this is a long story but its fucking great
okay so back in 2002 a man named tim buckley decided to start up a webcomic about videogames called ctrl+alt+del. this was its first strip
fucking stunning writing, i know. now it was early days, so you could argue that tim was just getting started, but the level of humor rarely went higher than this. despite proclaiming to be about videogames, the strip tended to focus more upon the idiotic antics of ethan (guy on the right), lucas (guy on the left), lilah, a female character introduced later on and zeke, a xbox robot ethan makes later on in order to be Wacky
the “comedy” usually came from ethan pretty much being so constantly a problem that it’s a wonder any of the characters hung around him at all, let alone extended periods of time. jokes were largely a set up followed by violence as the punchline, which might not be so bad if it wasn’t tim buckley’s go to punchilne when he couldn’t think of anything actually funny (which was a lot of the time). and it continually got worse as ethan continued to constantly be a burden to all his friends, yet they inexplicably couldn’t stop liking him and bowing to his every whim, even lucas, the alleged straight man to ethan’s manchild, and lilah, introduced as a No Nonsense Girl Gamer somehow becoming his boyfriend
in case you haven’t gotten it yet, ethan is very clearly tim buckley’s self insert fantasy.
the thing is, despite the comic being very obviously bad, it was REALLY popular. like it was an absolutely huge thing. teen boys absolutely lapped up the tired jokes and sitcom cliches and thats not even getting into the absolutely DIRE chef brian comics. actually no you know what i will go into them. here
this was about 2 years after the first strip, and you can start to see the art and comedy style that would come to define ctrl+alt+del as tim buckley pretty much officially gave up on putting effort into his comic
this was literally how he put together his comics: drawing hundreds of predrawn graphics and then sticking them into 4 panels
and since ctrl+alt+del was so popular, it REALLY went to tim buckley’s head. he refused (and really still refuses) to take any kind of criticism. he became very egotistical (he sued a fan for making a flash featuring the CAD characters) and there are some reports of him doing pretty shady things over the internet
and then he hit on his greatest idea
instead of sticking with comedy in a 4 panel strip format, he decided to introduce drama. characters growing up, getting married, learning responsibility…while STILL sticking rigidly to the comics newspaper esque 4 panel format.
everyone who knew CAD was awful was already making fun of tim desperately trying to introduce pathos into his verse of xbox robots and manchild antics, but his ego was bigger than it had ever been and he couldn’t be dissuaded, and in 2008 he had the storyline in which ethan and lilah get married, and lilah becomes pregnant
and then, just to ratchet up the drama, tim buckley decided lilah would miscarry.
the internet fucking lost it. a moment intended to carry great drama and meaning instead became the funniest unintentional comedy ever written. thousands upon thousands of edits and parodies were made (a sampling can be found here. some of them are pretty gross tho, being ripped from 4chan, so be careful) and its a moment thats become heavily engrained in internet/videogame culture. its gotten to the point where the most simplistic form of representing this comic (a series of straight lines) can be immediately recognisable as making fun of this strip
i didnt explain this in the greatest way and im sure someone can do it more elegantly since i skipped a few things but really the entire history of ctrl+alt+del is an amazing chronicle of one man’s ego
