Bathroom humor has and probably always will be subjective, regardless of how well it’s used. I think the drolly titled Camp Weedonwantcha, Katie Rice’s Strip Search (a web reality show from the Penny Arcade creators) winning comic, has some good examples on how to make it fun for both kids and adults. All of the nastiness has a proper buildup, and it almost always ends in our reluctant hero Malachi disgusted beyond belief.
Weedonwantcha is perhaps the most miserable summer camp ever conceived both in fiction and reality, a seventh-world country in its own right. How much this has to do with either the camp itself or the campers themselves is up for you to decide, though judging by what counts for basic amenities, I’m leaning towards the former.
Malachi has something of a Sheldon Cooper know-it-all complex on occasion, but that helps make some of the misfortune he deals with a bit cathartic. He eventually (emphasis on “eventually”) warms up to his fellow prisoners, growing closest to resident weird girl Seventeen, a BB gun-wielding tomboy named Purdy and a quiet but burly boy named Brian. Seventeen gets hints of a backstory at times, but as of now, it’s been left somewhat vague. More than likely we’ll get more insight as to why she and perhaps the rest of the children were dropped off at the camp, it’s still a fairly young strip.
Bizarrely enough, except for one young adult counselor, there isn’t anyone supervising the kids. That could either be the “Rule Of Funny” at work or just another plot point Weedonwantcha has yet to tackle. There’s not even a “Heavyweights” Tony Perkis-style antagonist to terrorize the kids or anything.
Rice’s sense of humor is playfully morbid, sort of like a modern Cartoon Network show with a darker toe. Most of the cast has either lost their sanity or are in the process of losing it, so everyone’s easy to empathize with. The art suits the mood perfectly, wildly cartoonish but somewhat cute with an earthy and somewhat muted color scheme.
Camp Weedonwantcha is a bit like Lord Of The Flies were it played for laughs, though Rice has shown so far she’s good at giving her characters a bit of heart in between all of the weirdness and gross-out humor. I can recommend it on that basis alone, especially because I think the comic’s gotten to a point where it could go in a number of directions and still be funny.
Click here to check it out, and hey, maybe you could donate something to these kids. A half eaten Big Mac, the scrapes off your plate, a tube of toothpaste, I’m pretty sure they’ll take what they can get at this rate.