Comic Book Guy: Life Wasted or Life Well Spent?

T

...::: Tzapu14 :::...

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We've seen the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons prepare to die at least twice and he's had opposite reactions when flashing back on his life, saying "Oh, I've wasted my life" once and "Life well spent" another time. Which one do you think is the correct one?

Being kind of a Comic Book Guy myself, I have to fall into the "life well spent" category. Comic Book Guy may be abrasive, but he seems to being doing what he loves and enjoying himself, and there's nothing wrong with that.
 
I have to go with 'Life well spent', as well. He's doing what he loves, and he's found true love at least once, even if it was with Skinner's mother.

Beyond that, the 'I've wasted my life' moment was an altnernate universe version of CBG.
 
"Life well spent." While his way of life might be questionable(collecting comics obsessively, being a wise ass to kids), he was doing what he loved, and he was happy. In the end, that's all that really matters.
 
From an objective standpoint, I see it as a life wasted. Lonely and miserable with nothing better to do than to argue with ten-year olds about comic books and pick apart the flaws in television shows (... sound familiar?)

But from his standpoint, if he enjoys doing what he's doing then it's a life well spent.

From the show's standpoint, it goes back and forth. Sometimes (most of the time) he's depicted from a negative standpoint. On rare occasions, the show depicts him as happy with what he's doing (The Simpsons Movie).
 
I think his 'I've wasted my life' viewpoint might have shifted after the episode where he has his heart attack and Bart has to run the store.

Yeah, he's still a jerk to anyone and everyone who comes into his store, but I think now he at least has *some* friends around town through the Simpson family.
 
Another for "Life well spent" if only because he enjoyed what he did, had a good comic shop, and he didn't die a virgin if that counts for something.
 
Yeah, "life well spent" from me too. He may have not had a life that we would want but he loved what he did. That counts for something.
 
"Wasted my life" seems to be what we're supposed to assume about the character from the average (i.e non-rabroad-user) viewer's standpoint (for whom "only nerdy losers care about continuity/picking apart cartoons/stupid stuff like comics and cartoons!"), and seems to be the case far as his 90s TV appearances go (I like him much better in the Simpsons comics---there he seemed used a bit more nuanced than such tiresome "nerds are losers" jokes). Stopped watching the show years ago, so no idea what they did to him in the 2000s...

But yes, he seems to enjoy his life without regrets (vs Homer's various mid-life crises), so "well spent" should ultimately apply.

-B.
 
Yes, he?s doing exactly what he loves for a living: humiliating everyone who comes through his hidey-hole for not knowing facts with-in his narrow area of expertise, the smaller the fact the more delicious.
And on the rare occasion when he leaves the comfort zone of the shop where he reigns, he?s quite low and miserable.

Barney Gumble may be doing better.
 
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