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I don't... I don't get it.

Does this help?

In technological time, the late 1990s were a couple of ice ages ago. At the time, it seemed like any and every internet-based business was having money thrown at it like there was no tomorrow. And, truthfully, I thought it was stupid, and also kind of resented it, since the people having money thrown at them were often the ones arguing that artists, in the digital age, should have to give their work away and had no right to be paid.

From bitterness, creativity. At least, that was the hope.

Buh-duh? You were an internet cartoonist! You gave work away for free as a matter of course! If you were lucky, someone would buy a collection full of material they had seen for free on the internet!

Eh, doesn't really help, honestly. I understood the basis behind it, but it's such a poorly-conceived and poorly-delivered joke that it just... it doesn't work.

The idea that all you have to do is mention internet makes sense to me and is sort of funny. Not sure why they were able to take the money away after she got it. It would have been better to show her spending it on something silly, which is what the websites at the time did with their investors money.

I think that's why the Timulty version is funnier to me.

Also, its kind of dick of Ozy to make Millie lose her ill-gotten gains.

I don't... I don't get it.

I understood the basis behind it

Ha ha, what?

I mean I don't get what bizarre thought process thought this was a good joke because you have to dedicate the majority of its panels to explaining what's going on, it's a bad joke. Never mind that I don't get why Millie just saying "Internet" causes people to throw money at her, or why Ozy's such a jerk that he immediately makes her lose it all.

Maybe this could have worked if Millie took advantage of it with the last panel ending with her standing on a wall and just shouting "Internet!" while people fling money at her, but I don't get why Ozy yells about that and I just think it's a crap strip.

I mean I don't get what bizarre thought process thought this was a good joke because you have to dedicate the majority of its panels to explaining what's going on, it's a bad joke. Never mind that I don't get why Millie just saying "Internet" causes people to throw money at her

Is this because when you read it you didn't know about the excitement over the internet and the dotcom boom at the time, or did you genuinely not make that connection?

I did make the connection, but it was just so shoehorned and the setup sincerely doesn't make sense to me. Again, I know what he was basing it around, but when it takes four frames of your eight-frame comic to explain the joke (not set up the joke, explain it), it's just... it's not good.