Is this funny or sad?
Here’s a little Rorschach-y test for you
Is this funny or sad?
19 responses to “Here’s a little Rorschach-y test for you”
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I’m afraid to look.
AMDG -
snicker
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What’s it say when I see the word “sad” in the title and still end up chuckling?
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It doesn’t strike me as either, although I could make a case for sad.
Have you ever noticed how those helmets, absent attending paraphernalia, look like puppy dog heads? That was my first thought.
AMDG -
“Have you ever noticed how those…look like puppy dog heads?”
Bobble puppy dog heads! -
I guess I have to say “both,” but then sad wins. I snickered aloud at first glance, and then just felt terribly sad. What I see is: a poor little boy who wanted and wanted and wanted a Darth Vader helmet, and thought and thought about how wonderful it would be, and then he finally got it, and…it’s not wonderful at all. He feels worse than if he’d never gotten it at all.
Go ahead, draw conclusions. I told you it was Rorschach-y. 😦 -
I must say, I don’t know what conclusion I’m supposed to draw. Maybe that’s what happened.
(But I still find it funny.) -
Maybe I’m feeling contrarian today. The kid looks pretty comfortable with himself to me – he’s unaware of how isolated he would look to others – so I don’t find it sad. He does look slightly dorky, but not dorky enough to look funny, to me.
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Kind of like Christmas Story.
AMDG -
There’s no “supposed to” in my mind, anti. I guess I found my own reaction interesting and wondered what others’ would be.
It was dorky enough at first to be funny to me, but that only lasted a couple of seconds. -
Oh, if it’s interesting we’re talking about! 🙂
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I have to go with Janet’s “neither”.
The posture to me says “tired” rather than “sad” – he could have had a great day, but little constitutions do flag.
I can see why one might think it sad; I don’t see the humour at all, though. -
I had a slight thought that it might be a little sad, but that’s because I am naturally docile and the caption informed me that the picture was sad. I was manipulated accordingly!
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It doesn’t look as sad to me now (almost midnight) as it did this afternoon. I’m not sure whether that’s because of a change in my mood or just that I’ve gotten a bit more used to the picture. It’s funny, the sadness is almost entirely in the droop of the head. Also in the fact that he’s all by himself in that uninviting booth. Also that little paper cup of ketchup in front of him.
Probably 15 seconds after this picture was taken his friends or family rejoined him and all was merry. -
Sad first, but then funny. I have three young nephews and experience these sorts of surreal moments fairly often.
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It may be that rather than being existentially sad he’s just worried about how he’s going to eat his Happy Meal.
But then I think Happy Meals are really sad, too… 🙂 -
I wish I could figure out when it was that I came to hate McDonald’s. I used to love them and then one day I realized that I could not abide the idea of eating there. There doesn’t seem to have been any transition.
I still like their dipped cones, though.
AMDG -
I say funny.
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I saw it somewhere else and thought it immediately funny. Still do.
Yes, the boy is sad and it is entirely in the droop of the head. But it is a pouty kind of sad that is not meant to be taken seriously. Though the sad part is in the droop, the funny part is in a lot of things: what y’all have mentioned, but also in a fearsome mask on a teeny kid in a hangdog posture.
“Gotta laugh to keep from crying.”
Light On Dark Water 
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