pick with him is that he's cancelled on Heroes Convention for the last three frickin' years, so I have not been able to get his signatures on my copies of his "Striptease" collection, "Truth, Justin, and the American Way", or buy a Skull plushie in person.

But that's just me.

#10

Posted by: Philip Downey | September 10, 2008 10:36 AM

http://www.videosift.com/video/Robot-Chicken-Ode-to-the-Nut-Shot

Still makes me laugh.

#11

Posted by: Eric | September 10, 2008 11:13 AM

I had forgotten about PVP... I used to read that, well, uhm... religiously. I should go back through the ones I've been missing.

#12

Posted by: rrt | September 10, 2008 11:34 AM

I've always felt Kurtz and I wouldn't see quite eye-to-eye, but I definitely like this one.

#13

Posted by: Sili | September 10, 2008 11:47 AM

Never really got into PvP. Kurtz reputation preceeded him.

Not his best work, but Ryan Smith has long been one of my favourites. L&F is only a stop-gap measure, though, now that he's wrapped up the strip he's been working on the last nine years. The second strip may be a help to understanding ...

#14

Posted by: GunOfSod | September 10, 2008 11:49 AM

Off Topic, but anyone who is interested in Abiogenesis, may be interested in looking at this:

blog.wired.com

#15

Posted by: GunOfSod | September 10, 2008 11:51 AM

Grr. Soz.

blog.wired.com

#16

Posted by: King Aardvark | September 10, 2008 12:02 PM

Kick in the nuts? That's my thing!

King Aardvark's Kick in the Nuts

#17

Posted by: June | September 10, 2008 12:26 PM

#4: It's sometimes hard to tell the cats from the trolls.

#7: Not from where I'm sitting.

Truth is where you are sitting???

#18

Posted by: Jody | September 10, 2008 12:47 PM

In Mr. Kurtz' defense, the cat was made super-intelligent by science.

#19

Posted by: tsg | September 10, 2008 12:50 PM

#4: It's sometimes hard to tell the cats from the trolls.
#7: Not from where I'm sitting.

Truth is where you are sitting???

Er, what?

#20

Posted by: Benjamin Geiger | September 10, 2008 2:23 PM

Kurtz wrote an essay---he referred to it as a rant, but---a while ago. It was destroyed in one of his site redesigns, but the Wayback Machine pulled through.

Anyway, one paragraph he wrote can be credited with much my current view on life (and afterlife):

When I sit and think about what will happen to me when I die, I try to become comfortable with the only form of immortality we can prove exists. We leave an impression on the world the moment we enter it. We touch people's lives, we effect the course of history both broad and personal. We can become a thread in the larger tapestry. Possibly, that's all we get. If I can become content with that possible outcome, why would I fear death? Certainly that's as noble a legacy as basking in Jesus for eternity.

#21

Posted by: cervantes | September 10, 2008 2:41 PM

a comic strip about a talking cat having an argument with a troll.

You mean, kind of like Pharyngula?

#22

Posted by: Rey Fox | September 10, 2008 2:42 PM

"No. It's just right more often."

And it knows when it's wrong.

#23

Posted by: Sven DiMilo | September 10, 2008 2:52 PM

Magic's got nuts?
Isn't there female magic to kick? Where does science kick it?
Kicking ovaries causes collateral damage.

#24

Posted by: Ron Sullivan | September 10, 2008 2:55 PM

#17: Truth is where you are sitting???

Eliza(tm), is that you?

#25

Posted by: Interrobang | September 10, 2008 3:15 PM

Isn't there female magic to kick? Where does science kick it?

Trust me, getting whacked in the crotch hurts really quite a bit even if you don't have testicles. It's something about the uncontrolled transfer of kinetic energy to the albeit small external portion of an organ crammed with nerve endings...

(Disclosure: I've never actually been kicked there, but I did have this rather unfortunate incident with landing hard on the leather-covered metal pommel of an English saddle once. That was years ago, and I think I'm still vaguely queasy.)

#26

Posted by: False Prophet | September 10, 2008 4:24 PM

All long time readers of PvP know the real hero of the strip is Kurtz's dad.

#27

Posted by: Brian's A Wild Downer | September 10, 2008 4:47 PM

Reminds me of a quote from the show Metalocalypse:

Senator Stampingston: Gentlemen, it's clear that we're in a universally precarious situation. Dethklok has summoned a troll.
General Crozier: That's impossible, there's no such thing as trolls.
Senator Stampingston: Then how do you explain the dead unicorns?

#28

Posted by: reverted | September 10, 2008 5:02 PM