Aeronautic Primates and Other Delights

I have been a terrible friend, you guys. I have been watching and enjoying something and I haven't told you.

I am so sorry.

So, the guys behind the Penny Arcade empire decided to try their hand at reality television. Except, being the Penny Arcade empire, they put it on the Internet. It's called Strip Search and the goal is to find the next great webcomic. The winner gets $15K and a year embedded at the Penny Arcade offices, with all the support that implies.

The show had its finale yesterday and I'm super-pleased with the result. Not just who won, but just the whole show leading up to it. A group of webcomics artists came in to compete with one another, but somehow also became a family and found a home with people who had previously been strangers.

There were very few "I'm not here to make friends" moments and there was an episode largely devoted to one contestant having a crisis when they figured out that Strip Search just did not work like what they were used to seeing on television. The contestants and, in one very interesting twist, the contest runners actively defied anything that didn't serve the show's stated purpose of finding the best webcomic artist. There was just too much love and earnestness running around for cynicism.

You can watch the entire show on the website (which is spoiler-free except where marked)

It's 31 episodes which run between 15-30 minutes each. Each day encompasses three episodes, typically. First there's a social challenge, which is a fun sort of icebreaker. Then there's the main challenge, which involves some aspect of the webcomics business. Then there's the elimination challenge, which I won't spoil.