Review: Polkout

(Guest review by Ari Collins)

Polkout is a webcomic with the hyperbole and dirty jokes of Penny Arcade, only without the video games and not as funny. But hey, who is as funny as PA? Not many, I tell you, sir! This is still quite the kneeslapper comic. If you like your humor intentionally and ridiculously offensive, Polkout is the comic for you.

Only occasionally does Polkout have anything particularly substantive to say in its comics section. If Polkout were a person (and perhaps it is, from reading the blog entries), it would be the drunk guy at your party who is never at a loss for a dirty joke or an insulting but funny quip. Not the smartest or cleverest guy at the party, but really funny nonetheless in a knowingly obnoxious way.

My favorite moments in the webcomic, actually, are when the main character insults someone by accident instead of on his usual purposeful insults, and wants to take it back. Then, inevitably, he ends up digging himself a deeper hole. (If you've ever watched the show Coupling, imagine the main character here is Jeffrey. Same idea.) Some examples are here and there.

So that basically sums up the comic. I rather like it, but I'm a fan of this kind of humor, and the only real negative about Polkout the comic is that if you don't like the humor, there's not much else there for you.

But there's actually more to Polkout than the comic. See, the writer of Polkout also keeps a blog, both as a newspost under his comic and as a separate blog. In his writing (yes, without pictures), the Polkster covers a wide range of topics in a freeflowing and engaging way. Same as the comic, he's dirty and offensive, but in his writing you get the full range of what he wants to say without the space limitations of a comic. It's like the webcomics are just excerpts from the blog. And with that added space to dance around in, the Polkster can let us get to know the guy who writes the comic, which casts a new light on the comic itself. The blog, and the posts under the comic, come highly, highly recommended.

Overall, I give Polkout an eight and a half on my scale of one to ten that I have never used before and may never use again. So if you need a frame of reference: this isn't the genius of a Penny Arcade, Dinosaur Comics, or xkcd, but it's right there in the second tier. Shits and giggles, man. Shits. And. Giggles.