Sunday, April 9, 2017

Cultural Clockwork

Swiss watches are perfectly accurate because the Swiss are so punctual. If the Spanish made watches, they would be crazy because the Spanish are never on time anyway


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Why keep time at all when you could be supporting
Itchy Feet comics instead? Yes, that makes sense.



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EDIT: Hey guys, please keep it civil. I'm going to be deleting any comments that insult other people, though I'll keep any that accuse ME of being insulting. My intention was absolutely not to offend anyone - this was clearly a joke gone wrong. But it's good to keep up my failures as well, to remind me in the future that sometimes I make mistakes. 

As I said though, please be civil to one another.


26 comments:

  1. I've been enjoying your comics for a long time, this is the first time I feel uncomfortable. It reads like a not-really-funny stereotype (I don't want to use the R word).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I find it funny.

      And about the sterotypes - come on, nobody believes a watch is waterproof for 20.000 leagues.

      Delete
    2. Fun fact: 20000 leagues is about 112000km, or nearly 10 times the Earth's diameter.
      (The referenced book title refers to the distance travelled below the surface, not the depth.)

      Delete
  2. Yes, this was a bit insulting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I though it was ok. It's just a funny joke about how we manage our time, and a pretty clever Dalí reference. It's not like he is calling us "lazy stupid southerners" or anything.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think it depends a lot on where you're from, as an American, we know this joke as colored peoples time, and its not okay here.

      Delete
    2. funny thing is how american are so extremely sensitive to tiny gestures about anything that can be interpreted creatively as racist

      and at the same time having no problem in being, by a very BIG margin, the most racially violent inequal and divisive society of the whole developed world

      Delete
  4. I wonder if any of the insulted people is a southern european to rate this as offensive. It's not prejudice or stereotype when it refers to a real cultural difference. And this is what it is, a cultural difference. Which isn't to say that Southern europeans can't have situations where punctuality will matter (mostly business), but the norm is that we are much more laxed on our timing for informal situations.

    It also doesn't mean that one is definitely better than the other, it just means they are different and SOME people will prefer one to the other.

    Yours sincerely,
    A portuguese guy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've been so mad at people calling this an insulting comic that I have poured some time into reflecting about it, and the way I see it, it's those who think this is insulting that are really being obnoxious and insulting themselves.

    The comic doesn't say a word about one being better than the other, it speaks about the different relations two different cultures have with time and meetings. Assuming one is clearly better than the other is the really insulting part, as if people weren't allowed to behave in the second manner, as if only the first manner was the "correct form". Guess what? It isn't.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for examining this comic for what is is... a comic. It is meant to be a funny stretch of reality with the occasional stereotype.
      Although, sometimes truth can be knee slapping hilarious.

      Delete
    2. Like one girl said "Mean? I'm just telling it like it is, sister. The truth is often harsh."
      But nowadays we have a bunch of people who takes offense of everything.

      Delete
  6. I'm Spanish and I find this accurate.

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  7. I'm Spanish/ Portuguese etc and I don't mind is the new I have black friends.

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  8. Inspired by Dijsselbloem?...

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  9. I understand that funny comics are often based on stereotypes. It can make us understand other cultures if it is put in the right way - like the other / previous itchy feet comics. However, I have to agree that this comis is too strong that it comes out as insult - even for me that is not from both countries / areas. Just tone it down a bit for future comics.

    Cheers,
    Itchy Feet Comic fan.

    ReplyDelete
  10. On more reflective thoughts, I think what makes people get insulted is because this comic is like judging other cultures. There is a difference when you told narrative story based on your own experince such as 'When I was in country A, my local friend made a traditional dish that tastes so horrible to my tounge I have to drink a lot of water to wipe clean the after taste' and a statement-like 'Traditional dish of country A is so horrible'. The later more likely insult people.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think you're probably right about this. Thanks for the insight, Helena.

      Delete
  11. Keeping in mind that it's solely a comic, I think it's hilarious.
    I even tried to put myself in people's shoes and imagine if someone had done something like this about Jamaica. I laughed a bit harder.

    .... please visit Jamaica- you'd have oodles of knee-slapping material to use :p

    ReplyDelete
  12. This applies to any Hispanic country. This applies to Venezuelans, to Colombians, hell, even Argentineans can be perfectly described with the Spanish stereotype.
    I mean, we Hispanics are like Greeks, we are lazy drunks for the most part of our countries, you can't deny that, if you feel offended then maybe that's your problem, I'm not a lazy drunk, but I know far too many lazy drunks that are always late.

    ReplyDelete
  13. People get offended at comic books?
    Wow :)

    This is great stuff mate. Keep it up and don't be put off from diversifying your style by haters with thin soulskin

    ReplyDelete
  14. South East Asia lol. Everytime I get invited to either a Malaysian, Indonesian, or Filipino party or gathering, if I come to one time, chances are I'll be the only one there.

    I had to wait for at least an hour to actually see other people come in. I'm never going to attend another one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. *come on time* on the first paragraph, last sentence. Autocorrect got me, and I can't edit here.

      Delete
  15. This is just poking a little fun at how different people can be from each other, not saying that one of the two is wrong or stupid and the other is virtuous. Some cultures care a lot about timekeeping and others are way more relaxed about it, and either way functions fine if everybody in the area follows that norm.

    If your culture sees imprecise timekeeping as lazy and inconsiderate, this does look like an insult aimed at Spaniards. But if you come from a culture where schedules aren't dependent on precision, then it could just as easily be a joke about how uptight and robotic the Swiss are! OCD gnomes? Accurate to the molecule? That's pretty ridiculous.

    Timekeeping is different in every culture. Erin Meyer's book The Culture Map goes into this in depth, along with a handful of other points cultures just can't seem to agree on, like how bluntly one should phrase criticism of others.

    For example, saying "This work you gave me is bad" might be okay in France or Germany, but would be rude in the U.S. and absolutely horrible in Japan. Someone from Japan might get the point across by saying, "Your work /last week/ was very good" or "I don't understand part of this." To someone from the States, this would go straight over our head--we're not that subtle. We'd be more likely to sandwich the criticism between compliments to soften it. If we found out what our Japanese colleague meant, we'd probably be upset they hadn't "just told us" what was wrong, or even feel that the colleague had been dishonest with us.

    If Malachi had made a comic about this, it might look like he was calling Japanese folks dishonest, or the French rude, depending on the cultural perspective of the reader. But isn't it better to know about each other's differences, and learn to be okay with them?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Replies
    1. Hey! I'm a millennial. Or maybe that's what you meant? :p

      Delete
  17. Persistence of Memory?

    ReplyDelete