Comments on: Comic Dictionary – Cousin Larry Trick

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 07:01:54 +0000

Because irony in afterthought is only one of a many different cousin larry tricks.

The term encompasses all “underhanded” writing tricks. And please note that I understand “underhanded” has a really negative connotation, which I really don’t mean.

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 19:43:01 +0000

How is a cousin larry trick any different from the literary phenomena of irony in afterthought?

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Wed, 31 May 2006 22:24:19 +0000

Haha…that sadly IS true.

By: Steven

Steven — Wed, 31 May 2006 19:38:17 +0000

I half stole it from John Rogers in that I knew the idea before under slightly different (and worse) name. But it's useful. Alfred now exists almost solely to hang a lantern on Batman.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Tue, 30 May 2006 20:42:16 +0000

Never heard the term before, Steven. Thanks for the heads up.

By: Steven

Steven — Tue, 30 May 2006 20:07:06 +0000

T–

Pointing out problems with your own story in the story itself already has a term. It’s called “hanging a lantern on it.”

It’s not quite a cousin larry trick, mostly because it has to be done to prevent criticism and admit mistakes, rather than weasel out of it and deflect blame.

By: T.

T. — Sun, 28 May 2006 17:37:09 +0000

Here’s a sort-of cousin larry trick, not created by a creator but rather by his fans. At some point, the cult of Frank Miller became so huge that it was widely believed that he could write nothing bad. Thus, whenever something with Frank Miller came out that was apparently awful, it became the norm to just say that it was a “spoof”, “satire” or “parody” and not meant to be taken at face value. Even though Miller never claimed any of his works like Sin City were satires (and even denied it at times), this approach has persisted to today.

Another cousin larry trick, although it’s a pretty forgiveable one, is when you have a major flaw in your story, but you admit this flaw in-story as a way to inoculate yourself against criticism. The recent Scott Pilgrim has Scott mentioning how the volume is closing and he needs a poorly plotted last-minute Deus Ex Machina to save him. Suddenly it comes. Except now you can’t criticize it as a Deus Ex Machina because O’Malley already pointed it out.