The "I Don't Understand Eric Freelance!" FAQ

  1. I don't get it. Is "Eric Freelance" supposed to be funny?
  2. Who are these people?
  3. How did these comics come about?
  4. Do the characters actually resemble your friends?
  5. I don't get the joke in the first comic about "Rob can't even decide who I am!"
  6. Is Eric actually a female impersonator?
  7. Is Eric actually a physicist?
  8. So what's the deal with Jeremy being a woman?
  9. I don't get the jokes about corduroy shorts.
  10. So is Leslie actually as slutty as you make her out to be?
  11. There's kind of a homoerotic vibe in the fourth comic. What's up with that?
  12. So why wouldn't Julie notice a difference if Eric's weiner was severed?
  13. You're a dick, you know that?
  14. So were your friends pretty pissed off at you for doing those cartoons?
  15. Don't you think it ruins the jokes if you have to create a FAQ to explain them?
Is "Eric Freelance" supposed to be funny?
No. Well, yes, but only to the people involved.

BACK

Who are these people?
These people are various friends of mine. Eric is the guy who hosts this server, Roxanne. Julie is his ex-girlfriend, who was an MBA student at the time. Jeremy went to college with me, and still lives in Kentucky. Mugsy and Leslie are other friends of ours.

BACK

How did these comics come about?
I am a huge fan of Sluggy Freelance, an online comic strip. I thought Eric resembled the character of Riff, so that was the initial inspiration. At the time, Eric was unemployed, so with my usual tact and consideration, I decided to mock him mercilessly. Thus the first strip was born.

BACK

Do the characters actually resemble your friends?
Not really. As I mentioned above, Eric resembled Riff in that he had a ponytail and blondish hair. And Julie sort of looks like the character of Zoë, I guess, if you squint. Take a look here and see what you think. Otherwise, no one looks at all like the Sluggy characters I chose for them. Neither Leslie nor I are blond, and (tragically) I do not have nearly as much hair as Torg any more. Mugsy does not have a goatee or a receding hairline. And Jeremy, in spite of his other feminine qualities, does not have boobs.

BACK

I don't get the joke in the first comic about "Rob can't even decide who I am!"
This is actually a little more involved than it might seem at first glance. In fact, it's probably only funny to me alone. I had been reading Gödel Escher Bach by Douglas Hofstadter at the time, and was obsessed with the idea of self-reference. So it seemed hilarious to me to have a character step outside of the comic and refer to herself as a character within the comic, and to me as the author. Likewise in the fourth comic, when I refer to myself doing another Freelance parody.

Yeah, like I said, only funny to me alone.

BACK

Is Eric actually a female impersonator?
No, that was just a joke about how long his hair was at the time.

Well, actually there was that one Halloween, but you'll have to ask him about that in person...

BACK

Is Eric actually a physicist?
Not a working one. But he would probably describe himself as a physicist rather than a network engineer, which is his actual day job.

BACK

So what's the deal with Jeremy being a woman?
Jeremy is actually a really nice, sweet guy. In other words, a total wuss. He likes to cook, and clean, and nurture. We have nicknamed him Agador Spartacus after Hank Azaria's character in The Birdcage, if that tells you anything. Plus, Mugsy doesn't get laid very much, so it was also an opportunity to make a joke about that.

BACK

I don't get the jokes about corduroy shorts.
A long-standing joke among our group is that Mugsy once owned a pair of corduroy shorts, which Mugsy vehemently denies. Nevertheless, Julie and Leslie take great pleasure in tormenting him about them. Therefore, oblique references in the first and second comics, made explicit in the third comic. Veet! Veet!

BACK

So is Leslie actually as slutty as you make her out to be?
Probably not.

BACK

There's kind of a homoerotic vibe in the fourth comic. What's up with that?
For a short time several years ago, Eric, Jeremy, and I lived out of Eric's apartment in Baltimore attempting to run an internet company called Dreamcatchers.Net. Jeremy ended up getting stuck with all the cooking and cleaning duties, hence all the jokes about him being Agador Spartacus, as well as jokes about being Eric's houseboy. As far as I know, they are both straight.

BACK

So why wouldn't Julie notice a difference if Eric's weiner was severed?
Because Eric has a microscopically small penis. At least according to Julie; I've never checked personally. But she's never lied to me before, so I have no reason to doubt her.

BACK

You're a dick, you know that?
Yeah.

BACK

So were your friends pretty pissed off at you for doing those cartoons?
No, actually they thought the first three were pretty funny. But I tried to force myself to keep coming up with new ones, which is why the last couple suck, and I haven't done any since.

BACK

Don't you think it ruins the jokes if you have to create a FAQ to explain them?
Absolutely.

BACK

[Home | Links | Pics | Resume | Sign Guestbook | View Guestbook]