Joe's AI-Generated Funnies!

This header image was AI-generated. Am I supposed to feel bad about that?

"You scribble."

This book changed my life.

My older sister said those words to me when I was about four years old, and they had such an impact on my still-developing brain that I didn't draw or color anything for quite a while after that. Eventually, my concerned parents bought me a copy of I Can Draw It Myself (1970) by Dr. Seuss, which got me to pick up a crayon again. Very little has changed in the ensuing decades since the incident with my sister; I'm still hyper-sensitive to criticism and am liable to quit a project after receiving any negative feedback.

Dr. Seuss got me back into making art, and I was further inspired by Lee J. Ames' Draw 50 Famous Cartoons (1979), which I discovered at the Flint Public Library. Because of those books -- plus the influence of Mad, Cracked, and various DC and Marvel comics -- I became a compulsive doodler for decades, drawing on any piece of paper I got my hands on. Did I get any good at it? No, but I was having fun. As I've mentioned on this blog in the past, I started making homemade comics and sharing them with classmates in elementary school, and I continued doing so through junior and senior high. I trailed off a little in college, until I saw Crumb (1994), which made me want to draw again.

I used to spend hours and hours drawing. To this day, I have two thick binders of the sketches I've created over the years. They're still on a shelf in my closet now, taking up valuable real estate. But whenever I've shared my hand-drawn art with others, it tends to get one of two reactions: either total indifference or mild dislike. I think the low point of my experience as an artist was submitting a cartoon to a website and being told, straight up, that the art was not of professional quality. I call this a "low point" because the same website had recently published a cartoon that was simply a drawing of a triangle with a funny caption. That's what had emboldened me to submit one of my own drawings in the first place.

Fast forward a few years. It is now extremely easy to create professional-looking artwork using artificial intelligence. I know that people cringe at the very mention of AI. It's cheating. It's stealing. It's the death of "real" art. I've heard all of that. But the fact is, artificial intelligence is here to stay, and there are some creators using it in very clever and entertaining ways. I've decided to use it to create nonsense. It's what I've done all my life. Why should I stop now? 

What I'm about to show you are some comics and cartoons I've created through AI. The art is all fake; the jokes are as real as they come. If you enjoy these, great. If not, well, that's great, too.

Here's one about two New York intellectuals in the 1970s.

Don't you ever feel like this at art museums?

Here's one I thought of after attending an ice cream social at my workplace. 

AI really had trouble making this one; I kept wanting the art to be sadder.

This is my take on a classic movie catchphrase:

For me, the mustache is what makes it work.

This is one of those "be careful what you wish for" deals:

Isn't the AI approximation of a genie weird/

One day, I started to think about the expression "gallows humor" and wrote this next one. Maybe it doesn't work unless the guy actually says the words "gallows humor" in the punchline. I don't know. But the idea is that the guy on the right, Gary, is trying to lighten up a depressing workplace.

AI gave me a lot of grief over this next one because the character in the witness stand is supposed to be The Incredible Hulk, which violates copyright laws or something. My compromise was to render the cartoon in black-and-white and have Hulk be gray. Pretty much everybody still got the joke, though.

Legal advice: always wear a shirt to court.

If you could go back in time a few decades and tell the people something about 2025, what would it be?

These people are fancy. They wore neckties to a diner!

Here's another workplace-inspired one:

A modicum is actually a lot to ask for in most offices.

This is a joke I've had lodged in my brain for years and years. Feels good to finally get it out of there:

The dad's combover sells it for me.

Yes, it's another work one. Sorry.

Not sure why the businessmen are mostly so old here.

Next is a cheap joke I do not regret:

I just decided to make them vaudeville comedians. Don't know why.

Have you ever wondered who served as the original model for the snowman? Probably not. But I have.

The legs should be chunkier, though.

This next one is a personal pet peeve of mine:

Don't you hate when they ask you to do that?

This next one is really dumb, but it's something I thought of in traffic.

I specifically asked AI to make the lobster look smug.

Sometimes, in my grief and loneliness, I will brainstorm potential new Batman villains.

I like that his weapons are a fondue fork and a copy of The New Yorker.

And I think I'll leave it there for now, even though I have more of these to share. Perhaps I will make this a recurring feature on the blog. Who knows? If you have any particular feelings about this experiment, get in touch.