What makes Carl?

[Youko Recca]

Funny that is.What makes him funny in your eyes?

[bassist]

Carl is all the bad things about my two uncles rolled into one person and shoved in New Jersey for his entire life. He's bitter, egotistical, a victim of low-self-esteem, rude, and above all else disgusting. He's the epitamy of everything wrong with every person, including our basic desires, our vices, our depression...

I guess I laugh at him because there's nothing else to do. What am I supposed to do? Shake my head at him or offer him asylum?

Humor is what happens when two things illogically fit together. All that bad, stuffed into a body. How much more illogical can you get?

[RTFirefly]

I know far too many people like him, and many of them are from New Jersey, although Carls can be found all over Long Island and New York as well.

[Beat]

Contrast.

Compared to the odd other characters, Carl is the perfect contrast, a normal slob who'd rather eat wings and listen to "Urgent" than deal with the mutant foodstuffs next door.

[VinceA]

Carl is supposed to be funny? :)

I've met so many people just like him at family get togethers that Carl just seems like Joe Normal-Guy put into a less than normal situation but to him it's just 'life as usual'.

Yes, I live in NJ and I'm half-Italian (last name ends in a vowel) so I do have 'Carls' in my family

[FredNash]

Yeah, Carl is the 'straight man' (I knew you wasn't gay fry-man!) for the rest of the bizzare show to contrast to.

If he's the 'everyman', then I guess that makes him us... boy that's a creepy thought...

[bassist]

It's odd to think about it, but is he really the straight man? He could easily be just another freak who just happens to look normal. He certainly doesn't act normal.

[Jerry Mouse]

It's odd to think about it, but is he really the straight man? He could easily be just another freak who just happens to look normal. He certainly doesn't act normal.Carl is about as normal as anybody could possibly be having the ATHF as next-door neighbors. :frylock: :shake: :meatwad: :moon: :moon2:

[PluribusFinn]

I think Carl's humor comes mostly from his nerves... he would be much less funny if it wasn't for the Aqua Teens to bother him, mooch on his beer, swim in his pool, and break his stuff all the time. My favorite Carl moment is at the beginning of Total Re-Carl, when he's helplessly hiding from Frylock behind the sofa. It's almost like he knows he's about to get f**ked-up more than in any other episode.

Another aspect is that he is indeed the most normal character in the show. Since he's really not very normal at all, it almost makes it a satire. "Normal" people have no place in comedy... take that, "Friends".

[tigerrunner]

I know far too many people like him, and many of them are from New Jersey, although Carls can be found all over Long Island and New York as well.
Hmm... I don't know what part of Long Island you're from, but I've never seen anybody like Carl where I'm at.

I just like Carl because of his absolute hatetred for the Aqua Teens, and how he has to put up with them anyway. The more he has to put up with them, the funnier things get.

[Youko Recca]

What about his sarcasm?

[Classic Speedy]

Hopefully there aren't too many Carls in real life that want to sell you black market brains and visit circus strip clubs. :p But in all honesty his deadpan sarcasm to the craziness around him is always a riot. "Well I better go visit some hospitals."

[Sisto Kid]

What about his sarcasm?

Precisely. My favorite moments with Carl are when he starts off cool and calm and then blows up.

NOT a direct quote, but a Carl-like moment:

"Hey, hey, Shake, buddy, how ya doin' 'dere? Ya know, it ain't like I'm not glad ta see youse guys or anything, except for da fact that YA BLEW MY FREAKIN' HOUSE UP!!!" :D

[mactbone]

"So, I put two and two togedda dere" *chuckle* "and figured" *crescendo* "that you were pissin' me off!"

These moments and his unadulterated love for late '70s rock and, well, adult situations make him funny for me.

[lemminkimmen]

sweeet sweet nectar...

it's like my pool's tearin' ass aroud the back-yard...

but it ain't.
it sittin'still...

[Delthayre]

I think Carl works so well as a comic foil to the Aquateens because he doesn't really provide us the safe-haven of a straight man. The central figures as talking food products who have had no "adventures" (oh, how I hate that word) to date that have made sense, this is essentially a recipe for madness. And then the supposed straight man is a lazy, fat, bitter slob embodying a lot of the worst things in people. You really just have to love it or hate it.