Keys

[frameacloud]

Comic for the week of August 10, 2006.

[Edit on following day] After I posted this comic, Aaarhus informed me that there's another comic that made a very similar joke to this one. The comic is by Thornwolf and was made in 2003, so it predates mine pretty well: http://us-p.vclart.net/vcl/Artists/Thornwolf/Sketches/pshift.jpg I honestly wasn't aware that anyone else had made that particular joke before, much less made it into a comic. Nice comic, Thornwolf! Sorry about the similarity of joke, it seriously was coincidental. "Great minds think alike," I guess. *blush* Thanks for kindly letting me know about that, Aaarhus.

[Edit 2017-04-03: Updated link.]

Comments

[wyrdryn.livejournal.com]

I didn't really understand this. I kind of laughed half-heartedly reading the comments because others indicated it was supposed to be a joke, but I didn't get the joke. I sensed something sad... but I don't understand the reference.

Explaining the joke

[frameacloud]

"P-shift" is a phrase used in the therianthrope communities. It's short for "physical shapeshift," a dramatic bodily transformation (into another species, generally). Commonly, therianthropes long for physical transformation, despite how it's generally agreed that physical shapeshifting is impossible. No person can spontaneously change their body into that of some other species; that's a thing of science fiction and fantasy, not real life. Nevertheless, people still want/need things that they can't have.

That the buttons "p" and "shift" are both on a keyboard-- matching the phrase "p-shift"-- was the joke. As if the solution was something so simple and silly: that you could press some button somewhere, and then bing! you become yourself on the outside as well as the inside. It's also humorous because the speaker in the comic may presumably be someone gullible enough to think that physical shapeshifting could happen so easily, or at all. Alternately, the speaker in the comic is an experienced therianthrope who is well aware that physical shapeshifting is impossible, having spent a lot of time doing book research and soul-searching on that subject. No matter how many times a person meditates and tries to visualize shapeshifting, it never happens physically.

The sadness present in the comic was unintentional, but not inappropriate. The original sketch for the comic seemed to represent a playful, self-aware remark said with a light-hearted laugh in the voice. The speaker in that version knows that they're just making a joke, and that's all there is to it. However, the finished version of the comic, with its deep shadows, harsh photo, and stark font evokes a mood of sadness and frustration... which is fairly true to the way therianthropes sometimes feel about the unattainability of physical shapeshifting.