Shredded Moose reappraisel thread- Is it really the worst webcomic of all time?

[BluntTime]

(Warning this comic is NSFW and that is the reason I'm not posting any links. Its not too offensive but I don't want to get yelled at for not warning you)

I don't know how many of you have heard of the webcomic Shredded Moose but recently someone reuploaded an archive of it with about half of the comics that were made. I know Shredded Moose has had a reputation of being the boogeyman of webcomics and most view it as objectively bad, but speaking as the (possibly) only fangirl of it in the world, I implore you to reevaluate it.

SM helped me through school when I was struggling with my gender identity and picked on by these hyper machismo tough guys who were very similar to the protagonist, Brew and I honestly thought of Brew as a hilarious, over the top parody of them. {SCRUBBED}

I know most will disagree with me but Shredded Moose was great ironic entertainment. It's so bad its entertaining and later when Brew decided to jump the shark and add "character development" to an edgy fratboy comic about video games, the thing becomes like a second Loss from CAD. And it repeatedly keeps jumping the shark and falling into its open mouth, over and over again when it throws in these completely-out-of-nowhere twists.

And last but certainly not least, Shredded Moose, a comic famed for being "misogynistic" and "sexist" had a wonderful, strong female protagonist named Monique who starts out a "feminist strawman" al la {SCRUBBED}

(but tell me this, are her arguments against Shredded Moose ridiculous and a parody on feminists or are they 100% true? I think the latter and honestly, I think the writer intended that too since she became the female lead) But Monique ends up being the most developed character in the whole SM comic. It turns out that she was a victim of one of the most extreme cases of male misogyny and only wants to protect her daughter and other woman from being victimized, her reasons for wanting Brew to cut the misogynistic, womanizing crap is because she wants to prevent him from becoming as bad as her mother's rapists.

If I am to say one other thing about Monique, she is portrayed very modestly by a "fratboy douchebag" and even appearancewise, I think she is very pretty without being sexualized.

What I am asking webcomic fans in this thread is do not believe Shredded Moose as being the Adolf Hitler of webcomics. It was very edgy, yes but the attempts at edgy are really over-the-top and pathetic to the point its funny.

I really hope people can find it ironically enjoyable the way the Room is because I feel so sorry for the people who made it. They just wanted to be accepted like everyone else in the webcomic world and now they can barely show their faces on the internet. I really hope I managed to convince some of you of its greatness, there is so much more I could talk about but I'd love to hear your words and memories on it.

PS: Not Brew. He's moved on to a different career out of shame.

[BluntTime]

And here's a little guide to the comic archive on "Shredded Moose wiki" so you can understand the comic's development over the years.

2007- Shredded Moose was simply a classic example of an anti humor, edgy comic, and I am not kidding you, the punchline is violence, sex or video games for almost all of them. Brew honestly thought he was cutting edge and the only reason any rational person should find them funny at all is because they are so ridiuclously tryhard from a grown man and the art is surprisingly cool and stylized.

There are some vital characters introduced now who will be effected later when Brew went into storylines. They include Muff an anthromorphic squirrel and failed attempt at a mascot, Lisa, his girlfriend, a slim, attractive red haired woman and Monique, the ginger feminist who hates Brew for reasons I mentioned before.

2008- Brew had received a beat down from both John Soloman and the Bad Webcomics wiki and decided to heed their advice and give his fratboy character some forced development, aka for several comics in a row Brew would get humiliated or injured in various ways so the reader would feel sorry for him without the writer having to change his character and continue the edgy and video game styled humor.

But suddenly, Shredded Moose entered into an enormous continuous storyline arc that lasted from mid June 08 to January 2009. All of a sudden, Brew and Monique were both given complex backstorys about their upbringing, family members- a mom and a dad for Brew, and a daughter for Monique both were thrown into a fascinatingly twisted almost-parody of webcomic drama with a hilarious twist ending.

2009- By Jan 09, Brew's epic storyline came to a close and Shredded Moose became a slice-of-life webcomic about high school! Suddenly this was about the petty drama in the other lead protagonist, Trip's life at high school and how he is deathly afraid of approaching his crush, Nicole after some "noodle incident" kind of thing.

Despite all these changes in their comic everyone still regarded Shredded Moose as the same old edgy comic from 2007 and the writer and the artist slowly went insane from the isolation. The comic's art decayed and by the end it looked like it was drawn by a ****ing crayons and pencils.



Trip and Brew had lost all their money, respect and integrity. They gave up on their dream and had to take up a different, much more embarassing career: Childrens books.

Still, I think people should give Shredded Moose credit as being The Room of webcomics. It starts out normal and literally goes mad right before your eyes. How many other webcomic writers suffered complete breakdowns while they were writing it?

[ThirdEmperor]

I'm a great believer in ironic so-bad-it's-funny entertainment, and no, Shredded Moose is not that.

So-bad-it's-funny requires something exceptional, something so extraordinarily stupid you can't believe it was done. Shredded Moose is entirely and completely banal, and all the more disgusting for it, mouthing the same 'jokes' that a million idiots spew out in real life every day under the guise of "hurr hurr, get it? it's alright to say this cause it's a joke".

In short, it's a drop in a sea of hate. There's nothing to distinguish it from the rest as ironically amusing. Honestly, I'm sort of confused why, even if it was, you'd bother writing two megaposts about it.

[BluntTime]

I'm a great believer in ironic so-bad-it's-funny entertainment, and no, Shredded Moose is not that.

So-bad-it's-funny requires something exceptional, something so extraordinarily stupid you can't believe it was done. Shredded Moose is entirely and completely banal, and all the more disgusting for it, mouthing the same 'jokes' that a million idiots spew out in real life every day under the guise of "hurr hurr, get it? it's alright to say this cause it's a joke".

In short, it's a drop in a sea of hate. There's nothing to distinguish it from the rest as ironically amusing. Honestly, I'm sort of confused why, even if it was, you'd bother writing two megaposts about it.

Three words: Milk and Cereal. If you've ever seen that comic, it is so unbelievably edgy that its surreal. The cereal raining from the sky, the disturbing face he makes in the first panel. It's like edgy turned up to 11.

Look at the main character and tell me how you can take him seriously since he looks like he came out of a bad 90s sitcom.

His blog posts were over-the-top edgy and full of pathos too.

{SCRUBBED}

As for why I wrote those messages, Shredded Moose deserves it becuase they have been vilified as the worst webcomic ever and they didn't deserve it. The webcomic community basically smothered them and their belief in freedom of speech.

[ThirdEmperor]

I just love it when people confuse disliking something with stifling free speech. And I'm not sure how you went from saying, in the second sentence of your big post 'it's nothing too offensive', to claiming it's a masterpiece of hyperoffensiveness.

[BluntTime]

I just love it when people confuse disliking something with stifling free speech. And I'm not sure how you went from saying, in the second sentence of your big post 'it's nothing too offensive', to claiming it's a masterpiece of hyperoffensiveness.

I didn't. I said it was someone trying and failing to reach the apex of edginess in a hilarious way.

The SJ community killed those guys sadly by spreading propoganda that it was objectively bad. Holy **** is it better and more funny than CAD and the art kills CAD completely.

I still think you should re-read Shredded Moose, its mockable and ironically enjoyable at the same time.

[busterswd]

I'm a great believer in ironic so-bad-it's-funny entertainment, and no, Shredded Moose is not that.

So-bad-it's-funny requires something exceptional, something so extraordinarily stupid you can't believe it was done. Shredded Moose is entirely and completely banal, and all the more disgusting for it, mouthing the same 'jokes' that a million idiots spew out in real life every day under the guise of "hurr hurr, get it? it's alright to say this cause it's a joke".

In short, it's a drop in a sea of hate. There's nothing to distinguish it from the rest as ironically amusing. Honestly, I'm sort of confused why, even if it was, you'd bother writing two megaposts about it.

Basically this. What made Shredded Moose stupid was that for the punchlines to be funny, you had to have a healthy disrespect for women and have the maturity level of a 12 year old who's discovered boobs. And no, the tone was not a sophisticated ironic commentary on misogynistic culture, it was literally "periods are gross and boobs are great."

Also, the OP created a brand new account just to plug it right on the coattails of its re-release, so... take that for what you will.

[BluntTime]

{SCRUBBED}

[ThirdEmperor]

No, of course he's not Brew, he's Masked Avenger X! He'll show those freedom of speech stifling hypocrites who's boss!

seriously, dude, there are less dramatic ways to express your liking a webcomic

[Wraith]

Shredded Moose reappraisel thread- Is it really the worst webcomic of all time?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Nnnnnnnoooooooo......

In-depth answer: Not in a world where we also have Billy the Heretic and Hathor the Cow-Goddess.

[Feddlefew]

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Nnnnnnnoooooooo......

In-depth answer: Not in a world where we also have Billy the Heretic and Hathor the Cow-Goddess.

Don't forget Sonichu!

[Friv]

{SCRUBBED}

whhhhhhat does any of that have to do with the webcomic?

Or, wait, are you quoting the guy's blog there? Seriously, I don't know.

Anyway - if you're trying to defend this comic, saying "it's not as bad as Ctl-Alt-Del" is basically damning it with faint praise. Comparing it to the Room is damning it with active insult. The Room was terrible. Really, really, really terrible. That is basically the only thing that the Room is known for: being a horrible trainwreck.

[BluntTime]

{SCRUBBED}

[BluntTime]

whhhhhhat does any of that have to do with the webcomic?

Or, wait, are you quoting the guy's blog there? Seriously, I don't know.

Anyway - if you're trying to defend this comic, saying "it's not as bad as Ctl-Alt-Del" is basically damning it with faint praise. Comparing it to the Room is damning it with active insult. The Room was terrible. Really, really, really terrible. That is basically the only thing that the Room is known for: being a horrible trainwreck.

Yes, I quoted the guys blog to show how hilariously edgy it was.

Also I bet you are so pure blooded you don't find entertainment in things that are considered "bad". The Room and Shredded Moose are technically bad but they are bad in a way that they're funny and entertaining. I'm just modest enough to admit I like these things because they are entertaining.

CAD is just a long drone that uses too many freaken words. The only reason I compared it to SM is because people think even CAD is better than it.

[Tengu_temp]

Yeah, compare it to CAD. Very high standards there.

I saw several strips of Shredded Moose back in the day. It doesn't matter if it's played straight or a parody, because either way it's not funny.

Don't forget Sonichu!

Damn, I wanted to mention Sonichu! Have a cookie for being first.

[Friv]

Also I bet you are so pure blooded you don't find entertainment in things that are considered "bad". The Room and Shredded Moose are technically bad but they are bad in a way that they're funny and entertaining. I'm just modest enough to admit I like these things because they are entertaining.

Dude, I enjoyed Star Trek: Voyager. Street Fighter remains one of my favorite movies to this day. I read all of Dominic Deegan. Don't try to pull the literati card on me, buddy, it just makes the rest of your argument sound that much worse.

The point I am making is, no one is laughing with The Room, and it's a really weird choice to use as a defense of another work. I never read Shredded Moose, and I had no opinion on it until this thread, in which you have convinced me that it's kind of boring junk.

(P.S. That blog post was neither edgy nor funny, nor was it trainwreck-bad. It was just regular-bad. So I guess you've certainly failed to convert me.)

[T-O-E]

Are you the creator of Blended Goose?

[Cen]

Shredded Moose? Oh, I remember it! I was halfway through archives when it was taken down. I even chuckled once or twice and quite liked the art.
To be honest I never found anything THAT offensive in it to call it 'Hitler of webcomics'. Sure it was over the top misogonistic, main character was angry frat boy Marty Stue and author's stan in... but I've seen worst things in the internet (most of 4chan for example). I never really understood why it's hated so much by everyone.

[BluntTime]

{SCRUBBED}

[BluntTime]

{SCRUBBED}

[Mewtarthio]

Freedom of speech does not mean what you seem to think it does. Yes, Brew had the right to produce his terrible, disgusting, and frankly offensive webcomic. Likewise, John Solomon had the right to criticize said comic on his terrible, disgusting, and frankly offensive blog. Likewise, I have the right to say "You know what? Brew and Solomon were both terrible, disgusting, and frankly offensive, and I'm glad they're gone."

Free speech does not mean that you can say whatever you want with no consequences. It just means you can say whatever you want without the government shutting you down and suppressing the story. If Brew got "forced off the web" by an FBI raid, that would be an obvious free speech issue. If, on the other hand, he was "forced off the web" by a whole bunch of people talking about how horrible his comic was until he finally wised up and took it down, that's got nothing to do with free speech.

[BluntTime]

{SCRUBBED}

[Mewtarthio]

I'm sure there was some foul play involved. Nothing I can prove aside from a few people conspiring on Soloman's website to get Brew flagged for exercising his freedom of speech and not violating anything. But the whole entire internet all of a sudden hated him and managed to get his semi-professional comic and site alienated and ignored for 2 whole years.

Are you suggesting that there was some sort of conspiracy to get Shredded Moose taken down? Because, as I've said, I hated John Solomon's blog, but I still found Shredded Moose disgusting. I mean viscerally disgusting: I checked out a couple of random comics to see if it was really as bad as I'd heard, and I felt physically queasy at some of the stuff in there. Like, there was a story in which a woman is talking about some traumatic sexual experience in her past, and the joke is "LOL! Brew is going to extort sex from her! Oh, wait, he won't because she's too ugly! Hahahaha!"

I doubt John Solomon ever had the sort of power you're ascribing to him, and frankly he didn't need it. Just about anyone who read that comic could see how offensive it was. As for the comment about contacting his host and advertisers? There's nothing unethical about that: They are doing business with him, and if he's using his host's resources to violate the terms of their business contract, or if he's associating his advertisers with something they'd rather not be associated with, then they need to know. Besides, you claim that the comic went on until it was clear Brew had no more interest in it, so I doubt it was an outside party that took it down.

You keep bringing up The Room, as if there were any comparison. So Bad It's Good works, such as The Room, The Wicker Man (with Nic Cage), and even Manos may all be failures on every conceivable technical level, but Shredded Moose is indefensible on a moral level. It's simply vile, and I don't miss it.

[BluntTime]

{SCRUBBED}

[Giggling Ghast]

I'd rather eat my own face than read this trash.

That said, it's probably not THE worst webcomic ever, given that the art is at least competent and the author hasn't called for the extermination of any ethnic group. (That I know of.)

[Feddlefew]

The problems with shredded moose are threefold:

1) It's vile and petty.
2) It's soulless: It panders to a safe crowed of small minded, petty people by regurgitating the same memes and jokes they wish they had the nads to use. The art style looks like something from a bad "radical" advertising campaign aimed at the 12 to froshman demographic.
3) It's trite- this is youtube comment level "jokes". The misspeeks of old, grey politicians who can't turn on computers during press interviews. The gasps of a dying era kept alive only by fear and misplaced pride.

[BluntTime]

The problems with shredded moose are threefold:

1) It's vile and petty.
2) It's soulless: It panders to a safe crowed of small minded, petty people by regurgitating the same memes and jokes they wish they had the nads to use. The art style looks like something from a bad "radical" advertising campaign aimed at the 12 to froshman demographic.
3) It's trite- this is youtube comment level "jokes". The misspeeks of old, grey politicians who can't turn on computers during press interviews. The gasps of a dying era kept alive only by fear and misplaced pride.

Come on, you can't laugh at the attempts to be so hardcore and edgy? Plus Brew outright despised memes and only made an over-the-top joke about one. That's it. And the main character is a hilarious depiction of someone who thought he was cool from the 90s, so the art style is fitting.

[Feddlefew]

Come on, you can't laugh at the attempts to be so hardcore and edgy? Plus Brew outright despised memes and only made an over-the-top joke about one. That's it. And the main character is a hilarious depiction of someone who thought he was cool from the from the 90s, so the art style is fitting.

It's hardcore and edgy in the same way that an 8 year old might think gore is hardcore and edgy. It's boring, in the sense that rotten eggs are boring- They're unpleasant, easy to chuck at people, and mundane.

Edit: You also seem to not know what a meme is.

[Mauve Shirt]

Oh my god, it's been so long since we've had a good fight in the Webcomics section, I don't think since Dominic Deegan ended.
Shredded Moose is reprehensible, and not in a good way. It has no redeeming qualities, and you don't get to tell me what qualities of laughter "count".

[Feddlefew]

Oh my god, it's been so long since we've had a good fight in the Webcomics section, I don't think since Dominic Deegan ended.

Remember when that one guy came and tried to justify the Stonewater ark?